Friday, March 7, 2025

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!

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