Going by the title, this is a collection of past tracks by Hellcreator.
In case you don't know Hellcreator, he was one of the earliest producers in the Early Hardcore revival. New producers, that is - as opposed to those who do it since the 90s. But it was never just "early", but also close to terror / speedcore. And one thing that always stood was his prominent use of rave-y / trance melodies, almost like krautrock or shoegaze even. So there is the opposition of calm, soothing, "cheerful" melodies - and all the terror beats. And I really like that!
I guess everyone who is into Gabber heard the name Euromasters being mentioned, one time or another. After all, a lot of people consider them to be the creators of the first true Gabber track ever - Alles naar de klote. That's the origin of Gabber right there. That track really rocked the scene, was also widely known beyond the Hardcore moshpits. I remember a few german music mags crowning the track as one of the best releases of that year.
And it even lent its name to a wicked dutch movie ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117142/ ) - about rave, crime, and gabber house, of course.
What might be lesser known is that they also were involved in lots of other cool tracks and releases. They also did side projects or solo stuff.
"Amsterdam waar leech dat dan" is probably the other well-known tracks by Euromasters. This b-side to the record release sounds actually quite similar... but i prefer this one even one notch more!
a dutch guy once told me this one is about soccer, and rivalry between teams (of other nations?) regardless of the message, this is one of the most bad ass rough gabba tracks ever!
as far as i know, euromasters established the "loud scream, bass drum, go!" formula long before other labels did... this track is a good example of that!
teun hoihouse used an aka to create the intro to the terrordrome iv compilation. it's much more than an intro, it's a complete tracks, yet a very unusual track, because at the same time...it's still an intro!
In the Hardcore Techno Overdogs magazine we usually focus on the underdogs... well, maybe that term is not entirely correct. Let's say we focus on the under-appreciated labels, that still duly deserve their spotlight. Because of this, we neglected the "motherland of gabber" a bit so far - The Netherlands. After all, every boy and his dog was raving to the wicked hardcore beats of gabber madness in the 90s - right? So gabber from holland is hardly hardcore of "underdog" quality... and everyone already knows it, right?
well, while that was true for the 90s, it might not be so true anymore. We maybe could define a kind of "temporal overdog". Stuff that indeed everyone knew in the 90s, but in today's media culture, is shadowed and under-appreciated because everyone else focuses on the "big" labels mostly.
So let us look at the various interesting dutch gabber label from the 90s.
And this time, we want to tell you about 7 very interesting releases on the label Hard Stuff Records.
Mental Hardcore Associates - Let's Get Wappie (Hard Stuff 021)
Gizmo played this at the mayday rave, hey hey! 50,000+ ravers getting wild to this track. There are also two other mixes that do not feel too different to the original. It's an interesting mix of very, very hard "dutch oldschool" with hoovers and all, and "guitar terrorcore" like the americans did.
Thomas E - Datastorm EP (Hard Stuff 14)
Thomas Elers is a bit like the forgotten man of acidcore. also from denmark, like zekt or choose. He did some wicked acid/techno on german labels like labworks. But also did some gabba-acidcore, like on this release. And this one is very, very crazy. Just as over the top as the best stuff by e-de cologne or bse dj team.
Wasteland - Ibiza (Hard Stuff 12)
Ibiza is an interesting tune, as it sounds one half hardcore, one half hardtrance, and one half arcade video game music (yes, three halves). There is also a "boom boom remix" that make me feel as if the venga boys went gabba (even though the melody is completely different). Yet the killer tune on here is "First Time On This Planet". Gabba with one of the fastest use of a T99 like sound I ever heard. I guess the sampler had a meltdown towards the end.
Brainblower - Mental Hangover (Hard Stuff 10)
a good release to show how varied gabber house and hardcore techno were in the "beginning". a1 is a very fast oldschool tune with the typical "rave" stabs. the next track on the other hand is almost slow, with an industrial sounding drum and an interesting groove. plus there is lots of acid to be found here, and other madness.
Cellblock X - Secrets Of Nutrition E.P. (Hard Stuff 11)
A project by Thomas Elers that is closer to pure "acid" techno. but very hard acid. and, unlike batteries, a few gabber-speedcore sounds are included as well!
Charley Lownoise & Mental Theo - The Bird
Have you heard about the bird? Yup, the trash men's 60s garage song was already a well known cult classic long before an american cartoon series adopted it in their episodes.
this time, our favorite birdsong get's the gabber treatment, and it get's it good. at a time when charly & theo were still very wild & hardcore, before their european chart success.
there is also a kool acidcore test as the b side.
Illegal Alien - Frankfurt vs. Den Haag (Hard Stuff 016)
’s-Gravenhage (or "The Hague" for english people) is such an idyllic european megalopolis, placed neatly near the ocean at this side of the atlantic... and they got a hot gabber scene too. the track here is actually by gabber legend "3 steps ahead" using one of his akas. hardcore drum... check... repetitive "hoover" melody... check.... hyptnotic acid lines... check! there are also three alternative mixes to the original track on the record.
What other dutch labels are underrated in your opinion? let us know!
Free Spirit (Rémi Andrade) and Tony Katana (Tommy Bonnevialle, here disguised as 'Tony Kashmere', a moniker for 'softer' material) collaborate in the fifth chapter of the 'Counterflux' series, a series of CD mixes born from the mind and spinning hands of Free Spirit, bedroom dj and former Chase Records owner. Each installment highlights multiple aspects of hardcore techno, acid techno, and many other styles in electronic music. The sets are offered online for download (Facebook/mediafire/...); in addition, 13 cd copies with artwork are always sent to fans and friends. The length of the two sets, along the lines of mixtapes, had to fit on a single CD, a long-play CD.
Tony Katana belongs to a group of versatile French dj's who spin the better 90's underground hardcore techno, gabber, and speedcore, blending them with contemporary releases. He regularly shares live mixes via Facebook (under Tony Katana) and YouTube. Other notable French names include DJ Fusion, Mascore, Martyr, DJ Ash, and more.
Some of Katana's mixes are among the best in the contemporary underground hardcore techno and gabber revival. Well-known and lesser-known 90s tracks are mixed with, among others, newer industrial Italian releases in a tight, rhythmically thumping style, making combos of different elements of tracks, sometimes touching on the psychedelic style of SpeedyQ's and Tec-9, with occasional long transitions. John Dark and SpeedyQ's are, for the record, amongst his major influences for Djing for the explorative & adventurous nature of their output. All of this contrasts quite sharply with a good portion of Dutch Dj's. "Early rave" (a marketing gimmick!) is not included here.
A mix clocking in at +200 bpm, 'Décharge cabalistique' (see link below), is, in my opinion, a very good example. Only after listening to a few mixes did I realize the man has an extensive background in classical music (see his piano renditions of metal albums in the link), and that skill and sensitivity are reflected in both the almost harmonically rhythmic mixing, as well as the harmonically logical and equally surprising contrasts in melody and harmony. In this Counterflux Part, Katana tries to emulate Free Spirit's style (digging deep in genres, mixing long transitions, technoid elements, …).
I listened to this Counterflux mix first in part, once in its entirety, and finally with the video. I did the latter to better understand the mixing work. Initially, I was a bit lost in how Katana reinvented himself. After the fragile intro by Ulver, somewhat IDM-like, not completely my thing, the mix picks up with more experimental, technoid tracks by Liza N Eliaz and Lorentz Attractor, bathed in pads, creative 303 lines, and reverbs that create and build atmosphere. These tracks also appear in the excellent mix 'Matt Fraktal – Fraktal + Timeless'; could this have been a source of inspiration, i asked myself? Tony answered affirmative. The first culmination is a long transition from Lorenz Attractor's 'Complexity Crisis' into 'Industrial TR' by Vdd Energise (sample: 'ecstasy!!'), with the hats pattern(s) as common ground. overall The menacing atmosphere that had been building finally explodes accompagnied by a our beloved marching 'hardcore' bassline. Wonderful! Then Katana shifts back a gear, the atmosphere builds again with techno, acid techno by Propionic and Koenig Cylinders flowing nicely with harmonic key into Headshop's 'Universe' from the PCP stable; a track that falls somewhere in between hardcore, acid, hardtrance, unique in itself. I remember discovering tracks like these when digging further into hardcore techno after the popular gabber period... . Luckily we don't feel that old yet, and people spin it in 2025! Katana masters the art of casting tracks, giving them a role in the story; here the for me unknown 'Filmcore' by Simstim. Equally clever is the use of lesser-known, more of 2 strong filler techno tracks by FFM and Marc Acardipane (, followed by the strange melody of Zekt – Fixed, after which follows a more obscure proto goatrance track and one Marc Acardipane track. FFM's track is mixed very well and for a long time. Seeing it mixed live gives me a better understanding and respect for the calm and apparent simplicity with which track after track are seamlessly woven. The techno track by Matrix Project on AREA51 appeals to me less because I simply don't like this kind of monotonous techno too much. The introduction of this track and the fantastic track by Mechanism (with a slightly lower gain?) sounds a bit rushed. I learned it sounds that way because it was brought in the first break.
Whereas a previous mix featured a modernist piece as the intro, the minimalist classical electronics of Matmos now provide the outro. Original! Listen carefully to the complexity of the resulting harmony.
In my opinion, the mix could have been longer, which makes it seem like there was a bit of a rush to deliver the last three tracks (which perhaps couldn't have been mixed any other way).
The good reasons to listen to Katana's mixes are also present here: distinctive track selections, transitions, rhythmic layering, atmosphere, harmony and melody, and contrast. Could you guys give the file a bit more gain on your next CD? Fantastic!
Considering that Katana is constantly exploring new areas of the electronic music spectrum, a black metal-tinged speedcore set mixed with Persian classical music could be on the menu next, or am I being too hasty? Stay tuned!
Audio Riots drops a new release, and this time it's by Uncertain Menace. What can we say about it? This one is heavy, through and through!
There is some stuff in Acidcore now (and acid too, really), that to me sounds more like psytrance, a bit softer, mellow... and I would say, this release goes in the entirely different directon, thankfully! Super deep drums and sounds. Like the evil offspring of Industrial Techno, Noizecore, and Hard Acid.
Hardcore Techno and Gabber House bring out the animal in you! Because: You stomp like a bull on the dancefloor, howl like a dog, roar like a lion... and paddle your arms around like a penguin or other walking, earth-bound, non-flight bird thingy.
No wonder there are many animal themed tracks and releases within this style, too.
Here are some of them (also includes tracks of other genres, as usual)
1. Animal Intelligence - The Object of Rave 2. Kotzaak - Like a Raging Bull (compilation) 3. Erase Head - Pussy Cat 4. Cannibal DJ - Dog will Hunt 5. The Prodigy - Run with the Wolves
6. Biochip C - Cranefly Warriors - Massive Toad Activity 7. Whaleekomittee - Save The Whales 8. Hecate - Hate Cats EP 9. The Outside Agency - ...ants 10. Phoenix - Who's In Control ?!
11. The Outside Agency - Metal Slug 12. Rat of Doom - Before The Breakdown 13. Rolando - Knights of the Jaguar 14. Darius G - ... like an Animal 15. Fischkopf compilation - Otaku: Slick but not Streamlined
16. Gangstar Toons Industries - Camel 17. Cobra Killers - Cobra Z 18. Dominion - Unicorn evils 19. Scorpion - Second Bite 20. Thomas Ehlers - Elephant Junk Attack
21. Charly Lownoise and Mental Theo - The Bird 22. The Falcon - Tear you apart 23. Party Animals - Hou Op 24. Mouse - T4 25. Raver's Nature - Monkey
26. DJ Mongoose - Rip Shit Up 27. DJ Waxweazle - Hardcore Power 28. E-de Cologne - No Dolphins Allowed 29. GTO - The Bullfrog 30. Ramirez - El Gallinero
31. Pink Potassium - Radioactive Goldfish
We're running a new feature: "Off-lists"
Paper fanzines were filled with charts; some DJs turned there charts into lists such "10 favorite Dutch Gabber tracks".
Features in zines often also have additional lists such as "9 anime related Hardcore tracks".
We wanna build on both these currents; but, with these "Off-Lists" we will focus on themes and motifs that are more out-there, abstract, off-the-center. Exploring aspects and ideas that are rarely highlighted when people talk, think, or write about Hardcore.
of all participants, we will choose a winner, and the winner get's send a free shirt including shipping costs. and the winner can choose which shirt they want. we have 4 merch shirts available so far, in most colors and all sizes!
Surprise release on Omnicore Records. It's actually 1 track, that runs for over 1 ¼ hours
How is it possible to arrive at a work like this? Did it take months or years to create?
The ancients of pluto tell us a different story:
"We sat down one midweek's evening. The hours of doom, when the sky began to fade to black, and the skyline of the city started to alighten and glow... as we gazed upon the moon, the planets, and the stars, we received a transmission from the heavens above... we quickly got in gear and made sure to transcribe the messages in all details on our synthesizers and drum machines...
and then, 10 days later, on a weekends night, we received the second part of the transmission. this time we made sure to move our gear and equipment to the balcony of our flat on the 1st or 2nd floor near the outermost border of the cityscape... we hope we received the starry transmission even brighter this way...
we worked and worked, under the night sky, while the city seemed to be asleep and dead, and just the moon and a few revelers on the streets seemed to bear witness...
and this way... in maybe 2 2/3 hours of work... this project was finished!"
we thank you for this message, oh ancient of pluto!
now for all the other info on this release....
oh, and the style of this huge track? it's in a whole array of styles, beginning with beatless doombient, to techno, trance, acid, doomcore, finally deathcore, speedcore and noise... to return to ambient. quite the interstellar trip.
on the digital release, we got the entire track as originally conceived (or received) and also for easier listening purposes, the track broken down into separate chapters (or transmission).
Tracklisting:
The Ancients of Pluto - Orion Transfer (Omnicore Records 75)
1. Orion Transfer 01:16:43 2. First Interference 01:25 3. Cosmic Train 05:30 4. Second Transmission (Titan Reflections) 09:43 5. Galactic Runner 04:29 6. Third Transmission (Jazz Aliens) 07:49 7. Pan Acid 04:28 8. Fourth Transmission (Martian Interference) 07:17 9. Cosmic Jet 05:16 10. Fifth and Final Transmission 05:39 11. Pan Reprise 02:55 12. Extra Lap Around Jupiter 03:20 13. From Here To Tau Ceti 06:54 14. Third Interference 01:19 15. Ambient Fade Out (Leaving The System) 02:22 16. First Transmission 08:09
we are doing various features to honor 13 years of doomcore records... and for this one, the label guy sent us a description of the first 11 releases... !
Emerald Planet was a "hit" on Black Monolith. This one exchange the more "trance" like drums of the original with industrial-doomcore stuff. there are also more mellow, and more hardcore remixes.
aliocha from france popped out this release, then seemingly disappeared. very emotional, heart-felt sounds... almost like a gothic ep instead of doomcore. i am very happy we put this one out.
this was done by one of the owners of the "planet core productions" website, forum, and discography database. using not one, but multiple akas. obviously inspired by pcp, but he made it his own. there are kotzaak, de 2001, no mercy type tracks... one of the best release on the label, in my opinion.
Gabber is good, gabber is great. Hardcore is an ambiguous term that was also used for Breakbeat Hardcore in UK, for example. Some producers were fond of both genres with the same name, though. So there are Gabber tracks that make heavy use of such sounds as breakbeats, jungle amens, drumnbass rhythms etc... and let's take a listen at 11 of them!
I guess amiga producers were more willing to use breakbeat samples. Maybe because it's a good way to circumvent the 16 bit computers 4 channel limit. Either way, this one's a classic. Also features the "machine gun of god", billy graham, on the vocals!
Ec8or turned more into the digital hardcore / breakcore sound later. this one is still gabbering as hell, though. and has some nice breakbeats. and military type shouting, plus some opera sounds. huh?
Biochip aka Martin Damm was one of the earliest german breakcore producers. also a hardcore producer. and 1000 of other styles. this one combines several of them. and it is more in his later agent orange / napalm path.
Spooki Scary new vinyl by Demonic Wavs - on vinyl!
Doomcore through and through, with Techno vibes. And an almost endless groove, loop. Going on, with slight switches and changes. An ostinacco of gloom?
Braintrance is the go-to (or to-go?) for good neo hardtrance / ravecore stuffz.
And this release does not disappoint either! Not sure if the title is just a gimmick... but these sawtooths and pads partly sound medieval to my ears for real!
I remember tuning into a TV show called "Viva Trance" on a weekends' night, feeling completely wasted (but not being it). It was hosted by German Techno pioneer Mate Galic, who later found a job at Native Instruments. He used the show to play his favorite tunes. And I could swear I saw a music vid that featured a "zhark dagger" logo. I never found this tune or video by the label again, so maybe I just imagined it. When I stayed at the Zhark International headquarters in Berlin a few years later, I was shown a lot of video material (amongst other things), so maybe it was something like that.
But yeah, I guess that shows that Zhark is indeed a weird "glitch" in music history. Hard to pinpoint, hard to define. Dislocated, disregarded. Split into two separated labels early on. Penetrated far wider cultural circles than your usual "electronica indie". Still not as famous as deserved.
Maybe quantum-entangled. And we are still waiting for the wave function collapsing...
Either way, apparently the label found a new, digital home, and has begun to happily re-release some of its earlier releases, and also showing spanking new stuff.
CdB appears on the Zhark label. His sound has always been more of a trip than a genre. This shows him at a time when his lofi trash fischkopf brutality began to fade, and things get more introverted... intellectual. still packs a mighty punch, i tell ya!
Zhark branched off a sub label called the Homewrecker Foundation. The idea was to have a label for females in the breakcore, harshcore, dark electronic genres. This was quite the revolutionary idea back then, and i guess it is quite the revolutionary idea for today, too! and the sounds are just as renegade.
I remember some south london scenester slagged this one off on an email list forum for being "completely conventionalist". which is funny, because most breakcore poster boys these days would disagree. and they are right. this is the good stuff.
that one come out when my interest in "breakcore" already faded to black, so, while i enjoyed it, i was not too plussed by it. listening back to it once more, i notice that it is indeed some wickedly good stuff. but that's the point of re-releases, innit? to get a second glance!
but there is one track i adored back then already: Liberty And Justice For Us, ghastly (ghostly) ambient noise
This ain't a re-release of an old album or ep, but instead its tracks from all over the map (and dimensions, i guess). These are either collabs between hecate and other artists, or remixes. Mmm where do I start, where do I end...? There is breakcore, post-industrial, blackened death, a hint of gabber in the form of overly compressed kicks. and these are amongst the best tracks i ever heard in these genres!
Rachel Kozak turns into Raquel de Grimstone, and this is one of the best things she ever did. Oh, you want to know how it sounds, too? breakcore and black metal... become one and merge into one of the meanest freak creatures ever.
Slamdancing went out of control in a berlin backyard club hipster party, and me and my friends nearly buried ourselves under the falling turntables. and the tune that got dropped that night was... "caught up" from this one. i have loved it ever since!
oh yeah, get this one. if you get one release off this label, get this one. it's like a secret vault hidden inside a secret vault. the best tracks by well-known and not so well-known artists that the world has never heard. like kerosene's cover of the velvet's "heroin" (by a guy who actually did real world collabs with julee cruise - and others).
There are few, few releases, in all of the world of music, that can be considered solitary, unique, and i mean *really* unique. Because, let's face it, there is usually always some other gal or dude at the (other) end of the world, doing the same sh*t that you do. but this is one of the few releases that fit to the term. there is no other release that really sounds like this, or is even close. it is brilliant, an anthem, and sheer genius.
so how to describe it then? let's say it occupies a liminal place at the crossroads of the emerging breakcore scene, the then-fading industrial / ambient scene, spoken word poetry, and... millions of other places and connections.
I admit, this "best" list is highly subjective. so I would be interested to hear your own, personal best of list from this label's release.
there is a project i have been doing since i even started producing music. well, at least the first seeds were sown then.
happy hardcore always has been a kind of guilty pleasure for me. producers sample a lot of catchy melodies and pop stuff. the mainstream behemoths, abba, madonna, olivia newton john...
but it's not just the pop billionaires who are apt at creating catchy cool melodies... i am talking about indie rock here... alt pop.
they have more bittersweet, joyful-tearful melodies than any mainstream pop producer could do...
and now and then, a producer picks up these underground swooners and puts them in a tune. it's ultra rare, but it happens.
let's revert to the starting point. my love for this nano-genre appeared when i listened to a happy hardcore tune called "started with a bass" by jorge & rico. the breakdown felt so good, it flew me to the stars!
only much later i learned that they sampled an 80s underground pop song - colour box, with "suspicion".
somehow, the catchy cool melodies by indie pop artists or alternative rockers sound even better, when pitched up to a pixie-like voice sound.
another track in that vain is "suddenly" by space cube. the sample's from an obscure 80s underground thing, too.
and then there's DHR with DJ Bleed's "in bed with marusha", or alec empire himself with "doesn't make it alright", which samples the specials (or are they considered to be mainstream now?.
i tried to have a few stabs at that genre myself, by sampling obscure new wave and other acts.
for example here and here:
hopeful that there will be more post punk underground hardcore dance in the future!
do you know more alt rock and indie pop hardcore techno tracks? let me know!
Records, tracks, releases of the past, discographies, even music videos and some journalist's snips are like bones, fossil. Buried remains, once living, now dead, and no longer able to tell a story. And they never tell the whole story, indeed. They don't *really* tell the story of a sound, a genre, a movement, a culture. For that, my dear friend, you need to dig deeper. And to also take a stab at the things, the invisible strings, that connect each genre, that act as transmats, from one style of sound to the other, from one destination to another. from one decade to another.
"techno", according to some of its fan-based "historians", is a monolith structure; and, depending on who you ask either entirely invented, designed, created within detroit, berlin, or off-shore, amongst the balearic tourist-traps.
Nightmoves - Transdance (New York City Mix) (1981)
But in truth, techno, and its subgenres, acid, trance, hardcore, gabber, never were monolith structures. not one, pre-defined, closed-off genre. these styles have cracks, tunnels, splits. they were liminal, at the crossroads. broken down at the seams, liquid, fluid.
not a fixed sign (maybe not even a watery one), not one location. more like a journey, a trip, a life time (and yes, it is a trip).
Hashim -We're Rocking the Planet (1984)
especially the internet has been haunted by a double fold dispute in past decades. two (or four) of these monolith tribes going against each other.
in the case of techno, the "techno comes from detroit" tribe against the european one, and in the case of gabber, the rotterdam hooligans agains the frankfurt "soccer" maniacs (or, spoken less poetically: did PCP invent everything, or was it the rotterdam labels?).
But let's not fuggetabout the big apple. Couldn't New York City put them all in one basket?
Frankie Bones - Call it Techno (1989)
Well, no, this claim would not be entirely right (or fair) either. Let's say it was co-evolution and pan-continental synchronicity.
Now let's get to the point, or the core; and become a little worm that chews a deeps tunnel into this big apple.
There is a line that had been repeatedly said by Lenny Dee, the American Godfather of Hardcore Techno, about the music of another Godfather of Gabber, Marc Acardipane from Frankfurt, Germany (now residing in Hamburg).
That, when he heard tracks like "Mescalinum United" for the first time, he finally founds someone (i.e. Acardipane) who produced tracks and put them on vinyl, that to him (Lenny Dee) did sound like the stuff *they already* created when playing live or during DJ sets (in New York).
Now, I guess you need to be a raver at hard to really understand the above passage, and have experienced the sound transformation of hearing a record being dropped in a strobe and smoke filled basements, and zig thousand watts on the speaker systems.
A mid 80s "dance" record from new york, that might sound "wimpy" with its bass and everything, when listened to at home, in the current day, on one's computer or phone, could sound really, really hardcore, when dropped in the abovementioned scenario.
Joey Beltrasm - Mentasm (1991)
and, more importantly, tracks become more hardcore depending on the tracks you mix them with during a set.
there is also a similar statement by new york dj legend frankie bones; that in the few years before the real advent of "techno" as a name, new york djs already played tunes that were technically the same as techno - they just sounded a bit different.
DX13 - Mother Lover New York (1993)
so, let's get back to the beginning. by the late 70s and early 80s, and maybe even earlier, New York had a very alive scene of clubs, club kids, discotheques. And these places played records from all over the map, that would now considered to be "no wave", "goth", "ebm", "industrial", maybe even hip house and electro funk...
but there is something that stood out with new york, and it is that they always had DJs and nights that selected the more, or most "hardcore" of these records, of these genres, and stitched them together in a mix. the most futuristic, the most minimalist, the most dance-driven, electronic ones.
Lenny Dee - Hostile (Brooklyn Mix)
of course not every dj, every night. but there was a scene for this. and these were the bare bones already, of genres that would later get terms slapped on top of them, like "techno", "acid", "gabber"...
if we look at the new york club scene from the late 70s to the early 90s, there is indeed a strain visible (or audible) that is becoming more "technoid" each year, and more "hardcore", too.
and, at least by the 90s, this strain finally got put on vinyl too, and spread all over the world, too!
here is a mix that shows the transition of new york club sounds, beginning with ebm / goth / industrial tunes in the 80s, and slowly transition to techno and acid, and finally hardcore. with tracks that are directly, or indirectly related to the new york city scene. (which was broadcasted on a new york city based online radio).
1. Wargames - Defcon One scene 2. Amnesia - Hysteria 3. Micro Chip League - New York 4. Frankie Bones - We call it Techno 5. Interactive - The Techno Wave 6. Space Trax - Atomic Playboy 7. Komakino - Drill 8. Turbulence - Whurlstorm (Remix) 9. Sub System - J'ai Peur 10. Disintegrator - Locked on Target 11. English Muffin - Follow the Leader 12. Disintegrator - In the sun 13. Wavelan - Cygnal 14. Glitch - Heavy Mental 15. Gringo - Executed by the FBI 16. Signs ov Chaos - Killout A2 17. Signs ov Chaos - Killout B
You read our magazine, you liked our features... and you asked us, "what about merch?" and now, merch is finally here! carry your love for the hardcore techno overdogs magazine on your sleeve, or rather... on your shirt!
comes in various sizes and colors.
money spent on shirts will help us to uncover more precious bones dug deep within the history of hardcore and electronic music! woof!
Can a release be more varied? There is one of the most distorted, cranked up Acidcore tracks (acid storm). Then there is acid-techno, but not the newer, goa-like brand. That futuristic stuff like old Cologne acid, Underground Resistance, or the stuff from New York underground. Quite fitting, of course. (in the machine) Aggro is another weird hard acid stepper that would fit well into a DBN set. And R8-808... has that dirty the hague / dutch acid house vibe.
Hello Pups, Dogs, and Overdogs! GabberGirl here, and I am back, this time to interview Jay Maniakal, one of New York City’s most prominent players of the hard dance scene. With deep foundational roots, his tree is strong and tall with many supporting branches—Jay is an event promoter, hard techno producer, a DJ, co-owner and founder of the globally reaching online station RTDF Rave Radio, and of course, a raver, since the 90’s. He is famously linked to DOA through their albums’ art work and the late Nicky Fingers, now memorialized on Jay’s arm as a tattoo. Beyond all the incredible support he gives the East Coast dance scene, Jay Maniakal is also an accomplished artist, running Maniakal Tattoos out of NYC Tattoo Parlor in Brooklyn.
GabberGirl: You were part of the NYC rave scene when it was still young. When did you discover hardcore?
Jay Maniakal: I discovered hardcore in the NYHC scene in Lower East Side NYC as a young teen in the early 90’s, but I discovered hardcore techno from buying ‘Factory 1’ mixtape from Frankie Bones at Ceasar’s Bay in Brooklyn in 1993.
GG: You’ve been an artist your whole life, including being a graffiti artist as a teenager. You are also the collage artist for the Discipiles of Annihilation album cover art. How did that assignment come to you?
JM: The week leading up to ISR Disciples of Annihilation’s second double album release (NYC Speedcore), me and Nicky Fingers had planned to have me go to his family's house where in the basement he had his studio set up. I was being mentored by Nicky and taught how to mix records, etc. When I arrived, he told me I had to help him finish cutting and pasting photographs on the back of a vinyl sleeve to get it done fast! Lenny needed the album art finished and time was short so Nicky and I did it together, got it out of the way, and jumped into our session.
GG: Growing up, were you just as interested in music as you were in art?
JM: I was instantly controlled by both art and music as a kid. I never went to school, always cut out so I could go hide somewhere and listen to music while drawing.
GG: What were your earliest musical influences and favorite recording artists?
JM: Everything from Public Enemy to Nirvana to The Doors, U2, Beastie Boys, NIN, Ministry, Agnostic Front, Sick of it All, and then ultimately Bones, Lenny Dee, John Selway, Oliver Chesler, Jimmy Crash, Onions, Odi, Decipher, and the list goes on forever.
GG: When you joined the ranks of DJs, where would you typically play out in the 90’s?
JM: First places I played out were illegal underground hardcore outlaw raves. Most of them myself, Nicky Fingers, and multiple other friends at the time would organize together all over the NYC area. I played out a couple of times for a friend/promoter Mark “Joust” Mccloskey (RIP) at venues like Planet 28 (Demarora) and 1 Front Street, Brooklyn Bridge. I was able to play at a couple of Mecha parties hosted by Simon Underground at the Ludlow in the lower east side of Manhattan. I played a bunch of very small hardcore shows at local clubs like the Wetlands and even CBGB’s one night. I got really lucky one night and was asked to fill a slot in the Chapel Room of the Limelight Club [Manhattan location]. I played in The Engine Room of Palladium a few times throughout the summer of ‘96 or ’97, and then The Tunnel one night for one of the memorial parties we organized after Nicky passed. Besides those, mostly all illegal underground outlaw raves.
GG: What kind of music was your focus then? How has that changed compared to what you play now?
JM: My focus then was always hardcore techno, lol. I wanted to be like Nicky! The only thing that’s changed from then till now is I’m more versatile and I like to mix a lot of genres in my sets today, while always staying in the Hard realm. I tend to build up to the hardcore now days.
GG: What was the funniest thing that happened to you when you were playing out?
JM: The funniest thing was cops chasing us all over the city, sometimes with helicopters even, lol. One night they rolled up on us in an abandoned pool hall above an auto body shop in Queens and they just threw their hands in the air, turned around, and gave up when they saw the pit through all the smoke and lasers while DJ Narotic was blasting NYC Speedcore!
GG: When did you start party promotion? What rave company or crew were you part of?
I started party promotion right away, at like 16 years old, lol! Even before DJing, I was organizing outlaws with multiple different groups of local ravers. I was directly affiliated with ISR, Renegade Virus, the McMuffin Family, Lunatic Asylum, Brooklyn Zoo, Digital Domain, the list goes on. Half the time back then it was a multitude of different organizers working together for outlaws.
GG: What was your most memorable event you threw or helped to throw in the 90’s?
JM: My most memorable was the party named “WHAT” (1995). We did that in the abandoned pool hall I referenced before. Zero budget. Just an empty space and a generator. Every city bus that pulled up had a snake of ravers getting off it. Too many showed up but we made it through the night till 6am. The line-up was Nicky Fingers, Narotic, Siege, Atomic Babies, Decipher, and myself.
GG: You are highly involved in event promotion now. Do you book hard dance DJs for your events? Tell me about the April 3rd party you just hosted with another promotion company.
JM: I was involved in organizing the DJ talent for Nocturnal Creature Society (NCS) at a rave they threw at an indoor skate park in Brooklyn (3 April, 2026). NCS is the promotional company I work with today, mostly. They are the best I have seen since the early 90’s when it comes to vibes and overall atmosphere for original true rave culture! They are very young and they have a stronghold on today's youth within the underground rave scene. My role with them is curating the DJ talent and bookings, etc. I also provide connections and resources for the audio equipment.
GG: You have a lot in common with your wife, the Baroness Jennylee, formerly P****lee. You are both artists, DJs, event promoters, and hard dance producers. You also co-founded and run the RTDF Rave Radio station together. How did you meet? When did you realize your friendship had turned into a love match?
JM: Yes, me and my wife do all the same things always together, lol. We met from her finding my art online and then reaching out to me for tattoos. We became friends. Started dating. Started rtdfraveradio together and eventually fell in love. Today we are NY City's hardcore power couple, lol. We have been doing very well with all the Hard work put in! We have played together in the UK, Detroit, Florida, Connecticut, upstate New York, New Jersey and all over the NYC area.
Baroness Jennylee, Lenny Dee, Jay Maniakal
GG: You have some tracks out as Jay Maniakal, and some out as P****fist (you with Baroness Jennylee). You also have a record label RTDFRaveradio on Bandcamp. What are your goals for your label? What’s next for your music production?
JM: When Jennylee and I play out together as a tag team or produce together we are known as “P****FIST”. We have one single release as P****fist on our label, but are actually just about finished with our next release which will be an EP.
Goals for our label is to keep the underground techno, hardcore, and hard Rave sounds alive and strong! We really want to grow rtdfraveradio to a point where we have regularly scheduled pod cast shows!
Myself and Jenny are both in the process of a multitude of projects. I am also in the middle of a collaboration with Lenny Dee of ISR . So, expect a handful of new releases on rtdfraveradio from us in the near future.
Two years ago we ventured into the forbidden doomed forest of Hamburg...
and did we return? well, maybe not really...
so it's even more significant to return. this is the video footage that the forest spat out again... and this time it's quite different to our first two (halves of) movies...
it's no longer one long, big, circular walk... we ascend and descend stairs... we branch off... we explore clearings... or planes..? fewer large trees cloud our vision... and we can see the blue sky and its clouds more often... but does that make the descent... down to the ground, to earth, even more bitter? or better? there is little time to rest... a bench makes an appearance... but the emergence of a bicycle reminds us to move on.
there is really no motion or direction perceptible at times... or at least it becomes obscured, again and again... or do we eventually regain lucidity? maybe in small steps.
also the soundtrack to this movie project has changed. not just doomcore and slowcore techno stompers this time, no no. while there is no straight motion in the visuals (or in the physical steps), there is a clear progression in sounds, and circular once more. we start at dark drones and brooding ambient, industrial and techno beats come in, things get more noisy, more restless, fiery... until we return to silence... for now!
hope you enjoy this little movie project of ours.
let us recap the key concept of these movies again:
it's not just a surreal and abstract visual movie, but the soundtrack is intertwined with the graphic aspects. both fuse into a melange, a mixture. something new and interconnected!
Hardcore is a style that emerged at the turn of the 1980s into the 1990s within the dance and electronic underground. The entire evolution of the sound is not tied to one location. It was an international, global effort. In essence, the early hardcore techno scene already was a model of the "global village" concept, a few years before the real advent of wide-spread internet use. (And it sometimes amazes me how everyone could have stayed connected around earth, with just fax, phone, and early dial-up stuff in some cases).
So... let's take a look at the various locations of the this music scene, at a time when hardcore techno and gabber house was still young!
Note: No AI has been used when writing this text.
do you know more and obscure cities of hardcore? let us know!
Tracks used in this video (and the cities they represent) :
1. New York Doa - Nyc Speedcore
2. Paris Ingler - Trek
3. Hamburg (Germany) Nordcore GMBH - Hartcore City
4. Rotterdam Underground Nation of Rotterdam - X-911
5. The Hague The Illegal Alien - Frankfurt, this is the hague
6. Los Angeles Deadly Buda - esto es los angeles
7. Sydney Rage Reset - Resistance
8. Newcastle (Australia) Nasenbluten - Blows to the nose
Hello folks, Like most bandcamp fridays, I am gonna do a little coverage of the ongoing events again. Because, just like last time, releases were poured out en masse by the labels!
A reason to rejoice and to smile, and I want to take a deeper look at all that cool stuff (and the *hot* stuff too!)
Like last time, my focal point is mostly on electronic, techno, hardcore etc kind of... stuffz. Note: No AI has been used when writing these texts.
DrMacabre - The Macabre Excavation (Haunted House Records)
Holy Cow! What a release (one track on the release is literally called "Apocalypse Cow", btw). I'm certain most electronic fans know the label PCP and the head honchos Marc Acardipane, Miro, Slam Burt... and Dr Macabre was the sneaky french guy who was part of the main crew, too. So this is some legit music history here, as - nomen est omen - our lunatic from france dug up a lot of his past tracks and put it on this compilation. There are some sacred, sacred gems here. Like "Dimension of the doomed", his collab with Miro from PCP. Or "Boomstick" with the hilarious Evil Dead quotes ("and this is my.... boomstick"). But the creaming on top is that some bona fide *unreleased* tracks were put on this comp, too, by the french maestro!
Vilde Tuv is a norwegian artist that speaks with stones, sings like an angel, plays the flute, and drops some gabber beats. what could possibly go wrong? nothing went wrong. and these are some remixes by v.a. of her tracks. (sorry if the description is misleading. the gabba beats are mostly absent from this release and instead... it's a super cool mixture to be heard!)
Hecate - More Tales From The Crypt (Zhark International)
Hecate has been on a huge spree of re-releases lately. She named herself after the Greek Goddess of liminality, the underworld, witchcraft and long journeys (amongst other things) And I guess this describes the mood of these tracks very well. And "from death dub to breakcore and black metal" describes the style of these tracks very well.
Surprise release by the welsh brothers. "The unobserved observer..." oh sorry, my mind slipped into another topic of thought. But, well, no, it's actually a good take on the music here. music that has to be observed, music that has not been observed yet, sounds never seen... trippy, psychedelic, lush soundscapes. a piano plays in the distance and aliens escape through the Cardiff space-time rift nearby.
Mokum was an amsterdam label that filled the european dancefloors in the 90s. With dance and rave smashers like "techno head - i wanna be a hippy" or "party animals - hava naquila". And, unlike most of the 90s dance craze remnants, mokum is very much active, and not in a zombie state at all. Like the title says, this is a new compilation of happy dance gabba rave smashers, and that, according to the promo blurb, is "filled with brandnew blasters and a few remixed or remastered Mokum classixxx"
New flesh is slowly becoming my new favorite label. I guess it was named after the video drome quote, btw! This release is... techno? but very industrial, with electro. and, most importantly, some bad ass french rapping (yes, such things exist!)
Remember when Underground Resistance and Detroit was on a huge "Sun Ra" type trip? With all the references to alien communication, star trek, the rings of saturn, and such? This release reminds me a lot of that! but it does not copy, it just floats in the same river. Let's... call it space-techno!
Various Artists - Origo LP (Zodiak Commune / Same Size Soul)
Zodiak Commune Records is one of these labels that do not tie themselves up in one style. There is acid, techno, maybe even house... i guess this follows the "commune" idea, so to say. the common thread seems to be danceable, hard, dark, and high quality music in these releases. another style they dedicate themselves to is electro, and, oh boy, this new release is so good!
this is no cheese funk, really crunchy, cold, dark steel electro beats. also mixed with other styles, industrial sounds, minimalism, krautrock... a commune of sounds! good one.
Noice is a project by the crazy gabba-germans surrounding "the speed freak". It's a throwback, to their 90s output on labels with cutie names like "napalm records", "agent orange" or even "street trash alliance". Let's... call it nosebleed techno! for the total maniacs.
Harry Harrison was an author who gifted the world with stories like "soylent green", "bill the galactic hero", and one that was called "the final incoherent adventure!". and this would have been a fitting description of this track (or is it multiple "tracks" ? ) on this release, and a fitting end to our coverage.
because there is no coherence or linearity in this track. seemingly just a collection of noises, beats, and sounds. out of sync, for 16 minutes. and so do we end. the final.
