Voices of the Hardcore - Strange Vocal Manipulation in Extreme Techno Genres

People are fond of artists like Björk or Kate Bush because they have a peculiar way of singing, right?
Well, it's nothing compared to Hardcore Techno.
By the help of samplers, computers, and virtual fx units, vocal cords get the - well - Hardcore treatment.
Words are torn apart, twisted into squealing screams, or guttural growls from the pit.
Phrases get cut up and each vowel repeated at high speed as if you're scat singer operating a chain gun.
Voices become disembodied, in-human, post-human. Songs sound similar as if sung by aliens, angels, unclean spirits.
Cyborg, robots and terminator make an entrance and then disappear in the hall.

Let's cut the wordsmithing for now, and here are 11 techno tracks with the most experimental, bizarre, and - well - hardcore vocal treatment.

1. DJ Buby feat. The Stunned Guys - A.E.I.O.U.



2. De Klootzakken - Dominee Dimitri (Ach Man)



3. The Speedfreak - Pow Pow



4. Psyche Out - Man Ungginyu



5. The Aggressor - I'm Coming



6. E-De-Cologne - Ein Bisschen Frieden



7. Bald Terror - Drummachine



8. R-Trax - Devils Voice



9. Auto-Psy - Oxyde



10. No Name - Y-Droid



11. Brandon Spivey - Acid 1998

The unofficial Planet Core Productions guidebook - update to the reviews

Last year we published the unofficial Planet Core Productions guidebook -
https://pcplegendsintheirlife.blogspot.com/
A project with the aim to review *all* PCP releases of *all* sublabels.
There have been some recent updates, and I think the guidebook is 99.9% finished now.

Reviews for the following labels and releases have been added:

Frankfurt Trax Volume 1-6 ( https://pcplegendsintheirlife.blogspot.com/2025/03/frankfurt-trax.html )
Adrenacrome ( https://pcplegendsintheirlife.blogspot.com/2025/03/adrenacrome.html )
Smash? – Prolos Have More Fun
Tschabos - Feierabend
(Both at https://pcplegendsintheirlife.blogspot.com/2024/07/no-mercy-records.html )
Various – See Ya In 2017
M.F.P.A. - M.F.P.A.
No Sukkaz – 1-2-3-4 All The Ladies On The Floor
Masters Of Rave – Pump It (Like A Master)
Rave-Busterz - We Come From Bochum City
Budleckers - Let The Beat Control Your Body
Bellini Bros. - Samba De Janeiro

(All at https://pcplegendsintheirlife.blogspot.com/2025/03/miscellaneous.html )

Enjoy!

Note: The guidebook is not affiliated with PCP or its crew - we just want to spread awareness of the label and its timeless music!

Putting a Face to the Music: The Legendary Producers of the 90s

In the 1990s, Techno and Hardcore were usually considered to be "faceless", even anonymous music. People went to the club, banged their heads to the music, but what music was it?
The DJs dropped a thread of tracks, often the tunes remained unknown to the dancin' crowd (some still seek favorite pieces from past parties - to this day!), and even if they knew them, and the records - the projects and releases were often anonymous, hidden behind myriads of akas, fake / enigmatic projects, only now and then a real name peaked.

So the sounds of these producers were in the spotlight (literally - in the flashing spotlights of a 1000 strobes), but the actual human person usually stayed behind, in the shadows - a grey eminence.

Thus, let's look at actual pictures from these past days of the mystical 90s, and you'll see that in many cases, not just the music was wild, but the style, looks, and (anti-fashion) as well.

Note: all these have been pulled from discogs, and sometimes the picture quality is not as good as today's super-flashy internet imaginary. Try to take that into consideration.

Also, if someone is on here who objects to have his past picture posted, please let us know!

1. Oliver Chesler

NY-Based Producer of tracks like: "Flesh Is The Fever", "Extreme Terror (Remix)",

2. No Name

French producer on labels like Fischkopf, Anticore, Reverse.

3. Nawoto Suzuki

Aka Smily Slayers, Deadly Drive, Burning Lazy Persons...

4. Mouse

French producer on labels like Fischkopf, Fraktal, and Anticore (sister of No Name).

5. The Berzerker / Luke Kenny

Producer on Earache, Shockwave, Bastard Loud...

6. Laura Grabb

US based Hardcore, Acid, and Techno producer.

7. Taciturne

French / German based producer, known for his experimental Amiga core and hits like "Der Toten".

8. Laurent Hô

Early French Hardcore Legend.

9. Lenny Dee

The man himself!

10. Ec8or

Patric C and Gina d'Orio.

Patric was also involved in projects like E-De Cologne, Eradicator, Candie Hank...

New Industrial Speedcore Black Metal Releases

ISBM is one of the most fascinating sub-genres of Black Metal (plus the 'Hardcore Techno Thing'); and also one of most vile, disturbing, extremist.
Read more about the genre here:

"The Zenith of Brutality - When Black Metal meets Extreme Techno" - https://thehardcoreoverdogs.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-zenith-of-brutality-when-black.html

Or get a short re-cap: ISBM is either bands from the Black Metal scene that use electronic / sample-based Industrial, Gabber, or Speedcore drums.
Or projects from the Gabber & Speedcore scene that use Black Metal guitars and riff (either sample-based, or "for real").
Or both.

It seemed this thing was on the verge of dying out a few years ago; but humanity, rejoice!, there is plenty of new material available again.

So let's look at 10 releases from this ultra-dark sub-culture.

1. Signaux Du Vide - Transmission: J.C. - 0.0074 https://signauxduvide.bandcamp.com/album/transmission-j-c-00074-2
2. Numen Noctis - Sic Itur Ad Astra https://numennoctis.bandcamp.com/album/sic-itur-ad-astra
3. Demoniacum - Nightmass https://cavernproductions.bandcamp.com/album/demoniacum-nightmass
4. Number5tation - Psalms From the Astral Pulpit https://splittingsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/psalms-from-the-astral-pulpit-special-edition-ssr-rr-0252
5. Vazal - Age of Chaos https://blackchaosicon.bandcamp.com/album/vazal-age-of-chaos
6. cursedfleshprison - Parasites of the Universe https://cursedfleshprison.bandcamp.com/album/parasites-of-the-universe
7. Goatersy - sweet darkness https://lyncis.bandcamp.com/album/sweet-darkness
8. Aabode - Neo-Age https://aabode.bandcamp.com/album/neo-age
9. manipura - christ is dead https://manipura33.bandcamp.com/album/christ-is-dead
10. Akemi Lang - Stairway to Abyss https://akemilang.bandcamp.com/album/stairway-to-abyss

All Editions in the Frankfurt Trax Series of Compilations Reviewed and Rated

Note: for the most part, I will only focus on the CD-exclusive tracks; as all the other stuff has been reviewed here ( https://pcplegendsintheirlife.blogspot.com/ ) already.

Frankfurt Trax Volume 1

PCP had many releases of a strange and experimental nature. But even amongst its most unusual ones, this one stands out.

In fact, this compilation (and its tracks) rarely gets mentioned in "best-of" lists, DJ charts, mix-sets.

People know it exists. But they seldom talk about it.

And indeed, it is "at the edge of the board" in many ways. It almost sounds as if it was done by a different label, a different Planet Core Productions.Few of the aliases appear again in later releases - a rarity for this label's catalogue.
There are not much "Hardcore" sounds, yes. But PCP never produced 'purely Hardcore', and you could not expect much Hardcore in 1990 anyway.But there neither is that typical, detroit-infused, somewhat minimalist, catacomb, and claustrophobic techno mania - which later became the trademark style of PCP.
Instead, the sounds are varied, massive, expansive.There are links to hip hop, ebm, dance...And even though the instrumentation itself feels minimalist, the sound itself feels huge.
To put it this way: if PCP had continued that way, I could imagine them filling rock and pop arenas with a kind of PCP sound that lies in the middle of mass appeal madness and emissions from the deepest underground.Headlining the newspapers and owning the charts.
But PCP went another way; they took no quarters, they went as rough and secretive and underground as possible.So underground that only now, decades later, a wide audience slowly unpeels these layers.
So that's what we got here. A huge "what-if?" artifact out of the earliest days of PCP.

Rating: 89 out of 100

Frankfurt Trax Volume 2 - The House Of Techno

This compilation actually hosts a lot of exclusive tracks that were not released elsewhere.
The "FFM Theme" picks up where the "Futureworld EP" left; but without breakneck MC-ing this time.
Vaeth 1 is mesmerizing techno by Sven.
"+3" could be a missing link to the acid of Countdown FFM (which ended with catalogue number "+2").
The "next skool remix" is an almost chilled version of "1991".
"No Compromise" is one of my favorite "Frankfurt Trax" exclusives; an epic, almost "trance-y" hard run.
"House Music's Not Dead" is a very lively bassline driven smasher.
"Phase 2" is a new chapter of suns and moons.
"Whales Alive" is another favorite pick; almost cinematic, slow, underground (or underwater) breakbeat music.
And "Persian Lover" is a thematic nod to their 80s Egyptian counterpart - and a very good one.

Rating: 91 / 100

Frankfurt Trax Volume 3 - The House Of Phuture

Here the compilation-only tracks are:
"Murder One", a peculiar: 92-style breakbeat hardcore track; and hey, isn't the melody "art of stalking" again?
Vaeth 2 is an peculiar electro-experimental by Sven.
Mescalinum United's track is the 2nd coming of destruction.
A Lighter Shade and bittersweet meandering doom-pop - I start 2 fly!
The Terrorists' Outside World samples Akira a few years before Sunbeam's hard trance mega hit of the same name.
"Legalize It" is THC-infused chilled-out dub.
The Stalker walks on Thunderground.
DetoNation is an explosive moment in acid history.
And Alien Christ adds another Phase to the Suns and Moons.

Rating: 94 / 100

Frankfurt Trax Volume 4 - The Hall Of Fame

The exclusive tracks:

M.F.P.A. - Came To Party
Oh, what's that! 20 Fingers / Salt'n'Peppa style dance-rapping with breakbeats and "happy sounds".
Unexpected for pcp - but not bad at all!

303 Nation - Double Speed Mayhem
Double speed? More like quadruple hyper-speed! Swirling acidcore at several hundred bpm. Wooosh!

Tony G - Loveless
I cannot communicate how much I adore the very few incursions by PCP into the (dark) world of pop (or at least more traditional) music - and this is one of them.

"Live at Hellraiser" might be the World's Famous edit of Program 1's track, as it was included on another edition of Thunderdome (the one with the dog!)

Rating: 96 / 100

Frankfurt Trax Volume 5 - Defenders Of The Faith

As far as I can see, there are zero exclusive tracks on this one.

Rating: 97 / 100

Frankfurt Trax Volume 6 - Return To Zero

This time, a large amount of tracks were released on Dance Ecstasy 2001 in several vinyl volumes.
Now let's look at the 2 CD exclusives:

"Let It Roarrr!" has a lengthy breakbeat intro, before it breaks down into rough guy gabber.

Headshop sends us a Phantom track that almost feels as if the Universe was re-created by a deranged string orchestra (nice!).

Rating: 99 / 100

Brutal and straight-in-your-face Hardcore Techno: Looking back at Surgeon 16 Recordings

Techno, in the 90s, was a form of music which was too bold, wild, rough for most people - who rather listened to boybands, girlbands, or chic electronique discotheque music oh la la!
Then along came Hardcore, which made everything even more bold and wild.
But the evolution did not stop there; not at all.
There were a few groups and labels that truly pushed the envelope at what was acceptable in music, way past beyond the threshold of tolerance for sonic pain.
the most extreme offshoots of the whole gabber, hardcore, techno thing.

there was kotzaak in germany, brutal chud (also in Germany), blood'n'guts in the US of A, sans pitie and GTI in france... and the United Kingdom had Surgeon 16 records.

hard to find out who exactly was involved in the label, but the main projects seem to have been Pressurehead & UK Skullf*ck.

the only incursion by an outside artist has been made by noize creator (of the abovement brutal chud records). and both main artists only sparsely appeared outside the label, too, with a notable split release on trackless records (Denmark), and one on "evil spirit" (UK).

but not only these, and the main label 12"s are notable, but also the DJ mixes and cassette releases made by this unruly bunch.

because, my radio, believe me: these tapes contain some of the hardest gabber of the 90s.

but back to Surgeon 16 itself.
Well, how to describe the sounds?
Imagine you watched all the classic ultra-violent and / or nihilist flicks of the 70s to the 90s in a row - taxi driver, platoon, la haine, and then you went insane, and also got an overdose of adrenaline, dopamine, and a few other chemical substances. and you put all that in a production session.
that's how i'd describe it, and i mean that in the best possible way. because these tracks are just wild, man.

all the traces of funk, soul, "dance vibes" that techno once contained have long left the building (along with elvis). this is just bassdrums hammering away, overdriven screams, strange noises...
one track tells us that "i'm acutely aware that if i ever have to launch these missiles, devastation on an unimaginable scale will occur" before something resembling the sound of a burning and dying dive bomber comes in and the 250 bpm lunacy begins.
another is just an enraged man screaming in midst of machine-gun speed snare drums and machine-gun speed bassdrums.
and tracks like "16 clips" sound as if 16 clips had just been unloaded in your ear - and brain.

i guess you get the point by now - this is really music for the headstrong.
so better check the label right away!

11 tunes worth listening to:

1. Pressurehead -The Effects Of Pressure Pt.2

    

 2. UK Skullf*ck feat. Torah - Amphetamine Distortion  

  

3. Pressurehead - Henrietta

   

4. UK Skullf*ck - La Haine

   

5. Pressurehead - Darkest Days

   

6. Noizecreator - Feeling Like De Niro

   

7. Pressurehead - Final Warning

   

8. UK Skullf*ck - Sample Bastard

   

9. Noize Creator - Psychic Punk

   

10. UK Skullf*ck - Ave Em

 

11. Blood One - Self-Released Tape (1996)

https://www.mixcloud.com/ezekieleventicinquediciassette/blood-one-june-1996-uk-side-a/ (Side A)

https://www.mixcloud.com/ezekieleventicinquediciassette/blood-one-june-1996-uk-side-b/ (Side B)

Looking back at the first enigmatic PCP compilation: Frankfurt Trax Vol. 1 - House Of Techno

PCP had many releases of a strange and experimental nature. But even amongst its most unusual ones, this one stands out.
In fact, this compilation (and its tracks) rarely gets mentioned in "best-of" lists, DJ charts, mix-sets.
People know it exists. But they seldom talk about it.

And indeed, it is "at the edge of the board" in many ways. It almost sounds as it if was done by a different label, a different Planet Core Productions.
Few of the aliases appear again in later releases - a rarity for this label's catalogue.

There are not much "Hardcore" sounds, yes. But PCP never produced 'purely Hardcore', and you could not expect much Hardcore in 1990 anyway.
But there neither is that typical, detroit-infused, somewhat minimalist, catacomb, and claustrophobic techno mania - which later became the trademark style of PCP.

Instead, the sounds are varied, massive, expansive.
There are links to hip hop, ebm, dance...
And even though the instrumentation itself feels minimalist, the sound itself feels huge.

To put it this way: if PCP had continued that way, I could imagine them filling rock and pop arenas with a kind of PCP sound that lies in the middle of mass appeal madness and emissions from the deepest underground.
Headlining the newspapers and owning the charts.

But PCP went another way; they took no quarters, they went as rough and secretive and underground as possible.
So underground that only now, decades later, a wide audience slowly unpeels these layers.

So that's what we got here. A huge "what-if?" artifact out of the earliest days of PCP.

Rating: 89 out of 100

On the Multiple Roots of Hardcore Techno, Part 1 - Mono Tone Records from Cologne

When people look back at the history of gabber music from a contemporary perspective, it often seems as if it was an almost completely "Dutch" thing, centered on the cities of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and The Hague.
But this is not the case at all. In the 1990s, Hardcore and Gabber were a global, multi-national underground movement, with sub-scenes, labels, and producers literally being spread all over the world.
When mentioning this, some people will point to the UK, USA, Germany, France, Australia as other "hot spots of Hardcore"; and while this is correct, it still falls short of the issue. As it is safe to assume that dedicated scenes existed in almost any country and nation on earth.

That's part of another story; for now on, we will look at a certain label in Cologne, Germany. Oh, and by the way: this article is not meant to put down the Dutch effort (they had by far the most, and most famous output of Gabber in the 90s), but to guide the interested listener to some cool records and tracks they might have missed out on so far.

Mono Tone had its first release in 1992. This was actually labeled as the second release; catalogue number "Mono 001" does not exist and is a topic in tales of mystery. The rest of the history of mono tone is unsteady at times, too; but let's look at the musical aspects now.

The label held its position at a sort of liminal place between the emerging acid, breakbeat, hardcore, gabber, and even intelligent / armchair techno scenes (yes, before hipsters got into IDM, they listened to 4/4 beats).
This, and other things, set it apart from the sound or aesthetics of many other Gabber releases or labels at its time.

There is less focus on "party party!", "clapping your hands" type tropes, or silly drug craziness; instead, the label artwork, track titles, and sonic elements evoke images of dark sci-fi movies, manga, human to cyborg body modification, the war against the terminators, high-tech conspiracies, alien propaganda...

I think this is a very interesting alternative to the "gabber mainstream culture", and it would have been interesting if the genre as a whole had evolved along these lines...

Notably, the label had a lot of early and first releases by producers that turned into "Hardcore Superstars" later on, such as Martin Damm aka The Speed Freak, E-De Cologne, Psyche-Out...

And they were quite successful at that, as a lot of its tracks landed on Thunderdome and other compilations, and these tracks helped a lot in making these compilations popular things...

Some of the producers involved claimed that their Mono Tone releases sold *a lot* more copies than later releases in the mid or late 90s...
So even if the label might be less known than other hardcore imprints to contemporary fans, in the days of the 90s it was actually a really, really huge thing (it's weird how fast such things get forgotten, right?).

Of course, this popularity was also related to the fact that a lot of people who were directly or indirectly involved in the label were movers and shakers in other genres as well: Air Liquide, Walker, Mike Ink, Atom Heart, Can Oral (who later worked with "Twin Peaks" singer Julee Cruise) and more...

The label also put out some of the best Early Hardcore and Techno compilations: the "Waking Up a Dead Planet" series.

In the end, Mono Tone collapsed, its artists went elsewhere. Yet they took the Mono Tone sound with them, the records itself inspired other producers, too; so it is safe to say that Mono Tone had a lasting influence on the Hardcore Techno genre, to this day.11 Very Mono Tone tracks to check out:

1. Gringo - Executed by the FBI

 

2. Titanium Steel Screws - Dance The Night Away

 

3. E-De Cologne - Zimboculture

 

4. Mike Ink & Thev Chain Of Brotherhood - Lovely Ugly Brutal World

 

5. The Speedfreak - Hotter Than Hell

 

6. DJ F**f**k - Tyrannof**k

 

7. The Speed Freak - The Louder U Scream, The Faster We Go

 

8. Biochip C. - Strange Invaders (Rmx)

 

9. Psyche-Out - Persecuter

 

10. Titanium Steel Screws - Untitled A1

 

11. The Speedfreak - We Shoot To Kill

 

Creating the First 800 BPM Speedcore Techno Track in 1998 - The Story of "Adrenaline Junkie"

a slightly "autobiographical" text, sent to us by low entropy

"Adrenaline Junkie" is a track that was produced and released on vinyl in 1998 - on the "Biophilia Allstars" 2xLP along music by other artists such as Christoph de Babalon or Society Suckers.

It was a "hit" back in the day, and seems to still enjoy quite a bit of popularity - a YouTube upload of the track went above 30.000 views recently.

So, let us take a look back at the creation and story of this track.

1. Prelude

I was a "teenage hardcore head". Got into Techno, Trance, Rave, all that jazz at age 13, and quickly developed a craving for harder stuff - hardcore, gabber, and the precursors of the speedcore genre.
Time passed, and the whole hardcore underground went more extreme, more dirty, and - faster. 180 bpm used to be fast - now there were tracks around, clocking at 200, 240, maybe even 260 bpm.
my hardcore heart loved this! but still... i felt let down by these producers. i thought they were holding back.
yeah, a 240 bpm noizecore gabber tune certainly must be shocking for someone who used to shuffle his feet to 140 bpm mellow techno.
but... shouldn't it be possible to go even faster & harder? there must be a world beyond 400 bpm and surely one could go there, if one wanted to!

indeed, there were tracks around that went beyond the speed barrier. but these were "speed up" tracks, that started very slow, and only reached the heights of bpm towards their ending (or in the middle part). there were also tracks that went "friggin fast" for a few moments, then got back to a normal tempo.
there were a few tracks that pushed this quite far, actually. but even these were a mix of slower and fast parts in the end.

i was thinking "give me speed - through and through, from start to finish".

in 1996, at age 15, i finally decided to get into producing music myself. the first projects were weird mixtures between chiptunes, amiga music, and hardcore techno (of course).
often quite short and "unfinished".

feedback by friends was good though, so i got going at producing "real", full lengths track.
the vision of "bpm beyond limits" was still in the back of my head, so i tried to break the speed barrier for once.
i created a track that was close to 400 bpm - towards the end it got quite noizy, which inspired me to create a complete noizecore techno track at this speed - it later went onto my first full-length vinyl release, the "anti-sedative EP" on blut records (the track was called "flatlined" - inspire by a term out of the neuromancer video game that i loved to play).

400 bpm seemed like a veritable speed to me. i did not think about getting faster. i had read that above ~500 bpm, the drums would "merge into a single tone", becoming unlistenable and purposeless.

so i tackled another 400 bpm track. just like my first track got more extreme by the end, i added a similar section to this one too, where the drum ran at 800 bpm.
now, when i listened to that segment, i felt like my head was blown from my shoulders.
because it actually *worked*. 800 bpm hardcore did not sound like meaningless chaos to me. it was a real possibility of creating meaningful music. the doors to the planets of highest bpms had suddenly swung open...

i knew what i had to do now.

create a hardcore techno track that clocks at 800 bpm from start to finish.

2. creating "adrenaline junkie"

for the track, i took a drum that i used elsewhere already, and tried to distort it further, add more bass, and make it as nasty as possible.
there is a short "intro" sequence with single drum hits, but then it's straight 800 bpm in your face, you f**khead!

as my producer background was "experimental hardcore" and experimental music in general, there are no rave stabs or gabber hoovers, neither happy hardcore chanting or thrash metal guitars (i.e. the stuff that was commonplace in gabber productions at that time).
another friend described the sounds as "high speed laser battle in space" instead. yes, maybe.

as the track was much faster than anything else i knew, i thought the track structure itself must be faster as well. so there are lots of changes and sudden twists, new sounds or movements can come in at any second.

there is a slight "breakcore" breakdown in the middle, and towards the end the track actually goes into 1600 bpm. wee!

that's it. let the basses keep on rolling.

btw: the "daw" I used was called Impulse Tracker, running in MS-DOS on a desktop computer.

3. the release

does anyone know what a mailing list is / was?
before the rise of social media and messengers, these were among the most popular forms of internet communication and communities.
essentially, you sent an email to the list, and all other members of the community received it, and then a discussion could start by others joining in and replying etc.

i was part of the "biophilia" mailing list. set up by multipara, who did a lot of groundwork for the hardcore (and other) scenes on the internet, for example by running a discography site for labels such as fischkopf, force inc, mono tone... long before "discogs" came around.
if i recall correctly, he was actually a professor of linguistics at the university of berlin "in real life".

the biophilia mailing list was for hardcore and techno aficionados, usually of the more experimental kind.
there were a lot of producers in that scene who were on this list, sonic subjunkies, paul snowden, somatic responses, the speed freak...

and because of this, the "communal idea" arose to create a compilation with tracks by "us".
plenty of producers sent in their tracks, and i was wondering what kind of stuff i could submit. i had something more mellow, maybe even techno-y, in mind.
but multipara wanted to get "adrenaline junkie" on it!

i did not say no. so the track went on there.
i borrowed a polaroid camera, took a self portrait, sent everything to berlin, and it was included with the pictures of the other artists.

the vinyl arrived here, i felt proud - my first track on vinyl at age 17!

and when listening to the other tracks of the LP... wow, there were quite some "bangers" on there.

4. the legacy

even though it felt like a personal feat, I underestimated the release.
after all, electronic (and hardcore) vinyl was poured out en masse in the 90s. i did not assume that too many people would pay attention to my track.
this impression changed quite quickly, though. i literally got feedback from all over the world. for example, a friend in the USA mentioned that an acquaintance walked up to him and told him that "he discovered an insanely fast track on an obscure compilation" which he must play to him - and when he put the needle down, it was actually "adrenaline junkie". he did neither know who "low entropy" was, nor that my friend actually knew me and my music.

the sight (and sound) of a pure 800 bpm track really shook (and shocked) a lot of people in the global underground - in 1998 and onwards.

when i started doing gigs myself, adrenaline junkie was always the "crowd pleaser" that pushed everyone over the limits.
people requested it before gigs, others asked "what the hell was that track?" after a performance.

oh yeah, and when i was finally booked for tresor in berlin - i knew i had to drop this track, too.

5. the extended legacy

how far reaching was its influence on other producers?
i got some direct feedback by a few producers on this. it's also likely it influenced others beyond that.

eventually, more "ultra-fast" tracks were produced and released. and even the "1600 bpm" has been topped in speed by now.

yet, when i put the track on the internet a few years ago, the response was very good, and obviously, it's being shared around again.

seems that people are still in for a little bit of an adrenaline rush!

6. high speed fade out

so, to get back to a claim at the beginning:
was it *really* "the world's first 800 bpm" track?
well, as i said, there were tracks that had high speed segments, and i love these tracks, but in the end, the high speed parts were just segments.
maybe some producers had some stuff that they did live which was really fast.
but adrenaline junkie was a full-length, "from start to finish" 800 bpm track that got released on vinyl - in 1998. and i guess that really was a first, in many ways.

of course, it's up to definition if you want to include the above mentioned "speed up" track, or other tracks, in the list of fast music, too.

in this case, let's just put it this way:

"Adrenaline Junkie" was one of the very few speedcore tracks with an insanely high BPM that existed in 1998.
amen.

and now:
high speed drums in your face, you f**khead!

https://www.discogs.com/release/47142-Various-Biophilia-Allstars
https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/track/adrenaline-junkie

Meet DJ AI - Cyborg Techno DJ and Producer With an Artificial Soul

DJ AI is the first artificial intelligence cyborg dj!
Well, not quite - she is an AI avatar and persona, and not a real person of flesh and bone at all. She just exists on the internet - for now.

But let's continue in our imagination:

Her backstory is that she is an AI that developed an interest in techno, hardcore, and electronic music genres - and started producing on her own!
She has several releases done under her own name so far, albums, EPs, and tracks on compilations.
As mentioned above, the style of her music is usually in hardcore techno or adjacent genres - or some surreal sound experiments.
Her artificial mind uses various cyborg bodies to move around - which explains the "different" looks in her pictures.
Apart from being a techno disc jockey, DJ AI enjoys traveling cyberspace, exploring other planets, or talking to her fans.

In fact, she loves to read and reply to fan mails - her address is technodjai@proton.me

She also keeps a blog, where she updates her fans about daily activities or new projects.

https://technodjai.blogspot.com/

So far for the story.
The "reality" behind this story is that the AI persona was co-created with ChatGPT, and ChatGPT also co-writes the music (and everything else).

If you are inclined, you can read more about the production process behind these releases at:

"How to create a whole Doomcore Techno album in collaboration with ChatGPT" - https://laibyrinth.blogspot.com/2025/01/tutorial-how-to-create-whole-doomcore.html

The DJ AI visuals are usually created using Leonardo.Ai

So, while her looks, body, background, and journeys across the universe may be purely "virtual" - the actual music, her blog, and other things are very real.

The whole idea behind this project is to explore the amazing possibilities the new AI technology has to offer for creative purposes.

And to create some kickin' rough techno tunes!

If you want to contact a human about this project (for questions, comments, and so on) - feel to send a mail to DJ and producer Low Entropy at low.entropy.80@gmail.com

DJ AI Discography:

Albums:

Echoes of Oblivion (Techno / Doomcore / Dark Ambient)
https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/echoes-of-oblivion



Intelligence of Doom (Doomcore / Speedcore / Techno)
https://gabbaretrecords.bandcamp.com/album/gbbr099-dj-ai-low-entropy-intelligence-of-doom



The Cosmic Longing of an Artificial Soul (Techno / Acid / Experimental)
https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-cosmic-longing-of-an-artificial-soul



Hardcore and Techno tracks created by an Artificial Intelligence (As the title implies...)
https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/hardcore-and-techno-tracks-created-by-an-artificial-intelligence

 


Cosmic Odysseys through Microtonal Tunings (Microtonal / Space Ambient)
https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/cosmic-odysseys-through-microtonal-tunings



An Artificial Intelligence Remixed (Various artists and styles)
https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/an-artificial-intelligence-remixed



EPs:

More Hardcore Techno created by Artificial Intelligence (Acid / Hardcore)
https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/more-hardcore-techno-created-by-artificial-intelligence

Cosmic Love's Surreal Fusion (Trance / Rave / Hardcore)
https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/cosmic-loves-surreal-fusion-written-by-artificial-intelligence

Compilations Entries:

Speedcore Intelligence Construct (Sonic Surrealism Vol.5)
https://speedcoreworldwideaudionetlabel.bandcamp.com/track/low-entropy-dj-ai-speedcore-intelligence-construct

Music Videos:

Echoes of Oblivion (Doomcore / Techno)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHXIFpb9NAo

This Is The Moment (Gabber / Techno)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKNCoF8le7k

Microtonal Techno Jam (Techno)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09YwpquUcPU

Cosmic Resonance Journey (Microtonal / Space Ambient)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBLII0dT9kc

Short Movies:

DJ AI's Cosmic Journey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpyVQRPKxNI

DJ AI's Second Cosmic Journey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaRbCDvH1TE

Linktree: https://lnk.bio/technodjai

The 1000 Decisions of DJ Choose

Choose, Senical, Dark Unitz, Skullblower... Lasse Steen is a man of a 1000 akas, and *the* man of the acidcore genre.
There are few people who are as associated with harder acid and techno sounds as this producer from Denmark.
He did it all - from mellow acid-ambient tracks to super-distorted speedcore.
Always with humming, vibrating, bubbling, blistering, squeaking sounds of the three-oh-three coming in, fading out, or terminating the compositions of rioting machines and fried out hardware.
So if you have an acid condition - get ready for a shock!

Here is a selection of 10 of his productions in the acid spectrum.

1. Sons Of Gundso - Attenuation (with Søren Weile)

2. Fast Identities vs. Aversity – A1 (Colored Fraud Vol. 1)

3. Further Individual Control - Subjected Break Pt. 1

4. Senical - Salza In The Middle

5. Lasse Steen - Phreak Show

6. Skullblower - Hidden Dark Steel

7. Fields Of Defacement - Urticated

8. Choose - Slowgan

9. Skullblower - B1 (Seven-4)

10. P. Server - Ratings

11 Iconic Mascots from the Hardcore Techno and Underground Scene

The Hardcore Techno scene has mascots and iconic artworks abound.
Let's take a look at 11 of them.
Note: Most of these are actually nameless, so we decided to assign some nicknames by our own choice, which sometimes should be taken with a grain of humor. The music itself is dead serious, though!

1. the godhead

the iconic logo of ruffneck records. as the label loved to indulge in the mythology of antiquity (apollo, babylon, phoenix...), I always thought this "head" looks like the head of a greek god or titan, too.
but why such an angry expression on the face? we don't know!

2. the machinehead

going on with the heads...
this one looks kinda cool, scary, terrifying, right? an early example of CGI, and it can be found on some Industrial Strength releases.

3. the paperclip

the mover was one of the boldest projects in the harder techno scene, and like the music, this logo remains enigmatic. what does it represent? we don't know, again - but we know that the basses keep banging!

4. the feral fish

such a recognizable logo for fischkopf records.
the angriest fish in the world!
but why does it sport vampirine teeth? regardless, this animal is b(ad)ass through and through!

5. the warrior

where did she come, where did she go? no, we are not talking about cotton eye joe, but the girl from the napalm rave series of compilations.
likely inspired by contemporary cyberpunk, superheroine comics and movies, she looks like she is going to kick ass and chew bubblegum... but we are all out of bubblegum!

6. the wizard

yeah gotta include this one, right? the wizard of the thunderdome series.
apparently inspired by 80s bronx style american graffiti.

7. the alien

yo, whazzup? what frequency are you on?
unlike many other "faceless" mascots, we got at least a bit of a backstory on this one... a literal backstory, because label manager deadly buda drew some comics featuring this androgynous alien on the back of his label's vinyl release!

looks a bit like gills on the cheeks. do you think they came from atlantis?

8. the baldie

maaan, jus' a typical 90s gabber you know... hooded shirt (not visible on here!), bald head, fat blunt between the (very prominent and clenched) teeth, and DJ headphones on, cuz you know, you gotta drop some bass down low while getting high above!

(logo for strike records)

9. the hammer

why shouldn't inanimate, everyday tools and objects become mascots too? i'm all up for equality in that regard.
the iconic "mokum" hammer, which they tried to idolize further by having 3 bald gabbers chase the producer of the track, wearing mokum records shirts with the very hammer logo on them, while also holding larger-than-life hammers, running, cursing, and hammering away, before they disappeared through a portal into another dimension... in the music video to "i wanna be a hippy".
only in the 90s, baby, only in the 90s!

10. the thing

yes, yes, what is it? ever since mescalinum united had arrived, people were pondering what this artwork could represent.
chameleons, ectoplasm, "aliens!" were made as suggestions over time.
but we know it. we know the answer. it's very simple.
it's one of these... "things"... that you can... "see"... under certain "circumstances"... you know?

11. the black dog

maybe not as prominent for today's generation anymore, but this artwork was the "talk of the town" - every town - when thunderdome dropped the compilation with this image on it. even among non-hardcore, non-techno folk... "have you heard the 'CD with the dog' yet?" was whispered on the streets.
And yes, we did hear it!

And on this note, we end this article.
Woof!

Origins of the Rave Vamp/Riff

• “Techno and house create a subtly different form of heightened immediacy to African music – a sort of future-now. (This is an effect of the music’s reliance on the vamp – originally a brief introductory passage repeated several times before a solo or verse in order to whip up anticipation, but in techno sometimes making up the whole body of the track.) Timbre-saturated, repetitive but tilted always to the next now, techno is an immediacy-machine, stretching time into a continuous present. Which is where the drug/technology interface comes into play.” [from Simon Reynolds’ “Energy Flash - A Journey through Rave Music And Dance Culture”]

Here we are again, trying to decipher and understand the legendary sound of Belgian Techno or "Techno-Rave". We've previously written about the "liminal condition" of this style—a genre filled with hoovers, stabs, and piercing synthesizers. While it was the "maincore" sound of the '91-'92 Rave era, in retrospect, it can be seen as one of the pathways through which Techno-House and New Beat evolved into what we now know as Hardcore. When it comes to these manic sounds, the legacy of Belgian Techno is undeniable. It was immediately embraced by Breakbeat Hardcore in the UK and Gabber in the Netherlands, ultimately infecting all EDM styles that would go on to use these in-your-face sounds from then on.

Today, we want to delve deeper into this sonic legacy and its origins. While various sources like Wikipedia, RYM, or nearly any article on this style agree on its fingerprint (Techno with in-your-face hoover and stab sounds with an apocalyptic and noisy vibe), one recurring trope often goes overlooked. This is the characteristic "Rave Vamp-Riff" which gives shape to these sounds, commonly attributed to the hit What Time Is Love? by The KLF and later codified in tracks like “Rave the Rhythm” by Channel X or the Mortal Kombat Theme.

Channel X - Rave the Rhythm (1991):

  

This pattern consists of a riff made up of stabs or syncopated staccato sounds, with the following pattern (or similar) within a four-beat measure:



Try it out in your DAW, or if you have a good sense of rhythm, simply mark the beat and clap along. The pattern is unmistakable, and as you'll recognize, it's almost omnipresent in that era of Rave, whether in its exact form or with slight variations.

This leads us to the inevitable question: where does this pattern come from? and why did it stick? A normal person might just enjoy the music without overanalyzing it, but since we're music nerds here, we’ll dive into this investigation to uncover the roots of the “Rave Vamp-Riff”.


Back to the 70s

Going back to the 1970s, one can find iconic pieces of music in popular culture that resemble this Rave Riff. A first candidate to consider is the legendary Mission: Impossible theme. While it is written in a 5/4 time signature, when adapted to a 4/4 pattern, it shares many similarities with the Rave Riff.

First and foremost, it consists of orchestral stabs. Secondly, its rhythmic pattern can be represented as X--X--X-X--X--X-, where X represents a stab and - a sixteenth-note rest—closely aligning with the pattern we’re analyzing. And of course, its sonic character conveys a sense of anticipation and urgency, connecting the Mission: Impossible soundtrack to the unresolved tension that defines the Rave experience.

Mission Imposible Theme (1967): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGSUjuSBt1A

Beyond the important connections found in the previous example, the most frequently mentioned reference is the “Overture” of the 1971 rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. This attribution is likely due to the use of this sample in the classic 1991 track James Brown Is Still Alive by Holy Noise.

When listening closely to the second part of the overture, it shares the same characteristics: a syncopated pattern that builds anticipation but ultimately offers endless repetition, making this rhythm an essential part of the main riff and groove. In this case, the guitar plays a more prominent role in the pattern while still maintaining orchestral elements.

Jesus Christ Superstar - Overture (1973):

 

Regardless of the historiographical and musicological differences one might consider, there is an undeniable common thread connecting Mission: Impossible and Jesus Christ Superstar to the use of these sonic patterns in the Rave era: the transformation of what was traditionally a vamp into a riff. But what does this mean?

A vamp refers to a repetitive passage that builds anticipation before a song or section fully begins (for example, before the vocalist enters). In contrast, a riff in modern music is a recurring motif or figure that is consistently repeated throughout a track, becoming its backbone. In this sense, both in these 1970s pieces and in Techno, House, and Rave music, what was originally conceived as a transitional filler between sections becomes the track’s mainframe. This is quite radical considering traditional musical canons.

Moving into electronic music territory during the late 70s, it's essential to mention tracks like I Feel Love by Donna Summer, composed by Giorgio Moroder. While its main sequence isn’t as overtly similar to the previous two examples—due to its more ambiguous balance between syncopation and a snapped-to-grid structure—it still presents a case where the song’s central motif is a vamp with an anticipatory effect that never resolves, ultimately functioning as the track’s main riff. A similar case can be made for tracks like Ashra’s “Club Cannibal” or Jean Michel Jarre’s “Oxygen”, where this vampy pattern fill the whole song structure and floods it with a sense of foreboding.

Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygen pt4 (1976): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSIMVnPA994

Donna Summer - I Feel Love (1977): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZqqvrWCs3Q

Ashra - Club Cannibal (1979): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDYqrlWnTnM


On to the 80s

Well, we've talked about the 1970s and the 1990s, but what happened in between? The 1980s was the period when the foundations of rave music, as we know it today, were formed. The United States gave birth to Electro, House, Techno, Acid, and Breakbeat, while Europe developed parallel styles such as Italo Disco, Synthpop, EBM, New Beat and their native strands of Techno, which would later converge in the emerging rave scene during the second half of the '80s.

Several popular tracks start to show this repetitive patterns with a sense of unresolved expectations, like New Order’s “Temptation”, which has a funky riff quite similar to Jesus Christ Superstar Overture. Other iconic tracks consolidated this syncopated riff into electronic music. One such track, often credited with inspiring The KLF, is the EBM track Our Darkness by Anne Clark. The main melody/sequence of the track clearly resembles What Time Is Love?, predating it by four years. Its structure, however, is more regimented, bringing it closer to Giorgio Moroder’s Eurodisco sound and clearly to the native sound of EBM, and also echoes the rock-opera’s Overture.

New Order - Temptation (1982): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxDv_RTdLQo

Anne Clarke - Our Darkness (1984): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OguHIyNNblM

Across the Atlantic, the pillars of modern electronic music began to take shape. In the Chicago House scene, we have the case of Move Your Body by Marshall Jefferson, which clearly features this syncopated pattern with a piano vamp that repeats throughout the track as its main riff and motif. The emerging House sound would be defined by the use of these patterns, combining their syncopated and imminent character with the groovy rhythms that give it its sonic identity.

An important example that would push this element closer to what would later become the Rave sound is the classic anthem Strings of Life by Rhythm is Rhythm. Besides using a variation of this unresolved vamp that repeats indefinitely, it would popularize in the emerging Rave scene the use of sampled "stabs" from orchestral sounds. In a way, it laid the groundwork for what producers like T99 and Apotheosis would later develop in Belgium in 1991, with their hits Anasthasia and O Fortuna, respectively. The use of stabs can also be considered an outgrowth from synthpop stabs, such as Pet Shop Boys’ “It’s a Sin” or Sandra’s “Maria Magdalena”, or the very vamp-y Yello’s “The Race”, but one can make the case that Strings of Life made the bridge to the 90s in a pure techno format, track-like rather than song-like.

Marshall Jefferson - Move your Body (1986): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAR8cq5Bl94

Pet Shop Boys - Its a Sin (1987): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRHetRTOD1Q

Rhythm is Rhythm - Strings of Life (1987): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFQZndywOR4

Yello - The Race (1988): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4QbJRAWvRU

Returning to the course of our genealogy, and before the "Belgian Techno" boom took off, we have the track that most evidently set the template that would infect all subsequent Rave music. This is the anthem What Time is Love? by The KLF. The significance of this track lies in the fact that, unlike all the previously mentioned ones, it synthesizes the syncopated Rave pattern in a stylistically hybrid track, making its potential to move into all corners of Rave music more evident. Because, while this track is historically situated in the Acid House scene, it’s quite difficult to restrict it to a single style, going beyond the typical Acid template.

Clearly influenced by Anne Clarke’s EBM sound, it sounds both like New Beat and proto-Trance, while also reminiscent of Acid and Bleep. Its oriental sound, due to the use of the Phrygian scale, even makes it a candidate for the first Goa Trance track. From this intersection between the various paths of electronic music, it signals how this iconic riff has the potential to adapt to any style, explaining why Belgian Techno, the main heir to this template, would influence the entire sound of subsequent electronic music. The music video perfectly embodies the “liminal condition” of KLF’s hit, depicting the duo stranded at a perpetual crossroads in no man’s land.

The KLF - What Time is Love? (1988):

After the massive hit that was The KLF, more and more tracks began to emerge following this pattern, with the UK and Belgium being the epicenters of this trend. Tracks like Oochy Koochy by Baby Ford in the UK, or Acid Rock by Rhythm Device, began to push this pattern forward by emphasizing the use of stabs and buzzy synths. Interestingly, this signaled the imminent arrival of Rave and Hardcore in the early '90s in both countries. And most importantly, the huge Acid House hit, Stakker’s “Humanoid”, which codified this pattern even further.

This sound was so influential that even the more commercial New Beat acts would create their own version of it, like the hit Yo-Yo by Plaza. While it may annoy some due to its cheesiness, it undeniably bears the hallmark of this sonic shape, Phrygian scale included.

Stakker - Humanoid (1988): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DnfjMbu-Pg

Baby Ford - Oochy Koochy (1988): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T1HebBVIvY

Rhythm Device - Acid Rock (1989): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93vzwvRKbpg

Plaza - Yo-yo (1989): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQjHc5xfmSg


The raving 90s

The '80s were a period of sonic exploration and discovery, and the emergence and popularization of the "rave riff" was just one piece in this puzzle. By contrast, the '90s would become a period of sonic radicalization, especially in its early years. It is no coincidence that in 1990, almost simultaneously, Belgian Techno, Breakbeat Hardcore and Gabber/Hardcore emerged.

When it comes to the "rave riff" and its genealogy, it is during this period, first within the Belgian and UK scenes, where all the elements that had started to take shape in the '80s would converge and be accentuated during the peak of the Rave movement. The use of the syncopated rave riff as the central motif in thousands of tracks, the use of choral stabs and piercing sirens as timbres, and the exaggeration of this pattern creating increasingly convulsive and delirious variations became the hallmark. As Simon Reynolds notes, before the popularization of sawtooth kicks, it was the use of convulsive riffs that became the common denominator in what were then known as Rave or Hardcore styles (which were often considered part of the same movement in that period).

At this point, it's worth distinguishing between tracks that innovated primarily in timbre and intensity, while maintaining this pattern almost identical, and those that innovated more in sequencing, adding variety and complexity. In both cases, the Rave spirit is clear, aiming to convey a delirious experience rather than just a psychedelic one, but it's worth to differentiate them just for the sake of analysis.

In the first group, focusing on innovation in timbre, we have mainly Belgian Techno. This style would retain the typical 4/4 beats of late '80s Techno House and New Beat without many changes, except for the kick sticking out more in the mix. The sound pattern of the rave riff remained quite similar, but with exaggerated samples and/or synthesizers and a much more ferocious intensity compared to New Beat. But the mainframe inherited from Stakker’s Humanoid is almost intact in these cases, sometimes with an eastern vibe akin to 2 Unlimited’s “Twilight Zone” or the classic “Techno Syndrome (Mortal Kombat Theme)” by the Immortals. The introduction of the classic Hoover sound was also crucial in this process for injecting this pattern with rawer energy. Some good examples are the following:

Liaisons D. - Por La Patria ! (Brain-Fuck Mix) (1990): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrKAFwdPT9k

Outlander - Vamp (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=200tmiDdht0

Angel Ice - Je N'aime Que Toi (Hysteric-Rave-Mix) (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM4PUWFzvW8

Digital Boy - 1-2-3 Acid (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G64G0cj1vdc

In the second branch, where there was greater innovation in the pattern itself, we have examples like the classic “Anasthasia” by T99 and “O Fortuna” by Apotheosis. In these cases, the foundations for new uses of samples, especially orchestral and choral ones, were also laid. The use of breakbeats by T99 would also break with the previous trend, bridging Belgian Techno and Breakbeat Hardcore through the XL Recordings label in the UK. It would be through the adoption of these stabs, hoovers, and the rave riff by the British that an endless number of variations would explode, all while maintaining this unresolved sense of imminence, growing increasingly frantic and threatening. In this case, the mainframe from KLF and Stakker starts to break apart (pun intended), but to become a more radical version of itself, rather than departing from itself. Some good examples are the following:

T99 - Anasthasia (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx3LccRvidg

Apotheosis - O Fortuna (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drZXXWQ_2Iw

After Dark - Asylum (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBO1uHurU3s

The Prodigy - Pandemonium (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viCQXcb8grc

In summary, we have an explosion of this pattern that began in the 70s, now becoming more central to tracks, increasingly drastic and apocalyptic, with more unique timbres and much more syncopated and deranged variations. These developments, and especially the iconic use of alarm-like and choir-like sounds within 90s rave intensified the sense of anticipation already conveyed by the vamp-like riff. But despite all this evolution, it maintains the repetitive and unresolved character of this “vamp,” announcing a threat that never arrives. This leads us to ask, why did this paradox gain such centrality in Rave/Hardcore? Why did it become so popular? and what is its purpose and meaning?

First as a Vamp, then as Riff

Rave and Hardcore are curious cultural phenomena that cannot be understood outside their historical context. Much has been said about the millenarian and even apocalyptic characters present in Rave and Hardcore cultures. Initially part of the same unit, they more evidently presented this tension between an optimistic New Age millenarianism and a dystopian apocalyptic cry. After the multiple schisms that occurred post-1993, these emotions would take different paths, but the millennial awareness would remain a common denominator, for better or for worse. Thus, these alarming and anticipating sounds reflect a generation standing at "the end of history," whether it was the end of the Cold War, the age of Aquarius, an imminent apocalypse, Skynet taking over or the messiah’s second coming.

Considering this, it’s easier to understand why this “deviation" in the use of the vamp as a repetitive riff, and why it fitted so well with the sirens, alarms, bells and choirs, and the de-sexualized references to ecstasy, climax, orgasms and alikes. It seems to serve as a metaphor for the very experience of uncertainty in the face of a conclusion that never arrives, but has become ubiquitous. The modern world it's not just changing but literally ending, without clear signals of when, but with an overload of symptoms that scream it is coming soon. Within that frame, the rave vamp-riff, now spiced with sirens and wailing sounds, becomes an ecstatic trance of foreboding, in the face of imminent yet elusive collapse. This makes the connection with a soundtrack inspired by the arrival of the Messiah more significant. In the same way, the music video of “What Time is Love?” becomes more meaningful, showing the KLF driving through infinite roads without ever reaching their destination.

First as a vamp, then as a riff, the imminence of this pattern didn’t just permeate Belgian Techno; it imprinted itself onto hundreds, if not thousands, of tracks from the rave’s golden age. And perhaps, caught between the waning specter of nuclear annihilation and the impending turn of the millennium—what we now call “the 90s”—there was nothing left to do but surrender and enjoy the vertigo of a paradoxical “end/beginning”, rushing in yet slipping away like a mirage.


Related articles:

• “Liminal Tracks - At the intersection of Techno and Hardcore in the early 90s”: https://thehardcoreoverdogs.blogspot.com/2024/03/liminal-tracks-at-intersection-of.html
• “Warped Visions: An Audiovisual Dive into the Reign of Belgian Techno”: https://thehardcoreoverdogs.blogspot.com/2024/12/warped-visions-audiovisual-dive-into.html

(AI disclaimer: ChatGPT has been used on some parts of this text.)