Preface

About this E-Book

A look back at Hardcore in the 90s. Reviews, insights, history, background information related to labels, artists, tracks, and also some cultural musings about Hardcore and art in general towards the end of the book.
Some of these texts were originally written for "The Hard Data" magazine.

Content

Preface
History Of Hamburg Hardcore
Seven Hardcore Tracks That Changed My Life
10 Records As Building Blocks Of The Hamburg Hardcore Scene
The Early Days Of The Tracker Hardcore Scene
Hardcore On The 90s Internet
The Lost Treaure: .Mod Music
Review: Taciturne - 6 Fragmente In Der Chronologie Des Wahnsinns - Fischkopf 12
How I Learned To Love Hardcore
The Crisis Of Music
How Music Has Become Meaningless
Can Music Change The World?
The Next Hardcore Revolution

Credits

All texts written by Sönke Moehl

History Of Hamburg Hardcore

Hamburg is a more than 800 year old harbor town in the north of Germany. As such, it was always also a hotspot for a wide range of subcultures, cranks and crooks, rowdy sailors, prostitutes, pirates that found their place in shady pubs, back alleys and similar dark places.

I entered Hamburg in 1980 by birth, so I can’t tell you much about the 60s or 70s of Hamburg, but in the 80s, it was a place for anarchists, punks, rioters and similar people – creating the current for places of alternate music and political views to be set up. This is a bit of a back story for what happened in the 90s in Hamburg, regarding the then emerging hardcore techno scene.

Fischkopf

Container Records was a record store in the red light zone of Hamburg – the Reeperbahn – one story above a store for alternate clothing. It was focused on techno music only and one of the largest (or the largest?) of such stores in Hamburg. They also were involved in other things, such as running a record label also named Container. And this Container Records had a sublabel called Fischkopf.
The first generation of Fischkopf was a group of people around Martin, the owner of Container Records; I don’t know exactly who was directly involved in running the label, but Cybermouse, DJ Raid and Christoph De Babalon are names I heard over the years (please correct me).

Cybermouse got to Fischkopf because it was noted that he bought only the most extreme and obscure records at the store; something that made the crew think he’d fit right in, apparently. So the first Fischkopf record was released, “Surprise Attack” by Cybermouse. They were all done on an Amiga computer using tracker software and a special FX software; actually, the tracks were first released on a diskette magazine called “Neurowaver” (if you don’t know what a diskette magazine is, ask Google).
Cybermouse’s debut was followed by Christoph De Babalon’s debut, the “Love Under Will” EP, named after Aleister Crowley obviously. On it we find some of the most haunting music with “jungle beats” made in this era.

After a few more EPs, the management changed, and Hardy Storz took over. He steered Fischkopf into the direction that brought worldwide acclaim to it. Releasing experimental, intellectual music that at the same time is hardcore techno. In one of the rare interviews with him, he states that he was annoyed by the turn gabber had taken at that time; becoming more dumb, simplistic, macho. And Fischkopf for sure was the opposite of that.
Fischkopf had most of the major players in the more refined hardcore scene in those days on it’s rooster: Patric C as Eradicator, Lasse Steen with a variety of aliases, Nawoto Suzuki as Burning Lazy Persons, Taciturne, Amiga Shock Force and EPC, and the Michelson sisters Auto-Psy and No Name. Especially these two female fighters brought some of the most interesting music to this label; tracks that are so complex and structured and finetuned, that the word “hardcore” is almost too brutish for them.

Although the pressing for “Fisch” releases were limited to 500, they quickly got known worldwide in the more underground scenes. After a while also parties were set up by the Fisch crew, again in the red light district of Hamburg. These parties attracted a wide range of performers such as Rage Reset, DJ Entox, La Peste, and many many more. Without going too much into this, let’s just repeat Taciturne’s summary that the amount of fog issued in these nights in these dark, strobe filled rooms would’ve clouded a soccer arena.
Even though opposing the “commercial” “Dutch” “gabber” scene, Fischkopf spawned one big hit in exactly that scene; Taciturne’s totem which is still sought after, after all these years.
Fischkopf faltered in 1997; the exact reasons are not known, but talk is about disagreement on the direction to take Fischkopf between Hardy and Container; or that Fisch just did not generate enough “dough”.
One more release appeared in 1998 (and a test pressing of a “Fisch 26” by Cybermouse), only for Fischkopf to disappear completely after that.

Interesting fact: at one point, Alec Empire and Somatic Responses were planned for a Fischkopf release too.

Listening suggestion: Taciturne – 6 Fragmente In Der Chronologie Des Wahnsinns

Cross Fade Entertainment

DJ Raid, who was also involved in Fischkopf, set up this label with Paul Snowden and Christoph De Babalon. The word “hardcore” only vaguely fits here; this is just brilliant, brilliant subcultural music.
The first release was the premier release of Somatic Responses, who took the world by storm in the years (or rather, even decades) that followed. This was still a lot different to their later style: heavy, heavy distorted drums (or noises) in a 4/4 style, with experimental sounds in a vain of early synth experimental music. As fierce as fierce gets.

The second release was done by Christoph De Babalon and Paul Snowden, aptly named “We Declare War”. Paul Snowden’s site has some of the most distorted acid, and CDB brings us assault troop breakbeat tracks here, going on from his Fischkopf release.
In a rare German TV interview, CDB stated CFET to him is “auteur music”, in the sense that the artist take their music in their own individualist direction, regardless of trends. And the releases give proof of that.

Later, we find some fine breakcore releases on CFET.
I can’t find much info on this, but according to defunct websites, the CFET personnel was once involved in the “Repulsion Parties”, taking place inside the “Rote Flora”, the most infamous squat in Hamburg. Line ups included artists like E-De Cologne, Alec Empire and Somatic Responses.
CFET left Hamburg with Jan (CDB) and Paul moving to Berlin.

Listening suggestion: Christoph De Babalon & Paul Snowden – We Declare War

Nordcore

No Hamburg hardcore history text is complete without Nordcore. Nordcore started as “Die Tekknokraten” organizing small techno and hardcore parties, changing the name later. As Nordcore they run a weekly hardcore club called “The Box”, in the midst of Hamburg. I think this was one of the only regular hardcore clubs worldwide that existed in the 90s outside of Netherlands and Belgium; the Bunker in Berlin being another important location.
Almost all the big names in hardcore, gabber and speedcore scene played in the box; Speedfreak, the PCP crew including Smash? (sic), BSE DJ team, Laurent Hô, E-De Cologne… And also a lot of the Dutch DJs.

It were speedy times, but The Box had to close in 1996; much too soon!
The parties got bigger though, and Nordcore moved to the Markthalle, usually a location for rock and pop bands, with their “Operation Nordcore” parties, again attracting all the “big name” performers to play.

Nordcore continued their hardcore journey way long into the 2000s in Hamburg; and maybe we will see them resurface?
They also ran a record label, called Nordcore Records; and, beginning with issue 5, compiled the “Terrordrome” CDs, the biggest name in hardcore CDs in the 90s, only eclipsed by Thunderdome.

Listening suggestion: Nordcore GMBH – Hartcore Will Never Die

Blut

After Hardy left Container, he set up his own record store, called Otaku Records, again with a “Hardcore” label, called Blut Records; and in many way a spiritual successor to Fischkopf Records.
The rooster was similar too: Taciturne, Nawoto, Amiga Shock Force and EPC. We also find a record that was originally planned as Fischkopf 25 here, Taciturne with Ebizieme.

The sound was taken a step farther in extremism with this label, so be prepared for a noise assault on your ears; but, again, a sensible one.
The record store itself was also a good destination to shop for obscure and not so obscure hardcore, speedcore and breakcore records in Hamburg, with it’s own special charme.
Blut never officially ended, but there was no release after Blut 6; a shame!

Listening Suggestion: Taciturne & EPC – Vendetta Vol.1 EP

Hardcore didn’t end in the 90s in Hamburg, but that, my child, is written in another tome…

Seven Hardcore Tracks That Changed My Life

Some tracks hit you harder than others. They go beyond conventions, challenge boundaries, explore
new sonic terrain. They change your whole perception of music. These are seven tracks I considered
groundbreaking on first listen and after.

Inferno Bros. – Slaves To The Rave

The internet was not nearly as big as it is now in the mid 90s. You couldn’t find easily information about
“Underground Hardcore” on it. So which tracks, which music you knew was mostly defined by CDs or
Records you bought in a record store. And these were mostly defined by the Dutch Gabber market –
ID&T, Mokum, if you’re lucky you’d find a release by Ruffneck or K.N.O.R…. So I didn’t know what I
was in for when I bought a new double-CD by the Raver’s Night series, compiled by Ruffneck Records.
The beginning track was Slaves To The Rave by Inferno Bros. I had heard of PCP before, and listened to
some sounds, but barely knew anything really about this label. This changed with this track. It was just
so different from the standardized “Hardcore” and Gabber. There was so much in it, so many elements,
emotions, it picked you up and took you on its own vibe, so far away… what is not to praise about this
track? The intro, the breakdown, the main synths… a true classic.

Wedlock vs. Comababy – Void Sector

When I listened to this track I was still very much in “Dutch Gabber” territory and didn’t know about
labels like Fischkopf, Blut, Anticore yet. I found this track on an “Earthquake” compilation by ID&T. But
it stood out from the common Gabber arsenal. It had a “Spiral Tribe” sample, cold, industrial drumming,
a futuristic atmosphere… but the main thing for me was the synths that were used in this track.
Something I did not hear before, so otherworldly, so “out there”, like you were walking another planet…
I had to listen to this track on repeat for a lot of times. In my opinion, this track is a kind of “missing
link” between Experimental Hardcore and the more Dance-orientated Dutch Gabber productions.

Atari Teenage Riot – Into The Death

So I broke free from the “Supermarket Gabber” CDs I consumed and finally found a real record store
in the midst of Hamburg – “Container Records”, which was, amongst other things, the home of Fischkopf. One of
the first things I bought was “Harder Than The Rest”, a compilation with Digital Hardcore Records
artists. The tracks were all very nice to me, but when I came to “Into The Death”… I was blown away.
There was so much action packed into this track. Pure aggression. An endless onslaught of screams,
noise and beats. I got goosebumps and once the track was finished I had to listen to it again. To this
day this track is an example for me of how you produce a sound that is crammed with excitement.

Somatic Responses – Umbrella

I knew the music of Somatic Responses from the now defunct c8.com website, the main central of Experimental
Hardcore in the 90s and beyond. I got to know them personally on a mailing list, and we decided to exchange our
demos. So in the cold autumn of 1998 I opened a parcel with a demotape by the Somatix. And once I
put the tape in the player, I was gone. The opening synths of Umbrella… I never heard something like
this before. It changed my outlook at music forever. I know another artist who also listened to this track
described the sound by Somatics as “feeling as if you walk through a dystopic world of burned out
industrial building and cyborg wars”. Couldn’t agree more. This track is still amongst my favorites by the
Somatix. It had a huge influence on my own productions too, and I would suppose on a lot of other artists as well.

Frederik Schikowski – Ring My Bell

This gem was hidden on one of the infamous Irritant tape compilations. A mean, dirty little track.
Unusual for Frederik, it reminds of an Acid-Techno-Electro track, something that could’ve been on Mono
Tone or Force Inc. But the thing for me were the synth sounds, oddly squealing and distorted. The track
just sounded so exotic and different. A mental atmosphere, and a mind trip. A huge influence on my own track “Urban Uprising”.

Disintegrator – In The Sun

This track was actually one of the first Hardcore tracks I heard, as it was on the “Industrial Fucking
Strength” mix CD that I bought in the Gabber section of a chain store. But it wasn’t after 2000 that I
I first listened to the track in full length. It is a masterpiece in dystopic Techno. Wailing choirs like an air
raid warning, a voice muttering “Defcon, Defcon”, sounds like heavy vehicles moving, a killer
bassdrum… what else do you need. A true definition of “Hardcore Techno” and it shows how far ahead
even “older” sound could be. This track set me on a journey to discover the more Techno side of
Hardcore again, after the Breakcore “hype” of the late 90s.

303 Nation – Seis

Oh yeah. This track. A cryogenic nightmare on an outer space colony. Something went wrong but you
can hear the humming of the machines in the distance…
This is a very simple track really, just a drum and a bassline… but so effective in its simple ways.
Words can’t praise this track, and the whole “6 Tracker” release, enough. It’s just so peculiar, so much
there, so special… 303 Nation were true masters of Techno, and this was the high point of their art.

So these were some tracks that made an impact on me, and I hope there are much more to come.

10 Records As Building Blocks Of The Hamburg Hardcore Scene

These are some of the records that build the hardcore scene in Hamburg as well as created the reputation that Hamburg has as a source for sophisticated hardcore. The tracks that were played at smoke and strobe-filled squat parties and sold at dodgy rave-techno record stores.

01. Auto-Psy – Necrophage (Fischkopf) https://www.discogs.com/Auto-Psy-Necrophage/master/12122
02. No Name – Les Loups Des Trois Lunes (Fischkopf) https://www.discogs.com/No-Name-Les-Loups-Des-Trois-Lunes/release/24340
03. Somatic Responses – Methods Of Mutulation (CFET) https://www.discogs.com/Somatic-Responses-Methods-Of-Mutulation/master/232745
04. Taciturne – 6 Fragmente In Der Chronologie Des Wahnsinns (Fischkopf) https://www.discogs.com/Taciturne-6-Fragmente-In-Der-Chronologie-Des-Wahnsinns/release/118195
05. Nordcore GMBH – Dead Man (Nordcore Records) https://www.discogs.com/Nordcore-GMBH-Dead-Man/master/281223
06. Christoph De Babalon – Love Under Will (Fischkopf) https://www.discogs.com/Christoph-De-Babalon-Love-Under-Will-EP/release/118150
07. Eradicator – Agit Prop (Fischkopf) https://www.discogs.com/Eradicator-Agit-Prop/master/497762
08. Various Artists – Compilation (CFET) https://www.discogs.com/Various-Compilation/release/133272
09. Nordcore GMBH – Hartcore City Downtown )(Nordcore Records) https://www.discogs.com/Nordcore-GMBH-Hartcore-City-Downtown/release/16386
10. Fields Of Defacement – Desorientatet (Fischkopf) https://www.discogs.com/Fields-Of-Defacement-Desorientatet-EP/master/283278

The Early Days Of The Tracker Hardcore Scene

I want to talk about tracker music, including hardcore. Tracker music was and is done on tracker programs like Soundtracker, Protracker, Fasttracker, Impulse Tracker and countless others.

What people will notice first is the abstract, “top down” view of the sequencer screen, very much unlike the layout of modern DAW programs. Trackers were, to most part, a digital form of producing. The basic sequencing was done by writing the sound to be used (the sample) and the pitch into the sequence editor. All channels were on the same screen (so for example you had to sequence hi-hats and bassdrum and bassline together and could not “add them later”).

These “patterns” were then put into a playing order in another screen. You could add “effects” to each note played such as pitchbent or vibrato, and in later trackers even filtering.

The finished result was saved as modules files, or MODs. These contained both the song and the samples that were used.

In the present day, Tracker technology has improved by a lot; programs like Renoise or Jeskola Buzz added hundreds of new functions and changes in the style and way to produce. Buzz allows you to use a variety of soft-synths written for the program, for example, so you no longer have to rely on sampling.

Before the internet, these modules were spread in the BBS scene. BBS was short for Bulletin Board System and to an internet user it’s hard to explain what exactly they were. A BBS was run on a computer and you could dial it up with your own computer and a modem – around the globe basically – and when you accessed the BBS it offered services like messaging boards, chat (where you could talk to other users that had dialed up the BBS at the same time as you), games, and download sections – were amongst other things track modules could be downloaded or uploaded.

Tracker artists often organized themselves in groups, so called crews. These crews usually were not just composed of musicians, but had also graphic artists, writers, and often programmers – “coders”; they turned the individual tracks into a release of multiple tracks with visuals and menus – kinda like a multimedia LP. Often these releases were stand-alone programs done by the coders which played so called demos while the modules played – graphic animations, often in a virtual reality and cyberspace style, sometimes even short movies, that tested the computing power of your system to its limits.

This is where the tracker scene met the demo scene; demos could be written for existing tracks, or demo coders included tracks for the demos; so sometimes the music came first, sometimes the programming.

The crews had so called couriers that dialed up BBS sytems around the country or world to spread the tracker releases. Often a crew had its own BBS or a BBS was connected to several crews.

With the rise of the internet, the world of BBS systems faded quickly; but the tracker and demo scene moved to the net and survives on it to this day.

With the rise of techno and hardcore, this sound quickly spread to the tracker scene too in the early 90s; long before speedcore really took its hold on vinyl, tracks that exceeded 300 or 400 bpm were released as modules.

Most producers and crews were not “hardcore only” though, and did a variety of techno and electronic styles.

The tracker and demo scene were the root for many techno and hardcore artists in the 90s: Nasenbluten, Neophyte, E-De Cologne, Christoph De Babalon, Amiga Shock Force all started on tracker programs and many many more did so. Hardsequencer, Cybermouse, Bomb 20 and others had releases in the BBS or Amiga scene before their sounds was put to vinyl and CD.

But the vast majority of tracker music never saw the light of day outside its scene; just the couriers and crews and users of the BBS world knew about them. But now there are some archives for this very scene on the internet. It’s a sonic treasure that’s still be to dug up.

Here are three mixes that are showcasing the early tracker hardcore scene:

AMIGA SHOCK FORCEBOMB 20CHRISTOPH DE BABALON

Hardcore On The 90s Internet

Three examples of how it was to be a Hardcore fan / artist in the 90s and using the Internet when the World Wide Web still seemed a new thing and Facebook and Youtube didn’t exist.

Biophilia

In the 90s, there were not so many ways for artists to connect on the internet. One of these ways were mailing lists; you were added to a list, and then you could send emails to this list, and all other members too, and everyone would get forwarded anyone else’s mails. A quite rudimentary way of communication. One of these lists was the Biophilia list, run by Multipara. Before discogs.com, there were also not so many ways to find a discography of your favorite label online. Multipara catered to that need too. He had a website which listed records on such labels as Fischkopf, Mono Tone, Mille Plateaux… I got into contact with him to ask some questions about Fischkopf and later also supplied information myself, as I was “at the source” in Hamburg where the label was run. Eventually he invited me to the Biophilia list too. This mailing list orignally was intended as a list for people who liked the music of Martin Damm, also known as Speedfreak or Biochip C. and other aliases – hence the name of the list, but it then became more a list for “underground” electronic sounds, including Experimental Hardcore, Early Breakcore and similar outings. Members included Thaddi from the Sonic Subjunkies, Joel from kool.pop / ex-DHR, Andy from Irritant and I think DJ Entox and John from the Somatic Responses, was on there too, as well as many other artists or enthuasists of strange electronic music.
As so many artists were on the list, Multipara got the idea to do a compilation with the very artists of this list, and it happened.
The styles of this release are very varied and definitely show the varying interests of the members of this mailing list; from Chiptune and Ambient to Detroit type Techno to Breakcore and Speedcore everything is here.
My own contribution was the first thing that ever was released by me, Adrenaline Junkie, a 800 BPM Speedcore affair that was 1998 amongst the fastest tracks out there on vinyl.
It was really a special time and community, and this double vinyl was a special result out of it and it makes a nice memory to the mailing list, this rather “primitive” form of internet communicaton.

Gabber on EFnet IRC

Another trip down memory lane. In the 90s, there was no Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger. If you wanted to chat online, you would likely use Internet Relay Chat, or IRC. IRC was organized in chatroom channels that ran on servers, that then were connected in huge networks. One of these networks was EFnet, and it had a channel called #gabber, run by DJ Skinner of Black Monolith Recordings. We were a dozen and a half users on there, including Acid Enema, Eye-D from The Outside Agency, Maurice from Rotterdam Terminator Source and lots of others (Satronica, Knifehandchop, Interrupt Vector etc.). It was good times, lots of networking happened, and the beginning of Black Monolith Recordings was laid in that chatroom, and it was also how I got into contact with that label when I sent an early demo of “Urban Uprising” to Skinner – the rest is history. Memories!

C8.com and P2

Third trip down memory lane… we talked about chatrooms and mailing lists… but there was no social media to spread infos and sounds about Hardcore and related music in the 1990s. Instead there were websites and the biggest (for this type of music) was c8.com. It hosted PCP, an early incarnation of Bloody Fist, Somatic Responses and much, much more. The site hosted articles of various fanzines, preview music of plenty of releases, contact and background information and artists and more stuff. It was run by Stevvi who also started a mailing list for artists, fans and everyone else to communicate about what he called “dark, sick music”, and it was. While the list thrived for a few years, it ultimately decayed eventually, with lots of “shitposts” and other stuff, a taster of the Internet culture to come. So he set up a secret mailing list called P2, invite-only and only for the Hardcore elite… just kidding, mostly friends and people who had networked, and people around C8 who could hold a meaningful debate. It was host to many a great conversations, exchange of communication and connecting of artists, also some “scene fights” that almost 20 years later we can laugh about, and even some musical projects such as the c8 99 one (making tracks that last only 99 seconds, I think some of the Somatic Responses ones later got released). Artists on P2 were for example Boris Cavage, Noize Creator, and I think DJ Pure and Christoph Fringeli.
One of the CD-Rs I sent to Stevvi he advertised on P2 (and put it in the music section of c8.com) and this led to the release of my Kougai split with Cdatakill and my Widerstand album, and other stuff.

Nice memories again, of an era when communication was more limited but also more direct and the scene appeared smaller, before today’s version of the Internet.

The Lost Treaure: .Mod Music

before the internet, there was the BBS scene. it is more or less unknown by now; what was it? basically, you had a modem, not a modern cable modem but one that could only send a few kilobytes per second. and with that you could connect to a BBS with other users; think of it as a webpage that had blocky 4

color graphics and chat, downloads, forums and other things, but you could only use one at a time and a download could take 1 hour in which you can not

use the computer. this was where the .mod scene strived. mods were and are tracks, songs, made by a tracker; they had two parts, the samples and the

sequences of the songs. which means that everyone could remix a mod he downloaded with direct access to all the samples and melodies, and this was encouraged. the BBS scene was huge; a large city could have literally hundreds of BBSes, and the .mod scene was huge too, and is still largely ignored, or just not known, by now. it was composed of enthusiasts from all walks of life who made music on their tracker programs and shared it for free. mods were uploaded as single files, as releases such as compilations, or used in so called "demos" (visual and auditive programs that showed the possibilites of computer graphics or told a story), and other things. they were also used in computergames and the largest part of, for example, amiga computergame tunes in that era were based on mod music. .mods came in all styles; techno, electro, jungle, industrial, dark ambient, "rock", hiphop - you name it. and they had many genres that only existed in the mod world, including the typical mod sound.

and amongst this is some of the most exciting, brilliant, creative, genius and genuine music i ever heard; i was disappointed with most "known" musical genres a few years ago, and when i rediscovered computer mods, it felt so fresh, so exciting, so new.

they have qualites that i found nowhere, or rather, seldomly in any other music.

what is so exciting about mods is hard to tell; check them out for yourself; it would be something to explore. i think it is largely because it is some of the most abstract music ever made. to me, it is more abstract than most experimental electronics i know. it is purely logical, technological, digital computer music made by pure nerds. this might not sound exciting, but trust me, it is.

one problem with the current lack of recognition of mod music is well, that they are enticingly cheesy often. there are very dark and sombre mod tunes; in fact there are mods i consider some of the darkest music i know. yet, let's face it, most are more a happy trip. the constant major chords and pitched up vocal sounds. yet, lately, people have started to look through the cheesiness of pop music and came to appreciate it; couldn't the same be done with mods? the seemingly happy sound doesn't feel out of place; it too feels synthetic and abstract.

so, yes, as i said, what stunned me was the amount of creativity and energy that was put into these tunes. there are harmonic strcuctures, rhythm structures, i rarely seen elsewhere. it is one of most creative examples of the use of sample based music.

just like videogame music has seen a surge of interest and serious appreciation in the last years, i think in the next years, or decade, the popularity for mod music might rise significantly too. be sure to check it out; there is so much wonderful music to be found.