A look back at... Zhark International from Berlin... and rating the Zhark Records Re-Releases from 11 to 1

I remember tuning into a TV show called "Viva Trance" on a weekends' night, feeling completely wasted (but not being it).
It was hosted by German Techno pioneer Mate Galic, who later found a job at Native Instruments. He used the show to play his favorite tunes.
And I could swear I saw a music vid that featured a "zhark dagger" logo. I never found this tune or video by the label again, so maybe I just imagined it.
When I stayed at the Zhark International headquarters in Berlin a few years later, I was shown a lot of video material (amongst other things), so maybe it was something like that.

But yeah, I guess that shows that Zhark is indeed a weird "glitch" in music history. Hard to pinpoint, hard to define. Dislocated, disregarded. Split into two separated labels early on.
Penetrated far wider cultural circles than your usual "electronica indie". Still not as famous as deserved.

Maybe quantum-entangled. And we are still waiting for the wave function collapsing...

Either way, apparently the label found a new, digital home, and has begun to happily re-release some of its earlier releases, and also showing spanking new stuff.

So let's take a deeper look.

Note: No AI has been used on this text.

#11 Christoph de Babalon - Rise above this https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/rise-above-this

CdB appears on the Zhark label. His sound has always been more of a trip than a genre. This shows him at a time when his lofi trash fischkopf brutality began to fade, and things get more introverted... intellectual. still packs a mighty punch, i tell ya!

#10 Various Artists - Dirty Debutantes https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/dirty-debutantes-vol-1

Zhark branched off a sub label called the Homewrecker Foundation.
The idea was to have a label for females in the breakcore, harshcore, dark electronic genres.
This was quite the revolutionary idea back then, and i guess it is quite the revolutionary idea for today, too!
and the sounds are just as renegade.

#9 Various Artists - I Drink Your Blood https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/i-drink-your-blood

despite the name, this is more light hearted subject matter on the zhark label - by far!
hardcore electro, breakers, and weirdo shenanigans.



#8 Hecate - ...off the jackal https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/hecate-jacks-off-the-jackal

I remember some south london scenester slagged this one off on an email list forum for being "completely conventionalist".
which is funny, because most breakcore poster boys these days would disagree.
and they are right. this is the good stuff.

#7 Thunderinas - The Thunderinas in Blower! https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/thunderinas-in-blower

the best psych-occult 60s rock'n'roll album by non-rocknroll musicians.

#6 Supernal - Light as night https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/light-as-night

that one come out when my interest in "breakcore" already faded to black, so, while i enjoyed it, i was not too plussed by it.
listening back to it once more, i notice that it is indeed some wickedly good stuff.
but that's the point of re-releases, innit? to get a second glance!

but there is one track i adored back then already: Liberty And Justice For Us, ghastly (ghostly) ambient noise

#5 Various Artists - Hecate and Friends https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/hecate-and-friends

This ain't a re-release of an old album or ep, but instead its tracks from all over the map (and dimensions, i guess).
These are either collabs between hecate and other artists, or remixes.
Mmm where do I start, where do I end...?
There is breakcore, post-industrial, blackened death, a hint of gabber in the form of overly compressed kicks.
and these are amongst the best tracks i ever heard in these genres!

#4 Raquel de Grimstone - Freemansonicyouth https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/raquel-de-grimstone-freemansonicyouth

Rachel Kozak turns into Raquel de Grimstone, and this is one of the best things she ever did.
Oh, you want to know how it sounds, too? breakcore and black metal... become one and merge into one of the meanest freak creatures ever.



#3 Hate Cats E.P. https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/hate-cats-e-p

Slamdancing went out of control in a berlin backyard club hipster party, and me and my friends nearly buried ourselves under the falling turntables.
and the tune that got dropped that night was... "caught up" from this one. i have loved it ever since!

#2 Various Artists - Zhark Compilation 0000001 https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/zhark-compilation-0000001

oh yeah, get this one. if you get one release off this label, get this one.
it's like a secret vault hidden inside a secret vault.
the best tracks by well-known and not so well-known artists that the world has never heard.
like kerosene's cover of the velvet's "heroin" (by a guy who actually did real world collabs with julee cruise - and others).

#1 Hecate - Pay for Protection https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/pay-for-protection

There are few, few releases, in all of the world of music, that can be considered solitary, unique, and i mean *really* unique.
Because, let's face it, there is usually always some other gal or dude at the (other) end of the world, doing the same sh*t that you do.
but this is one of the few releases that fit to the term.
there is no other release that really sounds like this, or is even close.
it is brilliant, an anthem, and sheer genius.

so how to describe it then? let's say it occupies a liminal place at the crossroads of the emerging breakcore scene, the then-fading industrial / ambient scene, spoken word poetry, and... millions of other places and connections.

I admit, this "best" list is highly subjective.
so I would be interested to hear your own, personal best of list from this label's release.