Digicore Far East is a label and webzine from Singapore that so far has only released two Digital As Fuck compilations, but has a nice distro in the field of digital hardcore and other extreme electronics. Since the term “digital hardcore” refers a bit too much to a label, I like the term “digicore” better. Particularly when you think of it that there is digi(tal hard)core outside Germany and the label of Alec Empire it would be strange to raise another suggestion. So let me impress you with the following: besides Alec Empire himself, there are only two German acts on this compilation. Fortunately most tracks sound a lot better than what I hear from Digital Hardcore Recordings recently. Alec Empire also discovered this and released the compilation “Don’t Fuck With Us” with American digicore (reviewed here when I get it). Anyway, the projects on this compilation come from Germany and the USA, but also from the UK, Switserland, Japan, the Czech Republic, the Phillipines, Singapore, Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia and South Africa. Speaking of an international compilation, eh? Musically it all pretty much sticks to the digi(tal hard)core sound, but I find it more refreshing than the German sound that mostly slided down to fast sampled breakbeats with always the same samples and screaming chicks. There are a few of these tracks here as well, but also tracks with a more original sound. Surprisingly enough I like most of the tracks, which is really a compliment to the compiler of this cd. (Of course) I didn’t know most of the projects here, actually only Empire and Hyperdriver (see elsewhere).
To those who don’t know what to expect, digicore is a very extreme form of ‘techno’. Not danceble because it’s way too filled/busy for that and too many changes of rhythm (I often find this rather irritating). The sound is often very industrial and noisy with crazy samples. A few tracks here seem to be metal made with computers, rather strange! Several tracks are also darker than I am used to of this kind of music.
All in all a great digicore compilation for those who want to hear something else than the German sound.