I am an underground music producer and journalist for over 30 years, and in my opinion, there is only one thing that decides whether an artist is "successful" or not

Hi,
I've been around for a long time, I've been around in many different scenes, I wrote about even more scenes and their inhabitants, i ran 3 labels, multiple radio shows ("real" radio, not on the internet), i wrote for famous publications, also for not so famous publications...
i produced with some very famous producers, or interviewed them, or booked them for my parties
indirectly i ve known even more famous ones, like, i have had friends who knew pop stars in the very mainstream music world... (and with "friends" i don't mean vague acquaintance, But friends to the point they worked the door at some of the parties of our "crew").

but this does not matter, i just want to give some background, because, as you can see, i've been around a lot, and bent over many corners... talked to artists of all walks, or to artists on their path to many, many different destinations (destinations like the stars, or the gutter).

and, in my opinion, there is only one, and yes, only one thing that decides whether an artist finds success or not.
and with success, i mean success in the most broad sense.
could be success in the sense of money and fame. or success, because they were able to fulfill their dream.
and that could indeed be a dream that does not necessarily involve lots of money and fame - like being the founder of a wholly new genre (pioneers rarely get paid). or becoming resident DJ at a famous club location.
or becoming the political voice for those who need to be heard in this world.
and every kind of shade between these three (or maybe all these together, even!).

and what is this thing?
there is group a), the group of artists that actually *do* something, that follow through with their plans and ideas and schemes and visions and grand or not so grand thoughts...
and group b), people who don't. who always have excuses, maybe even good excuses, to give up, or do something different, or to stay silent, or passive.

i met so many people, that were great artists, that had the best ideas ever, that already had demos ready for the most amazing albums. but that had second thoughts, that had doubts, that were afraid, afraid what other people could think, maybe they were afraid that they get mocked, or noone would like their stuff...
so they never released it, they never really showed it to the outside world, they kept it to themselves, or they only reluctantly went forward, with a minor release, they did not really push it...
so the world turned, time went on, the world forgot them, but they could have been amongst the greatest and best known artists ever... if they only had had the courage, to spit everything out to the world!

or maybe it wasn't even the "public response" they were afraid of, but had inner doubts, thought that their ideas were too zany, too out there, too strange, too unfinished, and hell, maybe even too dark and fiery (can happen to the best of us).
and did not push forward, and got forgotten.

while, on the other hand, i met total idiots, who had zero talent in no parts of their bodies, that did stupid music. but that somehow had the courage, talked to everyone about their music, even to those that did not care, pushed their releases into every place, and boom, they went famous, even though they did not deserve it by all sensible accounts!

and that is the way the world runs.

if you look at the biographies of well known, or cool underground artists (or both), you will see that almost all of them, with little exception, at one point of their path, or at several, hit a wall of doubt or a major crisis, and they nearly broke down, but then made the decision... to push through!

so why wouldn't you? why don't you?

and this brings us to the third point. there are actually good reasons to stop. financial reasons, or social reasons. really dedicating yourself to the art can bankrupt you, or you need to move up up and away, to a far away city, in a nation where the people do not even speak the languages you know...
and you could come to the point that, *if* you fail, you truly end up in the gutter, or at least get financially "gutted". and your life is in ruins and shambles!

what to do in such a situation, or in the other cases?

well, if you really lack the courage to go "all in", there is still one thing you can do:
find a way to go ahead with your art without putting yourself at the risk of a crisis.
for example, keep a daytime job, and do music or art during the rest of the time.
don't move away yet, but spread your art online first (there is a risk in being purely online, though).
*but* you need to be honest or true about your art. and not mellow it down to please others, or the critics.
and if you are socially and financially in a relatively safe position, it should not be that hard to put out art that is exactly like you envision it, but might enrage or go over the head of the rest of people.

yes, it should not be that hard. but believe me, i met so many people, that were brilliant artists, that stopped, but not because they thought everything could go wrong and that they end up homeless and moneyless as burned out artists somewhere... but really just because they feared to get ridiculed by others, or that their own music would leave others cold... can you believe that!
but it happens
so, please, don't do that.

don't leave the world to the idiots who have the "courage" to spread art to all places. a few smart, nice, and brilliant people should be allowed to spread their art, too, right?


so here is one, additional thing:
i know all of this can be very hard, so i will give you one imaginary token or item. keep it in mind.
when you are an artist (who does art that is bold and different), and hit a severe crisis with your art, you can use this token by thinking of it. and it will allow you to walk on, and keep working, despite the crisis and the problems.
and if everything falls to pieces despite all of this, there is noone else to blame but me, because i gave you that token.
is that a deal?

i know i (possibly) load quite the responsibility and blame on me this way, but i trust so much in the concept i wrote about above, that i am willing to... take the risk!

Low Entropy's Producer Diary: Field Recordings and animal noise in Hardcore Techno sounds

Low Entropy · Techno Sorcerer (111 BPM, with self-made field recording of an owl)

Low Entropy's Producer Diary: Field Recordings and animal noise in Hardcore Techno sounds

Teknoaidi, or Teknojita (I think he calls himself that now) is a guy from the scandinavian speedcore scene that I know since quite some years. I don't remember the exact details, but many years ago, he issued a call to get away from sampling and all that modern tech, and base techno more on self created sounds, at best, self-recorded and field recordings. to get away from our hypertech civilization and become more "shamanic" again, if i remember correctly.

i did not like this idea at all, i must admit. i love my digital sounds, my samples... and you know, field recordings usually have a lot of noise, unwanted sounds, they are unplanned, chaotic, feral, magic... sorry, got carried away for a moment!
i thought these would clash with my very cerebral, ordered, and "logic" approach to music that i use in a lot of my own tracks.

but over the years, i still did experiment with music, and was looking for new sounds that I could add to my tracks. it's hard to always come up with new things, you know, even if you have lots of digital tools and tech and stuff!

then i realized that one thing would be new indeed: to go away from pure technology... and finally do these field recordings!

i felt that i did not have the right tech or knowledge to do my own stuff right away, so i checked if there are some public domain, free to use field recordings on the internet, and yeah, there were.

so i started to do hardcore and techno tracks with sounds pulled from the real world, and not pulled from the (soft) synths!

i guess the first thing i used was the recording of a "marine pile driver". this was after i pedaled on my bike through the city of hamburg, where i live, and such a pile driver in action nearly blew my left ear off! ultra impressive and heavy sound.

a pile driver is mechanic and dead, how about using the sounds of the living. so i did stuff with whale recordings, wolf packs howling... also a thunder storm.

but yeah, taking sounds that are already recorded is... it's not quite as feral and magic yet, right?

so i decided to do my own recordings. thunder storms and howling winds was the most easy thing to do. then i made an entire hardcore track based on the recording of an icy lake getting hit by a stick again and again. (recorded during winter time, of course). i also recorded an air raid / flood water / disaster siren that went off in the entire city by accident one time. i have not used that sound yet.

and now i arrived at a special treat, or pun intended, it's really a hoot!
i managed to record an owl at the city edge of hamburg during the night. i don't know if i have the right to feel it, but i feel proud about this, because i think a big city owl is a rare thing to record. i mean, there are many owl recordings, but not many from inside a metropolis, right? plus even if there is an owl in the city, it's usually very hard to record it, as the city noises (trains, police sirens, traffic, people partying or arguing) bleed everything out.

so i guess i got really lucky with that one. the day after the night of the recording i immediately made a heavy 10 minute track to it, and here it is.

Big City Owl: Techno Sorcerer: https://soundcloud.com/low-entropy/owl-entropy-techno-sorcerer
Pile Driver: https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/track/the-hamburg-harbor-slowcore-piledriver-experience-30-bpm
Whale Song: https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/track/frequency-whales
Wolf Pack: Hakken with Wolves https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/track/hakken-with-wolves-wulf-pack
Iced Lake: https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/track/iced-drums
Radio Static: https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/everything-that-has-been-taken-can-be-given-back-the-nucleus-project-juone
Thunderstorm: The World is Doomed let's Dance https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/track/bonus-track-low-entropy-the-world-is-doomed-lets-dance

Low Entropy's Producer Diary: Drum tests and Tierra del Fuego

Production - well, the entire world of music - often works in bizarre and "labyrinthine" ways, and usually, the more bizarre or unusual the path, the better the result.

So my story and the story of "Tierra del Fuego" goes like this.
After doing many years of producing, and getting good feedback (and fame) on my music, I decided to do a sample pack with some of the drums I created over the years, also some new ones. And more drum sample packs followed.



So, one day, when I worked on a new track, I felt kinda lazy and... just loaded up one of the drums from my own sample pack, instead of creating something fancy new.
The track sounded alright either way. So I kept using my sample packs as the drum sample source for my productions... of course not for every track.

In the end I thought: why not expand on this? If I want to create good drums, not just for sample packs, also for production... it would make sense to "try" them out, kinda like prototypes that get a prototype testflight... and the "experience" that I can collect, I can feedback into the drum creation... so I almost entered my own field of techno, hardcore drum research... diy scientist, hah!



So I created a lot of tracks with the drums, not just prototypes of course, but "full-size" tracks.

Most of these have many other components too, melodies, vocals, synths... everything.
But with Tierra del Fuego I wanted to create a track that was a drum run from the beginning to the end of the track.
In the end, it didn't exactly work out like that, I added other ideas too, everything became more complicated than I thought...

But yeah, in a nutshell, this is the story of Tierra del Fuego (and some other tracks I produced.)

33 drums

Hi Friends!

A new sample pack by me.

https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/33-hardcore-and-techno-drum-samples

More: Information:

I've been putting up free drum packs since... ages, i guess.
i've put out very rough drums, metallic drums, gabber drums... well, a lot of sounds.
this is a selection of some of my favorites.

i think they are very good for beginners (or experienced) producers so that they can start creating tracks right away, with 1 or more of these drums.

i'm a "legit" techno producer for several decades that, among other things, played at tresor, got vinyl out, was featured in magazines etc etc. bla bla...

enjoy!

credit:
all drums created by me, low entropy.

license:
feel free to use these samples for any public, private, intimate, or commercial purpose.
would be *very* cool if you credit me, but it's not strictly necessary.

also check my other packs:
https://lowentropyproducer.blogspot.com/2026/03/free-drum-sample-packs.html

Low Entropy's Producer Diary: How do you get rich and famous as an artist? Or should you, even?

I've been around for a while now, as you know. Now and then I get mails or messages like "Hey, Low, I'm a new producer and like your music. You are well-known now, but no-one knows my own music yet. How can I share my music, how do I get known, too?"

Well, first, this is quite flattering. As I don't think I am really famous - maybe "semi-famous", or, like I like to say, liminal fame.
Either way, what advice could I give in such cases? To young or new artists?

Well, "back in the day", when I started doing music, in the 1990s, there was not really much worry about fame or making money with music. In fact, it was the opposite. There were underground cultures, scenes, subcultures. And in most of these, people detested musicians that aimed at fame or money.
What did they aim at, instead? Ideals and highly set goals, like rebellion, revolution, societal change, cultural critique... freedom, wisdom, enlightenment, brotherhood, sisterhood, things like that.
This does not mean the cultures always fit that ideal, to the contrary. But the people aimed for it.

So, for example, anti-commercialism was one of such threads that connected cultures. And those that broke the thread, by going for the money thing, got kicked out. Probably not always nice, not always fair. But it happened.

Then there were those who had a more nihilistic or dis-illusioned view of things. They were in it for partying, meeting chicks and / or guys, hanging out, wasting one's youth and / or life, having a good time... trying to have a good time during often very bad times.

and on the third level, and maybe that was the strongest glue / thread, people were in it for the art, the music, the style itself. People who were into rave breaks. or hardcore beats.
or the joy of distorted guitars... well, I guess you get the point by now.

So. There were plenty of motivations to join a scene or a culture. And those who did often became artists themselves. It really went like that.
You know there were people hiding in the bunker or basement club at fridays, having gabber and speedcore parties, you get intrigued by that, you went there, too, you became friends with them, you become friends with the producers, too, you got into gear yourself, you exchanged music, you became interested to play at these parties, you ended up playing at these parties, you got your first records out, and so on.

this was the "path" of the DJs and producers in genres like gabber or acidcore or whatever... in the 90s. A lot of them are really famous now, or "underground famous", and a lot of them never planned it that way.

being an artist or musician was not really a "career path" or something that required a lot of planning and pre-emptive thoughts.

when it came to my own music, after i passed some point, i was really "dragged" into fame.
people knew my music, and asked me to play at their parties too, or release on their label, or people insisted to introduce me to label guys, journalists, promoters... and often tried to resist it, because it felt "too much".

so maybe i worked backwards to becoming "known"...

But, at the end of it, I don't think this has changed. It might seem changed, but it hasnt. Subcultures, music cultures, still work like this, at the root. It's hidden beneath a facade of fake marketing and all that crap.

So, this is my advice to other artists: Follow your ideals. Follow your creativity. Have fun! Follow your passion. And if you are good at that, then it will almost automatically appeal to others, and they will listen to you, and invite them to a party or release your music...

Forgot all the plans about business-style "promotion" or career workflows or all that nonsense.

And this way, you can have it all. You can do something that you like, that you are passionate about, and also share it with lots and lots of people who are into the same thing!

Vinyl

check this! Dr Elfa, holding a vinyl, with a cool low entropy track on it :-)

how nice!

https://soundcloud.com/dr-elfa-rah

Low Entropy - Tierra del Fuego remix contest

Hi Friends,
How about a little remix contest?
It's for my track Tierra del Fuego.
This track is close to both Industrial Techno and Oldschool Hardcore, so I suppose there are a lot of possibilities for remixing.

Check the whole, original release here: https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/tierra-del-fuego-the-nucleus-project-august
Check the music video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkzC4_PSh6c
The track is part of Project Nucleus: https://lowentropyproducer.blogspot.com/2026/08/updates-on-nucleus-project.html
You can get the stems (or rather, samples) here:
https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/tierra-del-fuego-stems-remix-contest

also check the production diary: https://lowentropyproducer.blogspot.com/2026/08/low-entropys-producer-diary-drum-tests.html

and the video production diary:

Everything is 160 bpm.
There are also some synths and pads; you might use them, but you don't need to.
(These are actually part of the other versions of the track, which you can check at the link above).

Remixes can be in any style, including the original ones.

Finished tracks should be uploaded to a filehoster, and then send the link to low.entropy.80@gmail.com topic "remix contest".
All other questions can be sent there, too.

Deadline is 1.9. (1st of September). The deadline is final!

Accepted tracks will be released on a label.

And now, happy remixing!