New Years 90s Madness for 2025! A special event / master-mix / broadcast. Featuring only sounds of the 90s (or sounds fitting to the 90s). And as a special treat it's a pure sonic journey. Starting with beatless ambient and mellow, getting rougher and tougher (in other words there is no other), until the music arrives at gabber, speedcore and terror! A bit like the old parties / sets in the actual 90s.
So don't miss it!
There will also be a chatroom, so come-a-plenty and celebrate a new hardcore year with us!
Date: 01.01.2025 7 PM until 1 AM Central European Time
9:49 PM - DJ Asylum - Hardcore Techno / Acid Hardcore Set
10:46 PM - Nikaj - Gabber Set
12:05 AM - Gabbergirl - Terror / Speedcore Set
1:25 AM - Nikaj - Speedcore Set
Information by the organization + crew:
⚠️What: Low Entropy , Nikaj Nikaj Scheres DJ Asylum , @Gabbergirl Charm Dreier from Ambient to Speedcore. 🖤🕺 When: the 1st of January at 19 00🧨🎇 Where: HCBX podcast channel💯💀 on YouTube.
The 4 of us did put together a mix that lasts more than 6,5 hours.🥱😴 The only guideline was House music with that great 90's sound🕺🕺. It starts with Ambient and via Mellow,Acid,Techno,Hardcore Techno,Hardcore, Gabber and Terror and it all ends with Speedcore.
On January 1st 2025 we will release this mix on the HCBX podcast channel. This release can be viewed via the livestream on YouTube and starts at 19 00. Hopefully we will see you all this Wednesday on the HCBX channel https://youtube.com/@hcbx666 and you are going to enjoy it.
At the first moment, when listening to this release, I thought: "Oh, Alec returns to his roots, experimental and dark ambient in the 90s". But, oh boy, was I wrong, so wrong. Technically, yes, maybe, there are some traces of ambient or drone here... But this release is way beyond technicality, or idle talk about "genres" and "styles". Way past it. This is no longer about sound or music, as a product that is only to be bought or sold, or a theory that gets analyzed, by academics far above in their not-so-ivory tower, or those that pretend to be like that... Not at all.
This is more about emotion, a feeling, or an intuition, or concept, a state of mind, or a state of nothingness... words fail me to describe it, as I am carried away by the sound waves and drown in them only to be reborn in a dark and cold place. Like the antithesis to utopian Atlantis, lost in the sea, lost in the current, lost in the flow... beyond time, beyond the void... my mind gets carried away, sucked in by an invisible grip.
It's like a dark premonition of a dystopia to come, like a fore-feeling of irredeemable demise.
It makes me think of similar traces in the movies... like when Joseph Cooper steers his spacecraft into the black hole in Interstellar... when Rita and Betty finally turn the blue key (Mulholland Drive)... when Zed realizes that Eric's plan has failed (Killing Zoe)... or when Jack Torrance finally snaps at the Overlook hotel (The Shining)...
Either way... this is a reign of chaos... turned into audio data. One of the most wonderful releases this year. And oh so bittersweet.
Techno and Hardcore were born out of a true maelstrom of different influences.
Such as:
Industrial
House
Post Punk
EBM
Electro Funk
Synth Pop
Krautrock
Video Game Music
Gothic
We already covered some of them... and we will cover a lot more.
One of the influences that are rarely mentioned is that of... Euro-Disco and Italo-Disco in the 1980s decade.
The opinions about these genre are quite "varied", for a lot of people it's fake, cheap, kitsch-y trash, so it's not easy to admit there are similarities to later "cool" and "underground" techno stuff... but let's face it, there are some nice tracks, too.
So let us sit back and watch.
1. Trans X - Living on Video
Serious electronic music explorer Pascal Languirand made a disco record - and it become a global hit.
It stands out from contemporary releases by using some quite technoid, futuristic synths, fx, and hooks.
2. Evelyn Thomas - High Energy
I don't know if it originates with her, but the iconic stab has been used in many later house, techno, and even hardcore classics (compare 'superpower - move don't stop' by miro and oliver chesler)
3. Sandra - Maria Magdalena
The first passage, with its epic staccato of sampled orchestra hits, feels like a blue print for all the later "early rave / proto hardcore" tracks by the likes of KLF, Anastasia, or Quadrophenia.
The producer of this project later found second fame with the ambient-breakbeat tracks of "enigma" in the 90s.
4. Eighth Wonder - I'm Not Scared
one of the first bands to hammer on a sampler while a vocal sample is loaded, creating a surreal stuttering "a-aaa-a-a-a-a" type of sound. while this seems like more a minor advancement for today's ears, it already foreshadows similar use of sampling technology in tracks like "the speed freak - pow pow", "king dale - utter" or "the aggressor - i'm coming hardcore".
5. Two Of Us - Blue Night Shadow
forget the song... the thing to go for here is the segment at 2:10, which is another "inferno" of sampled synthesized orchestra hits and chaos, that feels like it belongs more to the early 90s and the rave scene.
6. The Flirts - Passion (12" Version)
hey, if this is not a precursor of the dreamy funky spacy techno music of later decades.
7. Jan Hammer - Crockett's Theme
Originally part of the Miami Vice soundtrack, this electronic track with a 4/4 beat became a European hit.
Contains already mild Rave / Trance-alike elements, and later got remixed by many producers of these scenes.
8. My Mine - Hypnotic Tango
usually branded as one of the techno / dance forefathers... and we don't disagree!
9. Night Moves - Trans Dance (U.K. Disco Mix)
come on... this is not even a pre-cursor anymore... this *is* is modern, bittersweet comic techno / dance...done in 1981 / 1983 already.
10. Mysterious Art - Das Omen 1
Here all strains come together. Disco, EBM, New Beat, Gothic, Rave Stabs and Bass; and the result was a #1 hit in Germany by a later Techno producer. O Fortuna 2 years before the Apotheosis.
Oh, and it nearly became the best sold record in all of 1989 - only to be beaten to it by David Hasselhoff. That's Germany for ya.
The year is coming to an end, some might be celebrating x-mas, some might be celebrating hannukah, some the winter solstice, some just want to get drunk and stuff their little bellies with all the un-healthy foods (and later regret it!)... so, everyone has a reason to celebrate the end of this year; a year that had many very negative and very positive events, both in private life and in the global / political realm.
Thus, have a good one on us, and here is a little playlist that should keep everyone happy, and get your feet moving regardless of conviction, mindset, or creed!
When communicating with our readers, a lot of them tell us that a) they are surprised that genres like gabber or hardtrance existed in the 90s and were more varied with diverse subgenres and subcultures b) that this music was in *the mainstream* of society, with millions or fans in europe and elsewhere and a steady presence in the mass media, mass culture, even supermarkets and chain stores. or like i use to say: "gabber was bigger than blur and oasis". and d) that there even were music videos shot to this type of music.
and this is where things get interesting. there are not many videos to be found that are really "100% gabber", and not some pop, trance, or even happy / dance crossover. But hybrid videos exist a-plenty, and hard-trance, trance, techno and rave music videos exist a-plenty.
and these videos were truly one of a kind. to give some context:
Raver's Nature - Somebody Scream
Techno, Trance and Gabber started as underground cultures that became extremely big. This caught the interest of the music industry, which began to pour money into these scenes, too. This also included PR efforts and the attempt to get music videos on the various music TV stations. while the internet already existed, only a fragment of the population was using it in Europe. the main channels of information, especially for music, were still radio, television, and (paper based) magazines. "techno" from mellow trance to hardcore gabber was pushed onto radio channels and television by various powerful or not so powerful players (as indicated above). this led to the rapid spread into the mainstream of society (as indicated above) and a mass recruitment of new ravers and gabber. which then, paradoxically, also fed the trve underground culture, too!
Mark Oh - Droste Hörst Du Mich?
for example, a commonplace transit route in Germany for people that later turned into globally known hardcore, breakcore, speedcore, or more extreme producers, was:
1. catching the first glimpse of the world of techno by listening to the more happy / mellow trance and rave tunes on the radio or seeing the music videos of these on TV, at a young age. 2. diving deeper and getting into the more "serious" and grown up forms of trance and hardtrance music 3. discovering that adjacent to the whole spectrum of techno 2 trance, there is also hardcore and gabber 4. deciding that "we need harder stuff" and getting into the Hardcore music that was available at every supermarket or music chain store - terrordrome, PCP, thunderdome, shockwave, ruffneck, mokum, dhr, industrial strength. 5. following farther into the rabbit hole and getting involved with the deep, deep underground: fischkopf, praxis, drop bass network, spite, cfet... you know the score.
RMB - Redemption
so yeah. there was this weird intersection for a while, of underground stuff, mainstream stuff, money interest, money dis-interest... but maybe that's another story.
so let's get back to the videos. commercial players and non-commercial players tried to give techno acts their own music video in order to be syndicated on various music TV channels.
this usually meant that they lacked the big bucks - or intention - to get a glamourous mtv style video in the likes of madonna, tina turner, or genesis. they had to cut costs and production corners.
using live performance footage was a good idea. using computer CGI was a good idea. using the musicians faking a live act on non connected keyboards was a good idea. using styrofoam sci-fi sets was a good idea. using unusual ideas was a good idea.
Jam & Spoons - You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess
and thus, the videos often were a very strange mixture of most or all of these. cut in a trippy, chaotic way, often similar to video jockey styles.
they were a sight to behold. often as mental and head-whacked as the tracks themselves.
but feel free to dive into this on your own - and at your own risk!
Angelo Badalamenti - Laura Palmer's Theme (Instrumental)
For some, "Hardcore Techno" is just a genre of music. For others, deeper messages can be found woven in between the tracks, the soundwaves, the soundscapes...
I want to talk about one of the message that I perceive within Hardcore; and for me it's its main message. But it's also quite hard to describe, with mere words, on a rational level... maybe it's something that is better to be 'felt'... thus I will try to describe it using an example from another type of media.
There's a scene towards the end of the movie "Fire Walk With Me" It's one of the best known movies by director David Lynch; he is known to incorporate the surreal and subconsciousness in his works at one level, but also an onslaught of visuals that feel traumatic, nightmarish, that emit pure terror and nothingness.
Cybernators - No Out of Here
Viewing his media has often been called "mentally healing", stitching subconscious wounds, relieving traumas, by those who suffer from severe mental problems / and "disorders". This form of "traumatic healing" through dark media could link David Lynch's works to similar effects that can be found within Hardcore Techno music [ https://thehardcoreoverdogs.blogspot.com/2024/05/from-moments-of-terror-to-states-of.html ].
At the same time, I think there even could be thrown a lot of criticism at Lynch's media from a feminist or progressive point of view. But I don't want to address this here; this text is just about this scene in this one movie.
Given the darkness and borderline nihilism that is ubiquitous in his works, there is one scene in fire walk with me that particular sticks out for a lot of people who adore his output.
RMB - Redemption
(Major spoilers ahead, so be warned!). (also trigger warning ahead)
A young woman is tied up in an abandoned train car somewhere deep in the forest, and is about to be killed by a possessed serial killer. There are a few minutes that are almost too terrible to watch, and amidst this terror, she starts to pray. because of this, suddenly an angel appears, loosens her bonds, and she is able to free herself and is - saved.
for fans of david lynch, this scene feels particularly "strange"; almost too kitsch-y, banal, like in a feel-good kind of movie. "oh, you ran into trouble? just pray, and everything is solved!" which clashes with the content of lynch's art. and i do not think he is a devout Christian or anything like that, at least it does not come across in the movies.
Terror Arnold - Dead (Fuck You)
this scene confused me, too. until i read an interesting feature in "Wrapped in Plastic", a fanzine dedicated to deeply scrutinizing and exploring all of lynch's movies, going farther than most, almost analyzing a movie sentence by sentence.
the feature tied this perplexing scene to an earlier scene.
a few days before her death, the main protagonist Laura Palmer passes the "log lady", a woman that comes across as a somewhat "confused medium" in the Lynchverse.
Laura Palmer, at this point, has been on a spree of self-destruction, drug abuse, and had descended into some quite shady circles. (and this is still an understatement)
Society of Unknowns - Dead by Dawn (The Endless Mix)
The log lady gives Laura Palmer a monologue, referring to the errors of her ways, and the terrible ending that was already in sight for her.
Viewers have often seen this monologue as a "premonition" of Laura Palmer's death, delivered by the "psychic powers" of the above mentioned lady.
And indeed, Laura's life was completely derailed at this point, she seemed to have been stuck with no way out, no way to escape.
was this monologue the log lady's farewell to Laura?
Angelo Badalamenti - Audrey's Dance
"wrapped in plastic" delivered another interpretation and explanation. it pointed out that sentences like "when this kind of fire starts, it is very hard to put out" does not mean *it could not be put out*. it just means it would be very hard to put out. (if you know the movie, her reference to a rising "fire" makes more sense). but Laura palmer could have done it, if she had decided to do so. (this also goes against a popular fan theory that Laura palmer was "destined to be murdered" from the very start).
the magazine links this to the later scene with the woman that was saved by - a "prayer". this should be seen as a metaphor. you should not literally pray to the christian god when you are in trouble. almost all of the content in lynch's movie has a symbolic aspect, too. and it could be interpreted in this way.
even at "death's door", you are not lost. even if you are irredeemable lost, you are not *truly* lost. even if you are in a life situation where you are stuck and there is no way out left. you are not *truly* lost. no matter what you have done. no matter what part of it was "your own fault". no matter if it was morally wrong. you are not lost.
no matter if it seems realistically, or even physically impossible to get out. you are not lost.
no matter how bad it is. no matter how much pain. no matter how out-of-control you are. you are not lost.
there is *always* a way out. there is always an escape. there is always a solution. it's never "just walls without exit". there is always an exit. there is always a passage. there is always a way out.
you are just not seeing this exit. you just "imagine" that you are irrefutably stuck. but that's just an illusion. you are not stuck - so, move out! on your own free will.
Deadly Buda - Crossroads
if we interpretate the movie scene in this way, this could even explain the strange "invasion" of Christian mythology in this moment. maybe even within the metaphor of the movie it's not about religion and prayer at all. maybe she just felt extremely terrified and in pain and remembered a prayer from her childhood and decided to recite.
maybe this tiny gesture, this tiny action, expressing "I'm in pain and I do not want to be in this situation", this "tiny" call for help, was enough to resolve the situation for her?
Of course, this is, once again, within the metaphor of the movie setting.
But maybe there is tiny gesture, a small amount of action you could do, that expresses that you want to be saved, or that you direly need help? and maybe this could save you, too?
try it! what do you have to lose, anyway?
The Kotzaak Klan - Locked Inside
so let us tie this to the context of hardcore techno again. this is the idea, this is the message i get from hardcore.
the people who listened to (and produced!) hardcore techno in the 90s were truly "lost", too. people from the fringes of society. teenagers stuck in domestic violence. drug addicts "beyond recovery". small time criminals slowly leveling up to a life in prison. severely mentally "ill" folk. homeless teens, teens on the run. and much more. and people with even worse problems.
but this music gave a lot of these the idea that maybe - "not everything is lost at all". the idea that, even if your life is 100% hell and unbearable in this very second - you are still a valuable person, *your life has meaning*, there are still moments of "fun" that you can experience (for example by partying to hardcore) and that maybe, just maybe, there is still a way out of all this...
i don't know how the music managed to achieve this - but it did. "hardcore techno" was this tiny gesture, or big kick in the butt, that a lot us needed - to get out of this crap, and escape all of this. Even if only partly in some cases - if you made it halfway, why shouldn't you it all the way, too?
and i don't think this has changed much in today's hardcore techno community.
Raver's Nature - Signal Of Moving
this is the "message" of hardcore techno for me - for a lot of other people, too.
other music genres express this idea, too, it's in movie like the abovementioned fire walk with me. So it must be true!
The YouTube channel "Electric Byway" explores two interesting cases related to the (pre-) History of Hardcore Techno. Both deal with tracks / compositions that were created long before the 90s era.
Electric Byway is a channel to discuss electronic music related topics that are not covered much in the YouTube sphere. It is mostly about hardcore techno - a big universe of its own - though it's not limited to that. With the videos they "try to bring new perspectives" both on electronic music history and current underground scenes from around the world. While the bigger electronic music scenes give context, they especially like to cover smaller more unknown scenes and local players who do their own thing in their area. They address the viewers as "seekers", because the channel is aimed at people who search for more unknown music and information with an open mind.
And now, without further ado: go and check the vids themselves!
Part 1:
Hardcore techno's alternative history - Case: Dance of the Anthropoids - Electric Byway
"Was the first released prototype of hardcore techno actually released in 1968 in Finland? In this video, we take a look at the history of hardcore techno and speedcore, and a particular 1960's experiment of high tempo rhythmic electronic music and its creator."
Hardcore techno's alternative history - Case: Beta - Electric Byway
'Was the first beta version of "hardcore techno" made in 1963 Denmark after all? This video is a follow up to the 1968 Dance of the Anthropoids case and we take a look at another early electronic music pioneer. We are also going a bit into the future from where we left of last time, this time exploring the element of distorted bassdrums and "phreaking".'
Warped Visions: An Audiovisual Dive into the Reign of Belgian Techno (A Music Video Playlist from 1991–1992)
The early 1990s were a wild melting pot of creativity, giving birth to many iconic sounds and styles in electronic music. For fans of old-school rave, this era is often referred to as "the golden age of rave." With few established templates, artists had unparalleled freedom to experiment, leading to the foundations of many modern EDM genres, such as Hardcore, Drum and Bass, Hard Dance, and others. Between 1990 and 1992, the first forms of Hardcore Techno and Rave emerged, particularly in Belgium, the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany.
One of the standout styles from this golden age was Belgian Techno. Known by several other names—Techno-Rave, Rave Techno, Hardcore Techno, Nosebleed Techno, or Hoover Techno—this style combined elements of New Beat with a futuristic edge. Characterized by heavy use of hoover sounds, choir stabs, buzzing synths, convulsive riffs, and pounding beats (occasionally with slow breakbeats), it was intense, deranged, and unmistakable. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the genre’s name, chances are you’ve heard its iconic hoover synth or classics by artists like T99, Joey Beltram, Channel X, LA Style, or Human Resource. If you’ve got that sound in mind, you’re already halfway there.
Despite its massive popularity during this period and its influence on modern electronic music, finding music videos and live performances from Belgian Techno can be quite challenging. This is partly due to the variety of names used for the genre and its frequent lumping with adjacent styles like Breakbeat Hardcore and New Beat. Its liminal nature as a precursor to Hardcore means it often falls through the cracks of genre categorization. As a result, algorithms and tagging systems fail to surface Belgian Techno content, leaving fans without a definitive audiovisual repository. But look no further! We’ve curated an extensive playlist of music videos and live performances that embody this seminal style. Whether you’re a nostalgic fan or a newcomer ready for a nosebleed-inducing crash course in Belgian Techno, this playlist has you covered!
(AI disclaimer: ChatGPT has been used on some parts of this text.)
Omnicore Records started almost 3 years ago - on Sunday, the 5th of December, in 2021. Time to look back at that label a bit.
Omnicore originally started as a sublabel of Doomcore Records. The releases on Doomcore Records were very "limited" in style: Doomcore, Industrial Hardcore, Techno, maybe a bit of dark acid and techno now and then. But as Doomcore Records grew in size and caught the attention of the international music press and beyond, artists started to send in demos that were outside these quite strict stylistic concepts. So, we could not release these. But some of them were very, very good, and it was painful to reject them.
As we had started a sub for Doomcore Records already a few months before - Slowcore Records for tracks under 130 bpm - the idea appeared that we could create another sub for these labels. So it was not Slowcore or Doomcore this time; but no other style either. We wanted to have a label with *a complete absence of style limits*. A label for any type of music. And despite the name - Omni-Core - to neither limit the artists to "hard core" releases. Thus, beatless ambient, chiptune, idm, krautrock releases can be found on Omnicore, too.
Yet, over the years, a few stylistic paths became visible anyway:
A lot of releases relate to the early Hardcore Techno sound of the 90s; but not the bouncy, cheerful Gabber kind, but the real tough, rough, proto-Speedcore, Acid / Underground / Noize shape of sounds. And another "main indication" are retro-rave hardtrance type of sounds - like the Hamburg or Frankfurt school of trancecore.
This does not mean we are stuck in the past - we got plenty of new sounds, too!
So, the Omnicore journey goes on, and we are open to all - *omni* - styles. We'd love to see more out-of-the-ordinary releases in the future - maybe spoken word, or post punk, ambient black metal, audiobook or or or...
Either way, if you got something interesting in store, core or not, feel free to send us your demo!
List of some of the artists that have released on Omnicore:
James F Bohemian Librarium Brandon Spivey Taciturne DJ AI Pardonax Cement Tea DJ Asylum DJ Alphira Butcherbaby Low Entropy Raver Blaster Plinn 1518 pfp
Michael Wells has quite the legacy and is a legend in the world of hard, "danceable" electronic music. having his roots in the EBM, industrial, early techno and BDSM scene of the 1980s, he became a trailblazer during the techno boom of the 90s, only to be elevated to the state of a hardcore superstar.
and we truly mean the *super*-star designation here. He formed the Technohead project together with his wife Lee Newman, and the single release "i wanna be a hippy" (sampling a hippie cult movie from the late 80s for the chorus) is a contender for the best known, most played, and most danced to hardcore-adjacent track of the 1990s. was there any discotheque, city-fest or village party where this track was not played, in between songs by tina turner, backstreet boys, beck, and culture beat?
the heavy rotation of the attached music video on the major music television channels of europe also meant the first acquaintance with gabber styles & clothing for many viewers, including mokum records style hammers (dont ask, just watch the video, dude!).
but this part of his legacy should not overshadow his maybe even more important works. he is a versatile producer in a variety of styles, from slowcore to extra-speedcore. never just focusing on the "bang bang bang" of ecstasy inducing gabber tracks, but adding depth and an extra dose of darkness to his tracks - maybe not surprising, as his roots lie in the kinky electronic industrial world of the 90s, as mentioned above.
yet more than that, he was also an activist and agitator for a more sophisticated and experimental sound of hardcore - one of the few people at the top of the scene who realized the unexplored potential of this sound, and envisioned ways that the scene could have taken. one fall-out of this approach were his "technohead" compilations, which were one of the very few CD compilations featuring deep, deep underground tracks by labels like fischkopf, praxis, riot beats... that were available and exposed at chain stores and similar outlets, introducing a whole generation of hard heads to these soundwaves - for the first time.
but alas, hardcore did not take this route - all of this is history, by now. or isn't it? because maybe there is still hope - as this sound lives on!
thus let us look at 10 tracks by the very Technohead (and various akas) down below.
1. Church of E*tacy - The Passion
2. Technohead - I Wanna be a Hippy
3. Elvis Jackson - Ahh Soul
4. Signs of Chaos - Killout A2
5. Technohead - Stay Down with the Hardcore
6. Chosen Few - After Hourz (Technohead Remix)
7. Technohead - The Number One Contender
8. Technohead - Accelerator 2
9. Technohead - Heads*x (Nanotech Mix)
10. Signs of Chaos - Killout (One Step From Death)
1. What is the mission?
A lot of the people involved in our magazine existed in the last centuries of the last Millennium already. And thus we remember that media criticism, media analysis, often from an anarchist or at least anti-authoritarian point of view, was wide-spread. Especially in the various subcultures and the political underground, but it could also be found in mainstream culture.
They stressed the idea that media, and especially the mass media, does not just "represent reality" and mirror actual events, but that it distorts, changes, re-creates and re-assembles what people perceive as reality - often along ideological lines (from authority, capitalism and the right wing).
One random example: I remember the 80s, and I remember it was, to a very visible extend, a decade of anarchism, riots, street-fights, left-wing terrorism, eco terrorism, radical feminist movements, radical art, LGBTQIA+ movements, and and and...
But the media tries to portray the 80s as some cocaine fueled Disneyland caught between Rubik's cubes, E.T., rock stars with mullets, and Miami Vice style beaches with palm trees.
And the new generations readily believe this.
Tempest 2000 - Mind's Eye
But let's get back to the very point.
Somehow, around the turn of the Millennium, the media critical view disappeared and evaporated.
It founds its last refuge in academic social science classes for pseudo-intellectual upper class twits of the year, or simplified and castrated statement such as "social media creates social media bubbles" (no shit, it does!).
And there is good reason for that. Unlike the last decades of the 20th century, people living in the first decades of the 21th simply have no rational or meaningful concept of reality anymore.
Everyone's mind and mindset migrated to the internet and its (social) media.
The internet simply *is* the truth and no-one would ever deny that.
Half of Rio, Tokyo, New York could blow up overnight - but if no one on the internet would mention, report, or talk about it, then no one would ever know.
And no-one *could* ever know, as all data, information and facts of "reality" that go beyond one's direct local reality (i.e. the street you live in, the supermarket you attend...) is obtained directly from the internet.
Babylon Zoo - Confused Art
"Welcome to the desert of the real". No, Morpheus, I disagree - there is not even a desert anymore - there is only a pitch black void where reality used to live.
But let's not lament it too much (it's worth lamenting, though). We are artists, and artists were never too keen on (or connected to) reality anyway. And, at its core, we love the internet!
The problem is that media (and the internet) distorts everything else as well. Culture, art, other media, philosophy, music, the history of music.
Killing Joke - Democracy
And this is where it clashes with our intentions, as we are interested in music, the history of music, especially related to harder electronics.
The media is constantly trying to change and re-write the history of techno, the history of acid, the history of hardcore, the history of gabber, and so on. And we are frankly fed up with this shit.
No, they don't do this purely because they want to specifically target Hardcore Techno, or because there is a conspiracy behind this (both are true to some extend, though).
The media does this - as the majority of media analysts in the 20th century knew - because that's how mass media works, and they likely could not help it even if they wanted to - media just is not a good mirror of reality, and cannot escape it's political connection to various authorities and ideologies (like capitalism, conservatism, consumerism...).
But still, *we* can fight against this. And that's what we are gonna do.
We will fight against it. And have a good time.
Wendy Milan - TV Madness
Of course, this magazine should not be the "solitary hero" in this epic struggle.
We call on everyone else who sees through these medial lies to start their own magazines, blogs, whatever, too!
End of part 1
Part 2
So... how does "the media" and the internet interfere with the reality and history of music?
A random example: a blog ran by a type of 'music industry trainspotter' once claimed - after a huge load of analyzing sales charts and similar items - that Pink Floyd actually sold more albums (not singles, mind you) than the Beatles.
Ec8or - Plastic Creatures
So were Pink Floyd actually more popular than the Beatles (and the Beatles already said they were more popular than Jesus - so what does this turn Pink Floyd into then?).
But even if they merely were 'equally' popular or slightly less popular, this for sure does not find an echo in the media perceptions.
Sure, there is plenty of media coverage on Pink Floyd - but that's tiny compared to that of the Beatles - which are portrayed as the most popular band of the whole 20th century.
Ministry - TV II
Note: This is not pro Pink Floyd or anti-Beatles btw. "My" generation disliked Pink Floyd just as much as some punk pioneers did.
But it shows that the popular idea of music history ("the Beatles were the most popular!") might be misaligned with actual reality and actually be complete bullshit.
SP23 - Network 23
And a thing that hits "closer to home".
"Hardcore Techno and Gabber" history gets constantly twisted, with the wildest of claims getting thrown around - claims that gabber did not exist before 2006, that ID&T, or Scooter, did "invent Hardcore" or "made Hardcore popular", and worse.
The existence of labels, artist, projects, and styles outside the "90s mass media gabber spectacle" is denied, erased, or pushed to the fringe. The 90s speedcore, acidcore, doomcore, experimental underground - is deemed to not be worth mentioning! Etc etc.
Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
This is what we want to fight against.
But we do not claim that we know the exact history or reality - of hardcore, or of other things.
We just want to point out that the "media image" of hardcore, of hard electronic music, and music in general - might not be the truth.
That the "media history" of hardcore and techno - might be a lie.
That the information and knowledge that is thrown around about hardcore, the 90s, the actors and mindset involved - might often be false or complete bullshit.
Einstürzende Neubauten - Headcleaner
So, if you are interested in this task - not "our" task, but a collective task, a very important task - feel free to set up your own blogs, fanzines, contribute to ours, or at least write it down and shout about it.
We like to cross boundaries, right? So in this issue of jumping beyond border fences, we will take a look at EBM style tracks - done by ferocious Hardcore artists!
1. Cyborg Unknown - Year 2001 (Transcendental 12" mix)
Done by Marc Acardipane.
2. Superpower - Molecule Man
Done by The Horrorist and Miro / Stickhead.
3. Acrosome - Wake Up America
done by oliver chesler / the horrorist's brother, who also did some hardcore releases.
4. The Horrorist - Power Is Force
The Horrorist solo.
5. Scaremonger - Soon We All Will Have Special Names
Acid-newbeat proto-techno.
6. T.S.A.R - Treu Sind Wir (Infinity Mix)
"Arranged by Acardipane".
7. O - Das Spiel
Kinky new beat-techno by Martin Damm aka The Speedfreak.
The scene in Germany - just like in the Netherlands - was not monolith. It was varied, fragmented, with multiple tendencies, styles, groups, players, movers, shakers. Some were into more Acidic or Technoid stuff. Others into fun party Gabber. Maybe even into Rave- Trancecore music. And Speedcore, Breakcore, all-out terror. But regardless of that - there are some common descriptions and motions we can attribute to this scene - even if it is not a "one size fits all" thing.
Because compared to the Dutch scene, there was much less focus on a cheerful, "happy", or dance sound. Instead - an affection towards brutality, violence, mayhem and things bleak, nihilist, and depressive.
So instead of dance-y hoovers you had trash metal samples; instead of pitched up female pop singers you had monologues by robert de niro or sergeant paula about death and war; instead of MCs calling you to get down and join the dancefloor you had the most heart-rending screams by people of all genders sampled straight out of "video nasties" and similar media; and instead of a "bouncy drum", the bass kick more often resembled the sound of a pile driver or other heavy duty machinery.
Oh, despite of all this darkness and obliteration, these producers, fans, and underground "party" people were not violent maniacs "in real life". Those that I met were often amongst the most friendly, elated, optimistic people I know. It's just that they were seriously messed up in their heads. In the most positive way! Like we all are. Likable freaks.
Ah, and on the topic of parties: the Dutch had big stadiums, arenas, small or large-size clubs and discos... And in Germany the parties were often in squats, abandoned buildings, under a bridge, in a hole, in the mud.... No ventilation, no lights, just ~150 people cramped in a pitch black room with fog, strobes, and 120+ decibel of killer bass frequencies.
Like one of the Hateparade / F**kparade creators once said: "You know it's a good party when your clothes are covered in mud afterwards".
There are certainly similarities to the scenes of other countries - like USA, UK, France, Australia... but we will look at that at another time.
Instead we will look at 11 tracks of the 90s German Hardcore scene - right here, and right now!
Do you like Psytrance? Goa? yes? (Although I've been told these are actually two *different* genres). It's so-so for me. Yeah there are some "hits". Really good stuff. Also among the oldschool. LSD, Hallucinogen, Astral Projection, Trust In Trance, that kind of stuff. But let's face it. There are too many "fillers"; endless clones with perpetual "woob woon woob" bass drums and eternally rising and descending cut off frequencies. Yet, there is one thing that is very interesting to me - that I love a lot. Psycore. A pocket genre, a miniature style. That, I think, so far managed to elude and evade the gaze of the "mainstream eye".
It's a combination of Psytrance and Hardcore... no wait... this dry description that does not do this genre judgement at all. It's amongst the most deranged, nihilistic, and sanity-shattering music I ever heard. You take some sounds of psytrance, maybe goa - and speed them up, until 200 bpm, 300 bpm, even 1000 and beyond. everything becomes psycho, the basslines become the walls of a lunatic institute, the sonic structures just rush by, you fall into an endless chasm of fluctuating sounds, until your mind goes into vertigo (and starts to scream).
I'm not certain how popular / attached to the general psytrance scene this psycore pocket genre actually is. Is it just some freaks who do it? is it played at a lot of psytrance parties? is it like some obscured black metal or synthwave genre that noone really knows - except a few insiders?
I don't know - but i know the scene and sound is vital and alive, has its dedicated fans and followers, and is going strong since years.
Oh yeah, it's also interesting how psycore gives the "psytrance" tropes and topics the hardcore treatment. these tracks no longer talk about 'being one with the universe', or hoping for a happy future of humanity, or attaining a state of calm, mindfulness, and serenity - the plates on their menu are the end of the cosmos, the destruction of logic, chaos, disorder - just sheer cosmic horror, basically.
so better take care!
now here is a selection of 10 notable psycore tracks:
1. Dravna inxtibhiothic - aokigaravna - 280BPM
2. Dravna - Dimension at C - 137 (220-240 BPM)
3. Paranoise - We Are Freaks
4. Black Phillip - Triunfo de Venus
5. Infra - Series No. 1 {260bpm}
6. Arcek vs HyperActive 25 - Wicked 210bpm
7. Intraception - Occult Frequencies (250)
8. Omnipresent Miscreants - The Warped Quantum Holes
Fresh developments in the world of music are within sight - and in the world of Hardcore Techno, too!
The meager years of "Mainstyle" and "Uptempo" seem to be finally over, the "Millennium" bullsh*t is finally being laid to rest. There is a wholly new generation on the block that is embracing hardcore, gabber, acid, doom, and all that comes with it - and this is very, very welcome, as there was a dire need for fresh sonic blood. But these new artists and DJs do not merely copy the old - no no! - they twist it around and smash it apart and throw everything in the faces of old.
This is a very boundary-crossing activity, as hardcore now bleeds into former taboo territories such as pop, rap, punk... (i.e. beyond mere 'hardcore with pop samples')
And on the other side of the realm, artists and musicians from pop, rap, and all the other genres have begun using sounds and concept from hardcore, too.
Purists will say these hybrids are far from "pure hardcore", but who cares about purists anyway?
Embracing pop aesthetics and the capitalism that comes with it is not something that makes me very comfortable either, but I hope it's just one step on the way to real cultural subversion.
So, time to take a closer look at this and a few sonic examples, too.
Note: of course, not all these are gen z musicians - other people with fresh ideas are very welcome, too!
some of the things that are occurring are...
1) that new emerging scene of producers from a variety of backgrounds (techno, rap, punk, non-western music...) that is encompassing hardcore beats and sounds in their productions.
2) these new young angry artists that drop a hardcore bass in their tracks now and then, but are usually closer to a weird mixture of metal, punk, or, gasp, hyperpop (date: from a few years ago-until the future)
ebm, aggro-tech, horror rap? but going very hardcore, too!
3) new artists using various sounds i associate with hardcore and its sub-genres in their music (for example artists who use very oldschool - doomcore-like synths in some of their tracks), even though they are closer associated to genres such as witch house, dark ambient, synthwave, or gothtronica (date: from a few years ago-until the future)
about the above music... others might say "but this... this is not hardcore anymore at all!"
Yeah, maybe it isn't, maybe it is. the whole point here is to show that hardcore is not an enclosed area. it is fluid, divergent, and spills out into the world, into other genres, and vice versa.
maybe some of these artists never heard a hardcore record in their life. and came up with these sounds by other sources, or on their "own".
that's what parallel evolution is about. it was the same in the 90s. some people started doing tracks without even knowing about the rave / techno evolution, and it still sounded the same.
in the end, this does not need to be termed "hardcore" if you don't like this term. because the power of this music should speak for itself.
Even though Breakcore came from Hardcore Techno and was entwined in it, it eventually split off and grew into a scene of its own (a bit similar to other former "Hardcore" genres like Gabber, Speedcore, Doomcore...).
It could be argued that the global world of Breakcore was at one point even *bigger* then Gabber or Tech-Hardcore...
And for sure it evolved into something more varied and multiplied than its roots...
But lets stay at these very roots for a while (and maybe let an apple fall on our heads)...
Because the earliest output that was considered to be breakcore was often not *that* rough or extreme yet... still very much tied to pre-existing breakbeat, jungle, drumnbass, even techno sound... It one upped the brutality, yes, but still..
"Is The Prodigy related to Breakcore?" was an ongoing discussion in 90s internet forums; an example of this perceived ambiguity.
So because of this, we are gonna take look at a few early compositions that really stood apart in experimentalism, extremity, surrealism and kick-you-in-the-butt-ism.
Tracks that would have scared the mainstream drumnbass or "*-step" crowd away off any 90s dancefloor...
Christoph Fringeli & DJ Scud - Body Snatcher https://youtu.be/96ArxhH3SYITakingsome techstep methods used for an own track... but turning them totally insane. "There is no need for hate now."
Hanin - Nizza It's nice that one of the hardest early breakcore tracks was released by a girl.https://youtu.be/Vop0OUFU77I
Aphex Twin - Come to Daddy Richard D james contribution to the emerging breakcore scene. Pogo-dancing to this track at the Widerstand Records truck on the ****parade in berlin 1998 - were you there?https://youtu.be/TZ827lkktYs
Patric Catani - Still Wanna Win (I Can't Lose) Giving your mind the full on treatment https://youtu.be/ysRs1E_-25c
