Hardcore tracks that employ vocalization are very rare indeed. The "official version" of the history of House, Techno, Acid, states that it evolved out of late 70s DJs spinning instrumental passages of extended Disco 12s, then quickly cutting or fading to the instrumental passage of the next Disco track before the vocals could come back in.
So, Techno was essentially born without vocals, without a voice.
And Hardcore (a Techno subgenre, after all), followed that route.
Sure, vocal *samples* are almost obligatory in the hardcore genre. aggressive screams of metal or punk singers, haunting cries of horror movie "scream queens", Schwarzenegger, Robert de Niro, or Sergeant Joker going berserk... and, of course, Pinhead promising you infernal delights.
But real, actual vocalization... that's a wholly different deal. Some tracks straddle this line a bit, by using short, self-recorded screams or vocals as a sample.
Releases like "Alles naar de klote", or "NYC speedcore".
We approve of this stuff.
But for this feature, we look at hardcore tracks with actual vocalization.
Atari Teenage Riot
We approve of this stuff.
But for this feature, we look at hardcore tracks with actual vocalization.
Atari Teenage Riot
Atari Teenage Riot is probably one of the names that comes first into most people heads when "Hardcore with vocals" is the theme.
And indeed, this band fused a lot of elements originating from the Hardcore Techno genre - distorted 909s, synthesized noise, sampling... with those of Hardcore Punk and Metal - screaming, shouting and Hardcore Rap - frantic, energetic MCing (and sampled rap beats too, occasionally).
This mixture leads to a (Molotov) cocktail that is amongst the most aggressive, brutal, and adrenaline-inducing music ever.
A sound to behold!
The Horrorist
Okay, I admit it. The introductory quote was actually said by Oliver Chesler aka The Horrorist. We hope we did not quote him wrong.
Anyways, given this sentiment, it's no wonder, that after being very succesul in the hardcore and techno genre with projects like Disintegrator, Temper Tantrum, or DJ Skinhead, Oliver decided to include vocals in his tracks too. And he did supply them by himself!
This led to classics like "Mission Ecstasy", "Can you hear the sound", or the #1 dance chart hit "One night in NYC".
It is also noteworthy that Chesler has a wide "range of vocals", not in octaves (well, that probably, too), but in the sense that his vocals go from all-out screaming to singing, spoken word, and even mere whispering.
Ec8or
in the 90s, Ec8or was one of the main bands in the "digital hardcore" genre, together with peers like Atari Teenage Riot, and... well, who else was there? It was mainly Ec8or and Atari Teenage Riot, basically.
Ec8or was created by electronic music mastermind Patric Catani, who already was a big player in the Hardcore genre with his E-de Cologne, Eradicator and Test Tube Kid projects.
For Ec8or, he was joined by Gina d'Orio, who seemingly played in a chart scoring, heavy rotation indie rock band before that!
Anyway, in this project she provided the vocals - loud, shrill, top of the lung screams that make black metal vocalists sound like softies.
Occasionally, she is joined by Patric in the screaming.
Hecate
Hecate was / is the project of Rachel Kozak. Starting with productions in genres like Breakcore, Industrial, and Dark Ambient, she later began to use her own vocals more often in her tracks.
She is one of the vocalists with a very wide range too, going from haunting screams to demonic whispers - and back again.
Overall, this is a project that gives a more experimental, artful spin to the hardcore and breakcore genre.
Marc Acardipane
The "man of a 1000 aliases" has produced in almost any variant of electronic music and style; so it comes as no suprise that amongst his oeuvre there are quite a few tracks that are accompanied by vocalisation.
He usually collaborated with various MCs for this. But I think this goes beyond the usual "MCing" in dance music; in tracks like FBI - Factory of Feebase or Leathernecks - Black Dog , the vocals are connected to the theme of the track, and are an integral part. It's not some "party people get up and dance" MC shouting like in some oither hard dance tracks (although Marc has tracks like that too ;-)
In my opinion, it's similar to a crossover band, where a rapper fills in the parts that are not done by the "rock" vocalists, in order to complete a song. And not as in dance productions, where MC vocals are just laid over an otherwise finished track after production.
Hypnotizer / Miro
Miro Pajic was the other main producer of the PCP label in the 90s.
Eventually, he started the "Hypnotizer" project, where his Doomcore and Techno sound get amended by vocalization - provided by himself.
As time went on, influences of EBM, Industrial and Goth music became more apparent, and became the main core of the Hypnotizer tracks - not that we are complaining.
Tracks like "The light is leaving", "Into nowhere" or "From where the pale dwell" are haunting, frigthening doom masterpieces with production values that are rarely parelled in this genre.
Apart from the Hypnotizer, Miro also employed vocals in some of his other projects, like the later Jack Lucifer or E-man productions.
The Berzerker
The Berzerker aka Luke Kenny started as an almost "traditional" gabber and terror outfit. Releases on Industrial Strength or Speedcore Records started incorporating more and more elements from genres like Death Metal, Black Metal, and Grindcore.
So it seems only logical that Luke turned his project into a "full scale" Speedcore Death Metal fusion band.
This led to his release on the infamous earache label, and this CD remains one of the most abrasive, viscous, blood-chilling (or blood-boiling) albums ever.
Waves and waves of drums, screams, guitar riffs at top speed orchestrate an all-assault on the listeners nerves and eardrums.
And The following releases did not lower the aggression at all.
Some might say this is no longer "Hardcore", and actually closer to "real" Death Metal, but I think elements if both genres can be found in the songs of the berzerker.
Hanin Elias
90s Hardcore was known to defy and transcend gender limitations, so it's not astonishing that at least half (or more?) of the active vocalists were female - at a time when in most other music styles, aggressive female vocals were still a quite rare thing.
Hanin is probably one of the most known voices of the (digital) hardcore scene and beyond. Her style is quite brutal and ferocious, too. You would not certainly stand still when she goes berserk at a concert.
In later productions, more soft, somber, almost silent words became apparent, too.
And like many of her contemporaries, she eventually trespassed beyond the "Hardcore circus", too, and her powerful voice can be heard in indie rock or melancholic ambient productions as well.
Alec Empire
Apart from his band Atari Teenage Riot, Alec often made use of his voice in his solo productions, too.
And these were often of the more experimental kind - blending musique concrète, lofi punk, or generally bizarre sounds with noise and heavy percussion.
Later actually doing a "real" rock album (Futurist), or even a Numan-esque post punk release (The golden foretaste of heaven).
And then there is his all-out metal-punk-hardcore-electronic album, "Intelligence and sacrifice", which is probably his best known solo release.
And I appreciate all of these expeditions!
Other noteworthy projects:
Shitspitter
The Shizit
cobra killer
killout trash
acrosome
napalm
killout trash
acrosome
napalm
shizuo / give up
nordcore gmbh
brides make acid
nordcore gmbh
brides make acid
xol dog 400
No comments:
Post a Comment