Tag Archives: Lenny Dee

The Making of King of Style

“King of Style” is a techno track that took three decades to make. As many of you know, the track is made from audio and video samples from what is regarded as the first Hip Hop Documentary, Style Wars, a movie that mesmerized me from the day I saw it and echoes in my head to this day. From 1983 onward, the movie had catalyzed millions of Hip Hop lovers around the globe. When I started producing rave music in 1994, one of the first things I wanted to do was sample Style Wars and make it into a rave track. But, because I loved the movie so much, I agonized over every detail. In my mind, every attempt I made was never good enough. Slowly but surely though, life (or more accurately) the realization that life could quickly end, would bring the project into being.

The first time I saw Style Wars was 1985, when it appeared on PBS, WQED Channel 13 in Pittsburgh, PA. I already had heard about the film, and “recorded” it as best I could, with an audio cassette deck. At the time, VHS and Betamax television recorders were still expensive and my family didn’t have one. From that day on, me and my graffiti friends would listen to the audio cassette over and over as we practiced our lettering and character styles. We could practically recite the entire movie if asked. I was always obsessed with lettering styles, and so Kase 2, the graffiti artist that invented “computer rock” style was my favorite graffiti writer in the movie. I loved everything he said in the movie, and me and my friends would pepper our everyday language with his seemingly random extra-galactic vernacular. We called each other, “The fresh extra-tellestrial (sic) brothers”, and called things “super-duty-tuff-work” on a regular basis.

But in retrospect, the thing that resonated most with me about Kase 2 was his dedication to inventing new lettering styles. That simple love of innovation in the visual arts, or anywhere in life, that joy in creation, is what inspired me. Sure, like many male dominated fields, graffiti was competitive, and I liked that, but at its heart it was constructive. It was making something, and wanting to make something good, for goodness’s sake. That was the goal. This felt natural to me.

In the mid-80’s there was an airline called “People’s Express”. For $49 Round-trip you could fly from Pittsburgh to New York and Boston, and me and my graffiti crew, Badassest, often did so to paint in each other’s city. During this time I would frequent Henry Chalfant’s studio in Soho, where famous graffiti artists would congregate. Making acquaintance and befriending some, I would develop my own lettering style, later known as “monster rock”. I would constantly bug the heck out of everyone asking them, “What do you think of this style?” after every twitch of my pencil.

One day, as Chalfant was on his way to photograph a wall for his upcoming book “Spray Can Art” book, I tagged along with who would become an internationally famous graffiti writer, T-Kid 170. During that trip, T-Kid gave me the “Wildstyle Card”. This was a membership to one of New York’s biggest and most legendary graffiti crews, started by Tracy 168. But, that was not all. At one point in the journey we had to make a stop to see Kase 2. I was thrilled as you could imagine and once he got in the car I immediately started drawing my version of computer rock. But, since I was so rushed and nervous meeting one of my all-time heroes, it came out kind-of-wack. Kase was like, “um…”, and frankly seemed to have his mind on other things than graffiti, anyway. But, nonetheless, I got to tell him how great I thought he was. So, though not a perfect experience, I look back at it with a lot of fondness.

In the course of hanging out with all these graffiti writers, I invariably would hear background stories of beefs, collaborations, history, and behind-the-scenes goings on during the filming of Style Wars. Some of these stories would eventually influence the way I edited the “King of Style” video, decades later.

For example, though Cap comes off in the movie as some sort of racist thug, he actually did pieces and whole car paintings. One of which was filmed during the making of the movie, seen at 2:54 in the King of Style video. Basically, showing anything but Cap’s throw-ups didn’t fit the narrative of the original story, and this footage can only be seen in the outtakes. So, I wanted to give a bit of the “other side” of the story after all these years. Also, something most people won’t realize today, is that back then in New York, everyone in the graffiti scene used the word “nigger” to describe friend and foe alike, be they black, white or otherwise. I believe I heard that Cap even used to piece with Kase occasionally! So, to some degree Cap’s dialogue wasn’t as racist as modern viewers, and viewers outside of New York in the 1980’s, might think.

At 3:37 in King of Style… see that kid all the way to the left, in the white sweater and gloves making the hand move? Well, the story with him is that Mom was so worried he would be dressed right for the filming, she kept him in too long prepping him. He never made it on time and missed the prime shooting window! So, I wanted to make sure his Mom’s hard work was finally appreciated!

When selecting the train footage, I tried my best to get examples of wildstyle lettering on the trains. Usually the public sees more of the glossy work by Seen, Lee and Dondi from this period, but what I remember going on at that time was skinny, angular wild styles by crews like FBA (Fast Breakin’ Artists) and I tried to salvage as many examples as I could from the outtakes. And, just an aside, I think one of the things I like most about the Style Wars outtake footage, is that it reminds me of those hot, humid summers in 1980’s New York. There was freedom in the air then with its own distinct character. I wonder if younger viewers can see that in the film, as I do. I wonder if it registers as being any different than their current experience.

Many songs and tracks have sampled Style Wars, but usually the samples floated in the background of the music. I wanted my samples to be upfront and bold, as if they were lyrics to a song, and in the back of my mind, I always wanted the original video to be featured in some way. So, around 2011, when I was able to help with the film’s restoration project, in passing I mentioned to Public Art Films that I could make an electronic remix of the footage, and no one said, “no.” So, that encouraged me to keep poking away at ideas on how I would feature the material in an electronic dance music track.

Ultimately the catalyst that made me finally commit to finishing the track was a tragedy that happened in my life. A fire destroyed virtually everything I owned, my records, art, letters… all gone. Being present during the fire, I realized that in a split second, everything can change, and if I ever wanted to finally make the track that had been banging in the back of my mind, now was the time. Fortunately, following the chaos of the New York stop on the Trauma Live Tour,  I ran into my old rave friend, Lenny Dee, who was interested in the possibilities of the track (and eventually tweaked it for mass consumption, the original mix appears in world’s first blockchained DJ mix, “Rock the Blockchain“) and encouraged me to go forward. He even gave me advance samples from his upcoming audio sample packs (Industrial Strength Samples) that I made sure to use in the track. Much as Kase 2, Tracy 168, Lee, T-Kid, A-1, Daze or Phase 2 were inspirations to me in graffiti, Lenny has always been someone I listen to before creating my music. He’s a master that can’t help but share his experience and can easily be judged by the myriad of artists and tracks he has launched and showcased over the decades.

I would spend much of the summer of 2016 working on the track. The one aspect that I wanted to incorporate, that I felt needed in the track, was horns. Horns or saxophone like in the Jimmy Castor Bunch’s “It’s Just Begun.” I’ll never forget the time I heard Marley Marl scratching up two copies of “It’s Just Begun” on his Saturday night WBLS mix show in New York. The “transformer scratch” technique had just come out, and Marley Marl made sure to “transform” just about every jam he played that night. I was lucky enough to record him slicing up two copies of “It’s Just Begun” and I listened to it all summer. Of course, “It’s Just Begun” was already dated by the time I heard it as a teenager, but until this day, no song captures the spirit and the youthful vitality of the New York City summer for me, and represents one of the critical sparks to what would one day become Hip Hop.

One of the feelings I wanted to recreate also, was the original spirit of Hip Hop that Style Wars represented back in 1983. It was a spirit of creativity and living in the moment, using what was at hand to make the world a better place, a fun place. And sadly, and I pre-apologize for being kind of a bummer here… that I felt Hip Hop had abandoned as early as about 1987. Like many early Hip Hop adopters, I found solace in its creativity, but the world at large could have cared less. Many truly hated the sound back then! And, at some point it was decided that Hip Hop would no longer promote creativity, but it would promote the acquisition of money, status symbols, and eventually degenerate into misogyny, misanthropy and greed for its own sake. As a somewhat nerdy, middle-class kid, I frankly couldn’t understand the attraction to those topics. And, I wonder to this day how much of that was forced on the public, rather than accepted. Regardless, I had felt somewhat betrayed by Hip Hop, and from 1987 to 1991 bounced around aimlessly from music genre to music genre hoping one day I would find the same joy I found in original Hip Hop.

That joy was rekindled when my friend Neil Keating sent me a tape from London that had two tracks I’ll never forget, Final Exposure’s Vortex, and Lennie De Ice’s “We are I.e.” and from that point, I never looked back. The rave era began for me. That joy of sonic

exploration and do-it-yourself fun was back, and I think because many of us remembered what happened to Hip Hop, we called the first manifestations of rave music “hardcore” and proclaimed it would never die. So, that is why King of Style thumps with the big distorted kick drums and flanged breakbeats of hardcore techno and drum and bass, two styles that I saw carrying original Hip Hop’s early promise. King of Style is my tribute to that feeling, to the joy of creation for its own sake, and enjoying it with your friends. It’s when you put your mind and body into whatever you’re doing, whether its graffiti, knitting, pottery, gaming, heck, even aerobics…whatever you like to do! It’s when you lock into that zone and know for that moment, you’re the “King of Style.”

Kase2 memorial. RIP

Posted by Terrible Tkid 170 on Monday, August 14, 2017

Deadly Buda Pre-HE Interview

It’s kind of weird to interview yourself. But, since my job was to interview as many Hard Electronic artists as possible, and a day went by without one, I figured I should fill the gap, as I’m playing the L.A. show. We basically made a list of stock questions for the artist to answer how they wanted. So, I figured this would be easy. Lo and behold, the strangest thing was that I surprised myself with answers to the questions I wrote! So, if you’ve got a few minutes, let’s hang out…

Where are you from? How does your geographic location influence your music?

A Deadly Buda graphic from 1994
A Deadly Buda graphic from 1994, Pittsburgh PA.

I was born in Pittsburgh, PA. There, like most places in the civilized world, the population is force-fed garbage music repeatedly, brainwashing them and compromising their lives. It was there that I decided to fight against the insipid audio enslavers, be they man or otherwise. Eventually forced out of the city, I slowly made my way across the USA and have lived in Los Angeles County for the last 17 years, where I continue to wage my guerrilla campaigns to varying degrees of success.

What’s the story behind your DJ Name?

The original story is that “Buda” was my graffiti tag name, taken from a high school social studies report. I added “Deadly” with my first rave DJ gig in 1991. I wanted my DJ name to sound like a kung-fu movie name, like my DJ heroes growing up, Grandfaster Flash, mainly. But as time went on the meaning changed various times. I read years ago about certain Buddha’s whose job it was too destroy egos in order to set people free from the identity others have forced upon them. I like that idea, so that’s what my name means, now.

Who or what events in your life are responsible for you being the artist you are today?

My neighbor, Phil Schoemer, who first taught me how to DJ, was the biggest influence. I still remember things he taught me today, and still struggle to do them. DJ Controlled Weirdness, who introduced me to so much music in the early 90s and we threw raves together as Hear 2 Go, Christoph Fringeli from Praxis Records after that. I’ve always listened to everything Lenny Dee has to say, because he is more experienced and forward thinking than anyone in the dance music industry, period, and today when I get to work with Rob Gee on videos and stuff, helps me keep my sanity in a world gone mad.

Deadly Buda will be appearing at Hard Electronic September 9, 2017
Deadly Buda will be appearing at Hard Electronic September 9, 2017

What are you trying to convey with your music? What are you trying to communicate? What are you giving to the crowd that listens to you?

Though I try to make my sound dimension-bending and otherworldly, at the core I guess I am just trying to communicate that they aren’t alone… that we see really see these things and enjoy things together. I feel what they feel, too. Ultimately, life is more psychedelic than any drug you will ever take. So, I think when I play “crazy” hardcore I am just really describing life as it is, without a filter, and I want to just geek out with my friends about it and what we’re doing.

What moment do you cherish the most so far in your career as a DJ?

Lenny Dee's Trax from the Darkside album art by Deadly Buda
Lenny Dee’s Trax from the Darkside album art by Deadly Buda

There are some big ones for sure, Even Further ’95, and of course Even Further ’96. Both were some of my greatest sets for big crowds, and of course legendary parties. But the first one that always comes to my mind when asked is Catastrophic New Years in 92-93, in Washington DC. It was my first ever out-of-town gig, and Catastrophic was one of the biggest, if not the biggest rave crew on the East Coast at the time. My friend Dario Kenning gave them a tape and the next thing you know I’m playing ‘til midnight for the biggest, most illegal party I’d ever seen or maybe will ever see in the USA. They were diplomat’s kids, the Baez brothers, and they literally were pulling electricity right off the telephone poles into the warehouse and all the cops were obviously paid off. Ravers surrounded by Secret Service, it was unreal. I was already playing hard at the time, and I’ll never forget when I asked Mike Battaglia (now known as Mike Bee) what I should play, because I thought I might be too hard for them. He laughed and said, “just play hardcore!” and raised his fist and laughed. So I did and it went through the roof!

But for cherishing, I’ll always cherish the first raves I did in Pittsburgh with Controlled Weirdness: Psychotronic Slackrave, the Beehive parties, and after he moved, the Turbo-Zen and Millennium parties, which are stories for another day.

What specifically are you planning to give to the audience at Hard Electronic?

Original Deadly Buda style with new and improved ingredients. Since it’s Hard Electronic, I am going out-of-my-way to break the mainstream rules, really my old style. So, starting at 133 BPM and in a half hour, crank it up to 200+ BPM. I’m going to start banging some new Dave Delta tracks, and end up with some Mr. Madness at the end. Make sure to get there by 10:00 PM though, because that’s when I start. There are so many great DJs playing that if you blink you’ll miss one of us!

What is something you really want to tell the public that we might not have asked about?

The world today is dangerous, and meant to be confusing and overwhelming. It’s easy to get upset and impatient with everything going on. Just when you think you know the answers, another contradictory layer to the madness is revealed and frustrates. In today’s world we cannot rely only on logic or emotion, but must hone our intuition to navigate through the madness. Mistakes will be made by us and others, but if you proceed knowing you are good, and look for and amplify the good in others, be they friend or foe, we can navigate around the dangers and feel immediate satisfaction in our actions. I have to remind myself of this, so maybe others need to hear it too.

Links

Deadly Buda’s Musicoin Profile

DeadlyBuda.com

Deadly Buda Wikipedia

FacebookTwitterInstagram 

 

 

DJ Lenny Dee Pre-HE Interview

Lenny Dee, the man who’s been coordinating the Hard Electronic madness and many would say the first hardcore techno DJ, took the time to give us a few tidbits and hints on what we’re going to be hearing at the Hard Electronic parties coming up September 8 and 9. In true THD fashion we managed to get a little extra info for you to chew on too. Here’s what went down:

You’re from Brooklyn, NY, how did growing up in New York City influence your music?

A great deal, in fact. There was great DJ scene in New York back in the day, loads of record shops. So,finding music was quite easy and exciting when I started and going to Manhattan shops was essential for me. As time went on and I start to produce it gave me more freedom to create new things. There was nothing other than House music kicking off at that time, so it gave me a creative boost to do something different.

 What’s the story behind your DJ Name?

My last name is very long, so my teachers and friends called me ‘Lenny D’.

Who or what events in your life are responsible for you being the artist you are today?

I guess I can go back to Mayday 2 in Germany. There were many prior, but Mayday 2 was the pivot point where I pushed the hard electronic music all over the world and dropped IS 001 – We Have Arrived’ : Mescalinium United. I was a leading international DJ at that point, not many guys were playing in different countries at that time. So, it all went through the roof after that party.

What are you trying to convey with your music?

Just an exciting performance. When I play – I hope to take the listener on a journey through sounds and styles.

What are you giving to the crowd that listens to you?

A headache.

What moment do you cherish the most so far in your career as a DJ?

When I played on the Guru Josh Tour. I was down to my underwear and started playing like a mad man that was a moment I won’t forget. The Janes’ Addiction Reunion gig in NY was pretty awesome, too.

Industrial Strength LogoWhat are you planning to give to the audience at Hard Electronic?

The message for the party is a diverse selection of DJ’s and music and to give the USA a new way to listen to harder music. We do lean more towards hardcore and techno, though, which was the way it was when I started playing raves. I want to bring back some of that feeling.

What is something you really want to tell the public that we might not have asked about?

My favorite color.

Hmmm… well, don’t tell ‘em until Saturday night!

VIDEOS:

A-Kriv & Lenny Dee- Party Animal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIXxsYayhwY&t=10s

Lenny Dee-  Forgotten Moments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1StqlzzfYQ

SOCIALS:

http://www.facebook.com/DjLennyDee

https://twitter.com/DJLennyDee

http://www.industrialstrengthrecords.com

http://www.youtube.com/IndustrialStrengthNY

https://soundcloud.com/industrialstrength

https://www.instagram.com/lennydeeisr/

https://www.facebook.com/HardElectronicSounds

Hard Electronic to Crush East and West Coast

Just when you thought Hurricane Harvey was calming down, a torrential downpour of HARD ELECTRONIC is on its way to the USA’s major metropolitan areas, and the East and West Coasts now brace for impact. If you like your beats tough, distorted and relentless, then September 8, 2017 you need to be in Brooklyn, NY and September 9, 2017 you better fly, drive or swim to Los Angeles, CA because shows with this much sonic boom don’t happen very often in the USA. Here are the respective Facebook Event pages:

Hard Electronic NYC
Hard Electronic NYC

NYC: https://www.facebook.com/events/1862873943964846/

LA: https://www.facebook.com/events/438768009838741/

Noize Suppressor hits the coasts Sept. 8 & 9, 2017
Noize Suppressor hits the coasts Sept. 8 & 9, 2017

Headlining both nights is Italy’s number 1 party animal, Noize Suppressor. You might remember him from his knockout performances at Trauma Live, Fresh’s Hardstyle Arena, or EDCLV. Well, he’s back to burn and score a few points for Dogfight Hardcore, so get some comfy sneakers because you’re going to be jumping and pumping. The other headliner is a new face to America, Malke, bringing his brand of Brazilian hard electronic audio skills to raise the East and West Coast’s respective water level of sonic appreciation to tidal wave levels. Another Industrial Strength score for forward-thinking audio dissemination and keeping them, as always, ahead of the future’s curve.

But that’s only the tip of the icebergs heading at breakneck speed to slam into the coasts. The New York show features Delta 9 aka Dave Delta, Lenny Dee, Satronica, Delirium, John Bas, MC Mastachief , Ontal (from Serbia) and Gxnnxr. The Los Angeles chaos will be co-hosted by Rave ‘til Dawn and will put the old and new guard of hardcore techno into a full-on crash collision of the generations as Lenny Dee, Satronica, Demigod, Fiend, Inyoung, Deadly Buda, Sonik and J’Sin are going to party like it’s 1999 and remind everyone why Los Angeles is the decades-long, number one spot for hardcore techno in the USA.

As the week goes on, we will be profiling many of the artists playing at both events at The Hard Data. But to start off, we are going to focus briefly on the main drivers of both parties, Industrial Strength Records and Kontaminated Recordings, and their head honchos, Lenny Dee, Satronica, and DJ Delirium.

Lenny Dee:

Lenny Dee appears at Hard Electronic Sept. 8 and 9, 2017
Lenny Dee appears at Hard Electronic Sept. 8 and 9, 2017

Producer / DJ / Label Owner Lenny Dee is one of NYC’s earliest techno and house pioneers. He attacked Europe with the then new sound of Techno and in 1991 launched Industrial Strength Records – the first electronic ‘Hardcore’ label in the world that’s included music from Carl Cox, Richie Hawtin, Laurent Garnier, Manu Le Malin, Angerfist, Corrosion of Conformity, Daft Punk, Neophyte, Unexist, DOA, The Sickest Squad, Nasenbluten, The Mover, Mescalinum United, Rob Gee, Deadly Buda, Delta 9, Satronica, Delirium, Demigod, Ron D Core, Inyoung and many more.

Lenny has also written and produced hundreds of tracks on labels such as 4th floor, Warner Bros, Strictly Rhythm, R&S, Music Man, Atlantic Records, Arista, XL Recordings, Gigilo, Rotterdam Records, ID &T and Stay Up Forever.

Lenny was the 1st Hardcore DJ to appear on the ‘DJ Mag – Top 100’ and was previously named Number 1 ‘Hard DJ’ by Mixmag, was twice awarded the accolade of Best Worldwide Techno DJ by the Scottish Dance Music Awards & Frontpage Magazine.

http://www.facebook.com/DjLennyDee

https://twitter.com/DJLennyDee        

Satronica

Satronica appears at Hard Electronic Sept. 8 and 9, 2017
Satronica appears at Hard Electronic Sept. 8 and 9, 2017

Along with DJ Delirium, Satronica, aka Satroniq, is forging a new sound for the hard electronic masses via Kontaminated Recordings.  He began producing music, playing live and DJ’ing in the mid 90’s as part of the Things to Come Crew in NYC. Soon he found his own style of aggressive and distorted industrial hardcore techno woven with rage-laden vocal elements. This sound found a home, of course, at Industiral Strength Records, most famously with his smash hit “F*ck the System.”

He has performed at some of the largest events in Canada, The United States, South America, and Europe spinning and performing a brutal mix of dark and deranged selections. These events include parties such as Dominator, Q-Base, Masters of Hardcore, Coloursfest, WestFest, Kinetik Festival, PRSPCT XL, and E-Mission.

His tracks have also appeared on many major hardcore and techno compilations from some of the best known and loved labels in the world such as Industrial Strength, Thunderdome, ACArdipane, Neophyte Records, Rotterdam Records, ID&T, Masters of Hardcore and Traxtorm.

His latest collaborations with Noize Suppressor, Unexist, Art of Fighters, and Crypsis show his commitment to the core and constant pursuit of innovation.

http://www.facebook.com/satronica

http://www.discogs.com/artist/satronica

http://www.industrialstrengthrecords.com/artists/satronica.html

http://www.twitter.com/satronica

Delirium

Delirium appears at Hard Electronic Sept. 8 and 9, 2017
Delirium appears at Hard Electronic Sept. 8, 2017

Kontaminated co-conspirator is none other than old school vet DJ Delirium. Ever since the early 90’s, DJ Delirium has been a forefront leader in the Hardcore Techno scene.  He has appeared countless times at some of the worlds largest events like Thunderdome, Mysteryland, Defqon.1, Dominator, In Qontrol, Raving Nightmare, Ground Zero, EDC – Vegas, Earthquake and many more.  Delirium has also had tracks featured on some of the worlds most legendary hardcore compilations CD’s including Thunderdome, Always Hardcore, Masters Of Hardcore and Resident E.

To date, DJ Delirium has released over 300 slammin’ tracks with some of the most recognized companies in Hardcore Techno including ID&T, Industrial Strength, Traxtorm, Masters of Hardcore, MegaRave, and many more.  DJ Delirium’s got studio skills and has proven that with his top quality productions. Anyone who’s ever seen DJ Delirium perform knows about his smooth mixing and tight scratching.

https://www.facebook.com/djdelirium/

https://soundcloud.com/djdelirium

http://www.djdelirium.com/

https://twitter.com/djdelirium

https://www.instagram.com/djdelirium/

Ok folks so this is your first warning shot about the big events coming in just days. Save your pennies, get some good night sleep and make sure you have enough quarters for your laundry come Sunday because you are going to sweat!

Label Links:Industrial Strength Logo

http://www.industrialstrengthrecords.com

http://www.youtube.com/IndustrialStrengthNY

Kontaminated Recordings Logo

http://kontaminatedrecordings.com/

https://www.facebook.com/kontaminatedrecordings/

https://soundcloud.com/kontaminated-recordings

https://www.instagram.com/kontaminated/

https://twitter.com/kontaminated

What is Hard Electronic?

“Hard Electronic” is an umbrella musical term that encompasses several electronic dance music genres and sub-genres generated since the early 1990’s from the “rave” subculture of music. In general, the word “hard” refers to a darker, distorted soundscape, and, or, a soundscape which is initially “hard to listen to”, “baroque”, abstract, or complicated.  Examples of EDM subgenres classified within “Hard Electronic” are: hardcore techno, drum and bass, hardstyle, rawstyle, psytrance, jungle, crossbreed, Detroit Techno, acid techno, splittercore, speedcore, intelligent dance music, tekno, hard trance, happy hardcore, trance, hard trap, trap and breakcore, though there are many more.

The term “hard electronic” was coined by Lenny Dee, owner of Industrial Strength Records and a pioneer in hardcore techno, hard techno, and other early rave music. His feeling was that an umbrella term was needed to encompass all the stylistic derivations that emerged from hardcore techno, (for example: gabber, happy hardcore, breakcore, and trance), while simultaneously recognizing the “hardcore” variations predominant in the UK in the early 90’s and their offspring. For example: hardcore breakbeat, jungle, drum and bass, grime, speed garage and dubstep.

In 2015, Industrial Strength Records started a sub-label called “Hard Electronic” featuring music that was in the 128-150 beats-per-minute range, and sounding much like a heavily distorted re-thinking of the techno-trance genres, occasionally punctuated by sound effects reminiscent of early rave music. In essence, it seems that the earliest ideation of the label was to reclaim the lower bpm-ranges previously abandoned by the various hard electronic sub-genres. The label has yet to be widely promoted but its output thus far occupies an interesting space in the overall electronic dance music market.

I'll be playing a hard electronic set at 9 P.M. sharp at Arizr! May 12, 2017 techno edition. For those curious to hear hard electronic on a big system, this is it!
I’ll be playing a hard electronic set at 9 P.M. sharp at Arizr! May 12, 2017 techno edition. For those curious to hear hard electronic on a big system, this is it!

As a DJ that routinely plays hardcore techno and hardstyle, the bpm range in my performances range from about 150-230 bpm. In general, only the young or young-at-heart, literally, can keep up with these speeds. The market is such that I am generally only booked to play these speeds. I don’t really mind, of course, but one thing I believe missing from the current EDM/rave market is the idea of the “build-up.” This may sound strange, as plenty of modern EDM tracks contain “build-ups” and “drops” within their composition. What I mean is a more natural musical build-up through the course of a night. In the glory days of the early rave scene, a rave’s dj line-up was generally programmed so that the music started slow, got faster, reached a peak, and then slowed back down towards the end of the night.

As the various rave sub-genres splintered, they each seemed to occupy definite BPM ranges that were quite tight and unchanging. The problem with this is that the crowd never seems to get properly “warmed up.” The faster hardcore techno suffered the most from this I believe, because in the older paradigm people knew to save their energy for the peak, and a mainstream audience could be comfortably introduced to the faster speeds at the same time.

The music on the “Hard Electronic” label, while only occupying a sliver of the overall soundscape encompassed in the term “hard electronic” brings some valuable tools to the hard electronic DJ’s tool kit. Because the music is slower, it can be more easily embraced by an older audience. It is easier to dance to for any age, really, and could easily be at home in a club playing traditional techno, trance or house music. For the “hardcore” crowd who demands a darker and more abstract soundscape in general, the HE tracks provide a nice warm-up to the night, and expand the sonic palette for artist and dancer alike, while clearly drawing a path to the more extreme music on the horizon, if desired.

At the Trauma One-Year Anniversary party in Los Angeles, I opened a 2 hour set with one hour of tracks from the H.E. label. The crowd reaction was one of extreme curiosity from young and old alike. A few people came up on stage to see the playlist, though one or two hard-heads were taken aback by the slower speeds. Nonetheless, the tracks bridged great as I eventually sped up to about 175 beats-per-minute in the second hour and had the crowd bouncing off the walls. There was a tangible sense of comfort the crowd had that had long been missing from hardcore shows. Basically the idea of “warming the crowd up” seemed to eventually effect a really nice atmosphere for the rest of the night. Granted, the hardcore crowd won’t remember any fireworks from this part of your show necessarily, but you’re laying out a great foundation for the rest of your night. For an older or more mainstream crowd however, some of the H.E. tracks might be considered real “bangers” and bring some fresh sounds to the night whilst still maintaining a club’s overall musical parameters.

So without further ado, here is a mix of Hard Electronic (the label) tracks I spun at ARIZR! a couple months ago. Enjoy!

Also, Friday, May 12, 2017 I’m going to warm up the crowd with a little hard electronic at the Techno Edition of ARIZR! Be There!

https://www.facebook.com/events/103712070171431/

And finally, some of my favorite tracks from Hard Electronic…