Preface

There is growing interest in Hardcore Techno from the 1990s again, and the various subgenres this type of music includes.

Yet it can be very confusing and complicated to navigate this field of sound. After all, this scene was host to many artists and labels whose releases were very limited vinyl releases of 500 copies and less, with various - often small and disconnected - distribution networks, few shops that stacked these records, not much documentation, information, sources around, and news about hot new singles and EPs only passed around by "word of mouth", informal and in small circles - or through one of those xeroxed fanzines that were sometimes spread around parties and the above mentioned shops, only to disappear after a few issues.

In other words, it can be hard to get a grasp of the "scene" back then, and the music - especially the marvelous and above standard part of it - when you were not "around" back in the days.

I was, so here is my little e-book.

As already hinted at by the above sentences, this e-book doesn't really focus on the "big names" of the Hardcore and Gabber scenes - those that had TV adverts and entertained rock star concert size crowds and wore silly clothes (well, we did too - but different ones). They have enough books and features already.

But on the fringe, the freaks, the geeks, the weirdos and lunatics, that were just as - or even more - powerful and genius as their better known contemporaries.

And that, even if less copies of their releases were pressed compared with these "big names", still managed to entertain a large crowd and even had their sounds played at one or the other rave festival too sometimes.

This is the general focus here - but some big names, such as PCP, are included too.

And even if you never heard some of these names or labels mentioned before, be sure, they all had their loyal supporters and fans and influence amongst the world of Hardcore, back in these days, just as they have now.

This e-book tries to help you to navigate the world of Hardcore in the 90s more safely, and to showcase and pay respect to some of the true legends of this realm, as they deserve it.

This list makes no claim to be - complete. Plenty of great labels and artists are still missing.

Most of these texts have been salvaged and edited from other E-Books I wrote on Hardcore and other texts I wrote on various occasions.

I've also included links to some of my mixes that showcase labels and artists that are mentioned in this e-book.

All texts written by Sönke Moehl

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Table Of Contents

Preface
Table Of Contents
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The Story Of PCP

to write down the whole story, history and context of pcp would demand a whole book, or rather, a whole library of books. so excuse that i will only focus on parts and occassions of the pcp history, and can not adress the whole - yet.

about the beginnings of pcp, not that much is known. the two key creaters seem to have been marc acardipane and thorsten lambert. acardipane played guitar before that, and had various rap projects. the first outing of pcp was, aptly named, a release by mescalinum united called into mekong center. this is still far, but not that far, from the sound pcp got later quite famous for. we find some sort of a cross between house, electro and EBM sounds, but also plenty of new ideas. this was 1989. the end of 1989. the decade ended. the pcp saga had begun.

of early influences not much is known, or rather, not much specific. in the alien underground interview marc acardipane denounced the industrial EBM influence of the likes of front 242, yet in another interview he says this, together with detroit techno, was the starting point for his own sound. this confusing stance on things runs through the history of pcp. they are not known to play their cards too much in the open, for good reasons.

PCP continued, and with the movers first outing, frontal sickness volume 1, and mescalinum united's reflections of 2017 ep, two of the most important records in the history of techno, in the history of hardcore, and in the history of music have been made. much has been said about these tracks elsewhere; i will leave it at this short notice right now.

in these early days, it was the height of the first techno wave, in germany, europe and britain. PCP thrived in this milieu, and as far as i know, were very welcome by this scene. we got plenty of interviews in early german and other techno fanzines, they played a lot of parties, even at the biggest rave than, the mayday rave by low spirit. hardcore and gabber was also a new thing; and pcp paved the way for that sound; they were celebrated by the dutch and belgium gabber crowd, and were legends even back then. but, even at that point, acardipane in interviews expressed the motion that, especially in germany, they were ignored in light of other DJs and producers of the techno scene who made it "big".

indeed, the techno landscape was changing. techno was no longer one sound, one family, one unity. a DJ wouldn't play all styles in one set anymore. the scene fragmented into further subscenes, such as breakbeat, jungle, "intelligent", hardtrance, and hardcore and gabber. the DJs and producers adopted, and went with the flow, instead of beating the system. pcp did not. they stayed true to their core. they kept putting out hardcore sounds en masse. for the german techno scene, this became problematic. hardcore was now seen as "childish", not being liked by the now stuck up crowd who demanded "intelligent" and "minimal" sounds.

this explained why, while other DJs that started together with pcp, rose to fame, mainstream fame, pcp did not, and instead became more obscure.

pcp did not only stay with their original sound, they expanded it, explored other venues. i think any type of dance and electronic music must have been covered by their catalogue. they ventured into krautrock, goa, jungle, EBM, speedcore, abstract; anything: you name it, they did it.

in this "second" period, in my opinion, fall some of the most interesting releases of pcp, as the outings by miro, or the mover's countdown trax EP, or the jupiter pulse of mescalinum united.

in an interview, miro expressed disappointment that seemingly everyone had forgotton about pcp. and this was largely the case; pcp was more of a "secret hint", passed on by an elite circle. the parties were usually headlined by someone else.

yet, the tide for pcp changed once again. or rather, it ended, in a true phoenix style. pcp ceased to exist by the year 1997. but this was also the time when, as a live act, or marc acardipane as a DJ, under various names, such as marshall masters or kotzaak, they were increasingly booked at the "big" parties again, especially in holland and belgium. they released a marshall masters album which sold weld. "i like it loud" became a hit for the first time. acardipane records was started, which later led into resident e records.

so, the recognition was finally there. recognition by a larger audience.

after the 2000s, things changed even more. by the breakcore, the techno, the experimental hardcore crowed, pcp finally was no longer seen as "childish" anymore (yes, there was a time when you were ridiculed by self-appointed elitists, when you stated that you listened to pcp.)

pcp was rediscoverd again, its mysterios, excellent sound came into the open again.

and, a new generation of artists, of listeners, of human beings, discovered pcp newly again.

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The Story Of Fischkopf

fischkopf first caught my awareness when it was mentioned on the old DHR website ca. 1996 on the haywire tree of sites. they wrote, relating to DHR, that labels with 'similiar' ideas had sprung up in other cities as berlin, for example fischkopf in hamburg. it was not long ago that i discovered the hardcore / experimental world, and was completely in love with it, so i was pretty excited; a label from that scene, with that sound, here in hamburg, where i live? i immediately tried to find out more, and got to know fischkopf records operated from a store here in hamburg called container records, for records and CDs of all kinds techno; i think they had one of the largest sections for hardcore only in europe, at least this side of rotterdam. multipara's label discographies webpage - he had one area solely for fischkopf - provided me with further information.

but now, let's cut the introduction, and get to the basics.

fischkopf was started in 1994 by a group of people, including the operator of container records, martin, and people such as DJ Raid. the first release was done by cybermouse. in an interview it was stated that cybermouse caught the interest of the fischkopf crew as he was known for his eclectic taste in music in the container record store. this resulted in fisch 1 - cybermouse - surprise attack. the tracks on this release were done on an amiga 500, and actually first released in a diskmag called neurowaver, before they found their way on this fine 12".

the follow up was christoph de babalon's "love under will" EP. these two releases already set the way of what was to come, with their exotic, experimental approach to music that was not easily found elsewhere.

after the fourth release, the old crew disbanded. DJ Raid and others set out to create their own label (with others), Cross Fade Entertainment. the first release on the, "methods of mutilation", by somatic responses, was actually the first somatic responses EP also. it had originally planned to be released on fischkopf. also planned, but scrapped, was a fischkopf release by alec empire.

gerhard storz, called hardy, now took over the business of running fischkopf. the first release under his hands was "shortage of oxygen" by eradicator aka patric catani, one of the masterminds of the experimental and digital hardcore scene back then. what followed were releases by monoloop and lasse steen under the name of p.server, which, with their spaced out jungle and hard acid madness, showed that fischkopf could not be pinned down to one style. in this early period of fischkopf falls also the first outing by one of the most celebrated persons in experimental hardcore: joerg buchholz aka taciturne. with this release, "potpourri" EP, he also had the track which is probably the only one known to gabberists by this label; "der toten". it became a sort of "rave anthem", played on many a gabber party, and is, according to my knowledge, the best selling record of this label.

it also sometimes fetches wondrous prices on the discogs page to sell records.

cue several other later releases, and we arrive at fisch 12, "6 fragmente in der chronologie des wahnsinns". named after an independent movie, "71 fragmente einer chronologie des zufalls", it features hard hitting sonic experiments that were unseen at that point in history. you can find a more lenghty and conclusive review of this record on my blog. let's just add, that is also known to fetch wondrous bids of money on discogs.

by now it should be noted, that at that point, fischkopf had become a sort of phenomen. the "normal" hardcore scene more or less chosed to ignore most of its releases. hardy, in an interview for signal zero said, that it was actually one of his intentions, to make music that was outside the hardcore scene at that point, what he called the pcp and nordcore crowd.

so, fischkopf was actually much less known as many of its contemporary labels which sometimes even managed to drop compilations with their stuff in supermarkets and mainstream stores (hey, it was the hardcore heyday back then).

yet, to a smaller group of people, fischkopf was already known as being the source for brilliant, exquisite hardcore creations and sonic experimentation. so fischkopf managed to pierced many a subculture with its sound.

it is only now, it seems, that fischkopf seems to finally get wider recognition (although slowly growing), by the possibilites of the internet - or is it fading into total obscurity? only time will tell.

let's get on.

fisch 14 saw the first and only album by eradicator. tonal assault between 4/4 madness and an industrial record collection can be found here. catani actually got annoyed by the label, as they used a self-made artwork for this, instead of his own cover design.

in this middle period of fischkopf - we are in 1996 - three more important names appear on fischkopf. nawoto suzuki aka burning lazy persons, and the michelsen sisters, no name and auto-psy.

lenghty reviews are due elsewhere - let's just say i consider these releases to be amongst the most important at this point of hard electronic music.

fisch 20 had amiga shock force, with an aptly named assault of "psycore kids vs rave fascists."

fisch 23 saw the master release of fischkopf. a compilation with its acts and related artists. everyone always was about the vinyl version; but, according to me, better get the 2xCD, as some of the best tracks are CD only.

again, not the time for a lenghty review, but it is the outing of some of the best artists at that date with some of their best tracks, and spans from breakcore to acidtechno, from all-out noisecore to the most calm ambient.

fisch 24 saw a release by EPC, whose items are the subject of a collectors hunt these days.

after that - it was the end. why and how fischkopf ended is not clear. did hardy fell out with the container records crew? or didn't fischkopf generate enough attention and a clear balance, in the end?

no matter what it was, the shock hit the fischkopf supporters hard.

we're in 1997 now. by the fourth quarter of 1998, a white label suddenly appeared, followed by a regular release.

fisch 25 by mathey olivers. excellent french hardcore with surreal ideas can be found here.

apparenly fischkopf was due to a relaunch? but just as it appeared again so fast, it faded away again - a shame.

the last outing was the white label of fisch 26, of which only a few test pressings seemingly existed. later, it was found out that it was done by cybermouse, who has also done fisch 1 - a nice and worthy ending for this great label.

this text only covers a fragment of information (or of "wahnsinn"?) about this underrated, appreciated, fantastic, groundbreaking label. much more is to be found out. it is up to you to find out more - or wait for more information to appear.

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Cross Fade Enter Tainment

DJ Raid, who was also involved in Fischkopf, set up this label with Paul Snowden and Christoph De Babalon. The word “hardcore” only vaguely fits here; this is just brilliant, brilliant subcultural music.
The first release was the premier release of Somatic Responses, who took the world by storm in the years (or rather, decades) that followed. This was still a lot different to their later style: heavy, heavy distorted drums (or noises) in a 4/4 style, with experimental sounds in a vein of early synth experimental music. As fierce as fierce gets.

The second release was done by Christoph De Babalon and Paul Snowden, aptly named “We Declare War”. Paul Snowden’s site has some of the most distorted acid, and CdB brings us assault troop breakbeat tracks here, going on from his Fischkopf release.
In a rare German TV interview, CDB stated CFET to him is “auteur music”, in the sense that the artist take their music in their own individualist direction, regardless of trends. And the releases give proof of that.

Later, we find some fine breakcore releases on CFET.

I can’t find much info on this, but according to defunct websites, the CFET personnel was once involved in the “Repulsion Parties”, taking place inside the “Rote Flora”, the most infamous squat in Hamburg. Line ups included artists like E-De Cologne, Alec Empire and Somatic Responses.
CFET left Hamburg with Jan (CDB) and Paul moving to Berlin.

Very influential, and pioneering, the label is well respected to this day.

Info: https://www.discogs.com/label/2038-Cross-Fade-Enter-Tainment-CFET

Showcase: https://hearthis.at/lowentropy/low-entropy-tribute-to-cross-fade-enter-tainment-mix/

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Blut

After Hardy left Container, he set up his own record store, called Otaku Records, again with a “Hardcore” label, called Blut Records; and in many way a spiritual successor to Fischkopf Records.

The rooster was similar too: Taciturne, Nawoto, Amiga Shock Force and EPC. We also find a record that was originally planned as Fischkopf 25 here, Taciturne with Ebizieme.

The sound was taken a step farther in extremism with this label, so be prepared for a noise assault on your ears; but, again, a sensible one.

The record store itself was also a good destination to shop for obscure and not so obscure hardcore, speedcore and breakcore records in Hamburg, with it’s own special charme.

Blut never officially ended, but there was no release after Blut 6; a shame!


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Nordcore

No Hamburg hardcore history text is complete without Nordcore. Nordcore started as “Die Tekknokraten (The Technocrats)” organizing small techno and hardcore parties, changing the name later. As Nordcore they run a weekly hardcore club called “The Box”, in the midst of Hamburg. I think this was one of the only regular hardcore clubs worldwide that existed in the 90s outside of Netherlands and Belgium; the Bunker in Berlin being another important location.

Almost all the big names in hardcore, gabber and speedcore scene played in the box; Speedfreak, the PCP crew including Smash? (sic), BSE DJ team, Laurent Hô, E-De Cologne… And also a lot of the Dutch DJs.

It were speedy times, but The Box had to close in 1996; much too soon!
The parties got bigger though, and Nordcore moved to the Markthalle, usually a location for rock and pop bands, with their “Operation Nordcore” parties, again attracting all the “big name” performers to play.

Nordcore continued their hardcore journey way long into the 2000s in Hamburg; and maybe we will see them resurface? (Editors note: by now, they did!)
They also ran a record label, called Nordcore Records; and, beginning with issue 5, compiled the “Terrordrome” CDs, the biggest name in hardcore CDs in the 90s, only eclipsed by Thunderdome.

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Preface

There is growing interest in Hardcore Techno from the 1990s again, and the various subgenres this type of music includes. Yet it can be very...

  • The Story Of Fischkopf
    fischkopf first caught my awareness when it was mentioned on the old DHR website ca. 1996 on the haywire tree of sites. they wrote, relating...
  • Table Of Contents
    Preface Table Of Contents The Story Of PCP The Story Of Fischkopf Cross Fade Enter Tainment Blut Nordcore Patric Catani Taciturne Praxis Mou...
  • Nordcore
    No Hamburg hardcore history text is complete without Nordcore. Nordcore started as “Die Tekknokraten (The Technocrats)” organizing small tec...