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Hardcore on the 90s Internet

Three examples of how it was to be a Hardcore fan / artist in the 90s and using the Internet when the World Wide Web still seemed a new thing and Facebook and Youtube didn’t exist.

Biophilia

In the 90s, there were not so many ways for artists to connect on the internet. One of these ways were mailing lists; you were added to a list, and then you could send emails to this list, and all other members too, and everyone would get forwarded anyone else’s mails. A quite rudimentary way of communication. One of these lists was the Biophilia list, run by Multipara. Before discogs.com, there were also not so many ways to find a discography of your favorite label online. Multipara catered to that need too. He had a website which listed records on such labels as Fischkopf, Mono Tone, Mille Plateaux… I got into contact with him to ask some questions about Fischkopf and later also supplied information myself, as I was “at the source” in Hamburg where the label was run. Eventually he invited me to the Biophilia list too. This mailing list orignally was intended as a list for people who liked the music of Martin Damm, also known as Speedfreak or Biochip C. and other aliases – hence the name of the list, but it then became more a list for “underground” electronic sounds, including Experimental Hardcore, Early Breakcore and similar outings. Members included Thaddi from the Sonic Subjunkies, Joel from kool.pop / ex-DHR, Andy from Irritant and I think DJ Entox and John from the Somatic Responses, was on there too, as well as many other artists or enthuasists of strange electronic music.
As so many artists were on the list, Multipara got the idea to do a compilation with the very artists of this list, and it happened.
The styles of this release are very varied and definitely show the varying interests of the members of this mailing list; from Chiptune and Ambient to Detroit type Techno to Breakcore and Speedcore everything is here.
My own contribution was the first thing that ever was released by me, Adrenaline Junkie, a 800 BPM Speedcore affair that was 1998 amongst the fastest tracks out there on vinyl.
It was really a special time and community, and this double vinyl was a special result out of it and it makes a nice memory to the mailing list, this rather “primitive” form of internet communicaton.

Ye olde vinyl back cover

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Biophilia-Allstars/release/47142

Gabber on EFnet IRC

Another trip down memory lane. In the 90s, there was no Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger. If you wanted to chat online, you would likely use Internet Relay Chat, or IRC. IRC was organized in chatroom channels that ran on servers, that then were connected in huge networks. One of these networks was EFnet, and it had a channel called #gabber, run by DJ Skinner of Black Monolith Recordings. We were a dozen and a half users on there, including Acid Enema, Eye-D from The Outside Agency, Maurice from Rotterdam Terminator Source and lots of others (Satronica, Knifehandchop, Interrupt Vector etc.). It was good times, lots of networking happened, and the beginning of Black Monolith Recordings was laid in that chatroom, and it was also how I got into contact with that label when I sent an early demo of “Urban Uprising” to Skinner – the rest is history. Memories!

BMR logo

C8.com and P2

Third trip down memory lane… we talked about chatrooms and mailing lists… but there was no social media to spread infos and sounds about Hardcore and related music in the 1990s. Instead there were websites and the biggest (for this type of music) was c8.com. It hosted PCP, an early incarnation of Bloody Fist, Somatic Responses and much, much more. The site hosted articles of various fanzines, preview music of plenty of releases, contact and background information and artists and more stuff. It was run by Stevvi who also started a mailing list for artists, fans and everyone else to communicate about what he called “dark, sick music”, and it was. While the list thrived for a few years, it ultimately decayed eventually, with lots of “shitposts” and other stuff, a taster of the Internet culture to come. So he set up a secret mailing list called P2, invite-only and only for the Hardcore elite… just kidding, mostly friends and people who had networked, and people around C8 who could hold a meaningful debate. It was host to many a great conversations, exchange of communication and connecting of artists, also some “scene fights” that almost 20 years later we can laugh about, and even some musical projects such as the c8 99 one (making tracks that last only 99 seconds, I think some of the Somatic Responses ones later got released). Artists on P2 were for example Boris Cavage, Noize Creator, and I think DJ Pure and Christoph Fringeli.
One of the CD-Rs I sent to Stevvi he advertised on P2 (and put it in the music section of c8.com) and this led to the release of my Kougai split with Cdatakill and my Widerstand album, and other stuff.

Image of the old c8.com website

Nice memories again, of an era when communication was more limited but also more direct and the scene appeared smaller, before today’s version of the Internet.

MEMORIES: Throwback Thursday Defqon 2017 Review!

Happy Throwback Thursday everyone! I was asked by The Hard Data to post my review of Defqon 2017 which was originally posted on my personal blog, Adventures with MC Unicorn.


Thursday- QSA Pre-Defqon Meet Up
*QSA is a group of American hard dance fans that meet at hard dance raves and festivals in the USA and abroad. Before major events such as Defqon and Qlimax we always meet at Luminaa in Leidsplein, Amsterdam
‘Twas the night before Defqon and all through the ‘Dam not a hard dance fan was lonely not even on the tram. The drinks were flowing and fists were in the air in hopes that Frontliner would soon be there. Some ravers were hakking all over the bar, while others loaded camping supplies into the car. With Kardiak on the decks and I with my squad, we were all starting to get a little bit odd.
When out in the plein there arose such a clatter, I ran from the bar to see what was the matter. Away to the door I flew like a flash, through the sweaty ravers I hustled out the door, and to what to my wondering eyes did appear but it was Rob Gee dancing with cheer. With his purple mohawk and horde of fans, I knew in a moment he must be the leader of the hardcore clan. More rapid than eagles his fans they came, he whistled and shouted and called out our names “QSA ITS GROUP PHOTO TIME!” To the front of the bar, to the middle of the plein, take out your flags, for now is the time! And then it was time for us to leap, some to the Melkweg and others to sleep. For tomorrow was Defqon, the most wonderful time of the year, see you at the Yellow Stage tomorrow my dear.
Friday-Day 1
The day we had all been waiting for had finally arrived (note: the remainder of this review will not be written in poetic form, sorry!)! We all got up a little groggy from the night before (some of us more than others) and headed from my house in Voorburg to Den Haag Centraal to hop on the event travel bus. Unfortunately in order to get to the station we had to take the local bus where we got some interesting glances from my neighbors (six ravers with a ton of camping gear). After knocking into a few people with my 2015 Defqon tent and spilling all of the contents of my shopping bag down the aisle of the bus not once but twice, we finally made it to the station. The bus ride took about five hours since once we got right outside the festival we literally moved 50 meters in an hour but finally around 16:30 we were at our campsite and the party began. I got to reunite with my friends, some of which I hadn’t seen in over two years, and some for the first time in person! Fast-forward to the main event of the night- the Gathering!
First off, when the gates opened I ran immediately to the Yellow Stage (duh) for the silent disco. If you want to laugh your @$$ off this is the place to be. Just picture 200 ravers going crazy to terrorcore but with no sound. Tharoza opened the Yellow stage, it was my first time seeing him live and he crushed it! The other highlight of the night was definitely Angernoizer who closed out the stage with some brutal beats. Following the performance there was a small firework end show on the “Around the World” ride (big swing), which was totally unexpected. Overall day one of Defqon was both fun and exhausting but everything was falling into place for an awesome weekend.
Saturday-Day 2
Despite not having slept at all we were all ready for day two! I had promised my friends that this weekend I would check out the other stages and not just spend all my time at Black, Yellow, and Gold like I did in 2015. That being said, walking by Chaotic Hostility at the Yellow Stage that morning was hard but I wanted to actually check out the entirety of the festival especially because since I live here now I have the opportunity to see all of these DJs often. First up for the day was Pyra at the White stage, I had never heard of her before but am always excited to see female hard dance DJs since there are so few of them and us female hard dance lovers have to stick together! Between Pyra and Power Hour we had a few hours to just wander around the festival and explore. In doing so, I noticed there was a station where people were giving people massages on red beanbag chairs. I made a mental note to come back to them later.
Now it was time for Power Hour! For those of you who have never been to Defqon or who are living under a rock, Power Hour is one hour of all different types of hard dance on the main stage (Red) and it is CRAZY. Basically everyone from the festival is there (probably around 50,000 people but who knows I’m bad at math), there are inflatables being thrown into the crowd, people throwing trash from the floor in the air (yes its as gross at it sounds), confetti, fire, mutli-colored smoke, marriage proposals, people crowd surfing, etc. This was my first Power Hour since in 2015 I went for about five minutes, decided that it was too crowded and went back to the Yellow Stage. This year I was determined to fully experience Power Hour and boy I did. Words cannot explain the insanity of this set. The highlight for me by far was the Thunderdome segment. As we all know, Thunderdome is returning this year and they did a special dedication to it during Power Hour and it was epic.
Feeling exhausted after Power Hour I determined that we should go find those red beanbag people and get massages. After wandering around the festival for an hour we found people in red shirts however we were informed that they were not giving massages they were helping people apply sunscreen- WHAT!?! NOOOOOOOOOOO. We decided with our spirits low to just sit down in the chill area for a bit. We found a nice swing and finally I thought I could relax and recharge before the next set. As I rested my weary head upon the swing, my friend yells “AMY WE HAVE TWENTY MINUTES TO GET TO DR PEACOCK IN CONCERT AND WE NEED TO GO TO THE CAMPSITE FIRST LETS GO NOW!” AH! Dr Peacock in Concert was one of my “cannot miss” sets! Basically, Dr Peacock, one of the kings of Frenchcore was doing a special set with live violinists, Sefa on the piano, my boy Mouth of Madness on the mic, and live singers. Thankfully my friend is a marathon runner and managed to drag me from the chill area, to campsite one, all the way to the Black stage and we made it just in time! Out of breath, panting, sweating, and exhausted, I mustered up the strength for Dr Peacock and it was incredible. I felt like I was watching the New York Philharmonic but better, because duh Frenchcore makes everything better.
Finally after Dr Peacock in Concert we went back to the chill area where we found this amazingly comfortable fishing net and got some rest. I then got my unicorn onesie and sprinted to Noisekick at the Yellow stage.  Although exploring the other stages on Saturday was fun I needed my extreme fix. Noisekick as always did not disappoint. After, we headed to the Red stage to get a good spot for the end show. The end show was bittersweet because I knew that at this time tomorrow the festival would be over but nevertheless the fireworks, lasers, music, and energy were incredible.
Sunday-Day 3
Today was the day I was most excited for because it was the Final Terror Sitdown! We sprinted over to the Black stage right when it opened but all of the chairs were already taken! Basically, the terror sitdown is a “sit down set” so everyone grabs a chair or a spot on the floor and then Noisekick plays terrorcore. I got a great spot on the floor to the left of the middle aisle and it was epic. First of all, Noisekick came in on a unicorn, A UNICORN! Can I borrow that sometime? He rode down the middle aisle to the stage to “Final Countdown” then everyone went crazy. He played a mix of classic rock like Queen with straight up ruthless terrorcore. It was so funny to see everyone going crazy while sitting down. Unfortunately the set was only about thirty minutes but I could have totally stayed there all day, terrorcore and you get to sit? Sounds perfect!
The rest of the day was a whirlwind but my highlights were: Re-Style at the Gold stage, Braindrillerz and SRB at Yellow. I spent the day catching up with some friends, wandering around, watching my friend bungee jump (maybe one day when I have more extensive health insurance I’ll try it), and enjoying some delicious Dutch French fries with mayo.  I cannot reiterate how fast that this day went by. I checked my phone and it was already 20:00, the end show was about to begin! SAY IT AINT SO WE JUST GOT HERE! I was nowhere near ready for this weekend to be over. With my head hung low we walked to the Red stage. The next three hours were filled with all different types of emotions. There was certainly a lot of nostalgia because the set was entitled Defqon 1 Legends: 15 Years of Defqon. Headhunterz made his official return to hardstyle, Showtek dropped a few classic tracks, and there were sets from Pysko Punkz, Dana, Wildstylez, and Noisecontrollers, among others. The festival then concluded with an incredible firework and laser show. It was the perfect cherry on top of an epic weekend.
Unfortunately there were a bunch of sets I missed. Sorry Partyraiser, Sickest Squad, F. Noize, and Bass-D! I will see you guys at Dominator!
Reflecting back on the weekend, even though the weather wasn’t the greatest, I would not have changed a thing. That being said I have a few friendly suggestions to make next year’s Defqon even better:
  • The Yellow stage should be bigger, hey just make it the main stage! 😉 [Note from 4 July 2018: This year the Yellow stage was bigger so thank you!]
  • Terror Sitdown should be at the Red stage. A ton of people couldn’t even get in it was so crowded!
  • The water refill stations should be able to fill up camelback backpacks and not just the water pouches.
See you next year! Next up…..DOMINATOR!

10 Records as Building Blocks of the Hamburg Hardcore Scene

These are some of the records that build the hardcore scene in Hamburg as well as created the reputation that Hamburg has as a source for sophisticated hardcore. The tracks that were played at smoke and strobe-filled squat parties and sold at dodgy rave-techno record stores.

01. Auto-Psy – Necrophage (Fischkopf) https://www.discogs.com/Auto-Psy-Necrophage/master/12122
02. No Name – Les Loups Des Trois Lunes (Fischkopf) https://www.discogs.com/No-Name-Les-Loups-Des-Trois-Lunes/release/24340
03. Somatic Responses – Methods Of Mutulation (CFET) https://www.discogs.com/Somatic-Responses-Methods-Of-Mutulation/master/232745
04. Taciturne – 6 Fragmente In Der Chronologie Des Wahnsinns (Fischkopf) https://www.discogs.com/Taciturne-6-Fragmente-In-Der-Chronologie-Des-Wahnsinns/release/118195
05. Nordcore GMBH – Dead Man (Nordcore Records) https://www.discogs.com/Nordcore-GMBH-Dead-Man/master/281223
06. Christoph De Babalon – Love Under Will (Fischkopf) https://www.discogs.com/Christoph-De-Babalon-Love-Under-Will-EP/release/118150
07. Eradicator – Agit Prop (Fischkopf) https://www.discogs.com/Eradicator-Agit-Prop/master/497762
08. Various Artists – Compilation (CFET) https://www.discogs.com/Various-Compilation/release/133272
09. Nordcore GMBH – Hartcore City Downtown )(Nordcore Records) https://www.discogs.com/Nordcore-GMBH-Hartcore-City-Downtown/release/16386
10. Fields Of Defacement – Desorientatet (Fischkopf) https://www.discogs.com/Fields-Of-Defacement-Desorientatet-EP/master/283278

Fight Interview: AZHC XX

We have an audio interview featuring Fight, all the way from France talking about AZ Hardcore Scene, Uptempo, and The Future of Hardcore.

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