Screemz

Interesting review of the Slowcore Compilation in Screemz magazine.

Full article at https://screemz.wordpress.com/2021/09/30/first-negation-dance/

"The Slowcore Compilation German label Doomcore Records released compiles more fascinating stimulating musical cross-pollination Eno would probably dig. Where mood music, metal, techno, and industrial hardcore(techno but also with speed, aggro, and societal critique shared with hardcore punk)merge into relaxing jacuzzis of gloom, mutation, and contemplation.

Basically 90s techno/ hardcore techno began accelerating beyond the rave scene comfort zone while attracting growing amounts of filth and heaviness. The beats per minute jumped from 160 to over 200. By 1998 aptly named subgenres terrorcore and speedcore went 800 BPM or more. Splittercore and Extratone fused digital harsh noise(rooted in industrial noise) with samples hurled at warp speed beats per minute beyond 1000 BPM!!! I played the faster crazier stuff on Loyola University’s WLUW college station via Reality Radio as part of punk and post punk evolution.

Of course for every action an equal opposite reaction simultaneously occurs. Doomcore and Industrial Hardcore slowed down while carrying the heavy load. Slowcore took it down to 100BPM to 60BPM but some have taken it down to 1 to 4BPM! The slower it gets the more it becomes ambient relaxing contemplative music.

While much of these compilation contributions are thrillers, some of the standouts include :Low Entropy-“This Is History,”with its powerful majestic organ sounds like a space opera epic movie which lands in an earthbound imperial court. The 4 BPM sounds epic in the mix. While all of the layered tracks work their spell, a man straight from a Jedi Knight emergency conference on how to fight the local orcs in their upper class suburb recites in his glory “This Is History.”



Murmuur’s 120 BPM”My Inner Voice” sounds as if someone is contemplating something rash or confronting herself in a mirror aboard the Trans Europe Express or a space shuttle blasting asteroids as some disturbing drama unfolds aboard; Primitik-“Doom Forever”at 120 BPM starts with the evolution of the snapping turtles like the one on the compilation cover which leads to armies of them walking all over Tubular Bells that signals an encounter with phantasmic ultra dimensional beings leading to weird scenes in a UFO including elevated consciousness given to the snapping turtles so they become tenured professors at famous universities ; The Man Unknown-“Keeper of Nothing” at 80 BPM carries a bit of avant dub/post punk reggae and I could imagine this being an On U Sound production with Adrian Sherwood and maybe Igorrr collaborating ; DZKYIN-” Netherrealm” at 2BPM(!!!) is the doomiest track roughly the equivalent of being temporarily stuck in two dimensions at once ; and closer AwwwwwwwwwA – “Uncompressed Pandæmonium “(? BPM) sounds similar to 70s Kosmische Musik ( Faust , maybe Kluster, etc.) mixed with a chamber music ensemble battle with Dario Argento https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dario_Argento directing his movies scary monsters and super creeps against them.

I enjoy extremes in extreme music. Although I kind of hoped more rougher mixes would be compiled( perhaps where lo-fi black metal meets lo-fi synth punk ala Nervous Gender, Primitive Calculators, The Screamers, etc.) but with Slowcore twists, I appreciate a slower heavier take on techno and hardcore techno which has more multidimensional variety flourishing . Hopefully more guitar, bass, and drums doom/sludge/ drone metal muthas will dig the digital deviants as well.

Slowcore and Doomcore fit in with slower heavy contemplation including developing focused praxis that could lead to first negation action. Thinking about what you are for as well as you are against. Some of the best heavy music is potent enough to empower without barbiturates, marijuana, and alcohol (however, some people might be gradually temporarily weened off their uptight reactionary character armor through thee three with consensual experienced empathetic guidance involving heavy absorbing music; Wilhelm Reich’s research on character or miserable emotional/physical defenses developed to navigate miserable existing societal conditions though ultimately shows character can only be removed or neutralized through our participation in the process of total maximalist anti-capitalist/anti-hierarchical global revolution). The Slowcore Compilation from Doomcore Records serves as both good medicine and a ten ton weight you will want dropped on you daily!"