Producer's Diary: When metal hits the drum

I am a Hardcore Techno producer for several decades, and when people ask me: "what is the most aggressive, brutal, and violent track you produced?" I would probably say: it is this one.

It's not super fast speedcore, it's slowcore. But I never got the bass drum as hard, as noisy, as distorted, like in this track.
It's almost painful to listen to it (to me).

I actually produced this one back in December 2013 already.

Apart from the drum, the track is quite simple: there are no other elements besides the bass drum.
The drum just gets put through various filters and effects... ...as the track moves on - which I did "live", jamming.

But this setup of effects and processing was quite complex and complicated, and "brainy", of course.

Low Entropy - When metal Hits the drum

https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/track/when-metal-hits-the-drum

Producer's diary: writing the first Doomcore Records EP

I created the first EP for the new Doomcore Records label back in 2012.

When I conceived the EP, I already had posteriority in mind. Something that people - hopefully - could look back to after a few years (or longer).

The setting I came up with is a "classic" 2-tracker release. With a clearly distinct A and B side. Maybe even more like a single release!

The A track is doomcore-hardcore-techno in style.
The melody may sound jammed, improvised, or created by spontaneous creativity. But the truth is it was mathematically planned. The whole melodic system is one big formula. There is not one note that would be outside this mathematic equation.



The beat and percussion - these were improvised, though.

This track was later remixed by various artists for another release.

The A track was meant to be the main track.

The B side was the additional part.
It's a beatless "doom" ambient track.



Was this one mathematically planned, too?

Far from it!
What I did here was: I set up my soft synth. Created a synth sound that I liked.
Then I turned off my speakers, headphones, any sound.

And I started to jam. Just pressed notes, like it felt right to me.

I should add that I did not know how to "read" notes, i.e. I did not know how a D# or G would sound.
I also had the clear intention to neither change, edit, amend, or cut notes. Or to do another take.
I finished the track without listening to it once.

I just hoped it would turn out okay.

Opinions might differ - but i do think it sounds quite okay!

https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/01

The Breakcore Breakfast Club Mix (Year 2000 edition)

Just had a random flashback. A journey down memory lane.

christoph fringeli, hecate, society suckers, gogo goddess, joel amaretto, me + / - a few other people, sitting in joel's living room, having breakfast, bread rolls with the salami that the society suckers "borrowed" out of the green room of the maria club the night before, on friday before the f**kparade party on saturday, in the year 2000.
we had also picked up nihil fist, frederik schikowski, dj scud, cdb, postcore and eiterherd the day and night before, but not sure if all of them stayed for breakfast.

hmm memories. i guess this moment was the "breakcore breakfast club" (okay bad pun).

(my adventures on that extended weekend were published in an issue of the datacide magazine - back then. i guess i posted it somewhere around here too, but i can also look it up - one day.)

but it is kinda weird to look back and realize, that, at one point in time, and inside one room, almost the entire early breakcore scene (this side of the atlantic) was having breakfast together.

Part 2

During that era, me and my friends felt like we would rule the world, and lived without a care in the world.
Just endless parties, fun, doing music, traveling to other cities, meeting friends... nights in cafés, fast food places, debating politics, setting up things, organizations... doing what we wanted, and enjoying it. To the fullest.
At the highest decibels.

We were so sure everyone would start to realize how great "our music" was, and surely we would change the world by this.

Those days in Berlin, and elsewhere seemed to never end.

But in truth we were just a small group, and this "community" disbanded soon enough, with some going for pop-breaks, others quitting altogether...

I moved on too, eventually. Into "doomy" acid, techno, and hardcore.

This "sound", this scene, late 90s, early 2000s, when breakcore was (undefined) and still tightly connected to avantgarde music, hardcore punk, gabber, industrial ambient, squat culture... disappeared, more or less.

It was a rude awakening.
But I guess others before us felt similar. Who put all hopes in a subcultural movement, and then "dreams" were hit by "reality".

Were we fools back then? Or could our music really take on the world - if things had run differently?

Well, to quote another song:

"It's not that you never believed... because you did.
Just not enough."


Here is a mix that tries to capture the sound of the era, with some of the artists mentioned above, and a few other things.

Low Entropy - The Breakcore Breakfast Club Mix (Year 2000 edition)

Tracklisting:

1. Society Suckers - Schizophrenic
2. DJ Scud - Mash the Place Up
3. Hecate - Caught Up
4. Eiterherd - Macht
5. Shitness & The Jackal - Fire is the Centre
6. Eiterherd - Chase Em
7. Rudeboy - Are you down with the underground
8. Salami Brothers - Gangsta Trax
9. Hecate - B1
10. Christoph de Babalon - Meet Fate
11. Multipara - Pocket Monster
12. Low Entropy - I am God
13. Robotnics Crossing - Kill the Funk
14. Postcore - Assault
15. Frederik Schikowski - Ring my Bell
16. Killout Trash - Stiring
17. Christoph de Babalon - Babylon 90219
18. Low Entropy - Sadstep
19. Robotnics Crossing - Untiled
20. Spiral Tribe feat. Gabba Nation - Berlin HC Nite
21. DJ Scud - Come with it
22. Society Suckers - It's enough

https://hearthis.at/omnicore-records/low-entropy-the-breakcore-breakfast-club-mix-year-2000-edition/

The Three Zeros

The Three Zeros (The Nucleus Project: April)
by Low Entropy
3 tracks, 12 minutes

1. Introduction 00:45
2. The Three Zeros 09:31
3. The Three Zeros (Reprise) 01:52

Information:

Here it is! My entry for the project nucleus. On the day of the fool.
Doomed acid hardcore techno. Designed for huge space cave raves.

Why the name - "The Three Zeros" ?
Well, when I was a kid, I realized: there must not be only one zero, in the world of numbers. There should be three different zero numbers: one positive zero, one "minus zero", and one neutral zero, that is neither positive nor negative. The three zeros.
So it must be the truth! Alright?

About project nucleus:

Hello,
Allow me to introduce my newest project for 2026: an album called "Nucleus".
It's not produced yet, and it won't be finished before 2027. In the most literal of senses!
Because I plan to produce one track for each month of 2026.
Then release it at the end of the year, or at the beginning of the next year.

Tracks could be in any style. Breakcore, Acid, VGM... eclectic?

But I will also try to produce it *for* the month, not *in* the month.
And absorb the... "vibe"... of each month and put it into la musica!

So January should be more wintry... March will be about the rites of spring... then Summertime, Fall, and the descend into the icy waters of winter again.

I also try to create a progression with the sequence of tracks... a sequential album... a staircase of sounds!

Hope it all works out as planned.
And see you in the year after 2026! (ahem)

https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/the-three-zeros-the-nucleus-project-april

Doomcore Records Pod Cast #101

Doomcore Records Pod Cast #101 - DJ Pr8orian - Drum and Bass will never die

You know Pr8orian from his Industrial Hardcore mixes on the Doomcore Records Pod Cast.
So you might be surprised to hear that he now submitted a set made up entirely of Drum and Bass tracks!
It's good work the same. So consider giving it a try!

Tracklisting:

DJ Pr8orian - Drum and Bass will never die
(Vinyl Only Set)

1 : Kasra : Talk up
2 : Skeptical : Foiled
3 : kasra : City of Rain
4 : Enei : Falling
5 : Enei & Kasra : Rolling Walls
6 : Enei : Tide Guide
7 : Bou : Win Ya B
8 : Willem : Splinter in Your Mind (Break. Remix)
9 : Monty & Visages : Black Shield
10: DLR : Do I Know What I'm Doing?
11: Monty : No Place
12: Alix Perez : slink
13: Alibi : Black Piano
14: Devotion (feat. HLZ) : Phase
15: Monty : Praise
16: Alix Perez & Ivy Lab : Maiden
17: SpectraSoul & Tamara Blessa : Away
with me (Calibre remix)
18: Arpxp & HLZ : Radar
19: Enei : Dirty
20: Bou & Upgrade & Chimpo : Creeper
21: Chase & Status & Bou : Baddadan (feat. IRah, Flowdan, Trigga & Takura)

https://hearthis.at/omnicore-records/doomcore-records-pod-cast-101-dj-pr8orian-drum-and-bass-will-never-die-vinyl-set/

How I started Doomcore Records

It's a bit of a weird story, and it actually started way back, when I read the books by Douglas Adams, in my early teenage days.
I tell this out of memory, so it might not be entirely correct. But in one of the "Dirk Gently" novels, Douglas Adams mentions a fictional author, and I assumed it was a take on Stephen King.
In the book, the author is successful. But not because of his work, but because his name fits well on the cover of a book. The last name is shorter, so it can be printed in large letters, and the surname can be put in smaller letters on top of it.

When I read this, I felt like someone had jolted my nervous system. This idea felt so alien, so bizarre. Even though it was a parody, it stuck with me.

Fast forward 20 years. I never used drugs in my life, trust me on that.
I remember the following moment like it was yesterday.

I was walking along the parking lot, next to my flat.
When suddenly, in my mind, the two words, in big white letters appeared: "Doomcore Records". And I knew this was perfect. On a semiotic level, on the level of letters, the alphabet... to me, there was an aesthetic, a geometry to these two words... it really clicked.
In all honesty, I could not care less that this was about Doomcore Techno as a genre.
I felt addicted to the aesthetic of these letters, of these two words, as a kind of sentence... and I knew I needed to start a label about this...

If another genre name had appeared before my eyes, the label would have been about that.

This is my story, it might sound weird, but it is true.

Doomcore Records laurels

The label turned 13 years a while ago, so let's look at some of its laurels.

Over 350 releases so far, together with its two subs.
That makes it the biggest Doomcore Label ever.
It also makes it one of the biggest Hardcore-related labels ever.
One of the biggest labels in Hamburg, Germany.
And one of the biggest DIY labels.

The label and it's releases have been reviewed, praised, or mentioned in most of the major music press publications around the world.

It's releases have been played in clubs, festivals, squat parties, and other gatherings, in countless countries, on all continents, with the - possible - exception of antarctica.

"Doomcore" refers to Doomcore Techno, not Doom Metal.

The label kickstarted quite a few music careers, or underground trajectories.

On the other hand, plenty of established "star" producers of the electronic subculture have released on Doomcore Records.

Doomcore Records spawned a whole new subgenre of music - "Slowcore Techno".

More interesting stuff that happened:

Doomcore Records released the first Doomcore artist in the Dominican Republic.
Also the first Doomcore EP out of China.
A release by a soldier in the Ukraine conflict. Produced close to the frontline. Expressing the nihilism of war and life.

The first Doomcore Techno release in support of LGBTQIA+ rights.
The first release by an Industrial Black Metal artist out of chile.
Tracks produced during the chaos of the first years after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc.
The first entirely "Female Fronted" Doomcore and Dark Techno album.
An album made up of tracks with a runtime of 30-60 minutes each.

Despite the name of the label, a lot of the releases are not strctly Doomcore. There is spoken word, speedcore, chiptune, techno... industrial... 
The aim is at the entire range of electronic music.

The first releases had just the artist name and a number. Always the same artwork. No information, no promo, no pics, no marketing, nothing. Because obscurity is king.

Apart from the official vinyl releases, countless of dub-plates exist with the music of the label.

These were just a few of the facts attached to the label.
Stay tuned for more.