June is going to be a crazy month for Hard Music in the United States. Among the craziness comes the first edition of Overload Festival, Colorado’s biggest Hardstyle party to date. The lineup consists of a wide variety of acts – Code Black, Da Tweekaz, LNY TNZ, Gammer & Noisecontrollers will be taking over Denver on June 17th – a totally new experience for Colorado.
Check out the Overload trailer here:
We spoke to Da Tweekaz about their upcoming visit to Denver, and learned a little bit about their career as well.
Hi guys! We can’t wait to have you in Denver, Colorado. It’s been a long time coming. What’s something you absolutely have to do when you come out here?
Well, we definitely can’t wait. It’s really exciting to know that a festival which includes Harder Styles is popping up in Denver. What are we going to do? We don’t know.. got any tips for us? We love to spend our time discovering new places during our travels. All tips are welcome.
Good stuff! So, you guys have had quite the year already, with multiple gigs in the US lined up at the biggest Hard Music parties in the country. Can you tell us how you two crazy Scandinavian guys ended up touring the world?
Well, we’ve been DJing for almost 10 years now. And like everyone, we started out small. Doing some really small gigs in Norway and some other Scandinavian countries. We were also always producers (just not Hardstyle, until we decided to join forces – but that’s another story). We believe our music is quite unique and after a few releases on DJU back in the days, we were contacted by Dirty Workz and it all just went up from there. The last 5 or so years has been amazing, sometimes even hectic. So many countries, so many events, so much flying and traveling. We think the key is that we are quite a unique DJ duo in the scene. We produce music that other artists may not want to risk producing (Disney-tracks anyone?) and we deliver a fun, energetic and above all happy DJ performance. So, that just rubs off on the crowd.
Your music has a very unique energy to it. What separates you guys from the rest of the EDM world?
We like to take risks and we like to have a lot of fun doing it. If a track doesn’t make us smile, then we don’t use it. When people listen to music or visit an event, more often than not, they’re there to forget about the World, about their daily lives and just have the ultimate good time. That’s exactly what we want to give to the audience, and it also makes our job a lot easier because we have a blast as well.
We’ve seen you do some unorthodox stuff, like bootlegs of Disney songs, and tracks with crazy samples of rubber ducks and numerous video games. What inspires you guys to think out of the box like this?
We’re actually pretty geeky guys. We love to play games (from retro classics to the new adventure games), we love collecting geeky stuff, we love watching TV series and all types of movies during our many inflight hours and we can say we have quite a broad fantasy. So, basically we’re just 2 kids in an adult body. That helps a lot, although our bodies wish they were a little younger 🙂
When you guys perform, you are entirely in sync. How much time do you spend practicing your moves on stage?
Yeah, we spend at least 3 days a week working on our choreo in front of a mirror. Those fist bumps and facial expressions are hard work. Haha, no that’s a joke. In all seriousness, our “moves” just come to us naturally. We’ve been performing together for 10 years now we know each other’s style and we know our own tracks, so it’s really easy for us to keep in sync and sometimes do some out of the ordinary things. We just have fun together, that helps a lot.
You guys have a totally crazy artist name. I’m a little scared to ask this, but what is the story behind it?
Well, it’s not what you think (if that’s what you’re thinking about ;)). To “tweek” something in producer terms is to turn on knobs and fiddle around until you get that sound you’re after. Spice it up a bit with some “cool” sounding letters and there you have it.
Finally, please tell us a little bit about what you’ve got coming up this year. What can we expect from Da Tweekaz in 2017?
Well, you mentioned it earlier. 2016 was an insane year for us. We did our Tweekay16 project, after the success of the project we did in 2014. We released one track each month along with a video clip. It was so intense, definitely because we had a lot less studio time to work with in 2016, so the deadlines were killing. So, usually after such an intense project we like to keep the next year a little less hectic, otherwise we’re pretty sure we’d be headed for a rapid burn-out. So, this year we’re concentrating on our “Tweeka Tour” which is guided with some pretty awesome artwork and press photos (check our Facebook page), performing as much as possible while still slamming out tracks. Just no deadlines.
2018 will be a special year for us, so we’re working on another project for 2018 as well.
Thanks for the interview guys! See you at OVERLOAD Festival!
“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!
April 28-29 marked the return of Basscon: Wasteland to Southern California. Hard dance enthusiasts had traveled from far and wide for this show; I personally knew people coming from as far as New York, New Jersey and Arizona. Tales of the ancient ruins being uncovered to reveal a hard dance paradise had spread and all were out to claim their part of this treasure. My caravan and I began our journey through the deserts of San Bernardino in search of any signs of civilized life, and in our search we encountered a surge of ravers who were ready to party. I began my weekend sitting down with the esteemed hard dance aficionado, The Qollector. The Qollector is an archaeologist of hard dance artifacts dating as far back as the 20th century and it truly was remarkable seeing some of these curios and artifacts up close! He had booklets, flyers, CDs and more from In Qoltrol, HardBass, Qlimax, Defqon 1, and Decibel just to name a few. Check out our interview here
The next stop along our route to the Wasteland took a bizarre twist as we met with America’s Only Hardcore Terror DJ Team: Extreme Team. These poor lads must have spent too much time in the hot sun which had apparently impaired their cognitive function. They appeared incoherent and I knew it was my duty as a fellow raver to take them back to my hotel room and provide them nourishment by way of more vodka. We talked about some of their inspirations as artist, about some of their upcoming releases, and about their show at the Hardroadz after party: Arcadia The Promise Land. We have documented the encounter with Extreme Team on Facebook live that can be viewed here. As you may be able to tell, they were beyond our help and we had to release them back into the desert to fend for themselves.
We took a moment to fuel our bodies with refreshments and food before the show and then it was time to go. Our chief navigator from Uber had received coordinates of where Wasteland could be found and he arrived at our basecamp to take us there! Upon our arrival inside the festival it was clear that we were not alone, thousands of hard dance fans had descended upon Wasteland and were ready to party! The landscape consisted of one outdoor oasis with a two stages and refreshments, and large ancient temple of massive pyramids, golden sphinxes, hundreds of lasers, confetti, CO2 cannons and even glistening disco balls… it was spectacular to behold this treasure with my own eyes! The gods themselves took to the main stage and descended down upon the ravers with a relentless pounding of hardstyle and hardcore beats!
I decided to get some refreshments and walked past the outdoor stage where I watched Zany end his set with Lose My Mind. Following Zany, DJ Stephanie took to the stage. While talking to some friends, I was listening to Stephanie in the background and she immediately caught my attention in an unexpected way. She started playing one of my favorite hardcore tracks, Let’s Get It On by Art of Fighters and Endymion. I knew I needed to make it to the front of the crowd during this track as she continued to play hardcore until the end of her set! Stephanie earned the title of most unexpected stand out set of the night. I finished Basscon Night 1 with Angerfist at the mainstage. A few of the tracks he dropped were Why So Serious by Tha Playah, Fist in your Face, Just Like Me, and Raise and Revolt.
After exploring Basscon Wasteland, we made our way to the Hardroadz: Arcadia The Promise Land after party to see the Extreme Team perform. Their set began with exclusive solo set by Tim Shopp and was immediately followed by typical Extreme Team madness! The small but passionate crowd was loving the terror. By the end of their set it was time to venture back to basecamp to let our bodies recover before Day 2.
Day 2 began with a buffet of food to fuel our injured bodies, followed by a trip to the hotel’s jacuzzi to massage our sore muscles. We then prepared our caravan to go to the show once more. Unfortunately, 2 of our fellow party goers succumbed to Wasteland’s wrath and were left behind to pray to the porcelain gods in the hotel room. RIP
At the outdoor stage, I caught the end of Ruthless dropping a awesome freestyle set. His track selection ranged from tek to euphoric, to raw hardstyle and even some hardcore. Some of the tracks he played included Wolfpack, Reawakening, The Project and Lost In Paradise. At one point, he even had the entire crowd chanting Gaan met die Bannan (with a little help from myself and the Extreme Team to get it going 😜). At the main stage, DJ Isaac was keeping the good vibes going. Isaac played the crowd with Last Night Ever, Till The Sky Falls Down, but then unexpectedly Ruthless jumped onto Isaac’s set and played Gaan Met Die Bannan again!
This expedition into the dessert to experience Basscon: Wasteland was unforgettable. It was remarkable to see how large of a crowd showed up for a weekend of hard dance, how many people traveled from out of state to participate, and how much energy and enthusiasm all the ravers brought to the show! I sincerely hope Basscon will continue to pursue bigger and bigger shows and I look forward to them with great anticipation. Up next for Basscon, catch them at the Basscon Pool Party EDC weekend at the Stratosphere, at the Basscon Wasteland stage at EDC Las Vegas, and at the highly anticipated second edition of Project Z!
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.
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!
DJ Wildstylez has been at the forefront of hardstyle for over a decade. We had a chance to catch up with him before his performance this weekend at Basscon Wasteland!
Joram, thank you so much for taking the time to interview with me! Tell us, when and how did you first become interested in music?
Music has always been important to me. When I was young I played guitar in several small bands. After that I started producing music myself and left the Rock Academy. I had a new passion and was determined to become a professional DJ/producer!
Were you influenced by other artists or genres? If so, which ones?
As a beginner, it is hard to give your productions your own sound, so I listened to the music of older producers like The Prophet a lot. Through the years, I started to develop my own sound and had the guts to create something I like instead of pleasing others. My first track had typical hardstyle sounds, but also some different unusual elements. These were my first steps to the real Wildstylez sound.
How do you balance your life with other obligations?
My life as a DJ is very unbalanced because I travel a lot. For example, this month I have 14 gigs in 9 countries and 3 continents. Yes, that also means a lot of hotels and a major jetlag from time to time haha! When I’m in Holland I’m working in the studio as much as possible during the week. When I get home it’s time to relax!
How do you prepare for a big show? Do you have any pre-show rituals that you follow?
I don’t really have a pre-show ritual. Most of the time I relax a bit in my hotel when I’m abroad. I always make sure to take time to do some research on the events I play at. Therefore, I know some practical things like the capacity and line up. Of course, every country has a different audience. It never gets boring!
Project One at Qlimax in 2008
You and DJ Headhunterz performed at Qlimax 2008 as Project One, now 8 years later, you reappeared together at Qlimax 2016. How did it feel to bring back Project One after so many years?
Bringing back Project One at Qlimax this year was one of the highlights of my career! It felt great to share one stage with Headhunterz again and to produce new music for this act.
Can you give us any hints on upcoming releases by either yourself or on Lose Control Music?
I have a lot of new music coming up! Currently I’m working with Hard Driver in the studio and I recently finished two solo tracks. In May I will release my collab with Noisecontrollers and Bass Modulators at Lose Control Music. Of course I’m going to play some new material at Wasteland as well!
Are you excited to be back in the US for Basscon: Wastelend? Do you have anything special planned for the party?
I am crazy excited to be back in the US again because it has been awhile! I am really looking forward meeting my American fans again! Let’s make this crowd move. ☺
Wildstylez is guaranteed to make the crowd go crazy! Make sure you don’t miss his set at Basscon Wasteland on Friday, April 28!
