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.”
Ещё с ранних релизов PCP (Planet Core Productions), существовал интерес о пространстве и мистериях жизни хардкор техно андерграунда. Ранние вечеринки с простейшим стробоскопом, атмосферой, создаваемой дым-машиной, и элементами шаманских ритуалов на фоне костра. Вероятно, это было чуть ли не единственной и основополагающей идеей хардкор техно на сознательном и безсознательном уровнях, но с ростом и разделением сцены на поджанры, эти идеи распространились почти на весь андерграунд. Как эмбиент, обычно не имеющий ударных, так и спидкор (speedcore), в котором скорость ударов не ограничивалась человеческой способностью их воспринимать, были двумя экстремумами, образовавшими удивительную синергическую связь в конце 90-х. Это сочетание породило термин атмосферный спидкор (atmospheric speedcore) и повлияло на создание таких симбиозов, как флешкор (flashcore), шаманкор (shamancore), псайкор (psycore), и множества других. Хотя этим стилям недоставало всеобъемлющего выражения, существует интернациональная микро-сцена, объединяющая людей по взаимному интересу. В этой статье я расскажу небольшую историю этих событий и покажу, как это выглядит сегодня.
Одна из стадий началась, когда La Peste смикшировал экспериментальный хардкор и спидкор поздних 90-х вместе с эмбиентом в своём микстейпе “Drug Store Core Boy”. Эта идея в дальнейшем развилась в подстиль флешкор, а его лейбл Hangars Liquides стал пионером этого саунда. Флешкор – это некий сплав спидкора, авангарда, эмбиента и idm. Биты и скорость зачастую непостоянны и хаотичны, но также более прямолинейны. Треки обычно рождались в сессиях и джемах с железными модульными синтезаторами, и с использованием софта. В последние годы флешкор стал популярнее среди андерграундных музыкантов и в каком-то смысле стал ассоциироваться с высочастотной лазерной бочкой на скорости спидкора и атмосферными звуковыми ландшафтами. Это продолжение развития Французской андерграундной хардкор\спидкор эстетики и её скрытной андерграунд сцены. Флешкор иногда играет роль обобщающего термина в интернете для всех этих экспериментальных Французских спидкор артистов, так часто, что кажется до сих пор нет единого мнения о том, чем флешкор является сегодня в действительности. Кто-то спорит, что это нечто за пределами традиционной 4\4 схемы, когда другие допускают, что это обычная повторяющаяся структура. Кажется, изначально задумывалось преодолеть стандарты и выжать максимум из существующей технологии.
Помимо La Peste, были и другие ранние артисты в этом жанре: Atomhead aka UndaCova (Entity Records) из Бельгии и Neurocore из Франции, который также относил свою музыку к киберкору (cybercore). В 2015, на лейбле Love HZ вышла EP от Neurocore – “The Magellan Chronicles” и флешкор привлёк ещё больше внимания на хардкор сцене, благодаря своей более трансовой, эйфорической атмосфере и с этим большей доступностью.
Другой этап развития произошёл, когда трекерная онлайн сцена с лейблами, подобными United Speedcore Nation из Германии, начали преодолевать стандартную скорость спидкора в 400bpm, что переопределило спидкор в новом тысячелетии. Lord Lloigor из Швеции в 1999-м году выпустил 12″ пластинку “Beyond The Green Light” на подлейбле USN – Brain Distortion. В ней содержится трек “Ray of Darkness”, который стал классикой атмосферного спидкора. В следующем году он выпустил CD-альбом на Финском лейбле Act of the Devil, полный тёмного, успокаивающего и эйфоричного эмбиента со спидкор битами и оккультными мотивами. Некоторые немецкие музыканты, например, iGoA и DarkFreak поймали эту волну и также стали известными за своё атмосферное и психоделическое спидкор звучание. Некоторые исполнения Gabba Front Berlin также придерживались этой линии. Атмосферный спидкор обычно менее экспериментален и больше традиционен, а также дружелюбен к диджеям, по сравнению с флешкором и Французским андерграундом, и по-прежнему очень медитативен благодаря безконечным повторениям. Нескольно артистов, играющих в этом стиле: Valovoima (Финляндия), у которого есть много экспериментальных и флешкор треков, и Watome (Тайланд).
Таким образом, атмосферный спидкор и флешкор – это два отдельных, чётких подстиля, но существует также много другой андерграундной -кор музыки, которые не попадают в эти категории (хотя, смысл и не в категориях, но подразумевается, что разделение должно быть), и которые можно описать как иномирные, психеделичные, медитативные и изначальные. The Michelson sisters, Mouse и No Name из Франции являются ранними пионерами импровизационного хардкор звучания, они вдохновляли последующее развитие флешкора и до сих пор выступают на вечеринках по всей Европе. Стоит отметить следующих музыкантов из Франции: Save (Underground Perversions Records), La Foudre (No-Tek Records), Helius Zhamiq (K-NeT Label), Le Talium, Enbryoner, R-ictus aka Mechakucha, Marteau, Saoulaterre и Mental D-struction. Французских артистов, импровизирующих с атмосферным звуком поистине много, но существуют и другие страны. Annwn (Anti Narcose) из Голландии обладает похожим атмосферным, экспериментальным вайбом в своих треках. Sadistic, выходец из Шотландии, ныне проживающий в Тайланде, смешивает флешкор саунд с UK-хардкор техно (т.н. Deathchant sound) и кросбридом, принося идеи и звуки новым слушателям. Tekhne Freq aka Kid Corrupt (Fractal Distortion эвенты) комбинирует атмосферные ландшафты и экспериментальный спидкор. Neuromancer, Basil (Moscow Speedcore Scum), Harhor (Greasp) and Rude Repeen являются одними из активистов Русского андерграунда.
Слушателей и музыкантов в этой музыке привлекает интроспективное погружение в непознаваемое. Мейнстрим хардкор с другой стороны только об известном, вроде старых мелодий с отсылкой на поп-культуру, предсказуемых разгонов и спадов, которые идут параллельно с популярным EDM’ом. Всё это с поклонением внешнему диджею, нежели тому, что находится внутри вас. Есть нечто, с чем спидкор познакомил современного слушателя и что его потрясло. Многие племенные народы и традиции по всему миру имеют мудрость относительно того, что танцы высвобождают разум, душу и тело, и помогают достичь состояний экстатического транса, а также установить глубокую связь со Вселенной. Это не так необычно для нынешних спидкор вечеринок. Идея не в том, чтобы обязательно попасть ногой в каждый удар бочки и размахивать руками, но отпустить себя, свободно выражать себя, двигаться вместе с потоком и наблюдать к чему это приведёт. Динамику также придаёт импровизация и “живое” исполнение, позволяющее растворить хорошо знакомые структуры. Не взирая на образы смерти на обложках многих спидкор и хардкор релизов, энергия этой музыки в действительности полна жизни и проживания её за пределами собственных искусственных ограничений. Шаманкор от Teknoaidi (Kovaydin.NET) и Hiiden Virren Vinguttajat из Финляндии вращается вокруг идеи, что высокоскоростная музыка и танцы исцеляют. Эта музыка также использует традиционные акустические инструменты вместе с машинными звуками. Тогда это становится электроакустическим инициирующим -кором; стоит упомянуть одного из самых интенсивных живых исполнителей из Берлина: Del_F64.0, который играет импровизированный спидкор на железе в сочетании с кларнетом.
Сейчас мы в 2017-м и такого рода музыки больше, чем когда-либо. Обычно, несколько отдельных артистов или диджеев играют её на определённых андерграунд ориентированных -кор вечеринках или выставках искусства в таких странах как Бельгия, Финляндия, Франция, Германия, Голландия, Россия, Швейцария и Англия. Иногда, в частности, в Берлине, можно попасть на ночь, посвящённую исключительно атмосферной и психеделичной -кор музыке. На этих специальных собраниях, которые происходят лишь однажды, музыканты играют спидкор и флешкор на скорости выше 400bpm, постоянно, всю ночь. Это может выглядеть, как безумие, но в какой-то момент ночи эти ритмы превращаются в норму для разума и это ощущается очень медитативным. Fuck Off System и их вечеринки Trash n Core, также как вечеринки от Splatterkore Reck-ords больше нацелены на Берлин. В Бельгии также организует подобные события Cyber City.
Вот некоторые крупные предстоящие эвенты с подобной музыкой:
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.”
Since some of the early PCP releases, there has always been an interest in space and the mysteries of life in the hardcore techno underground. Early warehouse parties with simple strobe lights and smoke emulated the atmosphere and elements of a shamanistic ritual by a bonfire. This was perhaps even one of the founding ideas of hardcore techno on a conscious or subconscious level, but as the scene grew bigger and split into various subgenres, these ideas continued mainly in the most underground core. Ambient, which usually has no beats, and speedcore, in which the human capability to differentiate beats is the tempo limit, were an unlikely couple from two extremes that formed a suprisingly synergic bond in the late 1990’s. This relationship spawned the term “atmospheric speedcore” and influenced new fusions such as flashcore, shamancore, and psycore among others. Although these styles lack an all-inclusive umbrella term, there is an international micro-scene that is bringing people together under this mutual interest. In this article, I will go through some history of these developments and take a look at what is going on in the present.
One of the developments started when La Peste mixed experimental hardcore and speedcore of the late 90’s together with ambient in his “Drug Store Core Boy” mixtape. This idea developed further into the subgenre flashcore, with his Hangars Liquides label pioneering the sound. Flashcore is sort of like a fusion of speedcore, avant-garde, ambient, and IDM. The beats and tempos are often irregular and chaotic, but sometimes more straightforward as well. The tracks are often birthed from hardware modular synthesizer jamming sessions, although software is also used. Flashcore has increased in popularity among underground musicians in the recent years, and it has sort of become synonymous with anything that has its signature high- pitched laser kickdrum at a speedcore tempo with atmospheric soundscapes. It is a further development of the mysterious and abstract French underground industrial hardcore/speedcore aesthetics and its secretive underground scene. Flashcore has sometimes taken the role on the internet of being an umbrella term for all of these experimental French-style speedcore artists—so often there doesn’t seem to be a general consensus on what flashcore actually is nowadays. Some would argue that it’s only something beyond traditional 4/4 structures, while others allow for repetitive structures as well. The original intention seems to have been to surpass standards and make the most out of current technology.
Another early development happened at the time when the online tracker scene and labels such as United Speedcore Nation from Germany started pushing the standard tempo of speedcore beyond 400 BPM, which would redefine speedcore for the new millennium. Lord Lloigor from Sweden released the Beyond The Green Light 12″ on USN’s sublabel Brain Distortion in 1999. It contained the track “Ray of Darkness” which became an atmospheric speedcore classic. The next year he released One Journey, a CDr album full of dark, soothing, and euphoric ambient with speedcore beats and occult themes on the Finnish label Act of the Devil. Some German artists such as iGoA and DarkFreak caught this vibe and became known for their atmospheric and psychedelic speedcore sound. Some of Gabba Front Berlin‘s output was also along these lines.
Atmospheric speedcore is usually less experimental and more traditional and DJ-friendly compared to flashcore and the French underground, yet still highly meditative thanks to the repetitive structures. Some current artists who do this style are Valovoima from Finland, who also does more experimental and flashcore tracks, and Watome from Thailand.
So, although atmospheric speedcore and flashcore are two distinct subgenres, there is also a lot of good faster underground core music out there which does not necessarily fall into these categories. After all, categories are not even the point, but are meant to be dissolved, yet can be described as very otherworldly, psychedelic, meditative, and initiatory. The Michelson sisters—Mouse and No Name—from France are some of the early pioneers of such improvised cosmic hardcore sound, and were an inspiration source for later developments like flashcore. They are still playing parties all over Europe. Other artists to check out from France include Save (Underground Perversions Records), La Foudre (No-Tek Records), Helius Zhamiq (K-NeT Label), Le Talium, Enbryoner, R-ictus aka Mechakucha, Marteau, Saoulaterre,and Mental D-struction. Artists into this improvised atmospheric sound are not confined to France, however. There’s Annwn (Anti Narcose) from the Netherlands, who weaves experimental vibes into his tracks. Sadistic (originally from Scotland and now living in Thailand) fuses the flashcore sound with UK hardcore techno (i.e. Deathchant) and crossbreed bringing the ideas and sounds to new crowds. The UK’s Tekhne Freq aka Kid Corrupt (Fractal Distortion events) also combines atmospheric soundscapes and experimental speedcore. Neuromancer, Basil (Moscow Speedcore Scum), Harhor (Greasp), and Rude Repeen are some of the actives in the Russian underground.
While the mainstream hardcore scene is all about the known, such as banger tunes with pop culture references, predictable build-ups and drops that go in parallel with developments in popular EDM, what attracts the listeners and musicians to this music is its introspective dip in to the unknown. Instead of worshiping the DJ, focus is drawn towards what is inside you.
Another element that speedcore beats have reintroduced to listeners of contemporary music is “the shake.” Many indigenous people and traditions around the world have the wisdom that incorporates the shaking of ones body to release locks of the mind, body, and soul, helping to reach ecstatic trance states and establish a deeper connection with the universe. This phenomenon is not totally uncommon at contemporary speedcore parties. The idea is not necessarily to grasp every single bassdrum with your stomping feet, waving fists, or even with your mind, but to let go, express yourself freely, shake with the flow and see where it takes you. This kind of improvisational dynamics can also be applied to making music by jamming and letting known structures dissolve. Regardless of the death-related imagery in many speedcore and hardcore releases, the energy of the music is actually full of life and living life by pushing the peak of ones artificial limitations. Shamancore music by Teknoaidi (Kovaydin.NET) and Hiiden Virren Vinguttajat from Finland revolves around this idea that high tempo music and shaking is healing. The music also makes use of traditional acoustic instruments along with the machine sounds. When it comes to electroacoustic initiatory core, worth mentioning is also one of the most intense live acts to come from Berlin, Del_F64.0, who play improvised speedcore with hardware and clarinet.
We’re now in 2017, and there is more of this kind of music than ever. Usually few individual artists or DJs play it at select underground- oriented core parties or art events in countries such as Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland, and theUK. Sometimes—particularly in places like Berlin—there is a chance to experience a night dedicated only to the atmospheric and psychedelic core music. At these special gatherings, the artists might play 400+ BPM atmospheric speedcore and flashcore, constantly, for the entire night. This might sound insane, but actually at some point into the night these rhythms become a new norm for the mind and this state of being starts to feel very meditative. Fuck Off System and their Trash n Core parties as well as parties by Splatterkore Reck-ords are worth looking into when in Berlin. Cyber City in Belgium has also organized similar events.
Here are some upcoming events to check out with more and less atmospheric and psychedelic core:
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!
Dedicated to the harder sound of electronic dance music.
