GABBER GABBER GABBER

[Critic Profile]

The current state of Gabber reminds me of an internet meme:



Kind of a shame Hardcore Tech/Speedcore and the like never really took off, because the material produced specifically for the scene lacks consistency - personally, for a track to meet my standards, I usually have to scrape it up from a compilation full of filler.

edit:/ those Outside Agency tracks are pretty grand, especially the 1st one, thanks for posting.

[djtheblade Profile Website]

Ok now I have time to touch on a few things in detail.

most hardcore tracks to me seem fucking monotonous. same formula

synths, claps, some kind of chant or "i'm gonna kick your ass tone" or something about hardcore" melody build up, gabber kicks, and repeat.

some of the melodies i have heard just seem like cracked out versions of other anthems that were cracked out versions of other anthems.

Obviously it's formulated to a degree otherwise it wouldn't be Hardcore, but as for all dance music, whether D'n'b, Dubstep or techno or whatever, the formulas are repeated time and time again. Despite its pounding nature, I honestly don't think Hardcore is any more monotonous than any other form of dance music, the level of tune variety is probably on par with Dubstep and drum'n'bass.

but hardcore doesn't really get that much hype and evolve like other genres have. i can't tell the difference from hardcore that was made in 2005 to now. with other scenes like drum and bass, electro, dubstep, house, and breakcore you get all those genres feeding off eachother and picking and using elements so it's constantly evolving into new fads. i don't really see that happening much with hardcore.

I have to disagree on every level, Breakcore for a start is routed in all rave music and borrows heavily from Hardcore. If I compare dance music from 2001 with dance music from 2010 I see massive changes across all styles, and there has totally been some noticeable trends in Hardcore over the last 5 to 10 years, the shift from overdriven 909s to actually synthesising the kicks being the biggest development in Hardcore for sure. In 1999 Hardcore was literally using the same 3 kicks, and layering some silly hoover stabs and other juno bits and bobs. Today the quality of production and the number of different textures from percussion to all sorts of pads, saws and acapella is really noticeable, and within Hardcore itself there is huge variety in the different regional styles; Frenchcore emerged with a distinct bouncy mid fill, the Dutch stuff played heavily with dance melodies and swing time signatures, with yet further Dutch artists developing Industrial Hardcore, UK hardcore split from Happy, Deathchant evolved.......all of these developments are akin to the sort of shifts we've seen in, for example, d'n'b; from boring breakbeat to Techstep/Darkstep, pots'n'pans skullstep, jump up etc.

And of course, for us Breakcore heads we owe a lot to Hardcore, some of our biggest representatives literally began as straight up Hardcore producers; Hellfish, The Producer, Bryan Fury, Teknoist.........

Kind of a shame Hardcore Tech/Speedcore and the like never really took off, because the material produced specifically for the scene lacks consistency - personally, for a track to meet my standards, I usually have to scrape it up from a compilation full of filler.

Not sure what you mean by never took off as such, in some countries such as Holland, Hardcore overshadows all other forms of dance music, Paul Elstak, Gabber piet and Technohead made it to the charts (albeit usually with happier styles). In the UK for a time i'd say the Bonkers compilations easily rivalled any equivellant series of Drum and Bass or House compilations, save perhaps for the ultra camp and commercial ministry of sound Trance and electro series.

The newest developments in Hardcore just this year are very exciting, particularly as i've already mentioned with the Outside agency hybrid definition series' on Genosha. Cardiac is always a label group to watch, very consistent with their awesomeness (particularlly on the Genosha and Enzyme labels). Hardcore is deffo going places.....good places.

[producer_snafu Profile Website]

Obviously it's formulated to a degree otherwise it wouldn't be Hardcore, but as for all dance music, whether D'n'b, Dubstep or techno or whatever, the formulas are repeated time and time again. Despite its pounding nature, I honestly don't think Hardcore is any more monotonous than any other form of dance music, the level of tune variety is probably on par with Dubstep and drum'n'bass.

you mean to tell me that a constant boom boom boom boom is less monotonous then boom tisk boom-tisk?
i get bored easily, i need stimulation, something catchy. with hardcore i kinda hear the same gabber kicks, almost as if someone had released am official sample pack with a read me txt file that read

"hey guy! sorry my English no good, so i did you all a favor and basically sampled and made a bunch of gabber kicks, no need to make em yer self, feel free to use them in every song ya make

-some 19 year old from Russia

ps it's cold as fuck here"

i hear the same synth patches and stabs. i hear the same "Viking anthems" the same "Swing Pizzaria, pirates of the carabean scales"

this is not relevant to Deathchant or what the outside agency has produced, far from it, i guess my complaint is more about new style.

I have to disagree on every level, Breakcore for a start is routed in all rave music and borrows heavily from Hardcore. If I compare dance music from 2001 with dance music from 2010 I see massive changes across all styles, and there has totally been some noticeable trends in Hardcore over the last 5 to 10 years, the shift from overdriven 909s to actually synthesising the kicks being the biggest development in Hardcore for sure. In 1999 Hardcore was literally using the same 3 kicks, and layering some silly hoover stabs and other juno bits and bobs. Today the quality of production and the number of different textures from percussion to all sorts of pads, saws and acapella is really noticeable, and within Hardcore itself there is huge variety in the different regional styles; Frenchcore emerged with a distinct bouncy mid fill, the Dutch stuff played heavily with dance melodies and swing time signatures, with yet further Dutch artists developing Industrial Hardcore, UK hardcore split from Happy, Deathchant evolved.......all of these developments are akin to the sort of shifts we've seen in, for example, d'n'b; from boring breakbeat to Techstep/Darkstep, pots'n'pans skullstep, jump up etc.

i totally understand and see why you would disagree, you have some valid points and of course gabber is going to evolve and create sub genres, but the only thing i see other genres adopting from gabber is just the gabber kick. not really too much after that. i mean if you can find me a breakcore track with a gabber anthem playing in it with out a consistent oof oof oof oof i'd like to hear it.

i guess gabber for me is just neutral, kinda like acid, it's cool, i know it's there but it doesn't do much for me, yet i like to play with acid synths from time to time.