"Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music" 日本語訳 HARDCORE編 (WIP, 1/18)

http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/

HARDCORE

Hardcore is the musical genre with bi-polar disorder: one half is blistering, sadistic anger, a seething uncontrollable rage that seeks to ruin and wreck everything that exists, including everyone else's fun time. It is hardcore's mission to inundate the world with pointless, seeing sonic hell, insisting every chance it gets that it will never be defeated, can not be killed, and refuses to go away no matter how much people want it to. The other half of hardcore is way too silly and stupid to take such anger seriously anymore.

ハードコアは、混乱のうちに大きく2つに別れた音楽ジャンルである。片方は高速で、攻撃的で、存在するもの全て、他人の楽しい時間さえも破壊しようとするような激しく制御不能な怒りである。無意味や目に見える音の地獄、それらが得る全てのチャンスの主張によって世界を充満させることがハードコアの使命であり、それは決して倒されることも殺されることもなく、どんなに人々がそれを望んだとしても消え去ることを拒む。ハードコアのもう片方はひどく不謹慎で、もはや真面目に怒ることもばかばかしくなるものだ。

ハードコアは、双極性障害(躁鬱病)な音楽ジャンルである。
一方は、猛烈で、サディスティックな鬱憤で、破滅を求め、存在するもの全て、他人の楽しみすらめちゃくちゃに破壊しようとするような制御不能な激怒である。ハードコアの使命は、世界を無意味で覆い、音の地獄を視覚化し、たとえどんなに世界中の人々が拒もうとも、倒されることも殺されることも無く、その存在は大いにあり得ると主張することである。
ハードコアのもう片方はひどく不謹慎で、もはや真面目に怒ることもばかばかしくなるものだ。

NEW BEAT (aka. BELGIAN NEW BEAT)

You see, in 1988 there was all this lovey dovey acid house shit going on, and even though the music was not as flamboyant and upbeat as it is today, it still wasn't sinister and mean enough for some people, so they took to perverting it with an industrial edge, making it harder, nastier, and also very kinky and provocative, and that fit in just right with the new "rave" movement kinking things into high gear in 1989. Legend purports that this music emerged when some DJ accidently played an acid house record at 33 RPM (not 45, its intened speed). This slowed things really down, to like 100 BPM, and it made the music really sinister and drolling. The trend caught on, and soon producers were making up for its ultra-slow house groove by making the beat harder, fuller, and louder, like a clanging hammer on an anvil. This is one of the greater ironies about Hardcore: that at it's origin it was actually the slowest dance music in existence.

RAVE (aka. HARDCORE)

Techno-rave: Big booming bass, big booming hoovers, big booming stadiums. If New Beat was set up to challenge the ecstasy-induced lovey-dovey acid house honeymoon that rave culture was enjoying, then this was determined to crush it. The music just kept getting harder and faster. The effect: get out there, get off your head, and make some fucking noise! The innocent "acid house parties" were gone, replaced by the unbridled, unorganized chaos of the one-night free-for-all, a bachanale so wild, insane and fucked up beyond any understanding that it could only be summed up in the genre that gave the culture its namesake and an identity to be reckoned with: RAVE. Spiral Tribe represent!

POWER ELECTRONICS (aka. POWER NOISE)

Ah yes, the official genre named by Tim 'The Toolman' Taylor. He even provided pads and leads for a few of the tracks too, using his trusty Binford cordless screw saw drill wrenching spork. He asked Al to track some vocals, and he replied with "I don't think so, Tim". Seriously though, this is where noize gets its inspiration: the avant-garde industrial experimentalism of the 80's. Since then, no new ground has really been covered, so instead of going for originality, producers have elected to go for volume. There's actually several subtle styles within this infinitesimally small community (Power Noise being one of them), but....let's be honest, here: it isn't necessary to put those genres up, is it? It's not like you're springing at the chance to listen to them. Just take confort in the fact that they're there, and people actually like the stuff.

GABBER (aka. NY STYLE HARDCORE, HARDCORE)

North American music has always had a more serious, distinctive, harder edge than European music. I think this is due mainly to immigration and the fact that American culture is 'manufactured', so it constantly has to justify itself through a sort of machismo self-assertion, as opposed to other cultures which evolved naturally and fluently through history. Like comparing American football with European football: one side that favours skill and agility versus one side that favours raw, brute force. A good sociological paper can be written exploring this phenomenon, but here is not the time for that. So while European Hardcore always likes to grace the silly side of hoover cheesyness, American Hardcore never wants to be thought of as unmanly. But I think the hard it tries, the stupider it sounds.

北アメリカの音楽はいつだってヨーロッパより真面目で独特で、鋭さを持っていた。私はこれは移民であり、アメリカの文化が「作られた」ものであるという事実によるものだと思う。だから歴史を通じて自然かつ流暢に進化した他の文化とは対照的に、(アメリカ人は)男らしさの自己主張的なことをして絶えず正当化をするのだ。

(途中です)

NOIZECORE (aka. BREAKCORE, NOIZE, DROP A CAT ON THE EQIUPMENT)

Noisecore is not music insomuch as it is anti-music. It is a recreation of the sounds in our modern technological society through an abrasive form. In this instance, then, what is commonly considered noise is not. It is simply part of our surroundings through a grual introduction. For instance, imagine living in the city, seeing nothing but glass and steel and concrete consuming our daily grind like an apathetic beast shoveling food into its bottomless belly. Imagine also the sounds that go along with it, the jackhammers and cars and hustle and bustle of people moving about. These sounds have become so much part of our daily consciousness that we don't even notice it anymore. In fact, if it gets too quiet, we feel uncomfortable, as exemplified by our need to have a television set on in our home all the time, even if we aren't watching it. If you go out into a desert, or a lake, or someplace secluded from everything so that there is no sound anywhere for miles and no wind, hold your breath and open your mouth, you can actually hear the blood flowing through your ears. An interesting trick, yes, but it brings about the realization that total and complete silence is not actually capable to us. Unless you were born deaf, you have never known total and complete quiet; that is, zero sound waves reverberating in your ears. There is always a constant sound with you, even if it's your own heartbeat. An interesting way of looking at things, but at the same time it's also rather disturbing. I think the point I'm trying to make in all this is when it really comes down to it we need noise in our lives because we can't imagine living without it. Furthermore, despite this necessity--nay, DEPENDANCY--on the sounds of life and the world around us, and how pleasing this noise actually makes us feel, Noisecore as a genre is definitely not something we are looking for, and you are much better off simply disregarding it entirely and taking everything I just said as a huge collossal waste of time.

DIGITAL HARDCORE

Punk-infused Hardcore. It's really just the sound of one guy (Alec Empire) and then maybe others who come into contact with him. It's also got that radical, anti-authoritarian edge that angsty rebellious teenager types seem to love so much. Basically thrash metal with drum machines. If you can make out what anyone is saying in any of their tracks, you've gotten further along in it that I have. Though on cool summer days some Atari Teenage Riot can be very refreshing!

TERRORCORE (aka. DOOMCORE, EVILCORE, DEATHCORE)

Fast (sometimes), but not as fast as Speedcore. All evilness comes here. Hell awaits. The Official sponsor of Pagan rituals and occult ceremonies. Horror movie themes are way out of their league. Man....just listening to it totally gives me an appetite for a good ole fashion virginal sacrifice or unholy bloodletting of some sort. I bet this would be great music for weddings and Bar Mitzvahs too. Or maybe a romantic evening by a roaring fire. A fire....FROM HELL! Hahahahaha.......mmmmmm...nice, young, nubile virgins.

METALCORE

Metalcore is, like Symphonic Trance, one of those obscure genres, in that no label or artist (that I know of) deals in it exclusively, but every once in awhile something will come out. I'm still trying to decide whether it's just heavy metal bands using thundering drum machines (gotta love that distorted 909 bass beat), or gabber producers using guitar samples ala Buttrock Goa. Hardcore and Heavy Metal are kin, after all, in much the same way that cheese and butter are kin.

SPEEDCORE

This isn't music, this is just a gigantic dick-wagging, more-hardcore-than-thou staring contest between Hardcore producers to see which of them can be assaulted with "BPM = 1000" on their drum machines and not flinch. I can't possibly think of any drug that would make you want to dance this fast. Or even headbang to it. I get a headache after two minutes of doing that anyway. I guess that's why 90 percent of the tracks are 30 seconds long. It's the music equivalent of holding your breath; that is, if done for long enough, you will pass out.

SPEEDBASS

What is Speedbass? Your guess is as good as mine. As near as I can figure, it is defined as the genre that has no official definition. These tracks are the first tracks I pulled off the random downloads section of speedbass.net (for ALL your speedbass needs!) and they're as good a representation of the genre as any. Emerging from the mid 90s as a kind of west coast hardcore collective type thing, Speedbass seems to be mostly satirical music, and ranks beside glitch in its gleeful rape, stealing and butchering of pop music tracks. These guys are the best. They're the kind of cool mofos that you'd want to hang out for a weekend at their place, drink beer and make weird, stupid music.

ROTTERDAM (aka. GABBA, EUROPEAN HARDCORE)

Gabber, or 'Gabba' as it's affectiontely known, is Dutch or Flemish or some fucked up European lowlands euphemism for "friend" or as they like to call it "mate". It is always slower and more cheesy than the North American variety. It became hooligan music in the mid 90s as its catchy hoover anthems are tailor-made for soccer stadium chants and war-beating. North American sports are quite primitive insofar as fan traditions are concerned (yeah, like 20 year old AC/DC songs are the pinnacle of male bonding), so the music had to find a different audience. Namely, disaffected college students trying too hard to be different and angst-ridden, testosterone-fueled juvenile delinquents pooled over from death metal. The music is really quite harmless, though.

GABBER HOUSE (aka. CHEESE)

Holy shit is this ever cheesy. What is this even doing in Hardcore? It sounds like a house genre that kinda wandered off and now has gotten itself lost, with Rave hoovers and mental fuckup cheesiness. This is the cheesiest cheese that you will ever cheese on. Even the cheese of the cheese who make this cheese are cheesy. The cheesiest of cheesy cheeses abound. It's cheesy even for euro cheese. Most wouldn't even cheese this cheese. Absolute cheese cheese.

HAPPY HARDCORE (aka. HAPPYCORE)

Happy Hardcore is like the spoiled little sibling of the Hardcore family, who got all the breaks, all the looks, all the money, all the chicks and all the successes of life without having to work for it. Just about despised by every other genre, Happy Hardcore is the most popular Hardcore music of all, with its signature chipmunk vocals and silly sing-a-long anthems and shameless hug-a-thon optimism that pisses everybody off to no end. This is the core realm of the candy ravers. Some of the stuff feels so godawfully childish that I feel like a pedophile just listening to it, but its not all bad. Truth be known: ALL the world's Happy Hardcore is made by only 12 guys, who have more pseudonyms than a shark has teeth, and who churn it out at such a feverish pace you'd almost think that there's probably a program that makes it for them. Just randomize the key values, get Sugar from YTV to sing the lyrics, and away you go.

HAPPY GABBER (aka. BOUNCY TECHNO)

It's basically gabber, but with those off-beat circus-like Happy Hardcore stabs. Or it's gabber with really silly and awful lyrics (which shouldn't be confused as the cutesy girl sing-a-long Happy Hardcore lyrics) or samples and quotes that are really really really.......dumb. So I guess like Happy Hardcore, only not so happy. It's more like stupid. But fun! And cheesy, but not as cheesy as Gabber House. Ummmmm....yeah. It's the MOR of Hardcore genres.

NU STYLE GABBER

NU Style gabber is not new, because it's been around for a good six or seven years now, but the Official Electronic Music Genre Standards and Classifications Consortium is really slow on updating and re-naming existing genres (oh, but boy do they ever love coming up with new ones). Taking a page from Jump Up Jungle and Epic Trance, Nu Style is full of the same kind of anthemic, hands-in-the-air enthusiasm. Christ, some tracks even employ the breakdown-build-anthem formula. Hardcore purists hate this shit, because naturally something this sacharine (for hardcore) is going to attract the trendies. Especially since in the last couple of years this and Hard Trance seem to be merging into one all-encompassing "thunderous beat with blaring hoovers" genre: Hardstyle.

TRANCECORE

Trancecore and Freeform artists, labels, compilations and music do a lot of bleeding, so don't feel ashamed if you can't tell the difference between the two. Basically, if its hard and driving and trying to fuck you up, it's probably Freeform...and if it's uplifting and epic, then it's a Trancecore track you're listening to. Be on the lookout for recycled anthems from Anthem and Epic Trance (as well as that nauseating "NOT Trance" shite). It's actually pretty tolerable, probably because there's no room nor time for 3-minute long breakdowns in Hardcore.

FREEFORM (aka. ACIDCORE)

What a meaningless name for a music genre. Fucking FREEFORM?!?!? What the hell does that mean? That could be anything, from chaotic dissonance to a Beatles jam session. But it mostly chooses to be re-constituted Happy Hardcore and Trancecore, mixed in with lots of acid. But in a "free" form of way, or something. It's basically just the next level for the never-say-die world of childish ritalin happy beats. Freeform is a lot like Happy Hardcore, but without all the cheese. Or like really fast Progressive Trance, but without all the annoying anthems. Or like NRG, but without all the stupid.