Dance music came into my life in stages. Growing up on the East Coast in the ‘80s, Cybotron, Strafe, and Run DMC were early ballistic missiles which struck me in third grade, when my gym teacher broke out linoleum squares and tried to teach a room of suburban kids how to breakdance. Hip hop and electro became my first loves, first fueled by NYC radio and beginning in ‘88, daily doses of Yo! MTV Raps and Rap City. Also in ‘88, Inner City’s “Good Life” and “Big Fun” entered my world through metromix sessions on Pittsburgh’s urban radio station, which I recorded to cassette. Although I had no idea who The Belleville Three were at the time, those tracks were my first introduction to the sounds of Detroit.
The Mover: Selected Classics (Remastered 2017) at home with various toys.
As I started listening to and more and more music, my tastes had grown to include electronic pioneers Yello and The Art of Noise, but oddly it was the work of the demoscene that really started to pique my interests towards techno. For those unaware, in the early ‘90s various groups of computer programmers would code “demos”—self-contained programs showcasing original art, motion graphics, and music to showcase their creative talents. Distributed on computer bulletin board systems and (very) slowly downloaded by dial-up modem, these demos became progressively more awe-inspiring with each release as the artists honed their digital tricks, often rivaling or exceeding the work of popular video games of the day. And the music really got me going—soundtracks filled with original music that I soon learned was techno, trance, and ambient. The demoscene inspired me to dig deeper—admittedly only superficially at first, as some of my earliest purchases were cornball compilations picked up at the mall. But everything changed after THD’s own Deadly Buda threw Power Rave ‘92—my first rave—at a roller rink just outside of Pittsburgh. The music that night was harder and darker than anything I had heard before, and by the end of the night, mall compilations were certainly no longer cutting it. I bought my first mixtape the next weekend at Turbo Zen—Buda’s record store—as well as Industrial Strength Records’ first compilation. First cut on the disc? Mescalinium United’s “We Have Arrived”, now widely known as the track that gave birth to hardcore techno. The title couldn’t be any more apt, and I was instantly hooked—a whole new take on the 808s and 909s that fueled my earliest musical interests.
Industrial Strength ISCD1: The compilation that introduced me to The Mover in ’92
Through attending as many parties as Pittsburgh could throw at me, I quickly grew to consider Marc Arcadipane (and his countless aliases) one of my favorite musical artists. I blew out speakers to “Nightflight (Non-Stop to Kaos)” over the years—watch your bassbins, I’m tellin’ ya—and I may be doing the same right now, 25 years later, as I write this piece. The 2×12” of “Selected Classics” was released on Killekill’s sub-label Boidae, licensed by Acardipane’s new Planet Phuture label. Even for a 33 RPM pressing, the hats and snares are crisp, and looming basslines blast thick enough to rattle fillings. A carefully curated, fully remastered track selection runs the gamut from the aforementioned “We Have Arrived” (originally recorded in ‘89 and released in ‘90) to album cuts from 1993’s The Final Sickness (Planet Core Productions) and 2002’s Frontal Frustration (Tresor) and the EPs released throughout. Sorely missing from the 12” release is “Over Land & Sea” from the Signs of ‘96 EP, a slow, brooding track that culminates in a doom chorus of nightmarish, growling bass and crashes. Dystopian 3 a.m. fog and strobe material that to this day desperately needs to be in a movie. (Digital release purchasers of this compilation, however, will be pleased to find the track included, as well as 2002’s “Spirit Slasher”.) You’ll find the pumping “Waves of Life” with its driving vocal stabs and synths that rounds out in a downright blissful coda, the disorientating, uneasy spiral of “Reflections of 2017”, and the percussive, percolating “Astral Demons” and its absolutely dope stereo acrobatics.
As a fully indoctrinated fan, each of the selections are fully ingrained in my psyche, but for the uninitiated, this collection should be a truly rewarding journey into the unique energy and vivid imagery that The Mover presents. For those trying to decode the mythos of Acardipane’s “See you in 2017” message (for a deeper look into this, be sure to read The Hard Data’s Spring 2017 issue) over the years, well, we have arrived. Today, Aphex Twin and Nina Kraviz are unleashing Mover tracks upon a whole new generation at festival crowds. Acardipane added yet another label under his belt (the surfacing of Planet Phuture), and we’re in store for a new Mover album this fall. And not to ruffle any political feathers, but was “The Emperor Takes Place” prophetic?
To this day, this still sounds like some of the most futuristic music I’ve ever heard, and is eerily on-target. Welcome, at last, to 2017. Lying dormant since 2002 and rising like a dark phoenix, the Mover is back—as it was foretold to faithful listeners. (5/5)
“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!
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!
The midwest United States is, for many people, the birthplace of modern electronic music. The area has produced a long line of influential labels, DJs, and producers, as well as playing a key role in developing genres and shaping new directions for future generations to follow. A number of artists have left their mark over the years, but few have made an imprint on as many different strains of electronic music as Jason Snell; the shape-shifting musician who has made quality contributions to a wide range of styles via an ever-growing list of projects. His late-90s cassettes turned heads worldwide, and he soon found himself releasing material on a number of influential labels. From Hangars Liquides in France, Addict and Ghetto Safari in Milwaukee, Vinyl Communications in California. The visionary Detroit label LowRes even dedicated the Division 13 sublabel to his output. The Hard Data dives into the heart of darkness and brings you an in depth look at the man behind the monikers.
You’ve produced work under a number of different aliases over the years. At what point does a new project emerge? Do you discover, as material nears completion, that it stands apart from other work and deserves its own name, or do you enter into the creative process with fresh concept in mind and approach it differently from the outset?
It initially comes up as a need for new expression that I can’t comfortably produce under the Bombardier name. I’ve had the Bombardier moniker the longest (started around 1997) so each new project is in relation to that foundation. When I find myself working on new material I like but it doesn’t feel like a “Bombardier” song, I start considering other options. After having so many monikers in the late 90’s – Bombardier, 13th Hour, Kamphetamine, and Useless Generation – I was reluctant to start anything new again, particularly because in retrospect all that late 90’s material is very similar in tone and could have easily fallen under the Bombardier name. So for years I tried to expand the Bombardier umbrella rather than start new projects, but I’m constantly exploring and eventually ran out of runway.
The purpose of new names isn’t so much to distinguish my work for listeners but rather free me up to express what I need to express. The last few years I’ve wanted to explore more melodic, pretty ambient music and kept balking at pursuing it because it didn’t feel “Bombardier” enough. The Bombardier ambient sound is more atonal and dark and I felt restricted by that history and body of work. The result was The Space Where She Was, which was initially a song title about the strange phenomenon of when someone leaves or dies and their physical space, the room they lived in, the bed they slept in, the space they occupied in a community is now empty.
In contrast, my 5th of July band project was created as a fresh concept. I was auditioning different vocalist when I lived in the Bay Area and connected the most with Jessica Schoen. She grew up in Chicago and listened to the same industrial and goth bands I did in the 90’s. She liked the dark atmospheres and percussion of my Bombardier work and we both wanted to work on something down-tempo. I love working with her vocals and she’s incredibly tolerant of how much I manipulate them in the mix. I’ll often start with a simple backing track and she’ll sing lyrics that either of us have written. I usually then break the backing track into individual sounds, chop up her vocals and reverse them. I listen to the vocals and sounds and get a sense of its unique DNA, and build the song from scratch. Once we did our first show (January of 2016) the visual aesthetic came together – a sort of David Lynch meets Sleep No More. That led to a number of film shoots in the spring and the overall project is becoming more multimedia than just a band.
On the subject of the visual component, you do much of the graphic design for your releases. Is there a difference in how you approach creating moving images to accompany music and how you craft the elements that go into the package elements of a release? Does this process of matching images to sound differ greatly from providing soundtracks to film, where the images come before the audio?
There are two different directions. When I design album art, I know the music and look through my photos to find something that connects well with the sound of the song or album. When I work on films (whether scoring someone else’s film or shooting my own), the footage / image comes first and I then began to “hear” the corresponding sounds in my mind that fit. And the challenge then is getting my machines to make the sound I heard in my head. So with graphic design it goes sound to image, and with motion picture it goes image to sound.
An interesting aside as I’ve learned more about sound production and mastering – the process of adjusting levels, pan, or effects to move the musical elements in the sound field – is its incredible similarities to graphic design. Changing the alpha on a graphic element feels like changing the volume on a musical element, etc… They use a similar non-verbal part of my mind that moves from focusing on individual elements to the whole picture, back and forth, during the editing process.
You’ve moved around a lot, is environment something that has a distinct impact on your output?
It definitely does. There’s an inverse relationship between the amount of chaos in an environment and the amount of risk I’m willing to take creatively. When I moved to NY in 2000 I thought the activity of the city would inspire me creatively. However the opposite happened – I began to take less risks with my music. It’s only when I’m in quiet places that the loudest music comes out of my brain. When I left NY in 2009, my art and music had atrophied to the point where I thought I was just out of ideas. I moved to a quiet apartment in the Bay Area and slowly began to feel creative again. However that city-type of compression came back up as the tech boom hammered the Bay, and I started to lose focus again. I moved to LA and that helped, but as it is also becoming more expensive I know I won’t be here forever. I spend a good amount of time in Iowa where I have a comparable studio set up as my California one. Some of my best ideas have come out there. On the flip side, I need some exposure to great artists and new music to stay inspired, so I do this balance of spending some time in cities, seeing shows and jamming with other artists, and some time alone in the middle of nowhere making music.
Bombardier performing in NYC
Do you use different gear, or tailor your studio set-up for each individual project?
My Bombardier work has been heading in the direction of outboard gear again. I started with gear in 1995, a drum machine, and slowly built on that. I didn’t use software until about 2011 when a friend loaned me Maschine for a weekend and I liked what it could do. Using software has taught me a lot about sound production – EQ ranges, compression, effects – that I didn’t learn from my early gear because I just blasted the signals through distortion pedals and a 4-track. However making music just with software doesn’t fit my style. I like the erratic sounds of wires getting crossed and the hum of machines and pedals. It’s a more raw sound and fits the Bombardier style.
5th of July began software based and still is, although I’m experimenting with bringing in some sounds recorded from my modular of gear into it. Because of Jessica’s vocals, working in software makes it easier to arrange around them. It’s more delicate work and software helps with that precision.
And the melodic, lo-fi sound of The Space Where She Was is outboard gear. Even if I use a software synth, I route it through a chain of external pedals. Most recently I’ve been experimenting with an AI I programmed into my Refraktions iPhone app. I’ve been having it send generative sequences to my desktop synths (the Waldorf Blofeld, the Analog Four) and my modular kit to make its own songs. I set it up, tap the iPhone screen a few times, and let it create a composition while I turn knobs – essentially like having a robot band mate. That’s produced some really beautiful results – lo-fi melodies and drones that fits the project well.
You mention ‘generative sequences’ in relation to The Space Where She Was. That term was coined by Eno to describe the use of algorithms or processes to compose ambient music. This is fitting considering the ambient nature of the material, but also suggests an influence in terms of approach and structure. What are some of your biggest influences, and who are some of the artists you’ve been exposed to recently that you’ve found particularly inspiring?
I use the term “generative” in the same way Eno did – a composition run through a series of algorithms that generate new sequences. I’m pushing myself and the music by developing an artificial intelligence in my Refraktions app that can remember and respond to a musician’s initial choices before the algorithms are applied. The generative code in the app began as randomized selections of sounds and notes. Now the AI has a memory matrix that remembers the musician’s choices, stress-tests those choices against a randomized element, and produces a result that is new, yet favoring the instruments and notes the musician prefers. It’s a blend between existing trajectory and new input, which is how I experience life in general. My goal is to make this sequencer generate sequences and rhythms that are as organic and life-like as possible within a technological environment.
In terms of influences on this process and my ambient music in general, Mahr is the top of my list. She is a musician out of Madison whose music strikes a balance between dark and beautiful, complex and understandable, like a lucid hallucinogenic trip. Perhaps there is something about the Madison area, because I credit Ablecain as the biggest influence on the breakcore I’ve made.
Other influences include the abundance of performers I’ve been able to see in Los Angeles these last two years. Orphx’s modular set was the best performance I saw in 2016, followed closely by Richard Devine and his two coffin-sized modular racks. Also Autechre, Alessandro Cortini, and local artists from the LA modular scene like Bana Haffar and Baseck (who I’ve known now for 19 years – we used to trade breakcore cassette demos). Not a week goes by without several world-class electronic artists performing in Los Angeles. It’s an honor and privilege to be here right now.
How different is your live set-up from the studio you use for production?
I’ve experimented a lot with my live set up – playing off gear, Ableton, Traktor, modular, or any combination of them. When I’m traveling a lot, I usually have a Traktor X1 mapped to be a 4 channel mixer, with a live stream going into the D deck. That live stream could be a drum machine, synth, my app – just depends on the set and the sort of sound I’m going for. I experimented with Ableton for a while (and certainly will again) but gravitated towards Traktor so I could play full songs that have their progression built it. It also opened me up to mixing other artists songs into my sets, which was new for me because I started as a producer and not a DJ. So my production studio is often what I’m traveling with, but when I’m stationary, I have a set of hardware synths, pedals, Maschine controller, and Elektron boxes. Here’s a full list of gear that’s scattered between my 2 studios:
Maschine Studio Elektron Rytm and Analog 4 Moog Delay, Bass Murf, Drive, and chorus Electro Harmonix delay, flange, reverb, phaser Novation Bass Station, Bass Station II, Super Bass Station rack and drum station Waldorf Blofeld Roland JV-880, R8, MC-50 Boss SYB-3 synth filter, DD5 Delay, Metal Zone, and Hyper Fuzz
That last pedal, the Boss Hyper Fuzz, is the piece of gear I’ve had the longest and is a fundamental piece in all my favorite tracks. I started using it in 1993 with a guitar and amp, making feedback and learning how to get beautiful tones in noise. Later I started running 808 kicks (from the R8) and that began my hardcore and industrial catalog.
At Furthur you played a techno set on the Network 10 Venus stage on the Friday night, and then were called upon to take a Saturday night slot on the mainstage. You were able to perform a completely different style with no notice. How did that come about, and how much work goes into always being prepared to shift gears like that?
There were a lot of factors, but basically it boils down to something I heard in NYC years ago. Luck = preparation + opportunity. It’s sort of a Karate Kid thing, waxing the car and painting the fence over and over because it’s the next task in front of me then in all comes together in important moments like these.
The preparation element was being on tour that summer and playing about 15 shows before Furthur. They were DJ + live hybrid sets, each one being unique, something I did as a personal challenge. I was also pushing myself to move away from the safety of planned out sets and pick the first track of a set just seconds before I start. I’d try to launch off the moment, transitioning from the previous artist and reading the energy of the crowd. By the time of Furthur, I knew my gear, I knew my songs, and could enter and exit at any point. I was listening to Fixmer McCarthy’s last track and knew to pull up a techno track I did called “Pavement” that my friend Joey (Blush Response) had told me sounded like Nitzer Ebb. I knew my destination, which was to ramp things up to a hard set by Perc, and I was filling in for Lenny Dee, so each time I looked for a new track I simply thought, “harder.”
The other part was the opportunity, which came about through several tenuous, simultaneous threads. Even the night of the event, several random coincidences occurred (me watching the show from backstage, Perc being delayed at the airport, Joel not finding out that he was needed at 1am instead of 3am) but what is even more interesting to me were the threads that began more than a year and half before at a very small show in LA.
I had been booked to play a Thursday night in the outskirts of LA. I knew other people who had played this venue and liked it, but for whatever reason the turnout was really low. It was essentially artists performing for each other and about 5 other people. The venue was huge so it felt painfully empty. It was one of those nights where anyone could have bailed and no one would blame them. But my attitude is to do the best I can with whatever is in front of me so I enjoyed playing and listening to the sets on their big system, hung out with the other artists, and enjoyed the evening.
One of the other artists was JB (Zeller) from France. We hit it off and the next summer he booked several shows for us in Europe. In June, I played a hardcore set in Renne, posted it online, and that was heard by Maria 909 in New York. Later that summer, David (Cervello Elettronico) – who also was at the LA show – booked me to play at Nothing Changes in downtown New York. Maria showed up at that show, we hit it off, and a month later at Furthur she was key in advocating for me to play in Lenny Dee’s spot.
If I rewind the tape and think if I had bailed on that small LA show or had a bad attitude, would JB or David want to continue playing shows with me? Would I have been in Renne and Maria heard that recording, or met her in New York?
All of these elements combined to make that moment where Kurt asked me if I could play main stage with 5 minutes notice. Without hesitation I said yes and the rest was auto-pilot: Plug in the gear, get a sense of what to play immediately, and perform the best set I can play.
Do you see common elements that connect your entire body of work?
I think the common elements are darkness, hard-driven sounds, grief, and a sort melancholic beauty. That comes out in almost all my mediums – illustration, painting, film, and music. It can pendulate from hard techno to dark, beatless atmospheres. The Space Where She Was project is probably my biggest deviation from those themes because it moves into pretty, melodic sounds, although they are probably still on the dark side of the spectrum compared to most melodic music.
I think another element that comes out is that my body of work is uniquely me. Of course this or that element is going to overlap with my peers, but I don’t think people hear one of my tracks and say “oh that’s just like so and so.” I was talking to a friend in France who I did a remix for and he said “You’re an ovni in the industrial scene.” I asked what ovni was and he said “UFO,” meaning my sound is unique. I took that as the biggest compliment.
Over the years, I’ve heard many times that my music is too dark, too hard, too weird, too whatever. The benefit of that is I’ve developed an incredible amount of resilience and persistence. A few years ago I was in a slump and wondered if I should stop making music. I thought it through and wondered, “well, what else would I do?” and realized I’m built this way. I have to create. It’s not up to me. I wouldn’t be happy being a Wall Street broker or project manager or full-time dad. I find my equilibrium through creating. So I do it regardless of whether it’s going to land well with others or not. It’s emotional survival for me. There are times where it connects with a lot of people and times it doesn’t, and during the down times it becomes about what the music does for me, not others, that gives me persistence and meaning. It’s cynical, and usually with experimental music at some point it goes from being “weird” to most people to becoming “visionary.” It’s a validating feeling, but not something I need to count on to keep going.
Techno and Hardcore pioneer Lenny Dee started Industrial Strength Records in 1991 and put New York and American Hardcore on the map, Now on the heels of the labels 25th anniversary, ISR is touring the world with a crew of hardcore artists from all over. The tour hits the US this week with stops at Union in LA Friday, November 18 and The Paper Box in Brooklyn Saturday, November 19. We got a chance to talk to a few of the artists on the lineup, including label founder Lenny Dee about the event and the history of Industrial Strength.
THD: What inspired you to start Industrial Strength records?
I was already producing a lot of music and it became a natural progression. I wanted to inspire more artists to create Hard Electronic Music and I felt this music needed a place to grow and be heard. On my travels DJing, I also went on the hunt to seek out the most hardest electronic music I could muster up. Looking back – I did.
THD: What initially attracted you to hardcore and the harder styles of dance music? What is your favorite part of hardcore music and/or the hardcore scene?
It came from within me really. There was no hard electronic music before (maybe some gothic Ebm tracks, – if you could even find them). I made sets picking odd tracks, b-sides anything and everything and played them all back to back in my sets. I’d been doing sets all around the globe since the 80s man, so all the music i produced and mixed to this point lead me down a path as i grew as a DJ and a producer and then A&R.
What I was feeling the people were feeling. It was like magic. I grew as the feeling grew. This shit was new..
I wanted to explore electronic music to the max and have made and had hits in most major styles. Creativity lead to genres of music being realized. We made the music, and then it was called something, Techno for example….we did not go in the studio to make a ‘certain style’ — it just was. I wound up and the end of the road and stayed when I hit hardcore, but I still always look at the future.
THD: What was the hardcore and harder styles scene in America like before you started ISR? How has it changed in the last 25 years?
There was nothing here in the start of the 90’s. Frankie Bones was doing some parties at that time and we had also created club nights prior to ISR. We were pushing electronic music sounds to NYC which at that time no one cared about it.
The music was not Hard Electronic though. It become the essence of what was to come for me later on, but as I think back, it was hard for the time. Bones and I really broke down doors for NYC and this Country as a whole. No one here really realizes how much Europe actually looked to us as the leaders in electronic music. We have a earned a large place in electronic music history (they might even recognize that one day ) But here we are 25 years – still kicking ass !
THD: What is your favorite subculture or sub-genre of hardcore/hardstyle that has emerged since you started playing and producing hardcore?
I love all styles of music in fact & listen to a vast range of things. What I play is my choice. I love to be excited by the music and play it like no other. I so like crossbreed. I think its hard edge drum n bass flavor with tight Hard electronic elements really is great new addition to Hard electronic music. It furthers the expansion of both styles while forging ahead with new music ideas pushing the growth of something new, which is a good thing no matter how you look at it.
Some styles of music are more like a description not a really a style (like ‘Techno’ is a style) and are set up with simple arrangements so an amateur can play it well. I like a challenge when I play. But I try not to diss any styles, it’s whatever people dig.
THD: What is your favorite memory from your years with ISR?
I had Laurent Garnier over to my place in Brooklyn. Laurent and I go way back, so we tried to make a track in the short time we had to work. Believe it or not we made a track on my Ruff Beats label ! It was fun and unexpected, we made a simple track, but the experience was over the top to have Laurent over in in Bensonhurst Brooklyn the home of Saturday Night Fever. We rented a house off 86th St. next to Lenny’s Pizza – that where Travolta ate the two slices of pizza doubled up in the start of the film.
THD: What are you most excited about for the Hard Electronic 25th anniversary shows?
I am super chuffed to celebrate that we have been here this long ! Not many can say this in the USA, especially being we created a style of music. I think we are one of (if not the) longest running Electronic labels in the USA now.
I am excited to do this party in NYC and LA. Trauma Live have been great to deal with on the West Coast and we could not have done it without them & Rave Till Dawn. And of course our crew in Brooklyn – Distort the 909 & Kontaminated Recordings – have rocked this (w/ support from Audio Havok from the east coast too). And needless to say, I couldn’t do any of it without my partner Jules who makes it all happen, incl running the ISR and our Labels etc etc.
We’ve also made ISR25 parties in Vienna (Mechanizm), Tokyo (SuperBad Midi Breaks), Glasgow (Sector Events), Fukishima (DarkRave), showcase at ‘Radikal Styles Festival in Colombia, and have a leg in Paris with Audiogenic this Dec. These collabs are exciting and the responses have been off the chain.
‘Hard Electronic’ is a night we will do more of showcasing new & established artists, from all styles of hard electronic music. One party with all different sounds to excite the brain and body in one room. We are already talking line ups for the next one (and tour coming soon too). Get ready boys n girls – the Brooklyn Monster has woken up !
Lenny will be djing both American dates alongside heavy hitters like Unexist, Art Of Fighters, The Sickest Squad, Tymon, Rob Gee and many more. In his spare time he also has been mixing an album for up and coming artist Pop Criminal.
ISR just released ISR 100 on vinyl as well as collaborations with Akira, Mr Madness, Jason Little, Nuke, DJ Terror and many more for the 25 Years of Industrial Strength compilation coming out this December.
Producers keep an eye out for a new studio pack to help new and seasoned producers make original hard kick drums, featuring over 300+ bass drums and 30+ ISR artist kits.
Dedicated to the harder sound of electronic dance music.
