Hard Electronic addicts in the USA are in for a treat this month, as Malke brings his musical artistry to New York and Los Angeles. For those of you not familiar with him yet, we were able to get a few words out of him while he was preparing for the shows.
Ok Malke, tell us the basics…
I’m from Campo Grande, Brazil. There I’ve had the opportunity to enjoy dance music at clubs at early age, which instilled a passion for the music right away.
What’s the story behind your DJ Name?
Well, Malke is actually one of my surnames, so that was kind of easy to come up with.
What are you trying to convey with your music?
Energy and excitement are the two words that best describe what I want to deliver to the audience. I love to blend the chaos of metal music concerts with the danceable mood of the clubs and festivals. Sometimes the lyrics on my tracks have deeper messages related with politics and society but some others I’ve only looked for cool sounding words and that’s it.
Malke killing the drums!
What moments do you cherish the most so far in your career as an artist?
If I had to pick just a few I’d definitely pick my first international gig in Venezuela and my moving to Europe was another really important step up in my career. Playing at Nature One this year was definitely out of the chain but also my debut album on Industrial Strength Records is something I am really proud of.
What can the audience expect from you at Hard Electronic?
I brought all my collection, from Techno to extreme Hardcore, so I have the freedom, within my style, to follow what I feel the crowd is wanting to hear at each moment.
Anything extra you want to say before signing off?
Thank you to all hard electronic music supporters out there, you really rock!
This is what Malke looks like when the party gets pumping!
Каждый раз, когда микс “Rock the Blockchain” (автор диджей Deadly Buda) проигрывается на платформе Musicoin.org, 15 отдельных музыкальных треков в жанре электронной танцевальной музыки, а также их авторы, в течение нескольких секунд автоматически получают оплату.
Этот микс был завершен в 2:00 13 августа 2017 года, когда Deadly Buda выполнил интеграцию 19 “смарт-контрактов” на блокчейне Musicoin и приложил их к своему диджейскому миксу. “В целом, это кардинальная перемена для любого музыкального жанра, в котором участвует диджей: EDM, Disco, House и Hip-Hop,” – сказал DJ Deadly Buda.
С тех пор, как формат диджейских миксов обрел популярность в 1970-е, он до сих пор пребывает в полулегальном состоянии. Поскольку записанный микс является непрерывным сочетанием нескольких отдельных песен или «треков», он требует многочисленных разрешений, документов и лицензий, чтобы стать юридически совместимым. К тому времени, когда необходимые документы готовы, аудитория обычно рассматривает музыку в миксе устаревшей, поскольку в моду уже вошло новое звучание. Следовательно, большинство диджеев на протяжении десятилетий не удосуживались получать разрешения и выпускали миксы «незаконно» на кассетах, компакт-дисках, а теперь на платформах Soundcloud и Youtube. Как правило, основные авторы в этих миксах не получают денег за свою музыку и часто даже не упоминаются в титрах. По этой причине диджеи часто не предоставляют плейлисты, чтобы избежать контроля, ограничений по времени, отсутствия надлежащей маркировки на танцевальных записях или, в худшем случае, хотят все внимание привлечь только к своей персоне.
Как ни странно, танцевальные продюсеры делают свою музыку специально, чтобы на ее основе можно было делать миксы, и призывают популярных диджеев использовать свои песни. Диджейские миксы, зачастую технически незаконные, являются основным каналом рекламы для небольших сцен танцевальной музыки или талантливых исполнителей. Итак, в течение последних нескольких десятилетий музыкальная индустрия вообще не применяла свои авторские права на диджейские миксы, хотя и могла это всегда сделать . Следовательно, диджеи, опасаясь потенциального обвинения, редко могут публиковать свои миксы для большой аудитории или получать гораздо больший доход, чем стоимость записей или Mp3, использованных в миксе. Кумулятивный эффект этой полулегальности заключается в том, что диджейские миксы по-прежнему считаются «андеграундом», хотя аудитория слушателей танцевальной музыки очень хорошо их принимает.
“Чем больше я узнавал о технологии блокчейна, тем отчетливее я понимал, что проблемы с законностью диджейских миксов близки к тому, чтобы уйти в прошлое,” – утверждает DJ Deadly Buda, – все разрешения, документы и платежи могут быть выполнены мгновенно.”
Технология блокчейна – это, в общем виде, распределенная база данных, поддерживаемая несколькими компьютерами. Самый популярный в мире блокчейн – Биткоин, он вдохновил другие блокчейны нацелиться на конкретные сферы мировой экономики. Musicoin, как следует из названия, ориентирован на музыку, музыкантов и поклонников. Когда пользователь воспроизводит песню на musicoin.org, исполнитель песни получает один Musicoin (стоит около 0,01-0,02 доллара США), и это происходит за считанные секунды.
Система блокчейна Musicoin позволяет музыканту загружать песню и прикладывать так называемый «смарт-контракт», который может распределять платежи нескольким сторонам, если это необходимо. Например, смарт-контракт можно запрограммировать так, чтобы каждый раз, когда играется песня, барабанщик, певец, гитарист и басист в группе получали раздельную оплату.
«Когда я понял, что каждая песня в системе Musicoin имеет свой собственный платежный адрес, я вспомнил множество знакомых музыкантов, делающих отличную музыку, которая подходит для загрузки. Затем я попросил разрешения использовать их музыку в моем миксе, – сказал Deadly Buda. – После встречи с некоторыми из музыкантов было решено использовать следующую формулу: 40% дохода от микширования поступает диджею, а 60% равномерно распределяются между песнями в миксе. Диджей проводит много времени, просеивая кучу музыки, чтобы найти драгоценные камни, которые затем он или она играет для публики, поэтому я хотел одновременно учесть эти трудозатраты и расходы, в то же время оставив достаточно места для каждой песни, чтобы она могла заработать деньги ».
Новая парадигма создания и оплаты диджейских миксов теперь официально существует благодаря DJ Deadly Buda и Musicoin, “но предстоит еще много работы, – говорит Deadly Buda. – В самом ближайшем будущем, вероятно, появится только одно поле для ввода данных, которое сможет использовать музыкант и которое даст всем участникам системы право на микширование их музыки, поскольку она будет оплачиваться через смарт-контракт. Как только это произойдет, систему уже невозможно будет остановить, она принесет огромную пользу как существующей музыкальной индустрии, так и новым музыкантам.”
The system that makes this possible was made public at about 2:00 AM, on August 13, 2017, when Deadly Buda finalized the integration of 19 “smart contracts” on the Musicoin blockchain and attached them to his DJ mix on Musicoin.org. “This will completely change the dance music landscape,” said DJ Deadly Buda, “it’s a
development on par with the introduction of the 12” single or the crossfader. It will change the way we do things creatively and the listener will be the winner.”
The DJ mix contains 15 EDM tracks of various genres, hard electronic, dubstep, hardstyle, hard bass, jungle, drum and bass, hardcore techno, shamancore, tekno, and ambient, by artists Counterstrike, Satroniq & DJ Delirium, Teknoaidi, Subterranean, Cap, M27, Harhor, and Deadly Buda.
The DJ mix format was popularized in the 1970’s and since then has existed in a quasi-legal state. A recorded DJ mix is a continuous blend of several separate songs or “tracks”. To be traditionally legally compliant, this requires numerous permissions, paperwork, and licenses. By the time the paperwork is done, the audience generally considers the music in the mix old, and has moved on to the latest sound in fashion. Consequently, most DJs over the decades haven’t bothered to get the permissions, and have released the mixes “illegally” on cassettes, CDs, and now, SoundCloud and YouTube. Generally, the artists in these mixes aren’t receiving any compensation for their music and oftentimes aren’t even credited as part of the mix. Many DJs don’t supply playlists due to avoiding scrutiny, time constraints, lack of proper labeling on dance records, or at worst, just wanting all the attention for themselves.
Ironically, dance music producers make their music specifically so that it can be mixed by DJs, and clamor for popular DJs to use their songs. DJ mixes, though often technically illegal, are the main channel of publicity for smaller dance music scenes or up-and-coming talent. So for the last few decades, the music industry has generally not enforced their copyrights against DJ mixes while retaining their right to do so. Consequently, the DJs, still fearing potential incrimination, can rarely publicize their mixes on a grand scale or derive much more income than money they spent purchasing the records or Mp3s used in the mix. The cumulative effect of this quasi-legality has been that DJ mixes are still considered “underground” even though it is the audience’s preferred manner of listening to dance music.
“The more I understood blockchain technology, the more I realized that the legal problems with the DJ mix were about to be a thing of the past,” stated DJ Deadly Buda. “All the permissions, paperwork, and payments could be done in an instant.”
Blockchain technology is basically a decentralized ledger system maintained by multiple computers. The most popular blockchain in the world is Bitcoin, and it has inspired other blockchains to target specific areas of the world economy. Musicoin, as the name suggests, is geared towards music, musicians, and fans. When a user plays a song on musicoin.org the artist of the song gets paid one Musicoin (currently worth about $0.01-0.04 USD)—usually in a matter of seconds. This is significantly higher than average artists get paid per play on Spotify or iTunes.
Furthermore, the Musicoin blockchain system allows an artist to upload a song and attach what is called a “smart contract” that can distribute payments to multiple parties if needed. For example, the smart contract could be programmed so that every time the song is played, the drummer, singer, guitarist, and bassist in a band all split the payment.
“When I realized every song on the Musicoin system had its own payment address, I got as many people I knew that made great music to upload. Then, I asked their permission if I could use their music in my mix,” revealed Deadly Buda. After conferring with some of the artists, realizing they were helping to establish a new paradigm, the following formula was decided: 40% of the mix revenue goes to the DJ, and the remaining 60% is split evenly between each of the songs in the mix. “A DJ spends a lot of time sifting through a lot of bad music to find the gems he or she plays for the public, so I wanted to honor that time and money expenditure while at the same time leaving a fair amount of room for each song to make money as well.”
A new paradigm for how DJ mixes can be made and monetized is now officially live thanks to DJ Deadly Buda and Musicoin, but there is still work to be done says Deadly Buda, “In the very near future, there will probably be just a checkbox an artist can use that gives anyone on the system the right to mix their music so long as they get paid via a smart contract. As soon as that happens, the system will be unstoppable and will benefit the established music industry and new artists alike.”
“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!
Industrial Strength Records held its 25th anniversary party Hard Electronic at The Paper Box in Brooklyn Saturday, November 19th. Pics by Sean Hargrove/Porcus Photography
Dedicated to the harder sound of electronic dance music.
