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
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
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
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
other music genres express this idea, too, it's in movie like the abovementioned fire walk with me.
So it must be true!
You can always find a way out.
Angelo Badalamenti - The Fireman
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