A piece on Hardcore production, by one of our authors, Low Entropy.
Fischkopf was already "obscure" back in the day, even for Hardcore heads. I guess it is close to being completely obscure by now. Yet, the label always had its fans, and it's often a nice surprise to discover that an artist loved the label, who you did not expect to do so. Apart from Praxis and DHR, Fischkopf was probably the most influential label, at a time when I just had started to produce Hardcore and electronic music, too! I want to mention a few tracks that I consider to be particularly nice... and interesting!
Because, directly or indirectly, they teached me a few production "tricks".
1. Auto-Psy - Oxyde
Of course, that's the one. I always mention or play this track. There is something noteworthy, as the track has a bizarre percussion / rhythm flip halfways each "loop". Listen to it and you know what I mean. This one runs against any conventional concept of rhythm or time signature.
2. Fields Of Defacement - Attached
This is barely Hardcore, is it? It's like the opposite end of the gabba-speedcore spectrum. Introverted, reserved, almost chilling and very cold. The "killer" for me are the pads that come in at half of the track. What is it, a hi pass saw synth? A chord? What kind of fx is run over it?
Not sure, but I often tried to "mimic" this sound in some way.
A great one, when listening to at 6 am, and being completely burned and down!
3. Cybermouse - My Dorectives
This track has a very odd, peculiar feel. It's like time is standing still, and you are not sure for how long it runs already, and if it would run for all eternity. The track is based on a few elements that run on a loop. But not quite, as there are subtle changes here and there, and it is not easy to tell what actually changed. So this is a bit of almost "invisible" production techniques.
4. Taciturne - Phenprocoumon
There is something very remarkable about this track, and I don't think I ever heard anything like it again (except for maybe in other stuff by Taciturne). It has super hectic, super distorted beats and sounds, noise. and then these completely still, "silent", serene sounds... that ran completely against the hardcore thing. The calmest of ambient...
It is quite the clash of opposites. And, as you can imagine, it inspired me to do the same. To add "calm" / sweet / ambient moments, in abrasive hardcore tracks, too!
5. Christoph De Babalon - Pleased With Being Alive
"Borderline" hardcore, but it ain't exactly Jungle or Drum'n'Bass either. More than that. It has a completely "science fiction" mood, makes me feel like I'm walking on a different planet.
I tried to "copy" similar space sounds in my own tracks, at the beginning. never worked really well. but it led me to find my own way of producing "future music".
6. Eradicator - Used Against Us (Remix)
"Experimental gabba". I think this is the idea of the track. There are hoovers, there is a huge kick, yes, it is gabber all the way. And it adds sounds to it that are outside the gabber genre. The ambient intro, the weird fx... And it stacks sound after sound on top of each other.
What i learned here is that gabber, hardcore, techno, can be very experimental and clever. if you want to do it.
7. No Name - Kamasutra
A track by the french maniac. I don't know if any analyzing of this music could ever do it justice. But... it starts very calm, almost like a (teknival) techno track. Then suddenly flips, goes into full anger and aggression. It adds so many different moods and sentiments, and ideas, in such a short time.
Music like this showed me that hardcore (or electronic stuff) can be extremely splintered and complicated. and still be very cool and hard the same.
Overdogs! It's time for another brainstorm session.
As all of us know, the hardcore "scene" became encapsulated within itself. Sometimes after 2001 I think. In those days, hc parties, tracks, events were mostly "promoted" to hardcore people. And producers created tracks with "hardcore" listeners in mind already Thankfully, this is changing again.
HC, gabba, speedcore etc. is now embraced by many different crowds and scenes. By the club scene, techno scene, vgm, furries, queer parties, hyperpop, hip hop....
Of course, in the 90s it was a bit like that too When gabber parties were done by metal or punk folk... and the crowd at parties was a mix of gabber, goths, scenesters, lunatics and black metal guys... and everything else.
And most producers did not start off "hardcore" But were rappers or industrial veterans, or came from roller discos Like lenny dee, acardipane, delta 9, chesler and so on...
I so hope this open minded trend continues! And now that the scenes cross over again, I hope this will happen with the sound too. It's nice to see goths or gamers dance to gabber. Yet when it's still mainstyle or uptempo like.... blargh. They "should" dance to gothcore or gamecore 😁 So yeah i hope we will see many mix ups and cross overs in sound... and different people becoming involved in the scene again. To break through the capsulation again.
We're starting a new feature: "Off-Lists". 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.
Another theme that is big in Hardcore and Techno, and especially the tracks of a more experimental and avantgarde, are liminal places, Schrödinger states. Places that are off, hang on, linger somewhere in between... Doors, passages, tunnels. Connections between different realities, time and space... being at the crossroads.
And that's what we are gonna do. That's what we are gonna look at here. And as always, we are gonna add tracks and songs from general genres to this, too.
It's nice that Mokum now has returned to full "Early" Hardcore releases. Cuz this one has all the good stuff from the ol' 1990s. Just like you'd imagine a Mokum record to be, in that era. It's not "frozen in time" though, and there are some new variations. The distorted 909s kick even harder now. And there is a crossover with rave-y Hardtrance and Dance melodies.
A sweet Mokum power punch.
The track "The Right Side Always Wins (Peace Now!!!)" also comes with a music video. Apart from hakken and "dancing gabbers" shots, it seems to portray a message of peace and being against war. Which is very welcomed, in our dark and troubled times!
We released several anthems to promote the magazine and the ideas it stands for, and are looking for artists that want to embody this hardcore spirit, too.
"Rules:"
1. There are six anthems (so far) and you can choose which one you want to remix - or remix several.
You don't need to use all of the samples - in fact, it would be interesting if you recreated some of the melodies and sounds, or even vocals, "on your own" and use that instead.
(yes, there is only 1 stem for the 6th track)
2. You can send in three remixes in total.
3. The deadline is 20.03.2026 (btw that's march, for you americans)
4. Your remix can be any style or sound, Oldschool, Gabber, Acid, Doom, Techno, even other electronic or non-electronic genres (vgm? black metal? funk?) We'd prefer it if it wasn't Uptempo, Mainstyle, etc - though :-)
5. If it's possible, it should somehow embody The Hardcore Overdogs spirit. Tracks should be bold, underdoggy, crazy, out-of-the-usual... be your "freak" self when producing them!
6. We don't do mastering - if you want your track to be mastered, you need to do that yourself. But we assume that the tracks that get sent in are good enough to be released without mastering, so your track does not need to be mastered if you want to submit one.
7. The finished tracks should be sent to:
low.entropy.80@gmail.com
with subject "Remix Competition" (best as a download link to file hoster).
Further questions, inquiries, comments, can be sent to that e-mail address, too.
Strict deadline - if your track is not finished, we can't include it.
You can choose between these 6 anthems:
1. Hardcore Like The Wolf 2. Topp Dogg 3. Hakken With Wolves 4. We Are The Hardcore Overdogs 5. DogBoy 6. Drum Test (120-2000 bpm)
If you want to feel inspired, make sure to check out the first remix album, too!
When Techno began to appear in glossy magazines by the mid 90s, and DJs started to look like super models (or rather, 90s supermodels started to look like Techno DJs), a large part of the Techno scene said "nice" and quickly forgot its Hardcore roots. But it cannot rest what does eternal lie, and within these strange aeons, hardcore will never die.
Or, to put it less poetically, if you try to bury something very hard, at one point people will start digging, and dig it out again. And, this way, 1992-1995 style hardcore techno, gabber house, "nosebleed" techno is back again, and more kids dance to it now then they danced to daft punk.
And now I am going to look at a bunch of releases that are part of this revival.
By its name, "Strictly Early" is a series of compilations that, well, are strictly defined for Early Hardcore music. Mostly by new producers. It's a nice touch that some "old dogs" join in, and sometimes even submit new material.
From the information I could gather online, it seems the compilations were put out digitally, on CD, and even on vinyl. The inclusion of CD releases is quite spiffy. It feels like a throwback to the 90s "Hardcore-Gabba" CD compilation craze, and famous numbers such as Thunderdome, Terrordrome, and the various other -domes and -domes.
And, if you look at the tracklisting, it seems a lot of original Terrordrome artists appear on these compilations, too.
What to expect? The entire shebang of Early Hardcore and Techno. Even a bit of Industrial or "Frenchcore" sounds.
So, put on your tracksuits, shave your head, and then everybody do the hakken!
Hello Dogs, The main head of Doomcore Records relayed this message and statement to us:
I can't believe it - Doomcore Records turned 13 years old a while ago, and is still going strong. It started as a quite and small label in the wintry days of December, in Hamburg, Germany. It was intended as a label by and for freaks into Doomcore Techno music, horror movies, shutting themselves in and not going out anymore, having the blinds closed all day, and angrily or melancholically gleaming at the world outside.
There was no promo, no meaning, no message, no purpose, no goal, no sense, no rationaly. The releases appeared "black on black", with the infamous "three moons waning" illustration on each release. The releases did not even have a title! They appeared quietly, and I thought they would disappear quietly again. Because nothing seemed to matter in these days of social and cultural chaos.
But despite of this - or maybe *because* of this. The label started to make waves very soon. Music magazines like The Wire started to feature and review the releases. Pitchfork, Faze, Crack Magazine, Groove, all mentioned our efforts in one way or the other.
And instead of the Doomed Hardcore underground, the label suddenly became a darling to the indie rock and indie pop crowds. Who described us as being at the center of the ongoing 90s Hardcore / Techno revival. Was that the truth, or did the journalists exaggerate a bit? I won't judge on this. But I knew that the amount of feedback and listeners became colossal. People also wrote me and told me about Doomcore Records tracks that they had dropped at this or that club, essentially in all continents, all around the world.
To run a Doomcore-Hardcore Techno label with the main listeners being people into alt rock or indietronics was a very bizarre and surreal experience arc (or "aargh!") Yet it also encourages me to sever the last notion of feeling the necessity to cling to "traditionalism" when it comes to Doomcore Techno mechanics.
So the label started to diversify well. There were chiptune-like tracks, dark ambient, ebm... weird "folk" sounds on top of beats... even small-scale techno-opera conceptual releases.
But yeah, in the end it was inevitable to push things further. Because, were we not leaving the "doom" frame behind with the releases?
The first spin off got titled "Slowcore Records". It was influenced by the novel appearance of very low bpms in Hardcore and Techno tracks. Below 130 bpm, below 100 bpm, even below 60 bpm (one of the slowest tracks on that sub is a meagre 1 bpm).
We later got a lucky strike here, as an East European country banned all "Techno" and dance music within a certain bpm range. And Slowcore Records was below that range! I don't think our tunes were actually popular there, but theoretically, we evaded that radar sweep and could have still been played. So at least on the internet, a sudden spike of interest towards our music was felt.
And the next branching-off happened with the birth of Omnicore Records. Now this, finally, was a label for *all* styles of music. And I mean it. Yodeling on top of a sizzling frying pan, making field recordings of vintage neon lights buzzing? We would welcome it, if the quality is good enough.
But, more realistically, the majority of releases is centered on Hardcore and Techno sub-styles, especially early Gabber and Speedcore.
This also gave us the opportunity to fulfill a bit of an archivist's duty. As Omnicore did some releases of unreleased tracks by well-known 90s hardcore producers.
Doomcore Records is still going on, and one of last year's highlights to me was the release of a new vinyl record (which ended up being featured by The Wire again).
As we look back, the main label, together with its two subs, had put out over 350 releases in total.
And in order to celebrate this, and the 13 years the label existed, we are going to do a special set of events and releases.
This is a very eerie, special, and notable release. I noted elsewhere that the pre-cursor genres to Techno - like New Beat or EBM - were often quite bleak and nihilistic. Techno itself, on the other hand, was more hippie and fluffy cloud oriented - or directly dance tunes.
This is a release of 1991, it is deeply rooted in Techno and Electro. Yet it already foreshadows the apocalypse and merciless nihilism of styles-to-come; Hardcore, Gabber, and Doomcore.
The main track is build around a long intro (I guess it is one of the longest intros ever). Vocals and samples from Cronenberg's movie "Dead Zone" appear in this intro. This is a movie from 1983, and based on a book by Stephen King. If you don't want to get spoiled, cover your hands now:
The movie is about an american businessman who, despite his rampant insanity, runs for president, and manages to win the election. And then tries to launch a global thermonuclear war.
I think this description is enough to "feel" the doom and gloom which is interwoven in these tracks. And it's funny how one tiny change of "setting" can turn a whole record.
As the instrumentation itself is not that different from normal 90s techno. And with more "cutesy" and bubbly vocalization it might have slipped into a more uplifting dance / trance tune.
But, the gloom is here, and deserves its place as the top layer of these tracks.
As far as I can tell, this release is one of the earliest pre-cursors of the doomcore / darkcore genre. The beats aren't exactly Gabber, but could pass as "Hardcore" back in 1991. And the rest fits the bill.
So don't let this historic tune pass by your ears!
Some stories are just too weird, too out there, to believe them. For example, would you believe this one? There was a messageboard and website, coming into existence by the mid-90s, that focused on electronic music and underground / sub-culture. And that became super influential to the evolution of extreme electronic genres like hardcore techno, breakcore, speedcore... That accumulated almost all alumni of these early scenes... or inspired & enlightened the "underground stars" to come?
But let's wind back and talk all about it. What was c8.com, or Circuit 8 ?
It was a website set up on the "90s internet", run out of UK (rumor is that the admin was a 'stockbroker-turned-underground-figure'). Apart from its own content, it also became a host to other labels and artists - and some of the truly "big ones" in darker electronic music history. The official Planet Core Productions web presence by Marc Acardipane and the other rascals was on there (another rumor is that the payment for this good deed was - free choice in any of the 200+ vinyls that PCP released in 7 years). Nasenbluten and Bloody Fist were on there - the "aussie hc elite". Somatic Responses had their first web presence there. Low Entropy, too. Praxis Records, Widerstand, The Skreem magazine, Ambush Records, too many to mention!
Intermission: The term "Circuit 8" is actually a throwback to the hippie days of free love, substance, and rock'n'roll. "Circuit 8" is a concept conceived by lysergic guru Timothy Leary. The highest state in his list of "mind's circuits", that can only be accessed by near death experiences, deity interventions, "extremely high doses of acid", and, I would assume, by raving to hardcore beats at 6 minutes after midnight.
End of intermission.
C8 was also a test field for the newest internet tech (as in, really fancy stuff for the 90s). So music streaming and downloads were already established a few decades before our present commercial streaming services...
As such, the electronic music youth flocked to the website. No matter if you lived in south africa, india, berlin, post-soviet moscow, south america... you were now in tune with the newest stuff in the electronic noise sector.
the catchphrase of the page was "dark, sick music" and i guess that phrase checks out!
Eventually, a "mailing list" was set up, which was a bit like a message board. Just that it was used via e-mail.
A crowd began to rise on the c8 mailing list, and when the "noise to signal" ratio began to teether in the wrong direction, a new, secret group was set up within c8.
This second layer, "secret community", unknown to the regular c8 users, was instrumental in setting up and coordinating a lot of quite spiffy projects or record releases. i won't name the names of the people that were part of this, because I think it's better if some things stay secret.
Fast forward a few years, and eventually a "true" message board is set up, that became a community, to another iteration of the "scene".
It is very weird that almost all of this has been almost completely forgotten, except to the ones directly involved. I mean, a project, that was important to "prime movers" in electronic music, like Planet Core Productions, Nasenbluten, Somatic Responses... should be mentioned somewhere, in the history books? But no, it seems that the world had decided... to keep quiet on this one.
Apart from the "direct intervention" through c8, a lot of then-upcoming artists were influenced by the site & the board. and especially the crowds of the breakcore scene.
At least in this sense, the c8.com web page lives on... and hey, maybe we will finally reach "Circuit 8 consciousness" one day!
It must have been somewhere around the early 2000s. A friend, who was also somewhat of an archivist and historian of underground music - and especially harder electronics - asked me if I heard about "Testratte". I had no idea what he meant. "It's an alias of Alec Empire. He produced an EP using that name, but it never got released". I was all ears at that point, of course. He sent me a link to a webpage - I guess it was either a webpage related to DHR, or even a myspace kind of thing - where Alec had put up 2 tracks from this unreleased release, that could be streamed. I was totally blown away by this material! I tried to record the stream a bit - but the recording was very lofi. I ended up including a few seconds of that clip in a DJ set I played on the occasion of a Hamburg squat-type all-nighter, in-between "Toccata und Fuge in D-Moll" by Johann Sebastian Bach, crazy speedcore records by French itinerants, and some works by Hamburg's own music maestro, Jörg Buchholz (which, at that point, also happened to be crazy speedcore tracks). Excuse me for this activity that borderlined on bootleg!
Either way, shortly afterwards, the online stream, the sounds, all info from the release disappeared, like being sucked into a black hole, as if all of this never had happened. The world turned on... and forgot...?
So I am more than happy that these tracks appear again, with even more material, and as a legit release.
The amount of material would actually fill an album and, according to the info, it was planned as a double 12" vinyl. So I would say we got a true "lost media" album re-release of digital hardcore sounds, right here, right now.
Now let's ponder a bit on the sounds. In my opinion, this is *the* hardest electronic release of the 1990s. Period. I assume these tracks were created in the 1993-1995 date range. At this point, no other project was faster, or more distorted, more insane. This is a few years before the term "speedcore" began to appear on record releases. Yet it essentially slams at 200+ bpm from start to finish!
It's a ten out of ten.
This is no numb nut "gabba" record either. Like the info text implies, it's "half way" between the decline of Techno and the rise of Digital Hardcore. So, even if you are only marginally interested in the history of electronic music, check this one out.
From a cultural perspective, it's weird that this was never released before. It would have made its mark in the rising hardcore techno scene, and thousands of "speedcore chaps" in today's age would look upon it as a classic and collector's item.
Yet, these people might actually be the lost, "drug fueled and substance abused" crowd that this record was created *against * - if we follow the info text that had been put on bandcamp next to the release. So all of this might make sense after all.
Tracklisting:
Alec Empire - Test Ratte
1. Test Ratte 2. Blast'Em 3. D.A.C. 4. What The Hell 5. Pro Ceeed 6. BunkR 7. Die Psycho-Droge
hi-ho, there is this insane thing going on the internet about "getting older" and (seemingly) "old age" in relation to music, culture, and music culture. i see questions on online forums like "is 30 years too old for raving" or "can i still go to a metal concert at 40" and so on.
this is very weird to me. i might belong to the older "generation" too - gen x, on the cusp of being a millennial (i.e. born november 1980). i'm also part of a dj / producer group called "the gabber elders". because we are DJs into hardcore techno (also known as "gabber house") since the 90s.
so allow me to chime in my own 51 cents, in this "rave age" debate, and other issues. let me put my walking aid aside, slip into my slippers, and sit down in my rocking chair, while i tell you a story (just kidding).
let me tell you how it was back then, the hardcore techno scene ca. 1994. my personal point of view, but i guess others felt the same.
for us, there were essentially two things: on one side, there was boomer culture, mainstream society, a world run by squares and bores. which they assumed to be the "normal" world, which was made up of what teachers, parents, and a lot of other people called "everyday life".
we didn't like this world very much, or simply were not interested in it. and maybe we just did not fit in there. so the "social freaks" and outcasts of that 1990s society turned to the subcultures and the underground, where - surprise surprise - millions of people like us were already waiting, and having the time of their lives. it was like an own family, community, a legit underground nation.
a few years spent together, of party, and bliss, and friendship... and for some of us these times continue to this day.
so let's look at hardcore techno specifically. most of us were teens or young adults like me. the people who slamdanced to 280 bpm beats, who flocked the record shops, or who crammed themselves into cars and trains each weekend to ride to the best parties in cities all around europe.
but a lot were not. the people who promoted the parties, rented the clubs, ran the record shops usually were not. the same was true for a lot of the djs and producers. there were a lot of older subcultural types as well, from the 80s ebm / industrial scene, or 70s punk, or avantgarde intellectuals.
and no one, literally no one, ever thought: "oh this geezer or chick, is a bit too old to rave with us. tee-hee!"
everyone was welcome in this scene. regardless of skin tone, nationality, religious affiliation, age, criminal record, physical appearance, mental health status, social standing, or economic class (well, upper class people might have had it harder - but we allowed some of them in, too!)
age and "getting older" was really a total non-topic.
and, to be honest, i think this has not changed that much. i hope the "age debate" is more of an internet bubble chamber echo feedback loop, that has no real footing in reality.
because ya know... you are never too old to gabber, or to do hardcore techno.
follow up to the first kotzaak cd release / compilation. and there is a lot of stuff going on here. On CD 1, there are a kind of "best of" tracks that did not find their way to the first compilation - from the "classic" kotzaak period in the 90s. But there's also "best of" tracks from the kotzaak re-launch after the millenium. And finally there are a few unreleased tracks, too!
Then on CD 2, there are a bunch of live recordings from The Kotzaak Klan and the Kotzaak acts - all over Europe. Plus a kind of "mini album" of Jack Lucifer tracks. These were part of the "Contaminated Black Planet" album, that was conceived earlier, as a stand-alone release, and was finally digitally released in... 2017 (yes!)
One of these album-tracks is actually hidden on CD 1, too. And now, let's take a look at the unreleased tracks - because these are the goodies you are likely going for, right?
"Tormental Beginning" feels like a drumless black metal piece played on synths. With tormented voices by Hamburg Hardcore Head Triebtäter.
"Determinate" is a quite novel encounter. "Slow" Kotzaak style - with hc punk / meta shouting! "Mangled" is most classic kotzaak all the way!
