A breakbeat and hardcore producer since the days of Arthur Baker and Jellybean, Omar Santana has been the leader in a distinctly American brand of psychedelic breakbeat acid-techno under dozens of aliases including Hard Hop Heathen, Liquid Metal, Dark Side of the Shroom, New York Terrorists, Car Jacker, Tales from the Hardside and Wizard of Oh. Santana’s early career was spent working on mix production and editing for acts ranging from Debbie Harry to Dynamix II as well as work at Cutting Records, the seminal freestyle label that also featured the talents of Todd Terry and Tony “Freestyle” Butler.
By the turn of the ’90s, Santana had crossed over to the emerging acid house and rave crowd with hits like “Mr. Dynamite” as Liquid Metal, “Slamma Jamma” as New York Terrorists and “Boy Is Banging” as DJ Oh Oh Omar Santana. His trademark “hardhop” style of acid breakbeat techno became common currency on America’s West Coast by the late ’90s, and Santana helmed several mix albums for Moonshine Music including Tricked Out, Hardhop Tricked Out and Battle for Planet of the Breaks. Santana has also compiled hardcore/gabba compilations for Moonshine, including 1998’s Hardcorps. He frequently records with fellow breakbeat master Freddy Fresh (as Imperial Stormtroopers). Two years later, he released Hardcore for the Headstrong with H2oh recordings, and he has never looked back.
