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.
Stay tuned for more information!
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