All Digital Hardcore Recordings Albums Listed, Rated, and Reviewed
Before the "Genre Mainstream" set in, Hardcore, and also Techno, were not styles or categories that are as fixed as they are now.
Many labels (and artists) existed on a kind of liminal location, that sat in-between the various movements, styles, sub-cultures, and political claims...
One of these was Digital Hardcore Recordings, which enchanted Hardcore Heads, Punks, Indie Rockers, Hip Hop fans and lots of additional contingents in youth and other (older) movements.
And, paradoxically, while DHR was probably one of the most underground efforts, as these releases literally did not give a fuck about genre conventions, image, likability... they were also *the most known* hardcore-adjacent and extreme electronic label in the 90s.
every global music, culture, fashion magazine tried to get an interview or story with one of its artists... they toured all over the world and in the major cities... they were on big rotation on MTV and other music television.
It was a common thing to come home after a squat rave, turn on the TV in order to "chill", and suddenly see Atari Teenage Riot, Alec Empire, Hanin or Ec8or appear on the screen.
Even the mainstream press and media regularly covered the label.
Everyone, from Aphex Twin to the Beastie Boys, loved this music.
So it is a bit "strange" that all of this has faded into the obscurity of history by now...
Or on a second thought, it might be not as strange at all - the societal mainstream likely can't handle music that is as extreme and direct as this, so they prefer to remain silent.
We don't like the sound of silence, though, so here is our own retrospective of Digital Hardcore Recordings.
We aim to review, rate, and describe all releases by the label, and we are starting right here, with part 1.
Atari Teenage Riot – 1995 (DHR CD 1 / DHR LP 1)
also known as "Delete Yourself!"
the debut album by Atari Teenage Riot. they had been around for a few years before releasing this, but they were more active in doing concerts and gigs before that than releasing stuff (as far as i know). this CD came out when the first hype about ATR, Alec Empire and DHR was at its high, with a lot of indie/underground magazines such as frontpage (now defunct techno magazine) praising them for their music and attitude.
it is almost a "compilation" of tracks on this CD, with some live versions, some tracks from other output, some older and some newer tracks. the name "1995" thus is quite a good name, since the album captures a lot of what was going on in that year then.
since there are 12 tracks on this record, i will only review a selection of them.
1. Start The Riot
what an absolute killer of a track. it's a clever choice that this is at the beginning of the listening experience. from then till now there are not many tracks that could be compared in terms of high adrenaline experience. after the strange intro ("i would die for peanut butter"?), the track blasts of into an assault of beats, guitar riffs, screaming and shouting. this track is just so hard hitting, i can't describe it, you need to listen to it for yourself. a legendary track.
2. Into The Death
this is the track that had the most effect and impact on me on the first listening ever, more then any other music in my life. i heard it first when i was listening to the "harder than the rest" compilation. when that track came on shivers ran through my body and i felt intense. i re-listened to it over and over again on the spot, with the same effect.
on the structure of the track, it is very similar to Start The Riot, but i do not mind that at all.
4. Speed
this is the track most people know of Atari Teenage Riot, as it was used in the mainstream movie "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift". it is actually a very good track. the concept here is really well, it is an oldschool-ish Underground Resistance-like techno affair mixed with guitars and shouting. i don't think ATR ever made a track similar to this again. it packs a lot of energy, especially since ATR made these elements really fit each other.
8. Hetzjagd Auf Nazis
this anti-nazi breakcore number really hit the scene hard when it came out. a necessary political statement and a very good track.
11. Kids Are United
the most unusual track on this record, with its anthemic singing and melody. i think someone denounced this as being too "pop" once. yet it was sort of a hymn for ATR fans back then and it still is for today's fans, i think. the video to it is quite known and features some hardcore slamdancing with a lot of the DHR people back then.
the track itself is a cross between breakbeat rhythms, electronic effects and punkrock.
12. Riot 1995
this track from this album is underrated, but it is one of my favorites.
basically just guitar sounds, effect machines and "riot" shouting on and on, it also has some killer vocals. it has its own emotion which is hard to put in words. well, i just love it.
"do you find it easy to confront your emotions, or do you run away?".
Various – Harder Than The Rest (DHR CD 2 / DHR LP 2)
"Harder Than The Rest?". Yes, at that point of time and in history (1995), this was likely true.
For many people a "first ever" introduction to the variety of the hardcore underground and styles like gabber, breakcore, digital hardcore...
And this compilation is very varied indeed!
Stand-Out tracks include:
"Ec8or - We Need A Change" - almost military style gabber that goes into overdrive at the end.
"Atari Teenage Riot - Into The Death" blood-freezing digital hardcore punk attack - has music ever been so vicious?
"Sonic Subjunkies - Central Industrial" a melancholic, acerbic-saccharine doomed breakbeat track that feels a lot slower and softer than the rest (not in a bad way!)
"Hanin - Nizza" - still one of the roughest breakcore tracks ever
"Christoph de Babalon - Seventh Rest" a demonic track with industrial dub beats that feels like walking out in the snow, and then dying
"Ec8or & Moonraker - Smash Him To The Ground" digitalized amiga breakcore at its best!
A must-listen for anyone who is interested in 90s hard electronic subculture.
Ec8or - Ec8or (DHR CD 3 / DHR LP 3)
Ec8or's debut release - the eponymously titled "Ec8or" - was actually the first CD I bought at the Container Records store - a real "underground" Techno store - and not some supermarket or music chain store.
I.e. in a sense the first "real" hard electronic release I heard, instead of stuff that was more catered for the MTV and mainstream generation.
And this listening experience defined what was Hardcore, "Breakcore", etc. for me.
It was so different from the routes the various Techno sub-genres had taken. In the mid 90s, for the general population, "Techno" now meant chart topping Hardtrance and Rave - Mark Oh, Marusha, Raver's Nature. And then there was also Gabber, which left most of its gritty and dirty roots behind, and had become a much cleaner sound with pop chanting or samples. Music aimed at the dancefloor, music aimed at "fun".
Ec8or's CD seemed to take a much more serious approach to Hardcore - and to music in general.
But, more importantly. The abovementioned genres had become clichéd. Stylistically extremely limited. If you picked up a commercial hard trance record, you knew what to expect: build up with fast beats until a breakdown, when sawtooth arpeggiated melodies came in, usually enforced by soothing female vocals, rising snare roll until the "beat drops", possibly a middle part with a rising 303... etc etc etc. been there, done before.
For gabber it was the same: mentasm, fast Juno riffs, build ups, climaxes, "beat drops", all by the very number.
Yet on Ec8or's album, nothing was predefined. Anything could happen at any time. It represented a vast experimental approach to hardcore, electronics, and music.
There was the intro track that combined death metal riffs with hip hop beats, Gina's riot grrl screaming against the establishment, and a sound that resembled a dying transistor radio.
"You'll never find" is a dub downtempo number with no Gabber beats at all, lamenting TV and other culture, against the background of what could be described as the Commodore 64 recording of a pile driver.
"Pick da best one" is a rough and fast gabber track... or is it? There are elements of opera, speed metal, video game culture, natural born killers, and haunting screams... so it is definitely crossing over into all genres.
"Lichterloh" is one of the most peculiar tracks I ever heard... a monotonic-hypnotic excursion, with not much more than a low tempo breakbeat and swirling, meandering outer space sounds in an almost endless loop... but oh so beautiful!
"Ich suche nichts" is a nihilist take on the philosophy of nothingness, until it evolves into punch-to-your-nose Gabber madness...
"We are pissed" is a hardcore punk agit prop song with hyperactive breakbeats.
The best known track from this album is probably "Discriminate Against The Next Fashionsucker You Meet".
It connects various threads of this album together: starting with Gina's haunting screams once more, going into super distorted slow-mo industrial breakcore dub, before picking up a hardcore beat in the latter half of the track, then going into all-out screaming noizecore hell.
but the favorite track for me, back then, as it is now, is "Cheap Drops".
never heard anything like that before, nor will I likely hear anything like it again.
super strange, super bizarre / futuristic flowing ambient sounds... electronic tweaking and chirping, melting with drones and distant rumbling (how could they do this on a mere Amiga 500 computer?)... intermingled with Gina's spoken word part, that is so processed that one can barely understand any words or sentences.
until it all ends in a deafening scream once more.
i never could truly make out what the track is about... to me it gives of the feeling of being in cryosleep on a spaceship far away while the commander is shouting the execution orders...
but either way... audio material for dreams and nightmares.
These were just some of the tracks on this album, there is much more to discover.
When i listened to the album in its time, i truly believed this was the direction of music to come. That genre boundaries get jettisoned.
That thorough experimentation and exploration of sound begins. That hardcore and gabber take on a serious, philosophical, deep, political approach.
That hardcore music becomes ever-changing, ever-evolving.
That anything is possible.
But things did not pass that way. The ec8or album did not become the leading example for legions to follow. It is more of an "obscurity" in the chain of discographies.
hardcore and gabber quickly abandoned any experimental intent. The tracks become more by-the-number, more strictly tied to formulas and genre conventions, than ever.
The idea of "serious" electronic music became a thing of the past, replaced by "dance" music destined to keep the consumers happy and in line. Preemptive entertainment for model citizens in future dictatorships.
Now, looking at this, not all of this new music or "hardcore" is bad. Some of it is indeed quite entertaining. And yes, this goes for the commercial gabber and hardtrance of the 90s, too.
But sometimes I sit and wonder... "what if"?
what if music really took that direction from the mid 90s on, instead of giving in to sonic conservatism and rigidity again?
Of course not just based on this one album, but on the other releases that had this bold rebel approach, too.
What kind of music, what kind of sounds would we have now, if there indeed had been a steady evolution since then?
But then i realize... "It is not over yet".
Why shouldn't we go back, and pick up from there, and start creating a whole new sound - in the present day?
Or maybe we do not even need to go back...
Why do we not jettison and kick all the style limits, the genre rules, the conventions, the sonic and political conservatism, the pre-defined tracks and attitudes and clichés...
And create something truly new and beautiful?
Let us make it happen!
Alec Empire – The Destroyer (DHR CD 4 / DHR LP 4)
The first DHR record I bought - because I saw it a music chain store, and knew I needed to buy it.
Even though this is an album release, it's basically made up of several "parts". Firstly, it got all tracks of the Death EP (minus "Necrophobic").
Then there are 3 tracks from a session Alec recorded for John Peel. There is a live recording of "Pleasure is our business". And finally, there are 7 tracks newly produced for the album.
Now let's talk about the sound. I'd like to say this is one of Alec's strongest releases, but, let's face it, *all* of his albums are strongest releases in their own regard.
This is the beginning of Breakcore at its direct source. The style is still visibly tied to jungle and breakbeat music - distorted amens rolling back and forth. Free of the IDM-stuttering or Tech-Step-Plagiarism of the post-2000 "Breakcore" artists.
Yet unlike other 90s Breakcore artists, there is no hard breaks+punk guitars+macho samples formula either.
Instead, the album combined breakcore, hardcore, and maybe even techno sounds, with an enormous array of other genres and music. Samples and influences from musique concrète, obscure documentaries, transgressive movies... dub, ambient, drone, vintage electronica.
At its core, this a very intellectual album with a heady, experimental approach.
Still, at the same time, it's a release of furious, dark and dirty aggression, nihilism, "punk" attitude, and known to set dancefloors into flames with its tunes.
I don't know how Alec managed to bridge this "contradiction", but he did. And this is one more thing that sets the album apart from other "Hardcore / Breakcore" releases in the 90s (or from today).
Patric C. – The Horrible Plans Of Flex Busterman (DHR CD 5 / DHR LP 5)
After releasing some of the grimiest and grittiest Hardcore, Gabber and Breakcore records, what was next for DHR?
Of course, doing a vintage chiptune album! Quite rational release schedule, isn't it?
No, all irony aside - DHR always was going against genre conventions and expectations, so this release made total sense.
It was sometimes claimed to be the first "neo-chiptune release" after the original era; while this likely is not the case, it definitely was one of the earliest.
And it's worth pointing out that it is a quite unique in its style: It's bona fide Chiptune, *but* unlike most contemporary releases, it makes no pretense of sounding exactly like its commodore 64 or amiga 500 precursors.
There are distorted breakbeats, "realistic" percussion samples, drones, synth pads, voices, and other elements that would have sent a real SID chip into mental overload.
So, in a sense, it's actually a futuristic Chiptune variant, a next step onwards, while today, most releases are merely "retro".
Now, all technical details aside, Patric C absolutely kills it on the release.
1. He is seemingly apt at creating captivating and bittersweet melodies (I wouldn't have guessed so, listening to his earlier eradicator and test tube kid total terror music...!)
2. the use of hardcore / breakcore elements adds a mean punch that "glider rider" or "auf wiedersehen monty" might have lacked.
3. there is enough variation, from beatless cinematic sequences to rushing chip-techno mayhem
and, most importantly, it all feels very *real* - one could really imagine this to be the soundtrack to an imaginary video game of the C64 / NES era.
So, in summary, as one track title on this album goes:
"You Made It Perfect!"
Atari Teenage Riot – The Future Of War (DHR CD 6 / DHR LP 6)
This release was done when ATR started to become really big; MTV rotation, releases with the Beastie Boys label, movie soundtracks, TV specials, and everybody's noize darling in global music and glossy magazines.
Thus, the underground put on a sour face, and thought this new, next album would be their big sell-out one. Like past punk, rock, or metal bands that suddenly turned pop, people expected ATR would cut their hardness and go all mellow and cheesy.
But the contrary happened! This album was definitely much more blood-thirsty than its pre-decessor; and maybe the most feral and untamed release in all of their discography.
Did you like tracks such as "Into The Death" or "Start The Riot" on the first album?
Well you are in for a treat, because this album is the logical step onwards from that.
Distorted terrorist gabber drums at high speed, grindcore and deathmetal guitars (with some oldschool punk), overloaded hyperactive samples, and alec, hanin, carl screaming at the top of their lungs.
Riot from start to finish.
A release that burst right through your skull.
Particularly noteworthy are the tracks that are indeed a bit slower and calmer than the rest. "Redefine The Enemy", "Death Star", "You Can't Hold Us Back" (and more) combine hyper-aggression with an almost doom metal, death dub feel, and are reminiscent of a bleak and haunting scifi flick turned soundwave.
Shizuo – Shizuo Vs. Shizor (DHR CD 7 / DHR LP 7)
Together with artists such as Alec Empire or Patric Catani, Shizuo belonged to the "earliest breakcore" generation.
Unlike Alec, with his intellectual and eclectic approach, or Catani with his scifi / 16 bit / cyperpunks workings (and also eclectic), shizuo feels more nihilistic and dirty.
As he said himself about his productions on a TV documentary: "This shit is easy. You just need to fuck it up". And when listening to his tracks, one can indeed "feel" that a lot of it is produced on the fly, with plenty of live twisting of filters and distortion units.
There is also a reduced, minimalist approach, with the majority of his tracks having little more elements than breakbeats and noise.
Some tracks on this album are outside this concept, though, which focus more on punk, funk or ragga loops.
All in all this leads to a very interesting blend.
Christoph De Babalon – If You're Into It, I'm Out Of It (DHR CD 8 / DHR LP 8)
Picked this one up when seeing ATR live in Hamburg, then listened to it during the night, and I rarely slept so well.
A friend told me "very unusual release for DHR, very introvertive", and it's true, there is none of the riotous screaming, gabber guitars, and hardcore drums that DHR was known for on this record.
It's not exactly soft or calm either, though.
It's more like a reserved, introverted aggression, a dark and hidden brooding.
Snapping at ya from the subconsciousness.
Signified by the famous cover art, too:
Showing Christoph de Babalon in his plain living room, in a quite calm and intellectual pose, while in the background a poster informs us that he intends to "go out like a m***er f***er".
Stand-out tracks include:
"What you call a life" with its drones and peculiar melodies. The haunting vocals state "...all my life I have been used", underlining the theme of subdued anger.
"My Confession" an epic early breakcore track, running over 9 minutes, and including the sound of church bells(!).
And there's three beatless ambient tracks, and these are most remarkable, as they constitute a kind of "digital ambient" micro-genre of its own - sample based ambient music done on an amiga 500, sounding *very* different from all other ambient producers that I know.
Ec8or – World Beaters (DHR CD 9 / DHR LP 9)
The follow up to the beloved first album by Ec8or, expectations were very high for this one, and I was not disappointed, in fact my expectations were even surpassed.
The tracks on this release hit harder and are more ferocious than almost any other releases of its time... well, even (or especially!) compared with releases of today.
The Ec8or brand of Digital Hardcore, that was only hinted at in the first album, is fully fleshed out here, and we have a good number of tracks with super-tough gabba drums, punk guitars and industrial noise, with gina screaming and yelling in a justified and angry fit.
There is hardly any other form of music that is as dopamine-inducing as this.
A bunch of other tracks are included, too, that are more on the instrumental or experimental tip, such as one of my favorites on here, "until everything explodes", a terror dub low tempo punk creation.
Still, I'm missing something in the vein of the purely abstract / ambient tracks of the first album.
This doesn't make this album any less awesome, though!
On a scale from 0 to 10, I rate this album 888ec8or.
Various – Riot Zone (DHR CD 10 / DHR LP 10)
Compilation with tracks of earlier releases by DHR. But, unlike the first compilation, there are no new or exclusive tracks here.
Alec Empire – Squeeze The Trigger (DHR CD 11 / DHR LP 11)
In the liner notes, Alec Empire describes these tracks as a kind of historic future that never passed; a style and movement he and other people tried to set up, but that never really came into existence.
And this is a real shame. What kind of style, some people might ask?
Well (most of) these were tracks that were originally released on the Force Inc sublabel "Riot Beats".
Force Inc was one of the leading Techno labels; but at the same time, it was always so much more than just "Techno". Force Inc had a more intellectual, experimental, philosophical and explorative approach to this form of music than most (or all?) other labels.
Force Inc subs such as Riot Beats followed the same route; but with breakbeat, jungle, drumnbass, and breakcore, instead of 4/4 drum machine beats.
So, the tracks on here are not just "early breakcore" or "harder jungle"; they re-present a wholly new style of music, that incorporates breakbeats with dub, punk, political rap, and a myriad of other styles; a future that seemed possible for both drumnbass and breakcore for a short moment in time; but that fizzled out (or was killed off?) quite quickly.
A shame. But we can still listen to this release, and imagine a parallel history were this style fully emerged and continued to evolve to this day.
DJ 6666 Feat. The Illegals – Death Breathing (DHR CD 12 / DHR LP 12)
a very outstanding "later" release of DHR, taking the breakcore genre to its logical conclusion, and its end:
there are no longer any traces of jungle / breakbeat / "uk happy hardcore" elements, just unrelentless noise and distortion.
In fact, even the funk and groovy-ness of earlier alec empire releases is slipping away at times, leaving room for cold, hypnotic, repetitive drumloops that crush everything in their paths.
nihilism and bleakness has taking over the breakcore genre.
yet, while the album starts on an ultra dark trip, it gets worse. as the album goes on, the track structures, logic and rationality itself seem to fall apart (or get broken to their core). the later tracks often including little more than just swirling noize, or last and lost fragments of a slowed down, mangled breakbeat.
a journey into decay and mindlessness.
and i love it for that.
https://www.discogs.com/master/45287-The-Curse-Of-The-Golden-Vampire-The-Curse-Of-The-Golden-Vampire
The Curse Of The Golden Vampire – The Curse Of The Golden Vampire (DHR CD 14 / DHR LP 14)
A very under-rated record.
Alec Empire joins forces with members of Techno Animal, Godflesh and Napalm Death.
The result is something I'd call... Death Dub? Graveyard Funk?
Slowest breakbeats that almost have a Sludge / Doom Metal feel to them, and an atmosphere that will make all ghosts escape from your room.
Don't miss it!
Bomb 20 – Field Manual (DHR CD 15 / DHR LP 15)
Bomb 20 came from the tracker scene, and before any vinyl (or CD) release he actually had module releases within the demo scene.
This is once again one of the earliest full-on breakcore albums. Similar to fellow tracker enthusiast Patric Catani / Ec8or, there is a crisp, 8 / 16 bit sound to the overdriven breaks, and the rest of the sounds.
Bomb's demoscene origins come through in an overload of often odd vocal and other samples.
In its "pure punch", this album is already one step up from the earliest DHR releases; and there are even Speedcore / Gabber elements amongst the building blocks of the tracks.
Alec Empire – The Destroyer (DHR CD 16)
Re-release with a slightly different track selection.
Various – You've Got The Fucking Power (DHR CD 17 / DHR LP 17)
Compilation with a choice of tracks from earlier DHR releases.
Cobra Killer – Cobra Killer (DHR CD 18 / DHR LP 18)
I feel DHR is at its most nihilist here.
The tracks seem as if someone just sampled some old funk and soul records, put digital hardcore beats and breaks to them, while gina and annika add lofi-recorded vocals.
Don't get me wrong. I think this approach is brilliant. Because it feels sincere; transmitting a motion of "we don't care, the world's doomed either way".
And this was not some obscure contemporary internet project.
It was released when the popularity and media eye's attention of DHR was at its highest.
And then putting out such an album, sticking one's middle finger to the world, takes a lot of spunk.
Favorite picks include Wound Water, Helicopter 666, and Cobra Z
Fever – Too Bad But True (DHR CD 19 / DHR LP 19)
Back in the day, this was more or less branded as "DHR's rap album", and this sort of rings true.
Slowed dub / break-best, the occasional distortion and screaming overdrive, and lyricism that lands somewhere between future horror rap and past nerd-hop.
One of the most peculiar DHR releases.
Atari Teenage Riot – 60 Second Wipe Out (DHR CD 20 / DHR LP 20)
I felt a bit disappointed when listening to this release in its time. I was expecting something like "The Future of War" again, and feared that ATR had "gone soft" and "sold out". This motion was seconded by a lot of people.
But, looking back, I think we were wrong. After all, each ATR album has its own, unique approach. The first one had visible influences of UK Breakbeat, the second one has a huge slice of Gabber, and I'd say 60 Second Wipe Out is their punk / snot-rock album.
And, even without bass heavy hardcore 909s, it's essentially more gritty, dirty, and angry in its sound design than the predecessor.
Plus there are some interesting experiments, such as "US fade out", a downtempo number with horror choirs singing in the background... well, check it yourself.
And, towards the end of the album, there are the bone-bashing "Future Of War" styled tracks after all!
ATR – Live In Philadelphia - Dec. 1997 (DHR CD 21 / DHR LP 21)
ATR's albums always were brutal. But their live-shows were B.R.U.T.A.L.
And this albums shows a tiny percentage of this lurid lunacy.
Probably not something to put on when you intend to go to sleep.
Because this is your wake up call!
Hanin Elias – In Flames (1995-1999) (DHR CD 22 / DHR LP 22)
Same as DHR 30, but with 3 tracks less.
Lolita Storm – Girls Fucking Shit Up (DHR CD 23 / DHR LP 23)
The "curse" of Digital Hardcore Recordings (no, not that of the golden vampire) seems to be that a lot of what that they did was simply 20-30 years ahead of its time. And because of that, few people really understood it in the then present day; and it got somewhat lost in the obscured pits of history; instead of getting the fame and recognition it deserved.
This release is a prime example of this. The mixture of digital hardcore + indie rock / lofi, riot grrl-esque vocalization, with feminist empowered lyrics that draw heavily on sleaze porn and trash sexuality, feels oh-so-contemporary and surely would have won over everyone hearts (and other other body parts) if released in the present days.
But it did not happen; the rest is history; but we can still listen to this record at least.
Atari Teenage Riot – 60 Second Wipe Out (DHR CD 25)
Re-release of DHR 20 with extra content.
Patric Catani – Attitude PC8 (DHR CD 26)
also released as Patric Catani - Hitler 2000 (DHR LP 24)
The culmination of Catani's Breakcore activism, in my opinion. The breakbeats hit harder than ever. There is crispy and terrifying noize all around. As well as experiments with some odd / unusual sounds for the genre.
If you liked Catani's earlier Breakcore output, you'll surely love this one.
Ec8or – The One And Only High And Low (DHR CD 27 / DHR LP 27)
Gina was from the 60s scene, mods, Lemonbabies and stuff, right?
So I'd say this is Ec8or's "rock" album. At least it feels more like a deranged and roughen-ed sonic youth, mudhoney, the fall sighting... than any of digital hardcore's gabber and techno origins. With its focus on true vocalization (as opposed to short sequences or samples), loud guitars and rolling drum beats.
The production is electronic through and through, though. Lots of digital fuzz, 8-bit crunch, modern equalizer driven distortion... a killer mixture if you ask me.
Kind of an odd bastard baby of 60s psych / garage rock and digital breakcore that is definitely able to stand on its own two feet.
Sparklin' noize overdose for the sophisticated surf greaser.
https://atariteenageriot.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-brixton-academy-1999-remastered
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Atari Teenage Riot – Live At Brixton Academy 1999 (DHR CD 28 / DHR LP 28)
Only DHR would do something like this.
At the high of their commercial prospects, with the "Prodigy / Limp Bizkit" generation having gained interest in them, expecting some kind of industrial nu metal breakbeat shit, they drop this one; a sheer and harsh noize album (or track) from start to finish.
Bold move!
Apparently, the entry of Nic Endo had pushed ATR into the brick-wall-of-noise direction; and they're letting her having her way on this album, and rightfully so.
So, all ya noize aficionados: here is your treat!
Alec Empire – Intelligence And Sacrifice (DHR CD 29)
Each Alec Empire produced album is unique and feels like a closed story of its own.
While this release picks up on the early DHR formula with sped up gabber drums, guitar noize and violent shouts, it turns it into something quite different. There is more a metal, rock, industrial feel to it, especially in its production intricacies. And believe me, these sounds are destined to be played on a huge sound system, maybe a rock arena or festival...
The lyrics are more aggressive and on point than ever... the path of destruction to the new world order.
Intermingled with this are tracks with a slower, deep and haunting punch, including my favorite, "The Ride".
And then there is CD2 - the "Intelligence" part, I presume.
This is a return to and step onwards from alec's experimental electronic path.
A bit like the mille plateaux or rauschen releases - but also distinct from it.
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Hanin Elias – In Flames (1995-1999) (DHR CD 30)
Digital Hardcore Recordings was set up to start a revolution, to bring about radical societal change.
This is what happened on the obvious, "intellectual" level, if you want.
But I always felt there is also something different attached to it, a common thread that runs through most releases, that might exist more on an emotional or intuitive level.
A certain feeling of hope, of longing; the heartbreaking epiphany that there is no true happiness or purpose of life possible within existing society; and the burning desire to break beyond these cultural and social bonds; to experience something true and real, an adventure and thrill, and there is even more, like a whole vector of undisclosed and limitless emotions, euphoria, experience...
And it is just within reach and we would only need to reach out our hand to grab it and keep it forever... but then it all disappeared again. Was it a dream? Why did it pass? And can we... go back, and have another try at it?
To me, this did not only exist in the releases of DHR, but also in the 90s as a whole, and other media... the movies, the music, the "confused rebellion" of grunge and alternative rock... the cosmic ecstasy of the rave movement... the early cyberpunk and cyberspace craze of the internet... like an unkept promise of a new world, of unbound satisfaction... a promise that was not kept... or did we forfeit it?
And I think this album by Hanin Elias is one the releases where this feeling can be felt most prominent.
Unlike other DHR releases, there is much more focus on ambiance, on beatless tracks, on introverted passages... of strange, peculiar, enigmatic sounds... spoken words on a background of drones and strings and noises... like an intergalactic lament, inexplicably received on your headphones at 3 am in the morning while the sky is still blackened outside...
this makes it one of the highlights of the DHR catalogue for me.
but make no mistake. despite this cornucopia of subliminal beauty, it's also one of the most aggressive, bold, blood-thirsty... who is screaming wilder and louder, the drums, the distortion, or hanin?
a real gem within the already precious catalogue of DHR.
Various – DIY-Fest (DHR CD 31)
According to the wikipedia, DiY-fest was a "festival of ultra-independent movies, books, zines, music, poetry, and performance art that ran from 1999 until 2002.
The workshops were attended by a diverse, cross-subcultural audience largely from the independent film, digital hardcore, underground hip hop, hardcore punk, alternative media, and culture jamming scenes."
This compilation collects songs and soundbites in a lot of genres, often outside the label's normal range.
Especially check Nic Endo's remix of The Dillinger Escape Plan, which is one of the most diabolical Digital Hardcore tracks ever.
(I wonder if Dillinger himself secretly attended this show?)
Various – Don't F**k With Us (DHR CD 33)
This compilation actually came from the internet. Alec launched a submission call to various (US-american) online communities, and they sent in tracks a-plenty.
Because of this, this comp is a good representation of the US Breakcore and underground scene at that date.
Even includes some artists that did further mischief for years to come, and some veritable stars-to-be!
Atari Teenage Riot – Redefine The Enemy! (DHR CD 34)
Interesting concept, as it is essentially a collection of different mixes, rare tracks, and oddities, but somehow still feels like a coherent album.
For fans of the original Digital Hardcore style, this could even be a kind of crypto third album (after "1995" and "Future Of War"). Maybe the best album ATR never did!
Standout tracks are:
No Remorse - ATR live and together with Slayer at their most brutish
Sick To Death (Remix 97) - somehow manages to one up the spunk of the already lethal original
Waves of Disaster (Instrumental 97) - like a "trip hop meets hardcore techno" recording
Destroy 2000 Years of Culture (Remix 97) - unlike the "death rap" of the original, a much more gabba-terror adjacent affair
Sex (Original 12" version) - and unlike the original, much less of a "digital hardcore" track, but chilling acid-electro-techno
Atari Teenage Riot – Burn, Berlin, Burn! (DHR CD 38)
"Re-release" album with tracks from both 1995 and future of war.
Panic DHH – Panic Drives Human Herds (DHR CD 39)
A project by the touring bass guitar player of Alec Empire's band. While most of the later DHR releases have the ring of nihilism and disintegration to them, this feels like its containing building blocks for something new. This man obviously had a huge vision and a plan.
Think all the imagined and real epicness, grandeur, (anti)-glam of early-to-late 90s industrial rock and alternative metal... but darker, wilder, more gripping... mixed with the digital hardcore sound.
If the label had kept going...if the band had kept going... I could see them headlining rock arenas, TV, the world...
But alas, it did not happen...
Another lost signal of a future that did not come.
But you, the listener, can at least delight in this album!
Alec Empire - Futurist (DHR CD 40)
I have the theory that this is kind of like the "reversal" of the Digital Hardcore concept.
While Digital Hardcore was about the invasion of rock, punk, metal guitars and vocalization into the spiffy clean world of early techno and 90s electronics, this on the other hand is a true punk-rock album made with electronic means.
While the snot and sweaty funk of hardcore rock is ubiquitous on this album, the traces of its electronic origins are quite "visible" (or audible), too.
To the skilled ear, it's clear the drum rolls are pre-recorded, the "songs" are put together on high tech equipment, etc etc.
It sounds definitely different than some 50 dollar band which records their album on a blown-out mixer in some downtown studio run by an old, fried-out hippie remnant.
This ain't bad at all, to the contrary; it already mimics the sound of many world famous bands who did the same, but 10-20 years later.
So in a sense, this album was indeed a premonition of "the rock to come", and the name Futurist was aptly chosen.
Stand-out tracks:
Vertigo
Overdose
Make Em Bleed
XXV3
Motormark – Chrome Tape (DHR CD 41)
I guess this is the "odd one out" in the DHR catalogue; feels a lot more like indie rock / pop than their teeth-breaking regular sound.
It's definitely a "hardcore" version of indie rock, though. And a lot of tracks are wonderfully lo-fi, maybe already foreshadowing the sound of (much) later bands like dum dum girls or girl one and the grease guns.
Atari Teenage Riot – 1992-2000 (DHR CD 42)
Compilation with tracks from the history of ATR.
Atari Teenage Riot – Is This Hyperreal? (DHR CD 43)
I think this is the biggest "jump between genres" from a preceding album by ATR.
The first albums were brutal industrial punk hardcore noize; and this has a visible "electro-pop" influence in a lot of the tracks. But it wouldn't be ATR if it did not come with a twist and still be vicious; the electro-beats are hard as nails, the lyrics aren't "pop" at all but agitatory and defy authority. There's room for plenty of experiments, especially amongst the later tracks.
And some tracks are "really hardcore", too!
Atari Teenage Riot – Riot In Japan 2011 (DHR CD 44)
As the name implies; a collection of live cuts from Atari Teenage Riot, touring in 2011.
Features mainly songs from that era, with added tracks from earlier releases.
Powerful and merciless!
Atari Teenage Riot – Reset (DHR CD 45)
Each ATR album had its own spin, and this one almost feels like a collage of all the preceding ones. You got the euphoria of the first release, the metal fueled madness of The Future of War, the punk-spunk of "60 second...", and the 'electro-pop' of Hyperreal.
All thrown together, mixed, crossed over, cross-pollinated.
In my opinion, after Hyperreal, this is ATR's "return to brutality"; and a very worthy 'final' album.
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