Friday, July 11, 2025

Hardcore Rant: Let's get back to the days of lo-fi Gabber and Techno

There is something that's been bugging me recently. No, to be correct, it has been bugging me since years already.
This is that amongst Hardcore Techno and Gabber producers, there is this creepy craving for... good production values. high fidelity. expensive "plugins" or expensive real gear. extreme engineering expertise.
fuck all that. please, just fuck it and forget it.

It's very strange behavior for a genre that used to be as lofi as hardcore. check some of the underground or even mainstream gabber "hits" of the 90s. a lot of them have zero production glitter. overly compressed, noizy, undecipherable, sounds like it's coming out of a blown speaker...
but that's exactly what made the music banging. what made the bass roll. trash, anger, fury, rage, energy...

doing a hardcore track in a classy, high level production way is like going to a street fight in an expensive suit and a top hat.

we want it rough and we want it raw, and we want it dirty! this is hardcore after all. keep your cleanliness and clean sounds at home, please. you don't need to take a shower tonight.

let's take a look at the 90s again. there were some well-known acidcore producers who *live-produced* their tracks. not just live recorded. live produced.
that means if they had a track on a vinyl, and it ran for 5 minutes, they spent an actual 5 minutes on production. and then, bang! finished, off to the pressing plant. (maybe +/- a minute).
you might say "hey i guess that guy spent a lot of preparation for these tracks. maybe hours, maybe days. the final recording was the only thing that went so fast."
no, I saw some of them playing live. zero preparation. just straight ahead to the sound.

there were well-known "amiga hardcore" labels who supposedly recorded their tracks to cassette tape. Not DAT. the type of low fidelity tapes you had in a Sony Walkman. and they cut their vinyls out of there.

there was also a behemoth label that defined the whole hardcore scene... and supposedly did the same thing for some of their releases.

and word of mouth says that the The Hague acid, electro, "core" scene had similar mojo... and yeah, check a certain record on drop bass network - let's say the title is about "bosoms and commerce" - and tell me if you can find any production value, or any "care-for-not-overly-compressing-the-sound" on that one.

these were tracks that are still loved, get played at parties worldwide, and people rush their bums to them. without any complaints about "bad mastering" or "wrong EQ settings".

so. let's just drop that "production value" crap. stop the talks about music theory, sound engineering, mastering tracks... just say "fuck you" to that.

Hardcore Techno is supposed to be rough, nasty, and fun! You can take your 'professionally mastered' tracks and stick them up your ass.

Amen.

Further lofi Trax:

  1. Taciturne - Boys Don't Cry (Revisited) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDxpJGu9wBY
  2. Amiga Shock Force - Fühlst Du Dich Wohl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXUd6MIrcXE
  3. E-de Cologne - Dance Now! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq8yctrrkoY
  4. Amiga Trax - Terrorists https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L12b1ZTFXUE
  5. Hardsequencer - Feel So Good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTo-2kE0hsA
  6. Ech Heftag! - Uit Je Dakkie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmqZuane0y8
  7. Underground Nation Of Rotterdam - 666 (Damian's Edit) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npeg6fFHYoA
  8. Dj Dano - Oooooh Shit (Shit'e' Brooklyn Mix) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sba8eyFh0M
  9. GTI - Mistick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLqjc-o2XOo
  10. Neophyte - Communicate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvVOLObNf10
  11. Nasenbluten - Machete https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KauJdx464Q8

Do you know more lofi tracks? let me know?

Note: This text was not written by AI

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