Countdown to 2027 - The Gabber Elders pay respect to Planet Core Production Planet Core Productions Tribute by The Gabber Elders
We are The Gabber Elders and we want to pay respect and tribute to a group of even bigger elders, that came before us. We are talking about PCP aka Planet Core Productions of course. The label that invented Hardcore Techno, Doomcore... helped to set the foundation for Gabber, Breakcore, Speedcore... Intrigued people like Aphex Twin or Moby. Plus it gave rise to the biggest international Techno hit ever - "Maria (I like it loud)" by Scooter and the PCP crew (yes, the track is "cheesy" - but cool!) So yeah, respect is duly deserved here.
And to pay respect, we are gonna do a series of mix sets. PCP only. And these will not only focus on the "well known" tracks! So be ready for some surprises. We might do some other surprise features, too.
All this will be our hardcore and techno... Countdown to 2027! Thus, not everything will be released at once, but we will be dropping mixes and stuff occasionally, to 2027 and beyond!
Maybe you are also interested in this book: https://pcplegendsintheirlife.blogspot.com/ (all releases on all PCP sub-labels listed, rated, and short-reviewed) https://archive.org/details/pcp-legends-in-their-life-the-unofficial-planet-core-productions-book/ (The Unofficial PCP Book)
The Gabber Elders are:
GabberGirl https://thegabberelders.com/ Low Entropy https://lowentropyproducer.blogspot.com/ DJ Asylum https://www.youtube.com/@hcbx666 Nikaj https://nikajs.bandcamp.com/
And here is the first mix in this series.
Scotland's DJ Asylum pays tribute to one of the hardest, best, and also one of the best known sublabels of PCP: Kotzaak Unltd. (Read more about the label here https://pcplegendsintheirlife.blogspot.com/2024/07/kotzaak-unltd.html)
DJ Asylum - Kotzaak Mix
1. Stickhead & Don Demon - Conquer The World 2. Stickhead - Don't Play With Fire 3. Stickhead - Check This Mutha Down 4. Stickhead - Frankfurt Hools No.1 5. Stickhead & Don Demon - Demonhead 6. Bold Bob - Dive Into Steel 7. Stickhead - Meat Grind 8. Leathernecks - At War (Remix) 9. The Kotzaak Klan - Bang Your Fuckin Head 10. Stickhead - Getting Crazy 11. Stickhead - Piss On Your Grave 12. Dogge Team - Pitbull Power (Song For My Dog) 13. Jack Lucifer - Endless Horrors 14. The Kotzaak Klan - Powerstation Kotzaak 15. Dogge Team - We Came To Hool 16. Stickhead - Get In Gear (Remix) 17. Jack Lucifer - 96 Knights (To The Death Mix)
Did I mention it before...? Aneurysm Recordings is one of the best new labels for "old" style 90s hardcore in the moment... or, more exactly, it's timeless And these tracks on here have a timeless quality, too. The promo text tells us about "archives", and at least one of the tracks seems to have been released already... but the sound is still fresh af, and they could just have been produced in our very modern times.
Vdd Energise is an interesting figure to himself; he appears more on the fringe of the 90s techno and hardcore scene. His releases are quite classic, though (including an ep on the drop bass sub label 666). And, most noteworthy, he has a truly unique style, that noone else really does. Very hard, analogue, industrial techno and hardcore... maybe slightly comparable to some of the harder unit moebius or the hague stuff, or even the few hardcore detroit techno tracks...
But, in the tracks, classical strings, "opera" samples, and other avantgarde sound manipulation peaks through, too!
In the 90s, at least in Europe, there were essentially two camps: You were for rock, metal, alternative rock, punk... guitar driven music like that... or into techno, rave, trance, house, gabber... the synthetics stuff! (oh yeah there were also a few other camps, like those that listened to boy/girl-bands. but let's not talk about that here).
The "cool" rock crowd detested the silly ravers. Rock was seen as organic, raw, wild... the rave crowd, on the other hand, put down rock as being outdated, for dads, a genre that had run out of ideas... and so on.
This might seem weird if you look at it from this day. But the 90s were a time when even regular synths in "rock bands" were a rare, rare thing (at least i did not hear one in the famous songs by nirvana, soundgarden, smashing pumpkins). "no more ***ing rock and roll" on the other hand, was a slogan in the german techno scene of the very early 90s.
okay, we did the intro, now let's get down to the beans. rock and purely electronic or dance based music seems to have a bit of a troubled relationship, but that's not true. the fusion of rock and computer generated drums probably reaches back as far as the 60s and 70s, if you dive into the whole krautrock thing.
after that, in the post punk movement, we find some fragments of it already. i mean, at the core, "blue monday" or temptation by new order already had rock guitars on electronic dance beats... right?
but the jingle jangle guitars of post punk is not really what we are looking for.
the industrial / goth scene is already closer to the good stuff in the 80s. and we should give a (very big) nod to cybotron and the early detroit scene,
but now, let's get to the 90s, and take a look at the... real thing.
from very early in, techno producers seems to have been interested in using metal guitars for their tracks.
Rarely by employing real guitar players (but that happened, too!). The guitar sounds usually came out of the sampler. There were shock / mock tracks in the house / techno scene. But after that, genres like house and trance almost never used guitars anymore. Metal went into the darker and harder forms of... "dance". First, into the breakbeat stuff in UK... or rather, the projects that grew out of that. The Prodigy was one of the first "dance-y" electronic projects that was loved by the rock crowd, too.
Then we had weird glitches... like when "purely electronic" DJ Moby suddenly released a purely punk rock album...
Let's leave Europe for a while and cross over the pond. The Americans had Industrial Metal. While this was more or less a fusion of metal and electronics... tracks with electronic drums in dance rhythms were kind of rare... or i just don't know them. Yet, there was some wicked stuff, too.
Apart from the breakbeat, rave stuff... especially in Hardcore and Techno, Gabber and Speedcore, did metal guitars become very popular. Fast metal riffs were one of the defining things of early hardcore techno. The very first "real gabber" track, alles naar de kl*te by euromasters, is build around a riff nicked straight from sepultura.
Gabber DJs seemed to be very fond of sampling thrash metal riffs, Death Metal, too, of course, and grindcore. Black Metal was rare, and 70s stuff or glam / power metal were a no-go... more or less!
Eventually, Earache caught notion of that devolpment, and started to collaborate with hardcore techno labels on their releases... which led to album releases by industrial strength and ultraviolence... or entire projects like "hellspawn"!
Rumor is that Rick Rubin himself tried to get the european Gabber DJs to join his labels and start some projects... But seems he was stopped by the big dutch labels... maybe they were afraid to lose market share...?
On the most extreme end of things there was "digital hardcore" or bands like the berzerker. Digital Hardcore was... well just insane. And Berzerker a death metal / grindcore band... with real vocalists, guitars and all... running on (purely electronic) speedcore techno beats!
This is a quite infernal end, to something that started so harmless, in the days of dazed krautrock... But so, dear reader, it was written.
Do you know bands or artists that use both metal guitars and rave sounds? Let me know!
Force Inc was a label by Achim Szepanski. It gave a very unique and intellectual spin on Techno music. In the 90s, Mille Plateaux was kinda seen as a sublabel to Force Inc, even though it was more like a collaboration between two labels. If I remember this correctly! And if Force Inc was already weird... well, what was Mille Plateaux then?
If we go to discogs, the description reads:
"Mille Plateaux is a Germany label for experimental electronic music and electronic arts. Genres like Clickhop, Glitch, Clicks & Cuts, Minimal etc. were largely influenced (and named) if not formed by the label."
everything understood and clear? So, next time you are rocking out to some clicks (or cuts) in the clubs, remember that this "Germany Label" actually started it all! But in all sincerity, this label really had some weird & wonderful music on it. Some of it maybe might be put under the ambient, intelligent electronica, "armchair techno" umbrella of the 1990s scene in Germany... but at the outermost fringe of it, because it was even more "out there"!
as we read on on discogs, we learn that:
"The name "Mille Plateaux" (A Thousand Plateaus) initially stemmed from a concept and same-titled principal work co-authored by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, French psychoanalyst and philosopher respectively. The former gave his approval of the use of "Mille Plateaux" to the original label founder."
I won't pretend that I read or understood deleuze and his thousand plateaus. I was violently "anti-PoMo" in the 90s...
and now, let's cut the intro short, and explain the label by looking at some of its best releases directly...
So here are 5 or more reviews of some very interesting records on mille plateaux.
Alec Empire - Low On Ice (The Iceland Sessions) (Mille Plateaux - MP CD 18)
The story to the production of this album is as insane as its sound itself. It goes like this: Alec Empire or Atari Teenage Riot were booked at a music festival in iceland. That literally took place in a landscape of snow and ice. I think the artists needed to be helicopter-lifted to get to that place. (check the music video to it) The crew and everyone else had some tents, to protect them a bit from the snow and the cold. So, while chilling in his tent, probably after or before his gig, alec popped out some of the very sparse and minimal gear he brought for the performance... started to jam away, and the result of that is the very album we are listening right now! i mean, he essentially produced an entire album under minimal conditions during some breaks in between... as if producing was as easy as taking a walk in the morning! quite impressive, eh? and it's even more extreme, because the entire material would have fit on *three albums*! which have been released almost 25 years later.
i think this story gives a better description of the music than "genre terms"... but let us just say that dark ambient tones, slow breakbeats, a general, doomed dub mood, is present.
Hanayo In Panacea - Hanayo In Panacea (Mille Plateaux - MP 56 CD)
Who doesn't like Panacea? Well, to be honest, *I* often wasn't too plussed about some of the hard step drum and bass he did... (sorry!) as I was more a fan of harder edge artist like patric c or bomb 20. hanayo has always been cool. and, wonder oh wonder, this album and collab is not a mix of both artist's respective style, and does not meet "in the middle". instead it's an almost gabba-breakcore styled album, with distorted bass drums, all kinds of noise. while hanayo's haunting voice floats above the beats, and dark strings and pads make an appearance... other tracks are more ambient / idm like. well done!
R.I.C. - Distance (Mille Plateaux CD 5)
Who is the artist with the most extreme span of genres, or the most distance (pun intended!) between them? Martin Damm is a contender for this. He is apt at producing speedcore and terrorcore techno, and fans love him for that. Sometimes high above 200 bpm, or even 1000 bpm. And then he also did this! Sweet neat fluffy little cloud like ambient electronica, dub, a bit of idm... Like the unknown, cutesy third twin of the aphex. Even Tangerine Dream like "Berlin School" synth melo sequences run across some tracks!
Back in the 90s, I asked a friend for a recommendation of good mille plateaux releases (or was it a recommendation of alec empire releases?) and he suggested this. i found this "odd", because he was more the experimental type and i was looking into the future, so a release of "older" material, related to the "techno" label "force inc", seemed curious. but he was right. this is one of the best AE and MP releases. it's hard to pinpoint *exactly* what makes it so great. i think it's because it's very cerebral, avantgarde, experimental electronic, and very groovy, funky dance (and yes, partly techno) music at the same time. as if stockhausen was a b boy, or the 808 state had a doctor degree in outer space-ology.
there is also a "civilization virus" on it, an epic piece. it was the soundtrack to a short movie. and that short movie was actually the master thesis for video director phillip virus. who later directed a feature on grunge band "dinosaur jr"!
Terre Thaemlitz - Die Roboter Rubato (MP 034 CD)
Can you believe this? Friends highly recommended this album to me, back in the 90s. But I did not listen to it! - till yesterday. Because these "Piano interpretations of Kraftwerk titles. Recorded at Meow, New York, April-July 1996."... seemed like old socks to me. It was the 90s (like they say in the movies), and kraftwerk felt 70s, and moody piano music even older fashioned. plus the whole thing smelled of "hipster" stuff.
But now I listened to it, and it's really good! great stuff! my favorite is "computerwelt", a super sad and moody (yes) re-interpretation of kraftwerk's computer world.
Steel - Steel (Mille Plateaux - MP CD 16)
Most people probably know Martin Damm as The Speed Freak, an aka he used to produce a lot (and really a lot!) of gabber and early hardcore, and later "frenchcore". And yeah... he is one of the best in that genre (or rather, those genres). But when it comes to *my* very personal favorite releases by him, i would put this one in the top 3. This is unlike everything he ever did. or any other artist ever did. a solitary release. it's like... industrial, dark ambient... also noise. but in a very unusual way, quite digital, with lots of samples... and all tracks blend into each other, it's one seamless, 1-hour track. (a bit of jungle, idm, rave can be found on here too, btw) kinda like these euro-disco or pop long play megamix CDs of the 80s / 90s. but not disco, a dark, vile, nasty industrial mega mix!
track titles like "Feverish Dream" or "Obituary" or "Soundtrack For S*x With Aliens" show some of the vibes of these tracks. And yeah, the entire album really feels like a fever dream, or an OST to an unknown horror flick.
After a six-year hiatus, the legendary Even Furthur festival returned to Somewhere, Wisconsin the first weekend in September. Four days of fantastic electronic music, interesting activities, endless art, & freak flags flying.
Even Furthur 2026 featured a main stage, the Lumiadome (a geodesic dome light and sound show), three independent DIY music stages, a live ambient silent disco Yoga class, the Disco Chicken food truck, a Saturday night “rave cave”, and of course, Hardcore Breakfast. Crews traveled from all points in the Midwest to build their camps together, hanging psychedelic tapestries, blow-up aliens, and blacklight art on their tents and pop-ups, lining paths with glo sticks and phasing string lights. While Burning Man was going hard in the desert, the Midwesterners were having their own art and music fest, sans dust and nudity.
The early Furthurs marked the start of spring, and tended to be a mud fest. At some point, Furthur switched its timing to the end of summer with drier, hotter results. America’s Labor Day weekend usually presents Midwest weather at its finest, but it is the Midwest, so you never know. This Furthur tested the hardcore-ness of Midwesterners with extreme heat and humidity, and a bunch of aggravated stinging insects; apparently wasps and yellow jackets don’t jam with the bassy vibrations and frequencies of Furthur.
Since the start of Furthur, way back in 1994, and the first Even Furthur in 1995, Drop Bass Network record label head and festival promoter, Kurt Eckes, has been curating a well-rounded roster of electronic musicians and DJs, embracing fresh-faced young artists as well as the originators. One of the first promoters to regularly book female and LGBTQ+ performers, Kurt has maintained Even Furthur as an all-inclusive event; whatever your cuppa is, as long as it is respectful, you are welcome.
The first time my own DJ name GabberGirl appeared in print was on the 1996 Even Furthur flier. After an entire year of lugging around my crate of records to every party, begging every promoter to let me open or close or fill in the missing DJ’s slot, DJing mostly at 4 am for the sweepers, sleepers, and tweakers, someone finally took a chance on me. (Thanks Kurt!) All these years later, he still takes chances on new producers, new DJs; the next generation of electronic musicians are honored and elevated at this event.
Kurt also works closely with other rave crews throughout the Midwest, allowing side stages, and all sorts of shenanigans such as a fire dancers at the Techno Pagan effigy burn, an art-making station, and a traveling rave flier museum display. Collectives from Madison, Milwaukee, and LaCrosse hosted stages this year—when I had asked Kurt if I could host a small hardcore stage, he said that this year’s DIY stages were not about genres, but relationships. Strengthening ties throughout the Midwest; each scene might be small, but when celebrating together, the Midwest is *massive*.
Beyond the amazing performers booked by Drop Bass, the DIY stages book their own local talent, bringing a strong mix of different genres and styles, so there is music for everyone. Not just techno, not just house, not just drum n bass, but all of it, some trance, footwork/juke, dub, booty house, jungle, acid, and of course, HARDCORE. Even Furthur wouldn’t be Even Furthur without hardcore, and that tradition is still honored.
It was 2017 when Hardcore Breakfast was a regular feature added to the EF fest. Two hours of hardcore and gabber on a Saturday morning, served up with hot pancakes and cold shitty keg beer. The last two Hardcore Breakfasts were still being talked about years later—in 2018, Delta 9 (Chicago) found his way back to the stage, with local support from The Demix (Milwaukee) and in 2019, “the most famous unknown” Marc Acardipane (aka The Mover; Frankfurt, DE) was the star of the show, followed by Canadian vinyl precision mixmaster Fishead (Winnepeg). The first Hardcore Breakfast in ’17 featured Uptempo artist Tim Shopp. Other hardcore DJs featured in 2017, 2018 & 2019 on a variety of side stages and the main stage included Otto von Schirach, Bombardier, Mr. Bill, Piledriver, Elekid, Idiom, Flinx, WigWam, Julian Rivera, Gabber Jihad, Stunt Rock, Brentkore, and myself, GabberGirl. Also, the limited edition Even Furthur 2019 double-7” record set released by DBN featured a hardcore track by Baseck.
I spent some time doing detective work, trying to track down the origins of Hardcore Breakfast, and it is quite convoluted, starting in 1997 with pancakes being served at Even Furthur by the Solus Fuse crew and/or the MadLove crew, breakfast beer bongs by a different crew in ‘99, and the actual two words of Hardcore and Breakfast coming together for the first time in 1999 on a flier for a completely different Midwest electronic music fest, Rave’em & Bail-E 3.
The most recent Hardcore Breakfast was served at A Kult/Space 7 stage on Saturday morning, and started with scrambled eggs while Kilbourne scrambled feet on the dance floor. Someone had brought waffle mix instead of pancake mix! So, after some scrambling around, hotcakes dominated the last half of Kilbourne’s hardcore and gabber DJ set, along with fist shaking, boot stomping, and a very athletic Dan Doormouse dancing right in front of the stage for the two-hour set. Kilbourne wore a soccer jersey, her hair in a cute skater cut, and a secret smile the entirety of her set; it was obvious she was enjoying herself as much as we enjoyed her sweet mixing skills and the hardest set I have heard her play. One thing I can say about Drop Bass Network events is that all DJs bring not only their A-game to the decks, but also their hardest sets.
Besides Hardcore Breakfast’s Kilbourne, other hardcore DJ’s and producers featured at this past Even Furthur included Joey Berrios (spinning an old school vinyl set!), Bad Acid Cult, John F Ketamine (JFK), Dr. Kumm, and Softcore Mikey.
The equinox is happening or has happened a few days ago, fall is here, or autumn... summer is ending or has ended... day and night are now equals again, there is light and dark, and neither one nor the other does overtake its opposite, they coexist in mutual alignment...
traditionally, the season to come was the one of the big fests, festivities, festivals... the age of harvest, the age of life, the age of love... the season of thunder and lightning and rainstorms... before winter and coldness approaches... where we reap what we have sown, in the past...
and this is what these off-charts are about!
1. legend b - end of season 2. disintegrator - dark black ominous clouds 3. syndicate - grim reaper 4. reign - light & dark 5. frozen - the forest
6. rmb - river's edge 7. visage - fade to grey 8. john foxx - the garden 9. bunkor beats - mental atmosphere 10. cocteau Twins - persephone
11. DJ gizmo - end of the beginning 12. mega'lo mania - time 13. visage - fade to grey 14. zenith - flowers of intelligence 15. sorcerer - autumn
16. mouse - helloween 17. apple juice - raving together (SYN-R-G Mix) 18. jean michel jarre - equinoxe part 4 19. the nightraver - so 20. angelo badalamenti - night life in twin peaks
21. the farm - all together now 22. enigma - the cross of changes 23. damage inc. - turn around 24. jones & stephenson - the third rebirth 25. alien factory - all night until daylight
We're running a new feature: "Off-lists"
Paper fanzines were filled with charts; some DJs turned their charts into lists such as "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 (or Techno and other music)
I remember seeing a documentary on the 70s New York City punk scene, CBGBs that kind of thing, on TV. One of the guys involved said: "those who do something first in music, the true pioneers, never get any fame, recognition, or money." (paraphrased) And, yes, it seems this is true, more often than not. And if we move from the New York City punk world to the Techno and Dance culture in the 90s, and to germany, more specifically, I know one project that fits the bill quite exactly.
I am talking about Force Inc Music Works here. The label was created by Achim Szepanski in the early 90s. I don't know much about him, but it seems the label was not so much seen as a commercial enterprise, but as a communist / socialist experiment. He was also influenced by Gilles Deleuze and post-modernism (More on this later).
This description might hint at the fact that the label occupied a place that was in the more intellectual / avantgarde territory of the Techno behemoth. It's maybe ironic (or post-ironic) that the label turned out to be hugely influential in creating some of the most "bodily", dancefloor-extremist genres of electronic music or techno in a wider sense: Hardcore-Gabber and Breakcore. More on this later.
The alumni and maestri that found a host in this label, include Khan, who, amongst other things, did a collab project with Julee Cruise (from the twin peaks tv show!), or released a breakcore mash up album by alec empire and "elvis presley"... that also found its way into the museum of modern art.
khan is the brother of Cem Oral, who was well known as being one part of Air Liquides, these poster boys of "intelligent electronica" music in the 90s. the other half happened to be ingmar koch. that guy also did some great acid and other stuff as Dr. Walker. and can claim to be the great grandnephew of the literal Friedrich Engels! (i guess the socialist connection runs deep?)
there is also Thomas Gerlach, who later hit the mainstream euro charts, and the worldwide dance charts. with his "DJ Tonka" project. also did some collabs with ian pooley: they had some real rave hits with their alias space cube. (and ian, of course, had excellent single releases).
i mentioned alec empire already. he also had the majority of his early releases on force inc and its sublabels. a lot of the tracks he started digital hardcore recordings with, were tracks that, during inception, were still aimed at force inc. (oh, if you don't know alec... front man of atari teenage riot. merzbow, trent reznor and bjork were his fanboys / girls).
and, because of this, the creation of the breakcore music genre, happened on force inc, too. with the release of "tötenposse rides out" by, can you guess it? alec empire in 1992.
now that we are finally in hardcore territory, the label had some really good early gabber tracks and releases... many times these were produced by martin damm aka the speed freak or biochip c. (damm himself later created labels with names like "napalm", "agent orange", or "speedcore records", so you might guess what to expect there. he also earned some gold certified record awards by the music industry, for his euro-house tunes.)
there was even a hardcore sublabel to force inc, called communism records (the connection runs deep, eh?). some of the first ultra speedcore tracks of the 90s, with beats that went faster than 400 bpm, were (indirectly) connected to this label.
on a complete site note, do you know the famous "techoviking" meme? this was shot at an annual "techno" parade in berlin, called the ****parade, which still takes places in berlin, every year during summer. and force inc was very substantial for getting this whole thing off the ground. by providing a float, DJs, and a very (very!) loud sound system at the first edition of this party parade. without the label, all this might never happened...
then, on the topic of subs... there was also "mille plateaux". which might be the one with the most lasting fame. it's named after a concept by gilles deleuze apparently (see, thats one of the points where post modernism ties in). how should i, how could i describe this label... ? there is not much techno about at all anymore... really experimental, strange / abstract stuff.
alec empire had his best ambient albums on there... yet there also idm, noize, industrial... well, listen for yourself!
i feel there is very little in the history books of techno and music on this label these days. those "who are in the know", might know it, but who else? and if it is mentioned, this is more in the way of... "another label in the 90s that had some very very good releases". which is true to the point. but there is more to it, it's a label that changed entire genres and subgenres! that is interconnected in a huge network of artists and musicians, that went far beyond techno (or even electronics).
so, let us take a moment, to look back at it, and then keep it in mind.
People sometimes fail to realize that a lot of Techno genres that now seem to be very distinct and separate from each other, used to be part of one whole "Techno" movement, culture and scene. I mean, yeah, there is not much crossover between styles like soulful house and terror-speedcore, or drum'n'bass and acid techno, right? Or IDM and the trance revival.
But, in the early 90s, DJs at a Techno party or rave, would start their set with house or downtempo maybe, then drop some acid and faster techno, maybe some breakbeat stuff from UK, one or two aphex twin tunes, only to end with 180+ bpm Hardcore and Gabber. Don't believe me? Check this set by DJ Marusha at the German Mayday 1994 rave, for example.
Of course, each Raver had their personal preference... some liked harder and darker some, some liked more light things... or maybe more funky tunes. Some probably detested 1-2 styles, totally.
But it was one big big youth movement in the end. We partied together, we danced together, we went into bliss, and then chilled out together. It was not like there were "trancers" on one side and "gabbers" on the other. or "housers" on one side and "acid heads". At least not yet!
And because of this, a lot of the early releases that came from the Techno movement, let's say 1988-1994 at least, were not really in one style, they had multiple styles on the vinyl. Maybe an ambient track as A1, then A2 and B1 is techno, and B2 is gabba. The same goes for artists and labels in that time.
And this means there are often releases, on labels that are more known for techno, trance, "dance", that are totally hardcore, or have 1 or 2 extreme hardcore track(s) on it, and noone would have expected that!
Something for the true diggers and train (track!) spotters.
Especially the early German scene is a true treasure trove for that.
And that's why I will now look at 11 releases... that are just like that!
Influid III - Ladyshaver Non-EP (Influence Recordings IR 023-12)
This release is quite the treat! It's on Influence Recordings, which was started by Talla 2XLC. In the "music history" books, Talla is usually considered as one of the two original sources that came up with the term Techno. Detroit in USA on one hand, for their Underground Resistance etc type stuff. While a few years earlier, Talla invented the term Techno for dark, groovy electronic music (which at that time was still close to EBM, New Wave, etc).
Influid themselves were a duo that also released music using akas like Komakino and Final Fantasy. I think they even went into the charts with some of their hard trance stuff.
"We're Always Behind You" is a trancecore / ravecore classic. It is very, very, very good! The flipside, "The Destroyer", might be even more interesting, though. The info says "1.2 Million BPM Mix". And thats what it is. Starts slow, then goes up to 1 million bpm and more. It has been released in 1994 already, so i guess this one is one of the first true "ultra speedcore extratone" tracks.
Mutter, Es Geht Um Geschwindigkeit - Mutter, Es Geht Um Geschwindigkeit (IMR-Records - imr007cd)
Isn't this one of the best cover artworks for a release, ever? I don't know a release date, but judging by the style, and as the label faltered in 1994, I guess it was somewhere in 1993-1994.
The style is very interesting, oldschool hardcore and gabber. very "german" in a sense, like c tank or mono tone a bit maybe... but also with elements of hardtrance and rave... really rough and groovy!
Distortion - Serious Things (Influence Recordings - IR 003-12)
Frantic Thigh is a contender for the first really fat gabber 909 kick in music history! The other tracks are nice and evil techno.
God's Groove - Prayer Three / Four (Black Flame - 44110)
What an obscure and precious gem! Prayer Three reminds me of UK Trance around that year.. but the real banger is "Prayer Four". How to describe it? A bit like pailhead style EBM, ultrasonic, there's a gabber drum, basslines, metal guitars... Almost reminds me of KLF's vision for the 'black album' (and this one is released on a label called black flame, after all).
I don't know much about this project, but this release is a killer.
Pleasure - We Are Not Saved (Labworks Germany - LAB 47)
DJ ESP makes an appearance on labworks. bad acid? no such thing, on this record. the killer track for me here is "flying open". one of the toughest techno drums ever!
Plutone - Dream Sequence (White Label - WL 107)
Whoa, mate! this is from 1992? definitely ahead of its time. noise and industrial elements, more like later speedcore or "industrial hardcore" productions. or like musique concrete, even. still, some rave-y and trance elements make an appearance. which is a most welcome touch.
Baphomet - The Force (Trigger - TR 010)
duuude... this one is big! very big production, there is acid, lines, techno drums, choirs are singing... also has a phuture / doomcore feel, also a bit of psytrance and ebm maybe... wonderful! makes me feel like i am listening to a techno ritual in a giant cave underneath earth.
Son Of A Bitch - Polio 800 E.P. (Hellrazor Records - HR 001-12)
Hellrazor was started by Andy Düx, who was also involved in Overdrive Records, which already had a lot of Hardcore releases. But Hellrazor seems to be even one notch... more insane & hard. This release is by Thomas Elers, who was a true Hardcore and Acid powerhouse in the early 90s, or maybe we can call this style "acid gabber". The style itself reminds me a bit of e-de cologne (who actually samples some of elers tracks!), like, it's completely chaotic, and deranged sounds are flying at you from every side really. Elers has a more analogue feel, of course.
Even for today's standards in Hardcore, Speedcore and Noize... this record is still damn tough!
Sorcerer - My Four Seasons E.P. (Hellrazor Records - HR 001-12)
if there is one artist who had a really (really!) interesting trajectory, it's oliver kirwa. He was a coder on the commodore 64 computer. he won a reader's contest for the german "happy computer" mag - he wrote the "video game of the month" for them! he also did video game music for other games. and then he turned into a techno and gabber producer.
"sorcerer - summer" is well known from a lot of 90s gabber compilations. one of the first tracks with really really, fast speedcore beats. and generally, some of the hardest stuffs ever. but the other tracks are gabber-great as well. i am especially into "winter", which also has some trancecore / rave pads and sounds.
Parrot Torture - Parrot Torture E.P. (Communism Records - COM 1)
Wow! I never would have thought that Thomas P. Heckmann could get that hard. You probably know him from trax like Drax - Amphetamine or Phosphene. These were big trance hits of the 90s. but this one is gabba gabba all the way. not the cheesy post-1994 hardcore, of course. minimal, brutalist, 909 kicks, percussion, and acid!
Alien Factory - Tell Death You Don't Wanna Die! (Generator Records - GEN 9112-12)
Do you know a style called "rave techno" ? which is an umbrella for the harder edge of rave, house, dance culture from the late 80s to early 90s... before the real gabber-craze took over, basically. and this is the hardest edge of that spectrum, in my opinion. the basses are super deep and hard, we got screams, shouts, there are metal and guitar-like noises. but still, one could imagine a dance club in nyc or antwerp to this. it is still "groovy" and has the funk, so to say.
Alien Factory later had some huge trance hits like "destiny" or "get the future started". but this is a great early release.
Do you have any own favorites in german hardcore 1990-1994? let me know!
There was a very funny skit on British TV, when Trigger Happy's Dom Joly pranked innocent english citizens and neighbours by dressing up like a freak, then announcing to them "I am from spiral tribe". Spoken in a very cockney type way, I assume. More like: "Ay uuum froom spooral traib". And then indicating that the neighbour hood will be left in shambles after the upcoming free party reveling that is about to go down regularly, now that the Spiral Tribe has moved in. Anyway, I am completely off the road, because I now want to get to something completely different.
I don't need to tell you what the Spiral Tribe is, and I am certain you know some of their releases. I don't think any other collective was so influential in inventing the free tekno / teknival sound (and thing). But if you dive deep into their back catalogue and network, you will see that they also did some real Hardcore Techno type things.
And that is really, really interesting to me, because it's not just free party sounds, with a harder or even gabber type beat on top. No, no, it's a real original brand of Hardcore, it's like uhm... take the harder 90s hardcore and hard noize from cologne, or new york, or the london underground... and yeah, it's even more strange and psy-chotic in some way. Like a bizarre derivative of acid and core and gabber... uhm. You check it, and you will know it (I hope).
So here is a look at least 11 releases! They are either on a label, or by a person related to the Spiral Tribe.
Note: No AI has been used when writing this text.
Automanic and Person Unknown - Criminal (Rabbit City Records - Cut 019)
I suppose this is one of the Spiral Tribe related releases that is closest to Dutch Gabber. Pitched up rap type samples, manic hoovers. But also more insane, and with influences of acid and free tekno, of course.
Spiral Tribe / Person Unknown - Black Plastik (Network23 - Spiral 001)
I guess this is the first record I heard where I realized the Spiral Tribe makes bona fide Hardcore Techno, too! The track to go for (at least for me) is A2. Very simplistic, just a drum and the same acid note repeated for minutes on and on. A bit similar to unit moebius - zipper maybe, but faster. And so hypnotic, in a dark and twisted way!
SP 23 / Unit Moebius - (Out Of The Blue Blue Attack Records - 123)
One of the "hardest sh*ts" both Spiral Tribe and Unit Moebius ever did. A2 reminds me a bit of the Gabber-compilation classic "Network 23", but it's different. Zipper by U.M. is also a true classic of a track (I mentioned it above already). Acidcore, very minimal. There is just a drum and an acidline and not much else going on, also very slow. But the track "slaps like a wolf", so to say.
Spiral Tribe Sound System - Sirius 23 (Butterfly Records - BFLT4)
"Going all the way" is the go-to track for me here (pun intended). First heard it on the Technohead 3 compilation, which was a widely released Techno-Hardcore CD comp. Has a gabber type beat, that "misses" every 3rd and 4th beat. Instead there is a low bass rumble, and it might not sound much on home speakers (even less on head phones or ear buds), but I assure you, if you hear these sub bass frequencies on a field in the countryside, ran through a sound system with a zegallion of watts, pop! goes your head.
track a1 like... what... what the fudge? i was completely blown away when i first heard it, and still am. nasty, mental, insane... these frequencies kill! one of my all time fav "hard" electronic tracks.
One of the most interesting releases on Spiral Tribe's own label. The tracks by Somatic Responses sound as if they were not made by a human, but by Klatuu from the movie "The day the earth stood still" (original black and white version, please, not the one with keanu reeves) while under the influence of strange fungi. the caustic side hammers on, too. literally, as it has the sound of hammers hitting on metal.
Various - Pure Pirate (Network23 - Stormcore 666)
Cat number "Stormcore 666" might indicate what to expect, right? This release is a bit like the turnstyle between the free tekno scene and the wider experimental hardcore underground and noisecore of the later part of the 1990s decade... My fav will always be "pure pirate". This track was up at the legendary internet forum / website "Circuit 8 com" (really legendary!) and I used to listen to it there, for ages, on repeat.
Les Boucles Etranges - Untitled (Network23 - Isotop 1)
Uhm yeah... I guess this is a good example of the whole "free party" spin on Techno and Hardcore, or at least the early free party scene that was likely more dangerous and savage. Especially the low frequencies on here, that demand a loud sound system, or you will not really feel the effect, my friend!
There seems to be a warning on here, in french, that says the frequencies might be hazardous for the "radioactive" people... i dont have a dictionary nearby, but i guess you can catch the meaning... and my drift!
SP 23 - Untitled (Rabbit City Records - 011)
The "Network 23" track, who doesn't know it? Even the dutch gabbers knew (or know), because it was on the famous compilations (as mentioned above, btw). This bass has been sampled in many later tracks, and, oddly enough, the "spiral tribe" vocoder type voice found it's way to the "void sector" release on ruffneck records... which became another classic! The "this is network 23" spoken piece itself is famously nicked from the british "Max Headroom" TV show (... or was it in the movie...?)
Various - Hidden Resistance (Network23 - Stormcore 5)
I assume most people would go for the micropoint side, and i must agree, that stuff is really good. but please also listen to christoph fringeli's share of the thing. this was released when he and praxis were about to go "full breakcore", but it's still with repetitive hardcore beats and all, and i guess these are some of the last tracks he did in that style... or anyone else did, really, as it's quite unique!
Listening suggestion: Outland
Base Mobile & SP 23 - Expekt The Unxpekted (Network23 - Explore Toi 08)
another classic free techno release that is more on the hardcore side of things. if memory serves me right, i listened to the "respect to the hardcore" tune in quite some mix sets. a1 is spiffy as well, with the "slower" drums, that give off a bit of a deeper bass punch.
Person Unknown - Potential Hazard (Network23 - PH 1)
a real, true hardcore one. actually brings up e-de cologne or ec8or in my mind. with the cuts between jungle breaks, sounds, gabba drums... but with a more "analogue" sound!
Another noteworthy track to check out is the track "Berlin HC Nite" on the Capital Noise compilation.
What are your favorite Spiral Tribe releases? And which ones are the most "Hardcore"? Let me know :-)
Electro or Electro-Funk... well, it was a genre in the 80s, often lumped together with Hip Hop, the Rap scene, free style... the "difference" to regular Hip Hop is that it's made up to 99% of synthetic and digital sounds. Even the voices get "vocodorized". The genre was quite underground, best known tracks are probably "Al-Naafiysh (The Soul)" by Hashim or Planet Rock. And maybe the stuff by Egyptian Lover.
So, this genre got more or less replaced by the even more computerized dance, acid and rave craze of the 90s... But when that madness did fade away again, towards the end of the 90s, some producers suddenly gazed back upon the 80s... and did some electro stuff again!
What followed was a looong evolution, that took several years and lasts till today. And now electro sounds are almost everywhere, and we got famous artists like Miss Kittin or Vitalic that are influenced by it... well, I guess, there are even *newer* artists around by now.
To cut a long story (or evolution) short, Pop / Dance electro type music is on one end of the spectrum... and then there is more obscure, refined, "sophisticated" stuff. And I want to talk about, and review, 5 of these releases right here. I (really) think these are essential for everyone who wants to go deeper into the... electro revival!
I-f - Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass (Viewlexx V-002)
According to their own accord, the bunker crew were some kind of nerd-squatters in the netherlands, that did those hardcore / acid parties in... well, bunkers and warehouses, with a bunch of weirdos freaks... from all walks of life. and wouldn't you guess it, one of the DJs and producers associated with that scene, was electro-rocking it on the MTV(*) only a few years later. Because "Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass" was on heavy rotation on the various dance programs of TV and other channels, and I guess a lot of people who came home or came down from hardcore raving and other nastiness on a friday or saturday night, sank down on their couch and turned on the TV... will remember chilling to this track when the very video of it came up.
so, yes, it's a literal underground "hit", and i love it, too. very good electro, cool futuristic lyrics... cool concept... completely the correct thing for cool cats!
(*yeah you are right I sneaked a "sk8er boi" reference into this review, i am sorry!)
Umwelt - ... & The Day Came Part 1 (New Flesh - NF01)
That's the release that really put Umwelt on the radar for me... as a very cool electro producer. I'm all about "Future Darkness". It has a very cool sample, or sequence of samples out of a speech from the Cronenberg classic Scanners. The way it is used, it feels more like the broadcast of military commands than the dialogue between... two chemical mutants, as in the movie. which fits to the beats, imho, as they are more like marching beats than electro. and yeah, the whole release gives the feel that we are marching into a dark future!
I-f / Jungian Archetype - Test Pilot Volume 1 (Viewlexx - V12 / 2A)
Hello? "Shadow of the clown" is on here. You don't know it? It's this very weird acid / electro tune that seems to have a loop of 808 percussion. And 15-16 tones that get repeated for 7 minutes straight. and it is one of the best electronic productions ever. shows how far you can get with minimalism, aight? also has become very popular in the doomcore techno scene now.
Apparently an electro / bunker classic, but i ve been a bit late to the (bunker) party, as i heard it for the first time only recently. it's deservingly a classic. the killer track is a1. i don't know much about univac, but unlike some electro contemporaries, this project does not seem to aim that much at continuing the sound of egyptian lover or planet rock, but rather seems to find inspiration in kraftwerk. and maybe they are the only electro act that can claim they *really* sound like kraftwerk. and maybe... even a bit better. oh and going back to a1. there is this "weird" thing with the main synth melody, as that it constantly seems to slide out of "pitch"... don't know what they did here or how they did it, but this gives the whole thing a very convincing "outer space" edge!
I-f - Portrait Of A Dead Girl 1: The Cause (Viewlexx - V12/ 1)
Supercool release by I-F. Electro, as a genre, often feels as if it's music that was done by aliens. But this is the type of music that makes you feel as if *you*, the one in the crowd, is the alien, while the DJ is human. if that makes sense! I Do Because I Couldn't Care Less is such a tune. and a nice ironic stab at aphex twin the same. And there is Envy. Not envy of other producers, but a track called "Envy". It's one of the dirtiest nastiest "minimal" dance tunes ever.
Freak Electrique - Mr. Psycho (Top Secret/Test Series - TS-009)
There was something I always liked, and even adored, about viewlexx, bunker, i-f, well, the whole the hague electro / acid thing. And that is that they got releases where you don't know if it's a parody of ironic, or intentionally silly, or if they are serious. But even when they are, they still feel sincere at the same time, through and through.
This is true for this release too, a "top secret" release going by the name of the label, by the way. There is that strange, vocoder-ized intro "speech", and it's kinda cheesy. Telling a tale about a "mr. psycho", who seems to be some kind of interplanetary, or even interdimensional villain. It's as corny as it gets, even ending with a spoken warning of "bang bang there goes your brain". But somehow it fits right into the mood of the track and everything is alright. There is also a cool ambient intro at the same time, the track is "oversized" with it's 7 minutes... and yeah, if I need to describe it, I would say, personally, it feels like the intro track to a forgotten 80s space TV show from a parallel dimension.
Industrial Strength just put this behemoth back up, on bandcamp!
How about... instead of a review, a story? Or, a review, told as a story? Okay, so let us rewind, right back, into the deep past. I was thirteen years of age, it was 1994, and the techno/rave wave was sweeping across Europe. *Everyone* talked about Techno, Trance, House music, all night parties, the drugs, the crimes, old folks and news anchors lamented the "misled" teenagers and the perceived threat by this "criminal" form of music towards German youth.. while the youth on the other hand, enjoyed this style of music and style of living, very much. In connection to this, another thing got constantly mentioned, and that was Hardcore & Gabber. At the same time, unlike for the Trance, Dance, "Rave" stuff, there was an almost 100% media curfew and blackout for this form of music (only in Germany, eh?). And, without the widespread internet and video web sites and all that modern convenience, it was very hard for a person to dig deeper there.
Yet as I slowly advanced in age, I grew more and more curious about this "Hardcore" sound, that was mentioned by everyone & their dog. I asked my rave friends and acquaintances about Hardcore & Gabber, most of them told me "It sucks when you listen to it at home, but it's great music when you are at a party and on the dancefloor!". Because they apparently only enjoyed Gabber when out & raving, they did not have any EPs and albums I could listen to. And frankly, back then, I was too much of a p**sy to sneak out at night, defy home rule, find a way to get beyond the door, and go to these 18+ all night rave parties (like a lot of teenagers actually did).
(fast forward two years, to 1996)
But there was also german television, with very long advertising breaks in between programs and movies, advertising hair care products, or new car models, or home appliances. and they also showed advertising clips for CD compilations like Thunderdome, Terrordrome, Braindead... and one ad that stood out for me was for a new CD called "Industrial F**cking Strength". Oddly enough, even though it was on german TV, it was all-english, while the Thunderdome Ads were dubbed, and the terrordrome braindead etc stuff was from germany anyway.
The TV slogan "the nastiest hardcore gabber compilation ever" had an immediate appeal to me, so I went out, to the next shopping mall, and bought the "f**cking" CD.
back at home, listening to the Cd in one go from start to finish, and ouch, I was really, really, blown away. it does not start that hard actually, even felt a bit mild... but once I passed tracks like "mad as hell" or "gabber up your a**" i knew i was truly heading towards something good.
once i came to "c*** face" and "extreme terror", i actually had to take the CD out and take a break! i was seriously shocked by this amount of terror & violence in the tracks. Guess i really was a p**sy back then.
but, over the time, I grew very, very fond of this compilation, and I guess it was the first *really hardcore* release i bought & owned. (and yeah, it's really, really hardcore!)
Mono Tone was not the first German "Hardcore only" label, but maybe one could say it was the first really big one. Besides the Planet Core crew, of course, and at that point they were into a mixed bag of genres.
The Mono Tone releases were featured on Thunderdome and everywhere else. But, alas, the label went away as quickly as it came. You can read (part of) the story about it elsewhere The Mono Tone roster partly re-grouped on the new Shock Wave label by The Speed Freak. Shockwave gave rise to other labels like Anodyne or Speedcore Records, which became part of the Street Trash Alliance... the rest is Hardcore History.
But the entirety of this thing is not what we want to talk about. Rather, we want to look at the time *before* all that happened. There were some kicking Hardcore releases on German labels before that, too. Often on labels that usually were more into hard trance or intelligent ("armchair") Techno. And often by the same artists that later went to Mono Tone and the Street Trash family of labels.
BC Kid - Wild And Wonderful E.P. (Generator Records 9120-12)
BC Kid later became one of the main artists on Shock Wave, of course. An early release with early hardcore, and, man, these hoovers are brutal. When you hear them loud & live it is like your skull gets melted from your head. The BPM might not be as high as later brutal recordings, but in my opinion, this is harder than most "Speedcore" stuff. Best track is Wild & Wonderful (eponymous!), with cool Akira samples, and some happy hardcore stabs that do not feel misplaced. Followed by "go boom!"
Various - Destroy Deutschland ! (Force Inc. Music Works - 034)
Ooooh baby. Has there ever been anything better? Techno label Force Inc had the guts to drop some political Hardcore. The EP is split, not only in 2 sides, but there are also two styles. Side A is early breakcore by Alec Empire (very rough!), and the b side is hardcore & gabber. Mike Ink's "Lovely Ugly Brutal World" is probably known from Thunderdome. The other tracks are more like acidic hardcore.
Shadowrun - SNES-E.P. Vol.1 (Force Inc. Music Works - 052)
Early collab by the Hardcore gamers Speedfreak & BC Kid. All track names are references to some of the best Super Nintendo games (except for b1 maybe). Style is already similar to the releases they later did on shock wave or mokum etc. the winner track for me is "base you", with that very cool super parodius melody right in the middle of it.
Biochip C. - C8 E.P. ( Force Inc. Music Works - 045)
Very interesting early release by Martin Damm! Because it already has the recipe for the later Speed Freak / Shock Wave stuff. Including some very corny and fun samples. But it's also still in a row with his earlier acid / hardcore releases.
Necromancer - Spacecakes EP (Generator Records 9116-12)
And here is a super early solo release by an aka of BC Kid / Psyche Out, too. Quite similar to his later "Street Trash" releases, but also... close to rave / breakbeat, even trance, of that era (1993). Not as extreme yet. But quite fun none the less!
Can a release by Ilsa Gold by an Under/Overdog? Yes, because of the following reason:
Many years ago, a friend told me a real bombshell of a story: he showed me some document (forgot what it was) which indicated that Planet Core Productions, when they were still around, had plans to release an EP by Ilsa Gold. I mean, how awesome would have been? Two of the most iconic hardcore / rave icons of the 90s... joined in a project! But, as we know, it never happened. What did become of the release? So my friend has this theory. The tracks on this EP called Gasometertrax actually grew out of the aborted pcp project! Could be a completely wild claim, or maybe there is some truth on it.
The tracks sound indeed very different to almost everything else by the ilsas. Very monotonic, "rave arena" sounds... slower. And no cheesy and corny samples like in other ilsa gold tracks. Or maybe these were just "inspired" by pcp. Either way, a unique and outstanding release!
Mokum has that thing where they do compilations, with new tracks by (new) artists plus tracks from their older releases. This is quite the style-clash sometimes, when millenium or contemporary "mainstream" hardcore gets hit by the much rougher gabber & terror sound from the 90s. This release follows the same concept, but, oh wonder, here everything blends together in a much nicer way. I guess the acidcore of the past and the acidcore of today is not that far from each other! And yeah, that's what it's all about. Acidcore, Hard, Acid-Gabber, Hardcore with acid sounds... dive in, but don't burn yourself.
Martin Damm aka The Speed Freak is probably the only producer in the world who made tons of 250+ bpm nasty speedcore-gabba tracks in the underground scenes. And still owns a few music industry certified "golden record" awards. For his enormous amounts of sales for the dance productions he did "on the side".
By the mid 90s, his own label was called Shockwave Records. Which, again, sold pretty good, as a lot of that stuff ended up on compilation CDs that were sold... everywhere! This was already nasty hardcore techno, but a bit more accessible... and for the even more extreme stuff, that sometimes went above 280 bpm, and surely was devoid of melodies or singing, there was the sublabel, Napalm Records. "Strictly Limited to 500 copies", according to the vinyl print.
The only "problem" was that both labels had mostly productions by Martin Damm and his crew themselves. They were prolific producers!
And for this reason, another sublabel was forged - "the son of napalm", also called Agent Orange. Word was that only producers-who-were-not-them were allowed to release on here, but that rule was not always strictly enforced.
And now... let's look at 6 releases in this very piece of Hardcore history.
Somatic Responses - Agent Orange 2
The Somatic Responses were one of the most unique acts in the 90s world of electronica, and, even for them, this is a very distinct release. As you know, Somatix started with a more "straight" Hardcore / Techno sound, and then turned into that weird ambient / idm thing with "disjunct" beats, as they like to say. And this 2-tracker sits right square there. It aint broken idm yet, but it is not quite "hardcore tech" anymore. It has the best of both worlds, so to say.
B2 on here is actually one of my all time favorite tracks ever. The bassy sawtooth-lead-synth really brings it home for me. The "melody" reminds me of video game music, jean michel jarre, german 50s radio "tonstudios"... all rolled into one!
Doc Gringo - Agent Orange 3
Gringo aka Roger Cobernuss is a bit like the secret weapon or hidden dog of shockwave (and mono tone earlier on). There's the "gringo theme" on here, and this track blows all the gabber competition of its time out of the water. It just slams with its kicks and noise! but behold... the b-side is an early speedcore track, and this is, once again, harder than the rest!
Biochip C. - Agent Orange 5
The track to go on here is "black sunday". It transitions from one genre to another. I think speed freak / biochip c is one of the only producers who can pull off such a trick. There's industrial / techno, then it breaks down into noise, there is a breakbeat part... and it erupts into some type of low frequency gabba rhythm. oh and the trade mark martin damm fm synthesis sounds ring on.
Seveso - Agent Orange 1
The very first Agent Orange. ABC-Alarm is a German term for an "air raid" type of large scale civil defense warning siren about nuclear (atomic), biological, and chemical attacks or catastrophes. And the eponymous track is one of the hardest and most abrasive speedcore tracks of the entire 90s decade. I think this is done by abusing a lot of analog gear, and then cranking the levers up to 13 while jamming on the setup. And the b-side is a sweetheart as well.
Listening Suggestion:
Lasse Steen - Agent Orange 7
Just like Somatic Responses had one of their best eps on this label, so did lasse steen. And I am talking about the track "Phreak Show" which breaks down into a kind of descending synth line melodie which is... well it sounds as if the score to frankenstein - the movie was conducted by mc escher. if you catch my drift.
Hey Hey, You Dogs! Here is a piece by one of our authors, Low Entropy. About a gig and event that happened in their music past.
Recently I saw an image that was a throwback to one of the most popular memes ever: the very famous "Techno Viking" video. I hadn't thought about that for a long time, but it made me instantly nostalgic. Because the same party that the Techno Viking video was shot at, was also the place where I performed my first electronic live performance ever.
But let's roll right back first. Of course this party was not really called "the Techno Viking Parade". It was called the ****parade (the first word is a profanity). This party existed because... well do you remember the Loveparade in Berlin? Biggest Techno party ever. 2-3 million ravers each year. Endless partying. The loveparades began in the early 90s, but as the years went on, "commercialization" set in or, like people would say today, "ensh*ttification". It was no longer a parade that was set up by the freaks and ravers themselves, where everyone was welcome. "Pay to play" became an issue. Business interests, and even political parties tried to grab a share of the cake.
A lot of the OG Techno and Rave guys were no longer "welcome" at the Loveparade. So, they set up their own parade, that happened at the same time as the Loveparade. First called the Hateparade, then it was called the ****parade (because the slogan was "**** the loveparade!".
Everyone who was not "mainstream techno" was welcome there, so gabbers, punks, skinheads, freaks, squatters, goth, old hippies... well, everyone! started to flock there. Literally from all over the world. I met people from Japan there, Peru, Canada... you got it.
I of course needed to be there too and I knew I needed to play my music there! When I was 15 year old, I had begun producing weird experimental noise music... gabba, and harder techno stuff. On strange MS-DOS based "tracker" programs (before I switched to windows 98).
Now I was 19, I just had my first record out (500 copies on 12" vinyl... quite meagre, eh? but you gotta take what you can take) and heading to berlin.
my first gig was actually supposed to happen 2 nights before, during the extended "****parade" weekend. I guess it involved 12-13 separate parties... at least!
but the promoter overbooked the venue! so my gig fell flat. my gig at the ****parade nearly fell flat, too. Our float was boxed in by two other floats, and I had technical problems setting up my equipment, which involved me playing my tracks from CD-R and shouting into a mic (quite meagre, eh? but you gotta do what you can do).
Thankfully, a few DJs from the Spiral Tribe helped out and played their vinyl sets first, so I had my gig re-scheduled to a later hour, which also meant more people had arrived at our parade, which started to get super crowded.
Now let's get back to Techno Viking. To be honest, I never assumed the video would blow up that much!
The whole meme / viral video thing was still in its infancy, so how could I have known. The "all your base are belong to us" craze already felt surprising in those years. Plus, Techno Viking was far from the only "surreal" and strange occurrence at these parades. I remember when I went to the first parade, in 1997, the first sight I saw was a nude woman, completely covered in golden bodypaint, dancing on a float to dub/techno/reggae. And there was some "against commercial love" related sign fixed to the float. Or nerds from tokyo, dressed in full "candy goth raver" style. They filmed everything and everyone, I wonder what happened to that video. I also have vague memories of some old, ragged man, standing in the middle of the parade, long beard, and slowly waving a huge wooden staff around. Street magician, i suppose.
So yeah, the parades were a festival of freaks, freaks like me and you and everyone who liked weird stuff.
Which might explain why the "techno viking" incident happened in the first place. I actually - scrutinizingly - watched the techno viking vid over and over again, to check if my own music / performance is audible in the video (blame my ego). But no, i cant hear anything of it.
There is also a short vid that is running for just a few seconds, which shows me playing at the parade. But in that video, Techno Viking is not visible. Ah well.
My own gig was a lot of fun, though. And it's nice to think back to that party now and then, or these days in berlin. and to the techno viking meme, of course.
And all this happened, on almost exactly the same date, as i am writing this text.
