My Progression In Music

When I started doing music in 1997, I was interested in Experimental Hardcore, as it was done on labels such as Fischkopf, Praxis, or some releases on Digital Hardcore Recordings (especially Ec8or). I was also interested in two styles that just began to emerge: Speedcore and Breakcore. So the first tracks I produced were in these styles. A very early track by me - Adrenaline Junkie - was an 800 BPM Speedcore track that was later the first track by me that which released on vinyl (on the Biophilia Allstars LP in 1998, when tracks with such speed were still very rare). So this was my first phase of doing music, and tracks from that era for example ended up on my Blut EP or the Widerstand LP.
My conception of music thoroughly changed when Somatic Responses send me a copy of one of their demo cassettes in late 1998. That kind of music just blew me away. What I noted was that there was not only a focus on noise and distortion, but also on intricate melodies. So I decided to leave the pure "bang bang" Speedcore and noise-centered Breakcore behind, and create music with attention to melodies and atmosphere too. I called this type of music "Soundscape" - the idea that there is music that makes you imagine a futuristic, alien or dystopic landscape in your mind while you were listening to the ambience and mood of the tracks. This was my main focus for a while, and results of this can be listened to on my Praxis EP or the "c8.com demo CD-R" that has been re-released digitally a while ago.
I had left Speedcore behind for a few years, partly because I didn't like the direction the German Speedcore scene had taken. But somewhen after the year 2000 I noticed that things had changed again. People were embracing the noisy, french label (Anticore, Sans Pitie...) inspired Speedcore I was loving (and producing) 5 years ago. So I decided to go on the Speedcore road was once more and produced a lot of tracks in that vein again. This also led to me being booked for a lot of parties in Germany, and a lot of tracks were produced with a live-setting in mind. Because I was more focused on playing gigs than getting my tracks released on a label, stuff from that period was at first not released, but I did so later digitally (on my bandcamp) and some tracks actually found their way to vinyl around 10 years later (Acid 8, Kick... check discogs for them). Around the same time that I started getting back to Speedcore, I also began to become very interested in Techno, Acid and Oldschool sounds - a style I had rejected during my "Experimental Hardcore" years, as I saw it as music "of the past" - but it was now becoming the future again. This led to the creation of tracks like Urban Uprising or Back To The Oldschool, released on the Acid Massacre EP. I was also becoming more and more interested in Doomcore and Doomtechno (a style that, unlike Oldschool etc, I had loved the years before too), especially the stuff that was done on labels like PCP and Things To Come. My own productions in a Doomcore style were first released on the Emerald Planet EP in 2005. There was a slight detour in 2004, when I did a "Soundscape Breakcore" album for Praxis that was planned to be released on Vinyl and CD, but, due to some complicated releases (on my part), was first released in 2018, digitally (the "Malfunction" album).

Then came my long break from the Hardcore scene (and producing music) which lasted until 2008. When I got back, I was very interested in Techno once more, especially Detroit type Techno, but also generally Acid, Techno and House sounds from the late 80s to the early 90s. Also my interest in Doomcore was growing once more. So from now on I mostly produced Doomcore with a focus on a Techno "groove" or theme. The results of this phase of doing music was released on many netlabels around the world. At the same time I was also doing Speedcore now and then, usually with an "Oldschool Speedcore" flavor.
My Techno love didn't wane, but I was also becoming very much infatuated with New Wave sounds, Post-Punk, Goth, Indie Rock... I was especially loving the focus on melody these genres have, with very special, emotional, bittersweet melodies and harmonies (music with focus on "melody" was, after all, a heavy influence during my "Soundscape" era already).
My production then shifted once more to melody and mood as the central theme of my tracks; the Techno influence didn't go away but it now had to play together with the melodic aspects of the track. These tracks, again, were released on a lot of netlabels.

So this was (is) my progression in music. I'm not sure where the journey will lead to next. Lately I've become more interested in Experimental sounds once more... so things become a bit like a circle, maybe? We will see where the road leads to.

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