Call for submission - The Hardcore Techno Overdogs Anthem Remix Contest - Part 3

Hey, You! You, over there! No... not you... ! I mean *you*. I am talking to you. Yes, you!
Do you know what time it is? It's time for... another edition of the The Hardcore Techno Overdogs remix contest.
To cut it short, The Hardcore Overdogs are an "E-Zine for great and / or underrated Hardcore Techno past and present!". It's published posts have been read somewhere around 4 or 5 million times... and no, we are not making this up. Maybe one of the largest techno publications ever! But no time for vanity. Time for remixes!
So far the magazine has 8 or 9 anthems, and you are invited to remix one, multiple or, theoretically all of them (we would only publish 3 of your mixes, though).

You can go here for them package of stems. and start remixing right away!

https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-the-hardcore-overdogs-remix-competition

Rules:

1. Deadline 20.12.2026 12:00 AM (Or December 20th)
It's a Hard deadline, and no tracks will be accepted beyond it.

2. Tracks can theoretically be in all styles, but please no "modern" mainstream hardcore styles like uptempo, frenchcore, millenium... early hardcore is most welcome, though!
and also other electronic styles like techno, goth, ambient, avantgarde... be creative!

3. You can use the stems / samples, but you can also recreate the melodies, beats etc, or just use the vocal samples with a similar melody, and so on.

4. no ai in any form is allowed, not in producing, not in the vocals, nada, nothing, niente, nix.

5. tracks should be sent to: low.entropy.80@gmail.com topic "The Hardcore Overdogs Remix Contest"
you can submit up to 3 tracks

6. all other questions can be send to that mail address to.

7. we don't master, you don't need to master your track, if we accept it, we will release it, but if you think you need masters, you need to master yourself.

8. the tracks that got accepted, will then be released by doomcore records, as a free download compilation

btw, anthem #0, "Drum Test", is a single channel track. that means that the entire track *is* the stem. if you want to remix it, you could for example take parts of the drums of it or, or be creative with ideas.

links:

1st compilation:
https://gabbaretrecords.bandcamp.com/album/gbbr110-we-are-the-hardcore-overdogs-the-remixes

2nd compilation:
https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-hardcore-overdogs-remixes-part-ii

the hardcore overdogs magazine itself
https://thehardcoreoverdogs.blogspot.com/

doomcore records:
https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/

the links to the stems again (in case you forgot it)

https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-the-hardcore-overdogs-remix-competition

and now, happy remixing!

Low Entropy's Producer Diary: When The Kiss Of The Vampire becomes Your Only Friend

Almost by accident, I stumbled upon this "old" track by me again. Because I saw a clip of a DJ playing it in a club, a few days ago... but the track itself if from 2016.

Or rather, it is two tracks, but I made them "back 2 back". At least conceptually, the production itself was several days (or weeks?) apart.
This was not done at the best time in my life, I felt very depressed, isolated, doomed... in those days. And, Doomcore is of course the right music for that, and to express those emotions, too!

I think you can feel the sense of dread and "doom" in those tracks...

They were a bit unusual for me, in multiple senses.
First, there is a very straight forward structure to the track, at least at the root...
There is a "percussive" phase for several minutes, where the drums come in, and the other elements (snares, hats, and so on). Then, there is a sudden "pause", silence, until a sampled monologue plays out, that we can listen to.
Silence again, until the first synths come in... and slowly an entire melody builds into the track.
And finally, the "beats" drop again, while the synth fades in and out... and even additional notes are introduced.

Those different synth "lines" or melodies are part of a harmonic whole, and here is the catch: it's outside western tuning, or most of western music at all. The melody and harmony is based on a hexatonic scale, if i remember correctly. 6 notes per octave! So it lies inbetween the "normal", heptatonic scale with C D E F G A B (plus and minus a few flat squares...), and the pentatonic scale, which was common in ancient music I think (egypt?), or modern jazz maybe.

I was always mesmerized by the fact (or my impression?) that chord progressions in hexatonic harmony sound completely alien, otherworldly and unreal, suddenly (same could be said about pentatonic, btw).

After this, everything fades out, and fades to black again. Which is something I rarely do in other tracks. There is usually another big thing, a "big bang", after the climax(es) in the middle part, at the end of my tracks.

The themes of the tracks are linked, too, maybe like an inverted mirror to each other.
"Kiss of the Vampire" tells the tale of vampire seduction, but the roles are inverted, too. I think there is a very bittersweet feel to it, there is certainly euphoria, serenity in the promise of eternal life, even if it means life in eternal darkness... and then, in the end, the monologue is interrupted because the vampire itself seemed never interested in the deal (another unusual thing).

While "The Only Friend" has a monologue about deep, deep friendship, comradery, care and support, being "thick as thieves". This sounds very nice and moving again, but with the ominous sounds, and the whole "mood" to this monologue, we might assume that things are not quite as they seem... or are they?

So, both tracks are about a strange "conflict". There is hope, trust, but doom and gloom, too. And both seem somewhat linked, yet none of this feels... it does not feel *that bad*, more like a detached musing, on the strange and confusing circumstances of our lives, our very human lifes.
I mean, in essence, the "treacherous friend" in the second track means that things could be worse than it seems... but the "life saving vampire" of the first track also shows that things might indeed be much better than we imagine them to be...!
But for now, it seems we are stuck in the middle.

I remixed the tracks more than once, sometimes with "harder" drums, or different synth sounds.
These were released on Legs Akimbo Records (one of my fav UK labels!), Antropofagia Records from Brazil, HardSoundMusic (the label by the semi-eponymous online radio station), ENDE Records from Australia, and a few other labels.

Music:

Kiss of The Vampire ("Techno" version on a Russian label) https://doomcoreinitiative.bandcamp.com/track/kiss-of-the-vampire-special-2018-edit
The Only Friend (Techno remix) https://legsakimborecords.bandcamp.com/album/legs-net-138-resistance
The Vampire's Kiss (a more recent, Gabber / Speedcore version) https://rotjecore.bandcamp.com/track/horrortrax019-low-entropy-the-vampires-kiss-bleed-me-dry-mix

111 Free Hardcore Techno Drums

Here is the story so far:

I'm a Hardcore and Techno producer since the 90s (with lots of gigs and release experience), I began creating sample packs out of my old tracks and uploaded them to the internet, then I began creating new drum samples in a similar way, I ended up using them in my own tracks, too.
Then I decided to do some dedicated samples where I "research" drum sounds that are unconventional, experimental, surreal... and not commonly used in Techno or electronic music.
But, after all this lofty and brainy research, I arrived at the point where I came to the motion of... "**ck it". Why not simply do some nasty, harsh, straight-forward kicks again?
*And* as a plus, I could use some of the techniques I learned during the "drum research", for this!

So these are some kicks again, they aim straight for the adrenaline and fun and party... should be easy to use, just load them into your sampler and daw, and you should have some good results right away... or, at least, very soon!

Not just Gabber and Hardcore kicks are here, of course, but also those that could be used for Electro, Industrial Techno, Gothtronics... you know the score!

But, let me add, that for the HC kicks, I tried to make them ultra-hard and aggressive... did I succeed? You be the judge, my friend!

I'll shut up now... enjoy the kicks!

credits:

all drums and sounds 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.

https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/111-free-hardcore-techno-drums

Wolves

 

Kotzaak

 

Antares (The Nucleus Project: Scorpii Nox)

Another entry in the nucleus project. Read more about the project here:

https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/nucleusproject-part-1-les-champs-m-talliques

This one is rather frantic, and chaotic.

https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/antares-the-nucleus-project-scorpii-nox

Low Entropy's Producer Diary: My long road to becoming an Acid-Core producer

Low Entropy's Producer Diary: My long road to becoming an Acid-Core producer

Acidcore was not a love at first sight for me (or, more precisely, "first sound"). While other electronic and "hardcore" styles like Gabber, Speedcore, Breakcore, Hardtrance, Electro... enamored me immediately (more or less)... when I heard my first Acidcore tracks, I went more like "meh".
These were tunes on Fischkopf records for example, or Industrial Strength, UK labels, or even some of the more acid-ic Mokum ones.
This stuff felt very monotone and repetitive too me... also quite "minimal". There just seemed to be a lack of action in these tracks, and not much going on...
In the 90s, I decided that Acidcore was the only subgenre of Hardcore, that I was not very fond of...

The only exception were some tracks by Lasse Steen, those that, in my opinion, had more variety, with lots of melodies and weird tempos, and so on. For example of the Senical and Skullblower variety. And a few tracks by other artists.

But actually, my path to Acidcore had begun, even before I got into "Hardcore proper". During vacation, a trip to a small, "90 souls" village at the border of the norther sea, on reclaimed land, that did not even exist and was the Atlantic ocean a few hundred years ago, before humans walked there, and created that land out of the ocean.
Where i swapped tapes with another teenager my age, which was hardcore punk on one side, acid techno (first time i heard that stuff!) on the other, and while i did not like the sound at that age either, i concluded that it had... potential, so to say.

Another big "woah" event was when i heard some acid tracks by PCP, especially of the 303 nation kind.

But yeah... let's say i was still not convinced.
Until the year 2000, when I went with some friends to a "hard trance rave revival party", here in hamburg, and the first hour was... very oldschool acid and techno.
And it really felt like an enlightenment!
Listening to the tunes, at night time, in a dark club, under ultra and violet light, on a loud sound system, dancing with the freaks, under the influence of caffeine... completely changed the sound to me.
I think that especially the "played out loud" thing changes acid... a lot! all those frequencies, no longer tame and distant, but buzzing around you, getting, getting to, and into your head and mind and soul... ready for liftoff!

also, that year, i had an early producer breakthrough, because a demo CD-R by me (hah!) became quite popular, within a secret community hidden behind the underground "circuit 8" website... which led to me exchanging CD-Rs, tapes, and demos, with quite a lot of people (like Somatic Responses, Christoph de Babalon, Praxis records) and also with Daria Blax from Drop Bass Networks, who sent me a kind of "bootleg mix" (hah!) with the acid classics, from berlin, london, cologne... and that sound blew my mind too!

after this, there was "no holds barred" anymore, i got deep into the acid...
and this led to my first "proper hits", hits in the underground sense, of course... my release on black monolith records, a new york adjacent label, my bookings at tresor, suddenly i played acidcore in front of 1000s of people... literally. was a wild (acid) ride!

and then, many, many (and many) years later, i finally got into more mellow acid too, which led to another wave of releases, that then were mentioned in the big magazines again and was a bit like a "return to fame" for me... "fame", in the underground sense of course, or let us rather call it popularity, or maybe "notoriety".

but all these years, my acid and acidcore tracks go back to the idea, that acid works best, and only "works", if it's made for the party situation in mind, for nights of endless dancing, for the combination of loud frequencies, a gathering of people, and black white flicker-flackering lights, powered by strobes.

and, paradoxically, that the tracks even sound (much) better during "home listening sessions", when they are made with that original thought in mind!

Music:
Urban Uprising https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/track/urban-uprising-143-bpm-re-mastered
Farewell Old World https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/track/farewell-old-world-original-master
Really Into The Space Stuff https://zuur-nl.bandcamp.com/track/really-into-this-space-stuff