Dogs and bltches! We got some rolling grrrreat news for you! Remember the gabba techno track "Topp Dogg" by Topp Dogg? It was the 2nd official anthem for our very magazine. And now... it gets its own music video!
Heavily channeling the vibes of rave / hardcore videos from the 90s... cuts from parties, cyberpunk action, a journey to cyberspace, flying saucers pass by... everything you need!
But it got lots of spiffy new sparks, too! You know us... we won't get stuck in the vintage bin.
So, without further ado (but much "arooo!" - sorry, bad joke), here is the latest by the overdogs.
11 facts that you did not know about the ultimate Techno Rave banger of the 90s - "Wonderful Days"
Transcript:
"Wonderful Days" by Charly Lownoise and Mental Theo helped to bring Techno and Rave music to the mainstream in the 90s.
1. It was actually based on a 1970s Dutch rock song called "help, get me some help" 2. before charly & theo, other artists already covered it 3. including some electronic versions, too (like this east european cover from 1984) 4. charly & theo started as hardcore techno and gabber house producers (music video to live at london) 5. really *hardcore* producers 6. rumor is that mental theo was involved in compiling the early thunderdome cds (sorcerer - summer) 7. apart from the netherlands the duo was especially famous in germany (like in this german TV feature about Charly & Theo in 1997) 8. even after the hit they stayed hard to the core (hardcore feelings) 9. and not just in words (your smile - hardcore remix) 10. they still perform live 11. and "wonderful days" has been covered and remixed many times since then (such as this drum and xylophone cover)
The 90s were strange and bizarre, and one of its strangest parts was the Hardcore, Techno and Gabber subculture. It's still largely and invisible to the mainstream. So here we are taking a deep and scrutinizing look at it. The focus is, of course, not on the more known "Gabber hits and facts" of the decade but the true blue deep dark underground stuff. Maybe even some hardened "Gabber elders" might learn one or two tricks here?
The video is segmented into several "shorts" about a specific topic. To make things more interesting, it's not a dry documentary, but a very media-mix of sound bites, clips, texts...
Well, off you go!
The whole thing is brought to you by The Hardcore Overdogs, "E-Zine for great and / or underrated Hardcore Techno past and present!"
(I.e. by us)
Note: for some of the clips, we used a variety of sources. And we lost, erm, a bit track of them. So if an excerpt of one of your own clips is in here, and you want to be credited, or have the clip removed, please reach out to us!
List of the topics that are addressed here:
From Techno to Speedcore - A Timeline 21 Hardcore Techno related video clips from the 90s in under 100 seconds Horror Hardcore Techno Cover Artworks (Halloween Reel) Timeline of 1990s Hardcore Techno Style Evolution in 100 seconds Hardcore Techno Tracks used in TV and Movies Fischkopf Hamburg in 30 Seconds (1990s Hardcore and Techno Label) From Techno to Doomcore_ A Timeline Hardcore and Techno Music used in computer games 90s Underground Hardcore Techno in 40 Seconds The Industrial-Hardcore-Techno Connection Rare Footage from 90s Hardcore Techno and Gabber parties 90s Hard Acid and Acidcore in 100 seconds Hardcore Techno and Gabber at the 1990s German Mayday Raves 20 of the Hardest Tracks in any 90s Hardcore Techno Subgenre Japan's 90s Hardcore Techno scene was wild Creating an Oldschool Gabber 909 Bassdrum in the most simple way Let's not forget how great Kotzaak Records was! 20 Hardcore Techno Sub-Genres in 2 Minutes The intense world of 90s Hardcore and Techno parties Remarkable Hardcore Techno Vinyl Artworks
This timeline is an attempt to show the evolution of Hardcore Techno, and some of its subgenres, in the 1990s decade.
I don't even want to make the pretense that this timeline would be complete or "perfect". HC Techno was such a wide field, a "vast ocean" in the 90s, so there is lots of stuff that is bound to be missing, and is not included here.
But I think the timeline gives a good "first picture" and initial overview.
I hope it inspires the "new blood" in the HC scene to dig further, and look up some of the labels / artists mentioned here, or even do some extra research.
Feel free to "fill in the gaps" by commenting, or messaging us.
List with examples:
1984 Hard Electronic Experiments
Dead Tech - Catalavox
1990 Early Hard Tracks
Mescalinum United - We Have Arrived Dilemma - Erase Your Mind The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu – It's Grim Up North (Original Club Mix)
The "found footage" horror movie "Walking in the Doomed Forest of Hamburg" was released a while ago. It's centered about dark / hard Techno music, by the way.
This time I want to talk a bit about my inspiration, and the mindverse behind the movie production. The first, scarce origins to the movie date back to the 90s and early Millennium years. We were some kind of techno-art-punk anarchists in Hamburg... well, we looked and dressed more like nerds, actually. But we meant it! The idea was to create some sort of counter-media against the mainstream, and the more the merrier. Songs, parties, radio shows (on a real radio, with frequencies passing through the earth!), CDs, vinyl records, artworks.
All of that - was not easy. Resources were limited, money was limited, tech was limited. But we got along well and thrived. The world of movies / moving pictures / music clips seemed like a gate we could not walk through, though! Even the DIY aspect of it. Shooting a real "music video" or "short movie" felt like it would involve humanpower and resources that we just did not have, or could not afford.
Eventually, we arrived at the idea: why not cut it down to the basics. Why not just do a clip, music, video thing, whatever, which is just us walking around, cycling on a bike, or standing somewhere... Seemed easy enough! We never got round to doing it, though.
2.
Fast forward, around ~10 years later. I felt drawn to this area around the above-mentioned "doomed forest". I spent hours and hours walking there, riding my bike to it, taking the bus, car, whatever. Swimming in its lake. Watching the stars on countless nights. Watching meteors, transit of planets, blue moons, super moons, blood red moons... you name it. I always thought: I should make a recording of this. Record these "roads" (well, pathways in the dirt, more or less), these trees, the stars.... no, I *should* not do it - I *must* do it.
But I never got round doing it.
3. Let's do the timewarp again. ~10 year later once more.
It's yellow. No, not the moon. Well, that's sometimes yellow, too. Also not the color. It's music. The title of a song. The first big hit by Coldplay. One of my favorites by them. And they did what we, what I wanted to do, around the same time that we wanted to do it. Shot a video that - more or less - merely shows them walking (and, more precisely: only the singer is visible). On a beach. Under the stars. During the night - no, during dawn.
I never seen the video, though. Even though I adored the song. But one day I decided to look it up on Youtube. And it's almost as good as the song! Emotionally moving. As I was stunned by it, I looked it up on wikipedia, to read more about it. I learned that they did *not* shoot it at nighttime. The whole dark-to-blue light sequence was an effect they added later.
In this moment, I felt like a mirror burst into pieces somewhere with a loud clang (in my imagination!). I thought: "This is possible? To change a simple recording in a fairly simple way, to create a version of reality that did not exist before?". Because this "simple" effect felt more convincing than most CGI in trillion dollar hollywood movies. I really believed Chris Martin had walked this beach at night.
...And then...
So these were three of the main inspirations. Or ingredients. I wanted to do a movie that simply showed something walking, or moving around. I wanted to put a spotlight on this very area in and around the forest that I loved. And I wanted to do effects and post-production that were not super-expensive or super-fancy, but that would (hopefully!) enable me to create glimpses into parallel reality versions of the footage used for the final movie.
Philip Virus was a long time collaborator with Alec Empire / Atari Teenage Riot / Digital Hardcore Recordings and, from my understanding, he is responsible for most of the video productions on this.
Atari Teenage Riot - Destroy 2000 Years Of Culture
I think most people assume it goes like this: there is a band, or a musician, and they have a record out. They desire airplay on MTV and other programs, for a bonus promotional effect. So they stitch together a video, and submit it to the stations. Or maybe their record label or distributor even pressures them into doing this. So the video is kinda disconnected and disjunct in relationship to the song material. (Yeah I know MTV might no longer be the "go-to place" for this. Yet they were, in the 90s).
Philipp Virus - The Report
But this is not the case here at all, not this time! There is a symbiosis between Virus' creativity, directing efforts, edits, and the raw audio source. These videos are *digital hardcore*, too. If you listened to them with closed ears, they would still look "DHR".
Alec Empire - Low On Ice
I saw these videos on TV in the 90s, and they truly stood out from the rest... maybe they were truly "Harder than the rest", like the name of another compilation... Seeing the video to "Speed" turned me into the whole Hardcore thing - and enticed me to become a producer, DJ, and later author, too. Other videos introduced me to the marvelous soundscapes of "Future of War", or Shizuo, or Flex Busterman...
Ec8or - C**aine Ducks
They were far ahead of time, even in their own days, and you can see many visual techniques in these videos that left their mark even on today's online video world. Glitch, video overload, speed cuts, color cycling, visual destruction...
Hanin Elias - In Flames
But these are *not* just hyperactive glitch videos. There is something beyond that, in the technique of Virus, and its connection to the audio, and the mental universe of the whole DHR thing. I can't describe what it is. But I can hear it, feel it, *see* it.
Something that is lurking just below the threshold, shimmering, glowing, growing... and maybe, one day, it will break through into the "real" world...
A collaboration between HCBX and The Hardcore Overdogs
- with a lot of additional help by GabberGirl and Nikaj
Hardcore ain't just a type of music, it's a scene, a culture, a movement. With little quirks and shared behavior; hardcore minds often think alike. Part of this "cultural heritage" is a like for certain movies; not just for the fans, but also visibly amongst producers - as they often sampled these.
My take on this is that some movies just *are* hardcore. Violent, vulgar, vicious, but a smiley face, too.
And just as these movies breached barriers of how much fury and nihilism is acceptable on the screen, so did hardcore music do on the audio level.
Of course you ain't a square if you are a gabber who doesn't like horror or scifi flicks - these are mere suggestions!
But no more words - dim the lights, close the blinds, pop open a can of coke - it's time for a movie night!
Movie Compendium for Hardcore Heads (and a few examples of tracks that sampled them)
Transcript of the video:
Pulp Fiction -Neophyte - Execute -DJ Skinhead - DJ Skinhead (Mutha Fucka Remix) -Diplomat - The Screamer -DJ Freak - What's Your Thoughts
Lawnmower Man -Neophyte - In Your Head -Strychnine - Utopia -Mescalinum United - Light Bringer
Full Metal Jacket -E-De-Cologne - They'll Never Get Me -Nasenbluten - Cocksucker -DOA - Unleash The Brutality -Traffik - Bloodbath
True Romance -Infarct - The Anti-Christ -Delta 9 - The Hate Tank
Natural Born Killers -Ec8or - Pick The Best One -DOA - Total Annihilation -DJ Freak and The Porridge Gun - Natural Born Killa
Goodfellas -Gangsta Trax - Goodfellas -Hyperact - My Best Friend (Dirty Mix) -DOA - Brooklyn Mob -Human Terror - Gankzta Gabba
Hellraiser -Leviathan - We'll Tear Your Soul Apart -High Energy - The Box
Exorcist 3 -Delta 9 - Gemini -Delta 9 - No More Regrets
Taxi Driver -DOA - Wanna Be A Gangster -Syndicate - Badman
Let us know if we've missed any important entry in this list or tell us your own favorite movie in the comments below
And now, almost exactly half a year later, there is already the second edition in this concept! Just in time for the Summer Solstice and change of seasons, we welcome the warm, cozy and relaxing summertime days with - some very grim, frightening, and loud Hardcore beats!
The "Quartet of Inferno" has assembled for this special show once more. The overall theme is the 90s scene, and every avenger is assigned to a special style:
1. Low Entropy (Hamburg, Germany) will bring us the cold, chilled beats of Doomcore, Dark Techno and Industrial. 2. Gabbergirl (Minnesota, USA) takes things Even Furthur in Minnesota and drops the bass: the best in Acid and Acidcore! 3. Nikaj (The Netherlands) guides us to the underground Hardcore and Gabber scene of the 90s and plays some tracks that existed outside of the "big commercial CDs", too. 4. DJ Asylum (Bathgate, United Kingdom) finally slams the lid on the coffin with a set of all-out Terror, Speedcore, Noisecore, and other nastiness.
Low Entropy did a special video stream for the show as well. It runs along the audio and is designed in the style of the video jockey mixes and reels that were so popular at Techno parties in the 90s. So expect some trippy visuals and cut-up footage - going on for the full time of the show.
And there is a chatroom, where you can talk to us and the other weirdos.
So - be there or be square!
Date:
Friday 27.06.2025
8:00 PM - 1:30 AM CEST (Rotterdam Time) 7:00 PM - 12:30 AM (London Time) 2:00 PM - 7:30 PM (New York Time) 3:00 AM - 8:30 AM (Tokyo Time) (On the next day)
The HCBX channel started a new series of video features. The idea is to showcase iconic hardcore tracks with movie samples - side by side to the movie scenes these samples were taken from. This is all highly interesting, and hence we'd like to forward these videos to you.
