Not too recent, but I just discovered this and I want to bring this band to your attention. The energetic music of Black Bug goes from electropop to (electro)punk to digicore and then with (no)wave influences. Sometimes there are ‘wavey’ male vocals, sometimes distorted female vocals. The electronic music follows the vocals, sometimes wave, sometimes punk and this is also when the guitars get in. Yep, this is the good stuff!
Link: Black Bug
There are many breakcore artists who simply throw a whole lot of samples in the blender, put some extreme rhythms over this and thus create their albums. Initially the French project Igorrr seems to be one of those, but on closer listening, there is something in Igorrr that I miss in a lot of breakcore: dedication and detail. Try to imagine a combination between classical music (orchestral and opera), folk, breakcore, grindcore, jazz, heck, is there music that Igorrr does not use? There are flinches of Venetian Snares, not in the last place the brilliant “Rossz Csillag Alatt Született” album, but Igorrr goes way off into the extreme sound of breakcore, but at as many moments he also employs very moody orchestrations and creates the weird beats according the music. There are piano parts with accompanying beats at the speed of the piano, the same with Spanish guitar. The music goes from breakcore maddness right into some folksong and on to opera; oftentimes metal and allways with a breakcore basis. On this new album Igorrr also seems to sing himself more and his vocals are as varried as his music, from opera to screaming and death-grunts, sometimes in one track too. I am sure that this music is not for anyone. You have to be able to stand complete musical maddness and extremity, but when you can enjoy breakcore and not just the noisy side of it, you might want to check out Igorrr. In a way Igorrr falls something between Venetian Snares and Arcturus with its orchestral metal with varried vocals. Hard to describe, but if you like humour and extreme electronics… Sometimes brilliant, sometimes just good, but certainly something you have never heard.
Links: Igorrr, Ad Noiseam
I do not visit the Cock Rock Disco website enough I guess. When I did last week I noticed that there are 7 new free releases since the last time I looked. They are mostly mix cds and not all as extremely breakcore as often happens on this label. As a matter of fact, there seem to be more DJ Donna Summer ideas here, with mixing the weirdest and silliest tracks from soul to AC/DC, happy hardcore and speedcore. Unfortunately the DJs are not as gifted as DJ Donna Summer, the label owner. Kid Kameleon has a rather standard mix if you have followed the label. All kinds of popmusic mixed with a regular beat. The Beast Within is a mix of CRD project and does contain the more extreme forms of electronic music. There seems to be a (new?) liking for electronically made metal, but mostly you will hear the extreme breakcore that you might know from this label. Projects such as The Teknoist, Duran Duran Duran, Bong-Ra, along with new and crazy names such as Toecutter and DJ Floorclearer. There are some way too unstructured f**ked up tracks, but there are also surprisingly calm tracks this time. Another nice free compilation of extreme music. Nero’s Day In Disnleyland is a quite typical CRD mix with music varrying from The Cure and Skinny Puppy to Hole and Morrisey to a whole range of bands that I don’t know, hiphop, rap, soul, jazz, rock, metal; all very weird of course, but not mixed together too well; it just sounds like a weird bunch of musical styles. DJ Rainbow Ejaculation has got to be a country mate, since (s)he mixes the most faulty happy hardcore of 12 years ago that I can not image ever left our country. People of my age (well 30+) will recognise many things that have been repressed from our memories and all that layered with “gabber” beats, truely awfull 🙂 . CDR then “is a Japanese dude who has been fucking Amen breaks for years…” and so he does with his extreme breakcore “CDR on CRD”. Way too chaotic for my liking, but as often with these kind of releases, it contains weird findings and crazy humour, but musically all build around the same breakbeat. And yes, there is some more crazy free stuff there, so just have a peek if you are interested in (a new kind) of digital extremism.
Cock Rock Disco believes in free music!
Cock Rock Disco, a label with an stupid name, but interesting music. From extreme breakcore, to more weird poppy things like Jason Forrest and About. Every once in a while CRD puts some free music on their website, so it is nice to be able to download some different music from time to time. In the course of a few months I collected the following free releases:
“Rock Rock Rock”, a compilation with remixes of DJ Donna Summer’s track with the same title. In style this album goes from happy hardcore, to extreme breakcore, softer experimental dance music and much in between.
The Teknoist “Cock Rott Columbo”. This actually reminds quite a bit of Hellfish. Extreme, loud, odd samples and relatively danceable, because there are many ‘straight beats’. Not as good as Hellfish, but this album comes pretty close.
DJ Donna Summer (also Jason Forrest and the man behind the label) earlier made a magnificent “BootyBreakTranceClubCore-Mix”, a completely “ADHD” mix with the weirdest tracks. This time the sound is more (happy) hardcore and though nice, not as good as the earlier mix.
Dev/Null “92-94 Oldschool Jungle Mix”. Dev/Null can makes some serious breakcore, but here we get his influences in the form of “oldschool jungle”. Remember “The Prodigy Experience”? Well, the “rave” and “jungle” (nowadays called “drum & bass”) are put together to a 48 minute mix. Funny, but not great.
Ladyscraper “The Death Of Mary Poppins”. Here we have it, some of the most extreme and f*cked up breakcore. No regular beats here, no returning themes, no melody, nothing of that all. This is Aphex Twin going berzerk or Squarpusher in overdrive. Too much for me, I might add. I can enjoy these twisted electronics, but I prefer some regularity here and there too and that is why I love Hellfish. Ladyscraper is something that you actually shouldn’t listen to get acquinted with the style, because it is about the extreme of it.
Since it is all free, have a try if you are up for new and extreme music. CRD also has paid download releases and a back-catalogue large enough to try a few things. Also more free music (including a label compilation), so I would say: have a look at the labels free music page.
Alec Empire is of course the man behind the DHR label and best known for the most famous (and almost most boring) DHR band Atari Teenage Riot. For his one-man-project Empire makes “d-jungle”. Very extreme drum’n’bass with extremely fast rhythms. But you will also hear more ‘classical’ digital hardcore with ‘gabba-beats’. This (I believe) first Empire cd is really great. A few tracks can be found on DHR compilations.
As far as I know the second cd of Alec Empire. By far not as good as “The Destroyer” but with two wonderfull tracks. More d&b experiments this time.
Mr Empire himself is undoubtely the most active man from the German digital hardcore scene. However I think his older work was quite interesting (solo, I hate Atari Teenage Riot), the newer recordings are fairly mediocre and Empire is surpassed left and right in extremity and originality by the new generation of digicore-artists. On this new cd Empire wanted to show that he is still “harder than the rest” (the name of the first DHR compilation). He made some kind of electronic speedmetal with guitars and all and this gave him a place on several metal festivals! Not too interesting though, except a few tracks. The thing I hate most of this cd is that Empire’s distorted voice is in almost every track with his hysterical screaming. I mostly prefer electronic music to be electronic… The second cd contains some modern (read: hip) experimentals in the fields of ambient and intelligent dance music.
Not too brilliant.
Well THIS is digital hardcore! Extreme anarchistic digital punk with a high level of extremety and a nice sick twist of originality. I definately think that this duo is the most interesting DHR act and this debut cd is a classic. Better than their following albums (see below). Try to get this one if you want real digital hardcore.
However I listen quite a bit to some digital hardcore and other hardcore techno artists once in a while, this is the first review in this vein. This is mostly caused by the fact that I buy older material which I find not really suitable to review. This one is also a bit older, but not too old.
I also have the nameless debut cd of this German electronic punk duo which is from 1995. This cd contains some violent techno and is really enjoyable. “The One And Only…” is the next that I hear from them, so I miss five years of evolution, but this ‘new’ disc is by far not as impressive as the debut. Actually the music became quite tranquil! There are still distorted beats and vocals, but everything became slower, the ‘terror beats’ disappeared and there is more of a punk attitude over the music.
Sadly enough this is not the first time that I had to conclude that digital hardcore of 5, 6 years ago sounded a lot better and more extreme.
However this is one of the first DHR projects, I don’t believe they made any full-lengths. This mcd is a mcd completed with live- recordings and deleted vinyls. In all lasting for 74 minutes for the price of a cd-single! Musically the Sonic Subjunkies make quite typical digital hardcore going from drum & bass-like techno to extreme straight-forward stuff. The live tracks are nice, but expecially the ‘Twin Peaks track’ is wonderfull. Some of the best digital hardcore from the early days!