A look back at... Zhark International from Berlin... and rating the Zhark Records Re-Releases from 11 to 1

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.

So let's take a deeper look.

Note: No AI has been used on this text.

#11 Christoph de Babalon - Rise above this https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/rise-above-this

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!

#10 Various Artists - Dirty Debutantes https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/dirty-debutantes-vol-1

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.

#9 Various Artists - I Drink Your Blood https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/i-drink-your-blood

despite the name, this is more light hearted subject matter on the zhark label - by far!
hardcore electro, breakers, and weirdo shenanigans.



#8 Hecate - ...off the jackal https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/hecate-jacks-off-the-jackal

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.

#7 Thunderinas - The Thunderinas in Blower! https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/thunderinas-in-blower

the best psych-occult 60s rock'n'roll album by non-rocknroll musicians.

#6 Supernal - Light as night https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/light-as-night

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

#5 Various Artists - Hecate and Friends https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/hecate-and-friends

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!

#4 Raquel de Grimstone - Freemansonicyouth https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/raquel-de-grimstone-freemansonicyouth

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.



#3 Hate Cats E.P. https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/hate-cats-e-p

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!

#2 Various Artists - Zhark Compilation 0000001 https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/zhark-compilation-0000001

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).

#1 Hecate - Pay for Protection https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/pay-for-protection

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.

Alt rock and indie happy hardcore

Another piece by our guest author low entropy

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!

From New York Goth and No Wave to Rave and Gabber - How American Club kids transformed a music genre, and then the whole world

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).

DJ CAPELLI · LOW ENTROPY - RTDF RAVE RADIO presents Capelli's Outta Freak'in Control Podcast 15...March 15th, All Nighter at the Thermonuclear Club

tracklist:

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

The Hardcore Overdogs Shirts are here!

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Classic Review: Machines - Acid Storm (Industrial Strength Records 016)

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.

https://www.discogs.com/master/34095-Machines-Acid-Storm
https://www.junodownload.com/products/oliver-chesler-john-selway-machines/1355343-02/

Jay Maniakal talks about his life as an artist and the roots of New York City Hardcore, Rave and Gabber (Interview by GabberGirl)

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.

GG: Thank you, Jay Maniakal!

https://rtdfraveradio.bandcamp.com/

https://rtdfraveradio.com/

Explorers of the Doomed Forest of Hamburg (found footage dark techno movie)

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!

credits: a hardcore techno overdogs productions

filmed in hamburg, germany
...and beyond

Watch it here:
"Explorers of the Doomed Forest of Hamburg (found footage dark techno movie)"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-IMaRJDzrY

also check our earlier parts and information about the whole project:

https://thehardcoreoverdogs.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-first-found-footage-dark-techno.html

https://lowentropyproducer.blogspot.com/2025/07/walking-in-doomed-forest-of-hamburg.html

Cities of Hardcore Techno in the 1990s - Where did the scene evolve? (Video Feature)

Cities of Hardcore Techno in the 1990s

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

9. Berlin
Xol Dog 400 - Flammenwerfer

10. Frankfurt
PCP - We are from Frankfurt

11. London
Pressure head - London

12. Bern
DJ Obsession Bern City Hardcore

13. Vienna
Ilsa Gold - Jetzt Geh'ts Los

14. Antwerp
phrenetic system - fantasy

15. Milwaukee
Hyperactive - Power Plug

16. Cologne
Titanium Steel Screws - Paralyzed

17. Ammanford (Wales)
Somatic Responses - Macroshack

18. Toulouse
Mouse - Helloween

19 Gunsø (Denmark)
Skullblower - Untitled

20. Rome
Lory D - Lochnar

21. Graz
Eiterherd - chase em

22. Bad Kreuznach
Napalm - Napalm 3

23. Dresden
S37 - Streetfight

My personal Bandcamp Friday coverage (Electronic release centered)

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!

https://hauntedhouserecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-macabre-excavation

Vilde Tuv - Truthbomb 2 (Self Released)

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!)

https://vilde2v.bandcamp.com/album/truthbomb-2

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.

https://zharkinternational.bandcamp.com/album/more-tales-from-the-crypt

Somatic Responses - Observation (Self Released)

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.

https://somaticresponses.bandcamp.com/album/observation

Mokum - Happy Gabber Sounds #4 (Mokum Records)

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"

https://mokumrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mok342-happy-gabber-sounds-4

Etat De Droit - 2AM Mix (New Flesh / Rave or Die)

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!)

https://newfleshrecords.bandcamp.com/track/etat-de-droit-2am-mix-free-download

Lee Holman - Sentinel (RIOT Radio Records)

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!

https://riotradiorecords.bandcamp.com/album/sentinel

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.

https://zodiakcommunerecords.bandcamp.com/album/origo-lp-sss-dig001

Noice - Noice 16 (Re:Fusion collective)

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.

https://refusion.bandcamp.com/album/noice-16

Nonlinear - Nonlinear (Music With Machines)

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.

https://musicwithmachines.bandcamp.com/track/nonlinear-2026