Low Entropy's Producer Diary: The Yellow Dog Lights Up At Night, or: Hamburg Thrift

I like to haunt at thrift stores and 1-euro stores, because you never know what you can find there, and despite the items being usually cheap, they are sometimes, if you are lucky, not of lesser quality; and actually quite useful.
So, some years ago, I was at some Hamburg euro type thing, and noticed a dog light, or rather... uhm... a dog-themed light source. I guess it was supposed to be some kind of (novelty) lamp, but it was a light source for a regular home, yet shaped like one of these typical neon signs... you know, neon glowing scissor signs for hair (or other?) stylists, glowing hammers for mechanics (okay maybe i made this one up). but this one was shaped like a dog.
and even though it looked and was stylized like a neon sign, it was regular led or whatever they do these days.

and, you might guess why i bought it, because i thought it was a fun item to have, in relation to the hardcore techno overdogs magazine.
but, i am lazy, and i buy a lot of stuff, and am busy with a lot of things, and with projects. so i put it somewhere in some room, and did not pay attention to it.
fast forward some time, i think about two years... and a light bulb blew up in another room, i moved a light from the producer room as a temporary substitute. which meant my producing room was now short of one light.
i remembered the dog, unpacked the box, the thing looked really cool and cute, after all!
turned out it was usb powered, so i plugged it into the desktop computer i use for producing, and, voila, the faux neon dog lit up in glorious yellow light! which was a surprise, i thought the light would be more white-ish.

because it is connected to the usb plug, this means that everytime i do producing beyond daytime, the yellow dog lights up at night!

part 2

why i do i write this? well, to me, it's not a quirk, or a novelty, or some silly thing. when i do producing at night, this means that i can see the blue-ish grey-ish darkened night sky of Hamburg. Hamburg has been called "the city where the rain never ends", but i also like to call it "The Moonless City". Because of the rainy or semi-rainy weather, the sky is often overcast at night. so: you can't see the moon, even when it's up. it appears as if hamburg lacked a moon!

so it means i am sitting in my production room, i see through the window, there is darkness outside, i can see the lights of the high rises, the blinking lights of the planes, the electricity pylons, or, to be more precise, i can't actually see the pylons, but only the bright red air traffic warning lights that are attached to them, as if they were reddened eyes suspended in the sky. i can even see the stars, on a lucky day.
i can see some trees slowly swinging in the currents of the wind. i can see the occasional reveler on the street, or the occasional car drive by; as if it was not steered by humans to very human destinations, but as if they would lift up any moment, turn into a spacecraft, disappear into the night sky as another bright dot, before heading straight to alpha centauri.

i hear the urban hum in the background, the jet engines from time to time, the traffic noise, sometimes a fight or dispute on the street, sometimes the sirens of police cars, the distant sound of trains. and for some reason, there also seems to be construction noise in some way, even at night.

and now, to this whole mood, now the production room is filled with warm glowing, neither too bright neither too dark, orange-yellow light. out of a led thing shaped like a faux dog.

and yeah, i think you know what i want to express here. this generates a certain mood, a setting, ambience, a certain environment. it's a home studio, but the environment is not just the room or the sound characteristics.
it is also how the room feels, even when the room is expanded to the outside world. or mixed up with it.

and the yellow light adds to it, in this case.

part 3

and i don't think that's crazy, because i know many producers who, at one point, made the decision to create a kind of home studio. and they always had quirks like that. like, someone wanted to have only white colored things in their production room. another has vintage scifi movie poster on their walls. or producers keep all kind of totems and strange items in their production room, such as stuff from their childhood, or stuff that reminds them of a cool party, and much more.
some might even keep a piece of semi-defunct gear they never did part with. as some kind of technological good luck charm.

and if you ask these producers, they all will swear to you that *this is important*: that how the room they are making music in looks like, feels like, appears like, *has* an effect on production. including the choice or lack of lighting. which brings us back to the yellow dog light, woof woof!

and, the message of all this is, that if you are gonna sit down and produce music, keep in mind, that the environment, how you set up your production environment, might actually be important, too!

note: no AI has been used when writing this text.

related tracks:

topp dogg - the hardcore techno overdogs anthem part II https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/track/topp-dogg-black-dog-edit
low entropy - future city skyline https://encountersrecords.bandcamp.com/album/future-city-skyline
low entropy - golden galaxy https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/track/2019-golden-galaxy

Hardcore against AFD (Techno Remix)

Low Entropy · Hardcore Against AFD (Techno Remix)

Low Entropy - Hardcore against AFD (Techno Remix)

In light of the upcoming election... I created a new remix of this track by me.
It's weird when I think about this track, and realize it is a track I made in 2017 already.
A year when the AFD was dangerously close to gaining power, too. One would have thought that this problem would have been finished by now, right?
But, alas, it seems to be a never ending struggle.
So, 9 years later, 2017 to 2026, here is an updated version of the track.

Many brilliant and courageous people held a lot of speeches about this issue, campaigns, events... and as an add-on, now here is also a very aggressive techno track, to feed your anger.

Against fascism, against Racism, against misogyny, against queerphobia, against classism, against oppression.
And against anything that even remotely feels or looks to be "right-wing".

Let's put fascism back into the trashcan of history, once more.

https://soundcloud.com/low-entropy/hardcore-against-afd-techno

Æon Quest

The year turns, and so does the project nucleus.
The September entry is an epic quest, an Æon Quest.
Follow the hard techno kickdrum and outer space acid line and voice of the choir, as we pass from aeon to aeon, from the aeon of love to the aeon of redemption. Will Sophia finally find her way, as she navigates the labyrinth of space and time?

https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/on-quest-the-nucleus-project-september

Find more info about the project nucleus here: https://lowentropyproducer.blogspot.com/2026/08/updates-on-nucleus-project.html



Full Release Info:

Æon Quest (The Nucleus Project: September)

1. 1st Æon (Love) 04:47
2. 2nd Æon (Seed) 06:19
3. 3rd Æon (Rise) 03:47
4. 4th Æon (Zenith) 06:14
5. 5th Æon (Temporarily Lost) 03:06
6. 6th Æon (Redemption) 03:13

Music by Low Entropy
Original artwork by Pierre Lunaire

Low Entropy Busy Bio

A few weeks (months) ago, Busy Action reached out to me, to write a short blurb about me & my music, as a (belated) add-on to a mix set release I did for Busy Action back in the first month of 2025.
Well, as you know me, the text got a bit longer, and I now feel it is almost like a complete short bio of my own music, or maybe, a "busy bio"

TOXIC SICKNESS RADIO OFFICIAL · LOW ENTROPY / BUSY ACTION SHOW ON TOXIC SICKNESS / JANUARY / 2025

https://soundcloud.com/toxic-sickness/lowentropy-busy-action-show-january-2025

If you want to learn more about me & my music, feel free to also read this interview I did with DJ Asylum and HCBX a year ago: https://hcbxcast.blogspot.com/2024/11/interview-low-entropy.html

or this one I did with OOS earlier this year (2026)
https://lowentropyproducer.blogspot.com/2026/01/le-on-oos-stygian-show.html

And here it goes:

I was born 16.11.1980 in Hamburg, Germany.
Got into the whole techno madness thing during the 90s.
Apart from Hardcore & Gabber, I was always interested in, and producing other styles of music too, like dark ambient, krautrock, breakcore, chip sounds, contemporary classical....

some of the stuff i did:

-I had my first vinyl releases in the late 90s and early 2000s, on labels like Blut, Praxis, Black Monolith, or Widerstand.
-i ran a hamburg-wide radio show (real radio, not online) called "hamburg hardcore radio". plenty of guest DJs showed up and label specials were aired.
-played countless of gigs, all over germany, in the netherlands, at tresor, at parades...

-produced over 300 releases for free and commercial labels. from drone and minimal techno, industrial doomcore and hard acid, to speedcore and noise.
-running a magazine called "the hardcore overdogs" that focuses on weird hardcore releases and the electronic music scene in general. with DJ interviews, video features, and much more.

-running three digital labels: doomcore records, slowcore records, and omnicore records

doomcore records is for dark hardcore and techno, slowcore records is for music below 130 bpm, and omnicore records is for everything.
the labels have more than 300 releases in total, too.

-being part of The Gabber Elders, a global team made up of a few hardcore DJs and producers of the 90s

apart from music, i am also a "diy-taught music journalist", and have been writing for paper and online magazines since the 90s.
i also wrote several e-books about hardcore techno, the culture, strange / obscure labels.
or about other topics. like anarchism, philosophy, or poetry.

i believe that music and art has the power to change the entire world.

-i also like to do video art or visuals, or find ways to shoot movies on a soapbox budget.

some things that others might consider to be merits:

i, my labels, or my music have been featured in most of the major music magazines around the world.
the stuff i write for the hardcore overdogs and other features have been read by several million people.
also my music has been listened to by a million people or more.
and it keeps getting played by djs around the world at huge or small parties.

you might also want to check my blog: https://lowentropyproducer.blogspot.com/

Low Entropy's Producer Diary: Eleven Uprisings and a digital Revolution

Low Entropy's Producer Diary: Eleven Uprisings and a digital Revolution

2014 was the year everything changed for me - again. Also in terms of music and producing. It was the year I really "broke through", or rather, I broke out of the "underground cage", if you will. My music was no longer just listened to by hardened speedcore and breakcore freaks, or hardened social science students (hello South London scene!)... well, not that there would be anything wrong with that demographic. But now, Techno DJs played my stuff too, my tunes got played at the big rave festivals, ah well. I also wrote some e-books about Hardcore and Techno that became quite popular. It was a sweet year and time.

Before that, I was on a grim, dark, gloomy and doomy path. In a most literal sense, as I was producing Doomcore and Dark Hardcore. Very brooding, and also very minimalistic. My Doomcore tracks usually had just 4-5 tracks, sometimes even just 3 tracks. Or 2. Or sometimes even just one! These were filled with doomed synths and drums, that looped on and on and on...

Either way, as I told you, 2014 was more optimistic again, and also the time my tracks expanded again. I did lots of very experimental stuff, and really went into overload with production. I dropped the Hardcore, well, not really, but my tracks were not as Hardcore anymore, more like... regular Techno or electronic music. Still not as corny, though!

But... as the year went on... as summer passed by... as the cold crept back in... the doom returned, and the hardcore bass, and the need plus the desire to do some ecstasy filled rave dance dark hardcore tunes... again. "ecstasy", as in dancing oneself into ecstasy. not by using substances, of course.

Thus I returned to my "uprising" concept of tracks. I did a series of tracks called Urban Uprising, then Second and Third Uprising, at a much earlier date. I think I wrote some producer diary (diaries) about these already.
So, now I returned, and I had the eighth uprising, ninth, ten, eleven, and even a final uprising.
As for the framework, read the other diary (diaries). But let's just say that at the root there is Techno, but also in a hardcore treatment, and with a lot of ideas taken from... acid.

I really went into overload with the new uprising tracks... I think eleventh uprising had 22 tracks or channels running at the same time. Maybe it was 27.
The thing is, I always hated "producer flex" tracks like this. I felt that producers just filled their tracks with... multi tracks, in order to show off, or because they thought this was professional. And often the tracks actually sounded crowded because of this, or were getting nowhere.

In order to mitigate this problem, Eleven Uprising has a lot of multi tracked sequences... *but* the channels and tracks were grouped and linked with each other.
For example, there is only one, looped chord progression, or "melody", running throughout the entire track. But there are plenty of other melodies that come and go, or pile on top of each other. Yet each of them is a derivate, transformation, or metamorphosis of the underlying melody. Even the FX, the acidline, and maybe, in an extended sense, the drum and percussion, are tied to, and go back to, this one, main melody.
So, when a wild arpeggio comes in, it is exactly the same chord progression, in disguise. Or when rave bleeps come in, they at least stay in harmony with the chords.

This way, I think, everything still sounds... somewhat "clean" despite the overly tracked and multi channel... thing!
In fact, listening back, maybe I should have used some elements that clashed with this harmony... in order to make it sound less tidy!

Either way, the tracks went onto a CD release, released by Viral Conspiracy Records.
This was only the second time I had a CD release, as compared to the vinyl releases I did before.
But this one felt more like a "whole", as the tracks are linked by the themes I mentioned above. While the first album (Hardcore by Design) was more like... a compiled release of different tracks I did.


I was very happy about this release, and thought "wow, my second CD, now I really made it". I thought it would make quite the impact.
But, in the time and years that followed, it felt as I was getting a quite ... meagre response to the album. Ah well, stuff like that could happen, right?

But then, even much later, and many years later, I learned that the release really had reached lots and lots of people, and that DJs played the tunes at big parties, and everything was quite... "popular". I just did not know it, because, yeah, sometimes the "feedback" does not arrive, in this digital age.

Maybe something that newer producers should keep in mind, that your tunes might actually reach a lot of people, and you just do not notice or realise it.

Oh, I said the doom crept back in, right? So, this track has almost "smiley rave" style pads, heavenly choirs, a party or festival mood. But there are also the hardcore drums, and the caustic acid, and lots of distortion and screeches towards the end.

Eleventh Uprising https://viralconspiracyrecords.bandcamp.com/track/eleventh-uprising
Revolution https://viralconspiracyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/low-entropy-revolution
Urban Uprising https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/reminiscence-urban-uprising-emerald-planet

DJ Low Entropy - Happy Hardcore Trance and Gabber Mix

This mix kick starts a new series! The Gabber Elders focus on a more "mainstream" genre of Hardcore and Techno: Happy Hardcore and Rave! With a series of 3 or 4 mixes.
The 1990s were an era of squeaky (clean) vocals, rave organs, lunatic sawtooth arpeggios, mad hat MCs, sociology students that lend their studio voices to Hardcore productions for a dollar and a dime...
Fast Gabba beats, breakbeats, angelic choirs, and little devils on the cover artworks.
Yes, there was a lot of corny commercial trash in that era, but there were also some real gems, with less cheese, more refined... gems that few people know so far... and you know what? We will broadcast both!

Can you still dig it? So, Let's get back to that era.

This first mix is by Low Entropy, mixes by the other Gabber Elders will be broadcasted soonish!

Styles: Happy Hardcore, Rave, Gabber, Hard Trance, Acid Trance, Ravecore

and the tracklisting:

1. Sunbeam - Arms of Heaven (Extended Mix)
2. Komakino - Outface
3. DJ Paul Elstak - Life is Like a Dance
4. Sequential One - Back to Unity Pt. 2
5. Search & Destroy - Madonna
6. C.O.R. feat. Mike Nova - Children of The Revolution
7. Dune - Are You Ready to Fly
8. Marusha - It Takes Me Away
9. Party Animals - Have You Ever Been Mellow (Tekno Mafia Mix)
10. DJ Jorge & Rico - Started With A Bass
11. Raver's Nature - N-Sonic Dreams
12. DJ Isaac - Bad Dreams
13. Westbam - Celebration Generation (Raver's Nature Remix)
14. Happymen - Love Is You (The Stunned Guys Mix)
15. RMB - There's Love
16. Lords Of The Underworld - Making Moves
17. Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo - Together In Wonderland (Live At The Toilet Mix)
18. DJ Hooligan - Love Time
19. Cyclo S9 Feat. Search And Destroy - M.U.S.I.C
20. Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo - Your Smile (Happy Hardcore Edit)
21. Sunbeam - Arms of Heaven (Single Mix)

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!