Gangleri – musicreviews

Well well, D-Passion released a cd! Looking at the cover, I see quite a typical gabber face. D-Passion is one of the classic Third Movement artists enlightening their compilations with great industrial techno. D-Passion balances on the border between gabber and tekno, but does not lean towards the wrong direction. His style is fairly dark, pretty agressive, has a lot of samples and loud beats; not the the-faster-the-better ideology of the gabber or speedcore style, but always in a nice danceble pace. The music is minimalistic enough and does not have too many breaks and changes in speed, which makes it very enjoyable. Great heavy techno!
Links: D-Passion, The Third Movement

I mostly know Peaky Pounder from his label’s compilations, but I also heard some of his vinyls. Peaky often makes the quite popular techno (minimalistic, regular beats and with minimal sound on the background), but then in a heavy, industrial fashion. Great stuff. Now there is a cd. I like the fact that within a DJ culture vinyls are still released to play at parties, but I personally prefer to buy cds to play at home, so I was happy to hear about a Peaky cd. Our Dutchman thinks that things to not have to be too dark and wanted to create something lighter with disco samples and stuff like that. However the tracks presented are obviously Peaky, most tracks are not as hard as I like them, but there sure are nice tracks here too. Here and there I find the tone a bit too light though and it seems that the speed has gone a bit down too. Overall the album is not as good as I hoped and it seems that Peaky gets about as crazy as for example Kid 606 here and there. At least the sound is not very typical (not even for Peaky Pounder) and some tracks are still good.
Links: Peaky Pounder, The Third Movement

The Dutch label The Third Movement releases what I call “post-gabber”. “Gabber” was the biggest Dutch subculture a decade or two ago, but it got too big and exploded and some of the people from that scene continued a bit more underground and with a heavier sound. In 2004 I discovered the superb compilation “Audio Output 3“. Where the first “Audio Output” (2002) proved to be mostly a gabber compilation (hardstyle techno, but too cheerfull for me), part 2 (2004) containing both gabber and “tekno” and therefor much more interesting, part 3 was a complete tekno / industrial techno compilation with some great extreme dance music. Still waiting for “Audio Output 4″, I now discover that another compilation series is put out by The Third Movement, a series that started between the first and second “Audio Output”! In any case, “Demolition part 10″ is a 10 euro double cd with great Third Movement artists such as Promo, Peaky Pounder, N-Vitral, D-Passion and The DJ Producer, but also my favourite extreme techno artist Hellfish. Promising! To my big disappointment I hear a step back to the times of “Audio Output 2″ with horrible gabber tracks with those awfull ravy melodies and cheesy samples. Other tracks are great industrial tekno, but the Hellfish tracks are not all that good (neither is his last 12″), the highlights are definately the two DJ Producer tracks. It is funny how thin the line between good tekno and awfull gabber is. There are two tracks of “3 Steps Ahead” that start of in a promising way, but after an ‘announcement’ of gabber elements both tracks because simply horrific, awfull enough to give me a bad temper! I am afraid that the same ‘gabbery feeling’ is to be found in tracks of projects that I normally do enjoy, so do we witness a step back to the times in which hard techno sounded like shit? I hope not and there sure are great tracks here, but I guess I should make my own compilation out of this compilation…
Link: The Third Movement

I do not visit the Cock Rock Disco website enough I guess. When I did last week I noticed that there are 7 new free releases since the last time I looked. They are mostly mix cds and not all as extremely breakcore as often happens on this label. As a matter of fact, there seem to be more DJ Donna Summer ideas here, with mixing the weirdest and silliest tracks from soul to AC/DC, happy hardcore and speedcore. Unfortunately the DJs are not as gifted as DJ Donna Summer, the label owner. Kid Kameleon has a rather standard mix if you have followed the label. All kinds of popmusic mixed with a regular beat. The Beast Within is a mix of CRD project and does contain the more extreme forms of electronic music. There seems to be a (new?) liking for electronically made metal, but mostly you will hear the extreme breakcore that you might know from this label. Projects such as The Teknoist, Duran Duran Duran, Bong-Ra, along with new and crazy names such as Toecutter and DJ Floorclearer. There are some way too unstructured f**ked up tracks, but there are also surprisingly calm tracks this time. Another nice free compilation of extreme music. Nero’s Day In Disnleyland is a quite typical CRD mix with music varrying from The Cure and Skinny Puppy to Hole and Morrisey to a whole range of bands that I don’t know, hiphop, rap, soul, jazz, rock, metal; all very weird of course, but not mixed together too well; it just sounds like a weird bunch of musical styles. DJ Rainbow Ejaculation has got to be a country mate, since (s)he mixes the most faulty happy hardcore of 12 years ago that I can not image ever left our country. People of my age (well 30+) will recognise many things that have been repressed from our memories and all that layered with “gabber” beats, truely awfull . CDR then “is a Japanese dude who has been fucking Amen breaks for years…” and so he does with his extreme breakcore “CDR on CRD”. Way too chaotic for my liking, but as often with these kind of releases, it contains weird findings and crazy humour, but musically all build around the same breakbeat. And yes, there is some more crazy free stuff there, so just have a peek if you are interested in (a new kind) of digital extremism.
Cock Rock Disco believes in free music!

Cock Rock Disco, a label with an stupid name, but interesting music. From extreme breakcore, to more weird poppy things like Jason Forrest and About. Every once in a while CRD puts some free music on their website, so it is nice to be able to download some different music from time to time. In the course of a few months I collected the following free releases:
“Rock Rock Rock”, a compilation with remixes of DJ Donna Summer’s track with the same title. In style this album goes from happy hardcore, to extreme breakcore, softer experimental dance music and much in between.
The Teknoist “Cock Rott Columbo”. This actually reminds quite a bit of Hellfish. Extreme, loud, odd samples and relatively danceable, because there are many ‘straight beats’. Not as good as Hellfish, but this album comes pretty close.
DJ Donna Summer (also Jason Forrest and the man behind the label) earlier made a magnificent “BootyBreakTranceClubCore-Mix”, a completely “ADHD” mix with the weirdest tracks. This time the sound is more (happy) hardcore and though nice, not as good as the earlier mix.
Dev/Null “92-94 Oldschool Jungle Mix”. Dev/Null can makes some serious breakcore, but here we get his influences in the form of “oldschool jungle”. Remember “The Prodigy Experience”? Well, the “rave” and “jungle” (nowadays called “drum & bass”) are put together to a 48 minute mix. Funny, but not great.
Ladyscraper “The Death Of Mary Poppins”. Here we have it, some of the most extreme and f*cked up breakcore. No regular beats here, no returning themes, no melody, nothing of that all. This is Aphex Twin going berzerk or Squarpusher in overdrive. Too much for me, I might add. I can enjoy these twisted electronics, but I prefer some regularity here and there too and that is why I love Hellfish. Ladyscraper is something that you actually shouldn’t listen to get acquinted with the style, because it is about the extreme of it.

Since it is all free, have a try if you are up for new and extreme music. CRD also has paid download releases and a back-catalogue large enough to try a few things. Also more free music (including a label compilation), so I would say: have a look at the labels free music page.

Jiha! I have found myself a new Hellfish & Producer cd. An older one this time. “Constant Mutation” may be a little less experimental than the other two cds that I have (see elsewhere), but this is only a little. The very positive side about this, is that there is more room for violent and constant beats, which makes this cd almost from the beginning until the end a very agressive piece of tekno. As ever brilliant and a must-buy!

Hell(fish) yeah! There is more of Hellfish and Producer on cd than I knew! Here we have a cd on with Hellfish and Producer remixed tracks, or other artists mixed their tracks. The result is an extremely loud tekno album with less experimental interludes than on ‘normal’ albums. Straightforward, fast, earcracking tekno that is a bit too ‘gabberish’ here and there, but overall of the level of the faster tracks of the other albums. Not too easy to get six years after the release (and on a debunked label?), but should you run into it….

I read that Hellfish is one of the favourite acts when Richard D. James (Aphex Twin) is playing one of his violent DJ-sets. As far as I know Hellfish has released a few 12″s and one “Hellfish & Producer” cd before this one and I never heard any of these releases.
“Meat Machine Broadcast System” is a weird cd mixing Squarepusher-like experimentalism with very hard techno sounding a bit like what we call “gabber” in the Netherlands and what became known as “gabba” to those who can’t pronounce Dutch. Still Hellfish is far from a gabber-act, since their music is a lot crazier, experimental, twisted and often also harder. I think this will appeal to most people who like insane heavy techno (2nd Gen for example), digital hardcore, Aphex Twin and maybe also those who like Squarepusher and kindred projects, but these last should keep in mind that there is quite a lot 300bpm techno here. Personally I must say that I love this cd!

This duo is probably the most interesting coming from the techno scene that has reached my ears. Over half a year ago I reviewed Hellfish’s excellent solo cd called “Meat Machine Broadcast System” and in the meantime I found out that there are a couple of Hellfish and Producer cds, at least one DJ Producer solo cd and a shitload of vinyls, either together or alone. I definately need to get more of their stuff.
Where “Meat Machine…” contains highly experimental and pretty heavy techno, together these two masterminds make even heavier techno with a lot of hardcore-like tracks, but 100x better, more experimental, crazy samples (often this breakdance kind of music) and insane rhythms experiments and sounds. I paid quite a lot of money for this cd, but it is worth it without a doubt. Heavy, original, crazy, this cd has got it all! Almost a masterpiece.

The mp3s on the Planet Mu site sure did their job. With 2 mins of every track I thought I had enough music of this album to review it (…) but at the same time I wanted to hear the rest of the music too, so I got myself a copy. “One Man Sonic Attack” is a real Hellfish cd. There are a few remixes here, but this didn’t result in another style than the usual weird and very loud. The album opens with a great track with a real beatboy/human beatbox rapping over the loud beats of mr. Hellfish. Then follow odd experimental tracks at times extremely loud and staightforward techno, at other times more in the vein ‘intelligent dance music’. I noticed that the more often I hear this album, the louder is sounds to me. Like with other albums it depends on my mood if I find the music very extreme or not. Strange. Anyway, if you like crazy, fucked-up, funny and extremely loud techno, listen to the mp3s on the site of the label and/or get yourself a copy of my favourite tekno-act! The only minor point about Hellfish is that he keeps sounding like Hellfish. It may be hard to do something new when you already make idiotic music, but the albums tend to sound a bit alike…