Tag Archives: Speedcore

Initiatory speedcore developments

Since some of the early PCP releases, there has always been an interest in space and the mysteries of life in the hardcore techno underground. Early warehouse parties with simple strobe lights and smoke emulated the atmosphere and elements of a shamanistic ritual by a bonfire. This was perhaps even one of the founding ideas of hardcore techno on a conscious or subconscious level, but as the scene grew bigger and split into various subgenres, these ideas continued mainly in the most underground core. Ambient, which usually has no beats, and speedcore, in which the human capability to differentiate beats is the tempo limit, were an unlikely couple from two extremes that formed a suprisingly synergic bond in the late 1990’s. This relationship spawned the term “atmospheric speedcore” and influenced new fusions such as flashcore, shamancore, and psycore among others. Although these styles lack an all-inclusive umbrella term, there is an international micro-scene that is bringing people together under this mutual interest. In this article, I will go through some history of these developments and take a look at what is going on in the present.

One of the developments started when La Peste mixed experimental hardcore and speedcore of the late 90’s together with ambient in his “Drug Store Core Boy” mixtape. This idea developed further into the subgenre flashcore, with his Hangars Liquides label pioneering the sound. Flashcore is sort of like a fusion of speedcore, avant-garde, ambient, and IDM. The beats and tempos are often irregular and chaotic, but sometimes more straightforward as well. The tracks are often birthed from hardware modular synthesizer jamming sessions, although software is also used. Flashcore has increased in popularity among underground musicians in the recent years, and it has sort of become synonymous with anything that has its signature high- pitched laser kickdrum at a speedcore tempo with atmospheric soundscapes. It is a further development of the mysterious and abstract French underground industrial hardcore/speedcore aesthetics and its secretive underground scene. Flashcore has sometimes taken the role on the internet of being an umbrella term for all of these experimental French-style speedcore artists—so often there doesn’t seem to be a general consensus on what flashcore actually is nowadays. Some would argue that it’s only something beyond traditional 4/4 structures, while others allow for repetitive structures as well. The original intention seems to have been to surpass standards and make the most out of current technology.

Along with La Peste, other early artists in this genre were Atomhead aka UndaCova (Entity Records) from Belgium and Neurocore from France, who also refers to his music as cybercore. In 2015, Neurocore’s ‘The Magellan Chronicles‘ EP was released on Love HZ and flashcore gained some wider attention in the hardcore scene thanks to its more accessible and euphoric trance atmospherics. At the other end of the flashcore spectrum, there are artists like Les Neiges Noires De Laponie from France, SatanoiD from Finland, and Gridbug from Belgium with relentless, chaotic, noisy and even extratone-ish experiments. Some other current flashcore artists include Convectorh, HFK (Bourinage Mental), Lawrencium (Destruction Records) and Mr. Porc from France, Messias (Cathartic Noize Experience) from Switzerland, SD-501 and The M.S.P. from Poland, and IMPLΛNT from Bulgaria.

Another early development happened at the time when the online tracker scene and labels such as United Speedcore Nation from Germany started pushing the standard tempo of speedcore beyond 400 BPM, which would redefine speedcore for the new millennium. Lord Lloigor from Sweden released the Beyond The Green Light 12″ on USN’s sublabel Brain Distortion in 1999. It contained the track “Ray of Darkness” which became an atmospheric speedcore classic. The next year he released One Journey, a CDr album full of dark, soothing, and euphoric ambient with speedcore beats and occult themes on the Finnish label Act of the Devil. Some German artists such as iGoA and DarkFreak caught this vibe and became known for their atmospheric and psychedelic speedcore sound. Some of Gabba Front Berlin‘s output was also along these lines.

Atmospheric speedcore is usually less experimental and more traditional and DJ-friendly compared to flashcore and the French underground, yet still highly meditative thanks to the repetitive structures. Some current artists who do this style are Valovoima from Finland, who also does more experimental and flashcore tracks, and Watome from Thailand.

So, although atmospheric speedcore and flashcore are two distinct subgenres, there is also a lot of good faster underground core music out there which does not necessarily fall into these categories. After all, categories are not even the point, but are meant to be dissolved, yet can be described as very otherworldly, psychedelic, meditative, and initiatory. The Michelson sisters—Mouse and No Name—from France are some of the early pioneers of such improvised cosmic hardcore sound, and were an inspiration source for later developments like flashcore. They are still playing parties all over Europe. Other artists to check out from France include Save (Underground Perversions Records), La Foudre (No-Tek Records), Helius Zhamiq (K-NeT Label), Le Talium, Enbryoner, R-ictus aka Mechakucha, Marteau, Saoulaterre,and Mental D-struction. Artists into this improvised atmospheric sound are not confined to France, however. There’s Annwn (Anti Narcose) from the Netherlands, who weaves experimental vibes into his tracks. Sadistic (originally from  Scotland and now living in Thailand) fuses the flashcore sound with UK hardcore techno (i.e. Deathchant) and crossbreed bringing the ideas and sounds to new crowds. The UK’s Tekhne Freq aka Kid Corrupt (Fractal Distortion events) also combines atmospheric soundscapes and experimental speedcore. Neuromancer, Basil (Moscow Speedcore Scum), Harhor (Greasp), and Rude Repeen are some of the actives in the Russian underground.

While the mainstream hardcore scene is all about the known, such as banger tunes with pop culture references, predictable build-ups and drops that go in parallel with developments in popular EDM, what attracts the listeners and musicians to this music is its introspective dip in to the unknown. Instead of worshiping the DJ, focus is drawn towards what is inside you.

Another element that speedcore beats have reintroduced to listeners of contemporary music is “the shake.” Many indigenous people and traditions around the world have the wisdom that incorporates the shaking of ones body to release locks of the mind, body, and soul, helping to reach ecstatic trance states and establish a deeper connection with the universe. This phenomenon is not totally uncommon at contemporary speedcore parties. The idea is not necessarily to grasp every single bassdrum with your stomping feet, waving fists, or even with your mind, but to let go, express yourself freely, shake with the flow and see where it takes you. This kind of improvisational dynamics can also be applied to making music by jamming and letting known structures dissolve. Regardless of the death-related imagery in many speedcore and hardcore releases, the energy of the music is actually full of life and living life by pushing the peak of ones artificial limitations.  Shamancore music by Teknoaidi (Kovaydin.NET) and Hiiden Virren Vinguttajat from Finland revolves around this idea that high tempo music and shaking is healing. The music also makes use of traditional acoustic instruments along with the machine sounds. When it comes to electroacoustic initiatory core, worth mentioning is also one of the most intense live acts to come from Berlin, Del_F64.0, who play improvised speedcore with hardware and clarinet.

We’re now in 2017, and there is more of this kind of music than ever. Usually few individual artists or DJs play it at select underground- oriented core parties or art events in countries such as Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland, and  theUK. Sometimes—particularly in places like Berlin—there is a chance to experience a night dedicated only to the atmospheric and psychedelic core music. At these special gatherings, the artists might play 400+ BPM atmospheric speedcore and flashcore, constantly, for the entire night. This might sound insane, but actually at some point into the night these rhythms become a new norm for the mind and this state of being starts to feel very meditative. Fuck Off System and their Trash n Core parties as well as parties by Splatterkore Reck-ords are worth looking into when in Berlin. Cyber City in Belgium has also organized similar events.

Here are some upcoming events to check out with more and less atmospheric and psychedelic core:

23.09.2017 – So Fucking Future: Doctrines [Splatterkore | Gabber Noir] @ Berlin [DE]
07.10.2017 – Kovaydin.NET presents Passenger of Shit ft. Ethereal Girl @ Tampere [FI]
13.10.2017 – RVLT Festival #4 @ Rotterdam [NL]
11.11.2017 – EHCTV : Seelentanz @ Leipzig [DE]
31.03.2018 – Cortex #1 – The Massacre! @ Krefeld [DE]

Psycore – Cross-subcultural hybrids

Psytrance and hardcore techno are 2 distinct electronic music tribes. Psytrance is typically characterized by psychedelia brought by morphing sounds that make your mind float above the clouds, while the main element in hardcore is an energetic, grounding and distorted kick drum which vibrates through the whole body at a fast pace. The peaceful neo-hippies and the aggressive gabbers are seen as stereotypes of these movements, but there is a lot more to these scenes than their mainstream crowds and music. In the last 5-10 years there has been a parallel development in the psytrance scene similar to what happened to hardcore in the 1990’s. More and more psy artists from around the world started to experiment with 180-200 bpm and faster tempos, sometimes even with speeds similar to speedcore. The psytrance scene has traditionally been quite strict about tempos, which have usually been around 130-140 bpm, below, or up to 160 at best, with a few exceptions here and there. Now however, more and more people are opening up to the energies and possibilities of faster rhythms. In this article I’m going to discuss the various interpretations of the fusion of hardcore and psytrance aka “Psycore”, developments around it, artists you should check out as well as my personal cross-subcultural experiences. In addition to my own investigations, I also contacted some of the pioneers of these hybrid styles to ask about their views on Psycore.

Early developments

Some early prototypes of “psycore” can be traced back to 1992. The Speed Freak’s first EP, or his track ‘Citrus’ a year later, for example start as what you’d consider ordinary acidcore, but they also have very rave kind of vibes and soon things start flying around giving a psychedelic effect similar to psytrance. Subculturally these have little to do with the goa trance of the time, but some similar ideas are there.

One example of an early psytrance track I could find, which experiments with a 190 bpm tempo, was ‘Kikapelaus (A Spugedelik Return To Monoverse)’ by Huopatossu Mononen from 2001. This track is in the psy subgenre called suomisaundi, which originates from Finland and is by default one of the more convention-breaking psy styles, or as one suomisaundi artist I know puts it: “the breakcore of psytrance”.

Dutch Trancecore/Psycore

In 1996, Michel Klaassen aka Leviathan and his label Cenobite Records started to push a style that combined the Ruffneck artcore/gabber sound of the time with influences from goa trance and hard trance. This style came known as the Cenobite style, trancecore or psycore.

Michel describes his label:

Trancecore , Psycore or Acidcore – call it what you want, but Cenobite listens to all. I think there are many tracks that could be categorized in that style and there is many other styles you can mix it with. I really like dark melodies, but also fast trancy riffs, breakbeats, of course some acid synth sounds, there is so much you can explore, we try to make songs, a musical story with a beginning, middle part and end. We see Cenobite as a really wide range of styles concept, and music & sound as our playground. When producing music you have to follow that gut feeling and take some risks, if you really like it, nothing else matters, dare to be different.

Cenobite also likes putting messages in the tracks sometimes and the story arc is influenced by the Hellraiser mythos. The Cenobite style never truly spread outside the gabber scene. Michel tells that underground illegal tekno parties are the places where the music scenes and styles are mixed more openmindedly in The Netherlands. He has also played the occasional psytrance dj set with his Tellurian alias at events like Ground Zero Festival.

Michel tells about the difficulties in collaboration between the 2 scenes:

If you have 1 psytrance area on a festival, it could be hard for the people to buy a ticket for only 1 psy area. Also, it’s really hard to get booked on a psytrance festival with Psycore and I think it’s because of prejudice. The thing with Hardcore also, it sounds really aggressive, but the people on most parties are happy & peaceful. Would love to be the final act on a psy festival or event.

Cenobite had a break in early 00’s before making a comeback in the second half of the decade. Meanwhile, artists like Ferox and his online Trancecore.nl community carried on evolving the sound and merging it with the millennium developments of Dutch hardcore.

Psycore in the Psytrance scene

The popular free music portal and psy netlabel Ektoplazm describes Psycore as follows:

The faster end of the psytrance spectrum, clocking in at 180+ BPM. Almost certainly an extension of darkpsy but a lot of it isn’t really that dark–just fast and crazy. Although it is certainly an acquired taste it enjoys a great deal of support worldwide. Psycore is also related to neurotrance or hi-tech.

Infect Insect from Macedonia is a pioneer for this experimental sound that was coined with the term Psycore. Here is what he had to say about his vision:

Long story short, by some synchronicity of events the psycore inception started as experimentation with audio forms and music genres for the sake of testing and shifting the human frequency treshold (towards burning).
The basic concept in the works was the hermetic philosophy and the trinity of virtues: psychedelia (change and pattern), core (depth and rhythm) and noise (entropy and resonance).
It started somewhere around 2002 and fermented with first releases in 2005, on some psytrance, noise and hardcore labels. The french NABI-Records hosted the first releases.
The sound is a hybrid form of hardcore, industrial, psychedelic and noise, and the blend seemed to have high power and potential. It is not very dancefloor oriented, but rather mindfuck oriented.
It was good to see it spread through the psy scene as the heavy underground version of psychedelic trance and some other artists as my good comrade Datakult and the rest of the Nabi gang seemed to follow the path.
From statistics it looks like the legacy is mostly spread in countries as Mexico, India and central Europe.
For psycore bpm would be somewhere in between 160-180 bpm, going forward to 200 would turn it into speedcore or above that noisecore. A perfect tune would be the one that sounds faster at lower bpm.
When doing psychedelic you can’t go into higher tempo, because you lose the extra space for syncopation, modulation and pattern definition, sound loses clarity which you need to tell a story and things start to distort with higher FM, thus you enter noise, am aware of this since I do both psycore and noisecore.
The general idea of psycore is to overcome the static form of hardcore genres (speedcore, acidcore etc), which are more rhythm based and lack the diversive morphing sound of psychedelics.
That concept is too dry in my terms, a rhythm should be only a backbone not the front face of a track, the fish skeleton. Another preference is live played / recorded sound over sequenced / automated.
On the other hand psycore should bring a harsher, faster and harder side to psytrance which was lacking back in the days.
When you are on a psytrance party you know psycore is playing when 2/3 of the crowd leaves the floor.

Darkpsy

In addition to psycore, fast bpm’s in psytrance are nowadays most commonly associated with hi-tech as well as some darkpsy artists. The borders between these 3 subgenres also interlap as we go into the faster tempos. Darkpsy is similar with a lot of hardcore in that the tone is dark and the themes often depict darker sides of humanity. It is sort of a rebelling contrast within the psy scene continuing similar ideas as industrial, metal and hardcore, although in psy-fashion often with a spiritual twist leaning more towards eastern spirituality and native tribes than judeo-christianity.

Apuruami Records from Mexico is one of the first darker psy labels to release tracks crossing 200 bpm. Digital Darkness is one such artist:

As well as aGh0Ri TanTriK from India who at times explored speedcore/flashcore bpm’s:

Hi-tech

Hi-tech is a psy subgenre that has popularized and brought higher bpm’s to wider psy audiences in recent years. The term was invented by Osom (Kindzadza & Psykovsky) from Russia to describe their music and grew into a relatively big movement worldwide. In contrast to the dirty and rough sound of psytrance’s own psycore, hi-tech focuses more on clean dynamics and detail in production. It is not necessarily dark and can express many emotions. The positive thing about this is that it proves that fast music does not always have to identify with dark, so there are no such artificial limits. Sometimes people classify music that is technically the same as hi-tech, but faster or more extreme, as psycore. What is considered as faster and more extreme varies from person to person, so there is no universal consensus on where exactly this shift to psycore happens.

Few more honorable mentions from the faster psytrance: Audiosyntax, CinderVOMIT, Kaikkialla, Sectio Aurea, ♆amaVooDoom and Yata-Garasu.

Psycore in the hardcore underground

Now that we have discussed what are considered the Psycores in the gabber/mainstream hardcore and in the psytrance scenes, there is still more to be said about developments along the borders of the underground hardcore techno scene and underground psytrance.

Around 2007, there was a project happening by a Russian duo called Inshizzo who started hybrid experiments without outside influence. Alexey Karlin (aka M.M.C. and MushroomJet) of the duo had a background in darkpsy, whereas the second half Sergey Shevelyov (aka Brainfilter) was into idm, frenchcore, hard techno, breakcore and noise. They created a unique cocktail of experimental core and psy with fast tempos. The bassdrums in their tracks are more hard hitting and distorted than in regular psy, yet keeping more fluid dynamics and not trying to cover a very wide frequency like in a lot of hardcore techno. Their boundaries pushing albums were released on Sergey’s Acidsamovar Records and they were also featured on labels such as Flurokarma and Entity.

Splatterkore Reck-ords from the UK started doing CD releases in 2008 and later became a free netlabel based in Berlin. The label has been mainly associated with the underground core scene, but supports freedom of expression and has released a wide variety of underground electronic music promoting cross-subcultural hybrid experiments. In the label’s early years, artists such as OmniPresence (aka Junkie Kut) and Azamat Softsleeve were pushing psycore with high speed psychedelic trance combined with distorted kicks and breaks. OmniPresence also used distorted vocals similar to digital hardcore. Their vision of psycore or “psykore” was to have mostly separate segments for psy, hardcore, speedcore and breakcore beats to create an energetic fusion. Infect Insect was also releasing on the label. In 2012, Kid Corrupt’s track The Mad Revisionist, with its rolling distorted hardcore kick (similar to a psy bassline), inspired Splatterkore’s Cross-Dimensional Contamination compilation that featured underground psytrance, hardcore and various psycore experiments by 36 artists.

I began collaboration with the Splatterkore collective inviting them to my parties in Finland, starting with their 2010 European tour, and playing at their parties in Berlin as well as releasing on the label. In 2013 I played at CEREBRAL CHAOS Anniversary II – ACID THEATER, which Splatterkore co-organized with Cerebral Chaos, a crew dedicated to dark, experimental and uptempo psytrance. A year before they had also done a psytrance + core collab party at which a certain psy artist came exposed to the psychedelic side of hardcore and speedcore. A year later, he performed as Coredyceps at this party on Splatterkore’s Cyber Dungeon stage. His vision has so far been the most intense experience for me personally in this evolution of psycore. The stage also had an especially strong presence of French flashcore and speedcore artists among others and I was there with my shamancore. The bigger stage hosted by Cerebral Chaos had some of the most intense music that psytrance had to offer.

The party definitely exposed the crowds to new music as 2 scenes were exploring each other. As I understood from the locals, there was also some minor tension between the crowds. One thing to mention about Berlin is that people there tend to stick to their own subcultural cliques. From what I’ve heard there are even 4-5 distinct crowds of hardcore who are not really collaborating with each other. But as Splatterkore founder Zoe Mindgrrind puts it: “Fuck your ego scene wars, we are one!”.

Another interesting and original cross-dimensional artist to mention, who has also released on Splatterkore, is Rose Red Flechette from Pittsburgh. His music is not always necessarily fast, but it is very rough and has unconventional structures combining ideas from industrial/rhythmic noise, core and psytrance.

Psytrance and the Teknival scene

As Michel told above, there is collaboration happening in the free party / free tekno scene, which hosts some forms of hardcore as well. Sometimes tekno/tribe labels include psytrance tracks, or a combination of both, on their vinyl releases and some variants of tribe music such as the so-called “mental tribe” are very psychedelic themselves. Some cultural clash also does happen unfortunately. For example the famous Boom Festival in Portugal dedicated to psytrance has an Anti-Boom counterpart happening. Usually these kinds of counter parties happen when events like Boom promoting seeming oneness between electronic tribes become too commercial and exclusive. The Teknival scene on the other hand promotes a free and temporary autonomous zone (TAZ) and there are some aesthetic differences as well which might play a role in the separation, although in the end both crowds might have a lot in common. Apart from the cultural differences, different budgets, money philosophies and such hierarchies are also one of the bigger obstacles in the collaboration between the more experimental hardcore and psytrance tribes.

Fast music identity and the desired psychedelic effects

Internet memes surrounding hi-tech, darkpsy and psycore often mock “the lesser” slower subgenres in a similar adolescent fashion as hardcore techno memes and troll with who is the fastest or hardest. This is perhaps where there is still some growing up to do with fast music in general as it associates it with some kind of ego games, when in fact for the people who enjoy it it is actually about the cathartic bliss that is achieved by shaking at the peak of ones physical limitations.

Although many artists, beginners and pioneers alike, seem to cross the 200 bpm mark nowadays, I still found some rejection towards higher bpm’s particularly in the psytrance scene. A common element that came up was the FM lead, which is used in many modern psy subgenres, including hi-tech. It was also popular in the hard dance subgenres hard nrg and freeform in the last decade. Elements such as this can give the feeling of an intense speed and energy rush in the head, even if the bpm itself is not that high. Many say that it, and other smaller mind expanding elements and details, lose their purpose at higher tempos. I also found differing opinions and that psy can also have faster bpm’s. Fast music can of course also be psychedelic and there are various psychedelic hardcore subgenres to prove that, but they would require articles of their own, so let’s not go there this time. One way to combine the mind expanding elements, distorted kicks and fast tempos is fractioning the sounds in short separate bits as is done in idm and flashcore music. A more constant psychedelic flow can also be achieved at intense speeds, but we also have to remember that music and its effects are very subjective to the listener and the same effects might not be felt by all.

The future of Psycore

To sum things up, Psycore is a term used in many established contexts and there is not only one right way to use it or make it, leaving room for experimentation. At the moment there is more and less psy and core collaboration happening in the free party scene and select few underground core/psy parties. Earlier this year I also had the honor to play my psychedelic hardcore/speedcore music as Teknoaidi at an underground psy party in Oulu, Northern Finland. Sometimes there is an advantage to smaller local scenes, because the people are more exposed and open minded to many music styles. The experiment went surprisingly well as the crowd was warmed up with some fast suomisaundi and hi-tech sets before I played. It felt like there is definitely more to be explored here. I hope to do more cross-subcultural collaboration in the future and to encourage others to do so too and to expand their minds and possibilities! On the surface psy and core are like two different worlds, and they are cool for what they are doing, but this holistic fusion of mind (psy) and body (core) from inhibited dualism to uninhibited oneness and having a dialogue beyond our comfort zones is something that the world in general could really use more of. Let the new multisubcultural underground tribes emerge!

What are your experiences of this collaboration and is there some Psycore that should have been mentioned? Please share in the comments section below!

Thanks to Leviathan, Infect Insect, Inshizzo, Tekhne Freq, M-Core Da Omkor and others I may have forgotten for your input on Psycore!

Acidcorecrew Interview

Acidcorecrew are a Russian underground hardcore and breakcore crew organizing parties in St. Petersburg and most recently in Moscow. After visiting Acidcorefest.Moscowedition I decided to interview Igor (Shotgun Orchestra) to ask more about the crew and the local scene.

Who are the Acidcorecrew and how did Acidcorefest start?

Acidcorefest 10
Party people @ Acidcorefest 10 in St. Peterburg

ACIDCOREFEST and ACIDCORECREW appeared in 2007-2008 and the idea and was implemented in late 2008 as a festival of heavy electronic music. In fact, at the time we first focused on breakcore and gabba styles, but over time other styles were added as well. During the period of 2008-2016 we have organized 10 Acidcorefests in Saint-Petersburg, 1 in Moscow this year, as well as some other parties. Acidcorefest was on hiatus from 2011 until this year.
First members of ACIDCORECREW were me and Anton DistoNN. When we revived the festival in 2016 few people also joined us to help with the organization. Now ACIDCORECREW are Anton DistoNN, Mila, Slava, me and other guys who took photos, made promos and video.

The name does not seem to refer to the hardcore techno subgenre acidcore. Is there a story behind the name?

The name of the festival is not associated with the name of the style of music, it was more likely due to the fact that in the breakcore and gabba music there were a lot of acid riffs at that time.

How did the Acidcorefest.Moscowedition go in your opinion?

I think it was not quite bad. Perhaps one of the biggest festivals in recent years. However, there were some negative aspects, but these errors are considered in the future.

What has been the most memorable Acidcorefest event for you?

All. Literally. I remember every one of them, they were all unique and unforgettable.

Which international artists have visited your parties?

Techdiff (UK), Rotator (FR), Klitorix (FR/ES), M1dlet (LT), Xäcksecks (SE), Belladonnakillz (CA), C64 (CA), Kodek (LV), Gabba Front Berlin (DE), Bonehead (NL), Jensen (DE), Passenger of Shit (AU), Ars Dada (NO), Zutsuu / Teknoaidi (FI), Zeuge (BY), Gexider (BY), CJClip (BY) and Airborne Drumz (RU/DE).

How was the Russian scene before Acidcorefest started? And how did Acidcorefest influence the scene?

Acidcorefest 9
Party people enjoying speedcore @ Acidcorefest 9

Before Acidcorefest there were many other organizers in Russia like Breakcore.ru, IDM-group, Soundclash, Gromov and his parties. Almost all of these promoters either do not exist anymore or are not active. I think we can assume that ACIDCOREFEST is the biggest regular breakcore/hardcore festival in Saint P from 00’s that returned today.

What plans do you have for the future?

We always have plans, unfortunately more than opportunities, but I think in the near future we are waiting to do the next ACIDCOREFESTs in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities of Europe.

Tell us a bit about your hardcore/breakcore projects Shotgun Orchestra, Action Agenda and the label SickBrokenBrothers.

Shotgun Orchestra is probably my longest project and perhaps the most important to date, when viewed in the context of time. The project was started in 2003, when I made a few tracks, which became the basis of the first albums published later. Then had quite a long break until 2007, related to my service in the Russian army, and in 2007 I started to perfom with this project. At the moment I don’t give much time to this project anymore, mainly due to the activities with Action Agenda, but I promise to create a full-length album in 2017 and noisily celebrate the 10 years of the project.

Action Agenda
Action Agenda in action @ Acidcorefest.Moscowedition

Action Agenda is a new page in my music life. We are doing this project with Vyacheslav Vincent Nine. We started it in 2015, but I have great hopes for it.
SickBrokenBrothers Records is a young Russian independent record label focusing on hardcore, breakcore and crossbreed stuff. We try to publish the highest quality materials from the area of the former Soviet Union and neighboring countries, but the history of the label has only just begun.

What do you think about the Russian core scene?

Unfortunately the Russian scene is not as great as we would like it to be, but it is now in the stage of regeneration, and what it will be in a few years is difficult to predict.

What are the challenges in organizing parties in Russia?

The low attendance and low ticket prices. There are of course also really small parties for friends where you know all the visitors. We’ve done similar parties for many years and wanted some progress, so we wanted to make Acidcorefest something bigger and more interesting. The main challenge right now, with music in general, is that people are more interested in the image, the brands and the atmosphere. There is a real revival going on in the flourishing Russian gabba, but young gabbers are more interested in how they are dressed than what they listen to. This used to be secondary. Earlier people went to parties for the music (like to listen to good foreign visitors).

What subgenres are popular in the Russian core underground now? Are there any specific influences from abroad or interesting local developments?

As a whole I think I will not be mistaken if I say that the Russian scene is developing in parallel with the European, but with some delay. It doesn’t have some distinct differences. Only the style of dress that has appeared in recent years – many dress up as at parties in Holland in the 90’s.

Which Russian core artists would you recommend for the readers to check out?

Would not want to leave anyone out, many musicians in Russia are worthy of paying attention to, many you already know now. Those of you who are paying attention, let me draw your attention to the duo (RI) and Doc and DJ QuintaEssentia.

Thanks for the interview!

As a bonus here’s an aftermovie from Acidcorefest.Moscowedition made by Hardcore Russia TV:

Eni – Interviewed

Eni is a Freestyle DJ from Los Angeles, CA and has played at parties such as Arizr, KTRA LA and Hardstyle Arena, and will be playing at Winterfresh Music Festival on December 3rd. Freestyle is one of the fastest growing genres and is relatively new to the American scene. With Hardstyle and Hardcore getting much of the spotlight nowadays, Eni’s Freestyle sound brings much needed fun and freedom to the party. Freestyle by definition means ‘playing without restrictions’, and Eni regularly combines Subground, Jungle Terror, Tekstyle, Jumpstyle, Hardstyle, and any other variations of the hard dance styles, mixed with classic breaks and hard trap.

I know a lot of people ask, so let’s set the record straight- is Eni your real name or is it an alias? How long have you been a DJ?

Eni is actually my real name; it’s a family name from my dad’s side. I’m actually the third- it’s on my birth certificate! I started DJing under the alias Audiofallout back in 2012-2013, but when I started a sound company under the same name people were getting confused. I also had changed my style from strictly Hardstyle to Freestyle so I decided to change my alias to fit my new style and create some separation between my company and myself. I started practicing and learning in 2009 when I bought a pair of belt drive Numark TT1700.

Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into Freestyle and about what your biggest inspirations in this style are?

I got into Freestyle basically by getting bored of just DJ’ing Hardstyle, hahahaha! For a long time I had been a die-hard fan of Hardstyle and could not get enough, but as time went on I felt things get a bit stagnant and needed some variety. I had always loved the dub-style tracks and cross genre stuff so I started to look for that kind of music more and more. I stated finding really cool crossbreed, some sweet trap influenced stuff, and things that broke down to funky house drops for a bit and I fell in love. I wanted to find the coolest most unknown hard dance and bring that up to all the people here in the states.

Eni at KTRA, LA
Eni performing at KTRA, LA

How does Freestyle tie together with your slogan “Eni Kind of Music”?

Well with Freestyle I like to play the spectrum from hard house and Jungle Terror, to Terrorcore and Speedcore… thus my slogan- playing Eni Kind of Music- nothing is off limits. I’ll mix in a lot of random hip-hop and trap influenced stuff, some Cumbia (dance music popular in Latin America), and other genres just to keep it fun and interesting.

You recently played in San Francisco, how did that go? Is the American crowd receptive to the Freestyle sound?

San Francisco was absolutely incredible!!! I had an amazing time out there. It was my first time playing in San Fran and I couldn’t have asked for a better first show. I had a great set and lots of fun. I really love the energy that the Northern California Scene has, it is very reminiscent of the feeling I used to get when I first started going to raves when I was 16. It’s very vibrant, colorful, and youthful. I also got a chance to work with J-Rod, Kriss, Keiji, Kreation, and Hauyon while I was up there. Leading to some really interesting new projects.

As you mentioned, you have a few projects going right now- you been starting to produce, collabs with other American artists, and you’ve been involved with the Hardroadz Media podcast- what can you tell us about those and what can we expect in the future? Anything else we should be watching for?

My trip up to San Francisco inspired me with quite a bit and I have recently started working on a new collab alias with a good buddy who just moved to California from Chile. We have 2 tracks just about finished and I will be dropping the first one at Winterfresh tonight. I haven’t had enough time to really work on many solo projects but I do have a bootleg in the works. Besides that I have been working with another friend of mine as the new host and engineer for the Hardroadz Media podcast. With the podcast we try to focus mostly on American based DJs and producers. It comes down to the fact that Europe and all of their DJs are already established and set, and for the American scene to grow we need to start supporting and showing up for our homegrown talent. For this reason my friend started this podcast. Each month we feature 30 minutes of hand picked tracks and then a 30-minute guest mix. Recently we got lucky and now the show is streamed live on the Department of Hard Dance every third Wednesday of the month, as well as putting it out on SoundCloud.

Anything else you would like to tell the readers of The Hard Data?

I just want to say thank you to everyone who has given me support over these past couple of years. I have been so lucky and blessed to be surrounded by these amazing support structures. I’m very excited with my Dabscouts sponsorship and collaboration. Their designs are pretty awesome and I have been blessed to have their graphic designer and photographer at my disposal. I’m hoping to do some really cool merchandising with them coming out eventually with a fully Eni Kind Of Music clothing line.

Catch Eni at Winterfresh on December 3rd at Union Nightclub in Los Angeles- get your tickets here

Acidcorefest.Moscowedition – Report by Teknoaidi

qpkkw8clc4qLiving in Finland, on the north-east edge of the EU, I have the chance to travel to my eastern neighbour Russia easily and I have been doing so since 2010 playing gigs there in various places. Acidcorefest.Moscowedition was held between 23rd and 24th of September and it was my second gig in Moscow. Acidcorefest has its roots in Russia’s culture capital St. Petersburg and the concept was now visiting in the country’s business capital.

Contrary to what the name suggests, these fests have very little to do with the acidcore subgenre itself. The fests are more like a celebration of the diverse underground hardcore techno styles and breakcore and speedcore representing both local talents as well as interesting international artists. The mainstream hardcore scene hasn’t been completely excluded from the equation either, but what became clear to me from the very beginning was that this party was not going to limit itself in terms of speed and intensity.

Acid Blood dancefloor
Acid Blood dancefloor

The party venue was Aglomerat Club, a building that used to be a cinema in the Soviet times and had been recently refurbished into a techno club. The interior was like an abandoned warehouse, so the event definitely had the feel of a proper underground rave. I initially thought that the event would be split between 2 nights, but it was actually a 15 hour party from 9PM till 1PM! 46 artists and dj’s were on the lineup for 2 dancefloors: Acid Blood, which was the main stage, and Acid Jam, the “chillout”.

Since my first visits in the country I have noticed that Russians like their core music fast and this night was no exception as people went totally mad from the chaotic distorted breaks and bassdrums starting to run around the dancefloor. Mashup style hardcore and breakcore seemed to be especially popular, but many dj’s also played more darker tones of crossbreed, dnb as well as more minimal, but very effective oldschool sounding hardcore. So I said that the Acid Jam dancefloor was the chillout, and it kind of was when jungle and hardtek dj’s were playing, but many times I would enter there and intense as fuck breakcore and hardcore comparable to the main stage was blasted there as well.

KlitoriX playing at Acid Blood stage

Definite crowd favorites of the evening were the hardcore/breakcore artists Klitorix from Spain and M1dlet from Lithuania, whom I especially remember of his speedcore releases in the past. Local favorites were especially the Action Agenda duo and the metal, core and dnb fusing Sa†an, who has received wider international fame in recent years for his music and shows. A more bizarre local speciality and exception of the night was XS Project, a duo producing pumping house and hard bass – styles popular among squatting Slavs in tracksuits. For me personally, the most interesting set of the night was by Quinta Essentia who delivered straightforward, relentless and at times quite hypnotic hardcore beats. After her Extremest, a touring artist from Scotland, played some mashupcore madness of varying tempos. There were still survivors left when it was my turn to play my shamancore music as Teknoaidi before 8 in the morning. The shamancore shaking rituals went down very well and the crowd demanded me to play some extra.

It was a pleasure meeting many old and new people, fellow international artists from Europe and I was also surprised to meet Jüps from as far away as Seattle who was travelling and visiting parties in Europe and Russia. It was unfortunate that the party could have had more visitors.. Gotta give the organizers lots of respect for taking the risk to put this party together! In a time where the powers that be are creating apparent divisions between people, music is a great way to step out of the geopolitical games and bond us together.