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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