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.
