The story behind "Meng Syndicate - Sonar System" by Jeroen Verheij (Secret Cinema) | Muzikxpress 146
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- Опубликовано: 22 авг 2024
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Jeroen Verheij is a Dutch producer, DJ and live performer who is been active in the scene since the early 90s. He is responsible for tracks under project names such as Secret Cinema, Grooveyard, Point Blank and Meng Syndicate for example. Under that alias he released his very first ever tracks, exactly 30 years ago, back in the year 1991.
The EP he released came out via Hithouse Records, the label of the late Peter Slaghuis, a.k.a. Hithouse. The record featured 4 different tracks, from which the B-side became the most succesful one. And that was the track “Sonar System”.
For this week’s vlog I sat down with Jeroen, to ask him about the story behind “Sonar System” and more.
Enjoy and thanks for watching!
Also check out my interview with Jeroen about the Secret Cinema classic "Timeless Altitude": • The story behind "Secr...
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#mengsyndicate #sonarsystem #techno
What is your favorite production / remix from Jeroen Verheij a.k.a. Secret Cinema?
Very difficult question Twan, there are a lot of good productions! Point Blank, but also some good Grooveyard's: Let the music be your guide etc.
secret cinema - straight forward
Sonar System, but I love the 3AM mix and Contact mix and play them a lot still! Brilliant mixes!
Straight Forward from 1996 was a late set stomper
Night On Earth - Surf De Neige
I used to buy house tracks from about 1989 onwards. From early Chicago house, Detroit Techno to probably my favourite style from Belgium. Labels such as R&S, Music Man, Target Records etc and also HitHouse... I remember having about 4 or 5 HitHouse EP's. During 1991 I went to the Treasure Island Rave on the Isle of Wight in the UK where Luke Slater dropped Sonar System. The tape of his set was infamous and I loved this track but struggled to track it down... About 6 months later I was going through my 12" collection and happened to put the Meng Syndicate one on. I flipped it over to the other side and would you know it, I had the track all along!! Haha! Another thing, I always found it difficult to mix in, I'm sure the tempo drifted as it was the only track at the time I couldn't get in properly.
Lovely story. Lovely record
Thanks so much! And I know right? 30 years already, wow!
I recently bought a Maxi single by Ramirez from Twan. Now I read an interview by Jeroen Verheij in a Bax brochure. And I now see an interview on Twan's RUclips channel. Isn't this ironic... What a great interview. An old school friend had an Amiga and Turn up the bass 1 and 2 on vinyl. It immediately opened my eyes and ears. So glad I was able to experience this whole 90's dance scene up close.
oh, i'm a huge fan of the first MENG SYNDICATE releases' 91 92 !.. Thanx 4 dis interview with !.. Respectroyds 2 Jeroen from all 'TEKKNO ZONE' Russian community !..
Spasiba!
I have the 12" to "Problem House", it's sensational, produced by Hithouse, I love everything related to this artist, especially Secret Cinema, who really has a place on this record
Somebody give the lord a handclap!!!! 👏
Yes!!!! 👏🏻
Dat was weer een interessant interview. Al die verhalen van die DJ's over het verleden zijn echt ontzettend boeiend (interessanter als ze ook nog dingen over het produceren kunnen vertellen).
Ga zo door.
Dank je! Er komt er dus nog eentje aan met Jeroen over een aantal weken. Nog meer mooie verhalen haha
@@muzikxpress Ben benieuwd.
Damn.. never knew Jeroen also started out on the Amiga.. its crazy how important that machine was for the house scene.. whish I pushed myself more into making music iso grafix.. lol.. still have my 98 Amgia.. running. Legendary
Oh wow, how cool you still have yours! I always wanted an Amiga too, but we only had the C64 😂
@@muzikxpress had that before the amgia.. amazing machine aswel
Such an underrated track!!!
Jeroen Verheij is one of dance music's best of the best.
I still got my amiga 500. One of the three amigas from the E.P. "the three amigas".
I also got boxes of samples, a midi interface and all. I will keep it for the rest of my life!
Aaah cool!!!!!! And yes, keep it!!!
@@muzikxpress I also have some songs on diskette. Felix with Don't you want me, less then 1MB on 4 tracks lol..
Trackers are still giving the best sound in my opinion. And very, very stable!
@@Tarabass I used to make “music” (for fun!) with FastTracker (think 2.0) as well back in the day. Fun times! And crazy when you think about the sizes of the disks etc indeed, less than 1 MB wow 😂
@@muzikxpress yes, we used fasttracker as well. And protracker.
With the software nowadays I get very overwhelmed. With the simplicity and restrictions of the software you had to be very creative. Much fun!
Another great interview. Jeroen Verheij's music never reached the UK, but it was a pleasure to hear he made music on the Commodore Amiga. Result.
Thank you Michael! And so cool right?? I hope more people find out about Jeroen’s music. He did so many great tracks!
His music definitely reached the UK. Maybe you were going to the wrong clubs? 😁
Hithouse 12” were popular in the UK. Meng syndicate, holy noise ect.
He is legend
One of the most interesting interwievs on this channel
Thanks so much!
Incredible Story with that 8 Bit Amiga on a floppy disc. Loved this track ever since. It's like The Navigator or other Tracks from that period before the Euromasters and PCP/Frankfurt put the game further. Also Jeroen is a very sympathic guy
Very cool interview.
Thank you very much!
"I can't remember if it was something on TV or Meat Beat Manifesto", sure. Funny fact, Amiga 500 was supposed to be the Atari ST but last minute, Commodore came along and bought it, leaving the Atari devs with nothing and needed to recreate the machine they just sold. In their wisdom they added MIDI ports, which sealed the Atari's success with MIDI sequencing.
Nice interview. That mixing console at the Hithouse studio in Appeltern was actually a D&R Dayner 56 channel mixing console though and not a SSL.
Ah, thanks for the update Edward!!!
Ok wow, that definitely rings a bell. How did you know??
Hey Jeroen. We actually met at Peters studio.. I was Peters co-producer/engineer from 1988 till his tragic accident in 1991. After his death I bought that mixing console from his family along with some other gear and had it for a few years so I know that console very well!
@@EdwardBarkey Aha!! I hope you're well. Thanks for that, it surely was a big loss.
What a nice guy! And great to hear all the background info. "Sonar System" was played every saturday night in the local disco (X-Ray Zwolle) by DJ Jose in his "house set" back then (thank god he told me what it was so i could buy it - had it on Music Man Records though -). I also used an Amiga 500 (i bought an intern harddisc *80 MB* and had 1 MB RAM) with effects, a BOSS drum machine, Korg Poly 800, a 303 clone and a Kawai synth) with ProTracker and later on OctaMed. Great machines! Props to Twan! Keep them coming!
I used to love playing this record it was so fresh when it came out .....used to play it with Set up system's Fairy Dust
“Fairy Dust” is amazing as well! Did you see my interview about that one BTW?
I’ve seen it I think your channel is amazing so much of my buying and going out clubbing music on here some really good interviews keep up the fantastic work.......word still buy a book of yours lol remember me
Kwam bij hem langs als ie aan het werk was in een platen zaak op de Pleinweg. K2000 ook gekocht destijds. Denk na een tip van hem. Heb ik nog steeds trouwens plus back up. Zijn latere muziek toen ie veel live ging was niet mijn ding. Benieuwd of ie zichzelf weer heeft gevonden qua muziek. Want het was op een gegeven moment wel erg voor de massa. Later heeft ie nog via discogs een Rick James 12” gekocht van mij maar ik heb niks gezegd.
Thank you for another great interview.
Cool interview Twan. Thanks. Amazing classic tune. That main sound was sampled so many times in the future gabber, hard house, hard trance tracks. Also there is amazing tune B.E.T.A. Unit - Somebody by the Cosmic Gate/Essential DJ Team guys who took the whole idea of the Sonar System track including sampling of main sound and re-recording the Clap vocal
Great interview. To be honest I did not hear that track before, but I'm in the US so that should make sense.
There are many great music tracks/ MODs made on Amiga back in the days and now.
I still have my Amigas which I'm using with Octamed tracker and MIDI with Korg Volcas.
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed the interview, even though you didn’t know the track. I love Jeroen’s stories haha
Another good interview - loved the stories too!
Tank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
Great vid (as usual) Twan. Keep them coming
Thanks so much!!
Enjoyed this.
Thank you very much!
That was great! Love that tune too!
Point Blank - Meng's Theme is excellent, first heard it on Sunrise Festival - Bonzai Retro 30-06-2013 I think. But I should check out more of his stuff, I certainly don't know enough.
I love that one as well! I hope I can do an interview with Jeroen about that one next time 😉
"It's just a sound, there is nothing to remember. Just give the Lord a handclap and UH UH UH okay."
Jeroen and lived in the same area at that time, and i learned about M.S. via an local newspaper article🤓
This was a really good episode with the Amiga and everything :)
I loved that story too haha! And thank you!
Great story! Love those stories about the early years limitations.
Really cool interview 😉
Thank you very much!!!
Hello Twan! (Great content!) Would like to see 'Joey beltram' being interviewed! He Made so many 'techno classics!.' All the best M8 ! !
Thank you! And I would love a Joey Beltram interview as well, but unfortunately he's living in the USA and I have no travel budget. He's not very often in The Netherlands (where I am based) for gigs either. Last time was in 2019, but just once from what I can find. So I'll keep an eye on the upcoming DJ gigs and hopefully one day I'm lucky ;-) And he needs to say "yes" of course. So.... fingers crossed!
@@muzikxpress I would like to know who is the vocalist of "The Realm'' by C'hantal
@@leenbaksteen3627 Me too ;-) Same answer as above, the producers from that track aren't from The Netherlands. And from what I know, they aren't DJ-ing either.... So looks like it will be difficult to get interview with 1 of them .... I can only do interviews with people based in The Netherlands (where I'm from) or people that visit The Netherlands for gigs or the ADE or so. I don't do Zoom / Skype interviews BTW, all 100+ interviews on my RUclips channel are done in person and I like to keep it that way :)
@@muzikxpress I got it, and nothing but respect for your channel and work, but it isn't a request for a interview, but only to find out who is the vocalist. Maybe your are able to find out with your resources and network...
@@leenbaksteen3627 thank you! And that seems to be a very well kept secret. I tried to find out a while ago as well, but no luck….
And another great one.
Thank you!!
at the time 8-bit for the consumer market was pretty high-end :)
"Sonar System (Aw, Aw) (Orig. Mix)", I would place it in my electronic dance TOP-ALL-TIME List!
It represents the roughness and techno-feel of the early days.
The first association to this, which came in my mind, was "Influid - Swamp (Mix 1)" ,
a track from 1992 I like as well.
Thanks to the interviewer, doing this one.
Thank you for the kind words!!!
Effing hero! ✌️
Still have my amiga 500 😋
Haha keep it!!
😊👍
Pls do Commander Tom Story about Are am Eye
Hello hello! Good one for sure, but…. This channel is “just” a hobby for me. Advertising revenue on RUclips is really minimal if you don’t have millions of views…. This means that I don’t have a travel budget for the interviews. Because of that I can only do interviews with artists based in The Netherlands (where I’m from) or with artists that do visit The Netherlands for gigs etc. Hopefully one day but for now the chances are pretty slim…
Any chance you could track down Blue Amazon and ask about the track "Hyper Sleep" 👍
Hello hello! This channel is “just” a hobby for me. Advertising revenue on RUclips is really minimal if you don’t have millions of views…. This means that I don’t have a travel budget for the interviews. Because of that I can only do interviews with artists based in The Netherlands (where I’m from) or with artists that do visit The Netherlands for gigs etc. It doesn’t look like the producer(s) of Blue Amazon are DJ-ing as well, so I think the chances are pretty slim…
@@muzikxpress Understandable,,your doing a great job 👍
@@garystevenson. Thanks so much! Working on some great new names as we speak!
Ed Bannel classic