I was sickened by covid while doing this, so my voice and answers might be a bit more dislocated than usual.
But I took the chance to turn it into more of a spoken word performance, including strange timbres and rhythms of speech, too.
Aaand as a special treat... my interview actually meta-morphs into a wholly new track called "number 7"! Right in the middle of the interview.
And here is the transcript of the interview:
Intro: Hello, and welcome to the 6th episode of the Stygian radio show presented by Origin Of Styx for sonic scout radio. The purpose of this show is to scout for unsigned/independent electronic musicians and expose their music to a greater audience. I make a distinction between free netlabels and bigger indie labels, and many artists that would want to submit tracks to my station might be artists who have only self-released or released with free netlabels and want to take their career to the next step by signing with an indie label. But we’re going to talk all about the different types of labels in electronic music during this episode, because in this episode we are going to be interviewing the founder of the underground netlabel doomcore records, and its sublabels slowcore records and omnicore records. I’ve also gotten some submissions from artists this week so you’re going to want to stay tuned for both the interview and the songs I’m going to be presenting. If you would like to have your music featured on my radio station you can do so either on the SSR app or website. My show Stygian is looking for musicians that make techno, hardcore techno, dark/drone ambient, and jungle/breakcore, as well as all their various subgenres. There is a $10 fee to submit a track, the purpose of the fee is both to filter out low intent submissions and make sure artists are actually invested in their art, but also so that money can be invested back into SSR so we can expand the platform to a wider audience. So with all that said, I wanted to introduce my guest for this episode, DJ, producer, and hardcore techno legend Low Entropy. Go ahead and introduce yourself and explain a little bit about your music and the history of your project.
LE:
Hello,
Allow me to introduce myself.
I am Low Entropy from Hamburg Germany.
I was caught in the big big Hardcore and Techno wave that rained down on Germany in the early and mid 90s.
And here I am.
So yeah.... I produced plenty of tracks.... that got released... all over the world.
played parties. met people. get featured in maaagaaazines...
nowadays i also have other projects
like the harrrrrdcore overdogs electronic magazine of underrated hardcore adjacent genres.
or the labels, that you already mentioned.
doomcore records, slowcore, and omnicore records.
doomcore records was the root, the seed label.
it's for doomcore music, dark techno, industrial techno. dark hardcore.
slowcore records has a speed limit. tracks must be 130 bpm or less. the style is not so important than. very slow hardcore or techno. as long as it has a prominent, steady beat.
we got some really slow ones on there, like 1 bpm hardcore and gabber.
and omnicore is the label for all styles of music. and i mean
it's mostly centered on retro gabber and speedcore now, 90s style.
but i would also like to have a folk music release on it one day. or vgm.
or tribal chanting.
a piano ballad record. it's all possible.
-OOS: I really wanted to discuss the concept of labels. What do you think is the purpose of labels in underground electronic music? Do you also make a similar distinction between bigger indie labels which operate more like a business as opposed to free netlabels which serve more as a promotional tool?
LE:
no no i think that's a big misconception for newcomers.
as you know, i released on some bigger and very famous labels (snickers).
and it's just like with the indies, they hit me up for some tracks and i shoot some stuff over there. and maybe i get a payment after a year, but most of the time's it's not the case (laughs).
there is no real world of business in music, as far as i have seen.
the big labels are just chilled freaks like us, ya know?
so.... how important are labels?
well i come from a world where all music was on labels. nowadays there are artists who release without labels, and i guess they put their stuff on social media...
but yeah, i think labels are vital.
on our labels, we dont just put a release by an artist. it's tied in to a mythology, a theme, a concept, a tribe, an uprising.
of course not for every single artist.
but i guess artists are drawn to doomcore or slowcore or omnicore records because they catch this vibe, ya know.
-OOS: A lot of artists listening to my show Stygian and submitting tracks are underground artists who haven’t been in the electronic music scene for nearly as long as you. What advice do you have for these artists in pursuing their goals in the audio industry?
LE:
man, gurl, boy, woman, whatever you are. just do your thing. never compromise. you wont make friends by sucking up to others.
i see a lot of artists now who are like "ohhh the 'industry' is like that and we need to adopt"
fuck the industry, fuck this idea.
you can do what you want and labels, promoters will come crawling to get your stuff, ya know?
nobody is interested in you if you do things like 100 artists did before you.
-OOS: I wanted to talk about concepts like philosophy, political theory, and spirituality as it relates to music. I know that these are things you sometimes discuss on your blogs and I am wondering how your own personal political and spiritual beliefs have influenced your music.
LE:
on my home planet, well, i mean, in the 20th century, and i dont really want to sound like an old dog now (howls, arooo arooo! pants like an old dog),
music generally was connected to everything, to culture, to politics, to religion, to sex.
even the music of the enemy, of the old folks, just that theirs was connected to a very different culture.
so i don't grasp this concept that some people do music just to get money. i guess money is their religion, culture and politics then.
when it comes to religion, my dear listener i now bless you by the almighty doghead of the overdogs (howls, arooo arooo).
and when it comes to politics, i am an anarchist, and i want to overthrow the world's government, but i think this can be done in a peaceful way too, or best with music.
-OOS: What do you think is the future of electronic music? Where do you think electronic music is heading in both the near and far future and how do you think technological advancements will change how we make electronic music?
LE:
the future of electronic music might be the past. what year is it? and who lives in the house of laura palmer now?
either way, it's very interesting that there is now a new generation of young dog artists that are interested in the sounds of hardcore and gabber again.
because i think hardcore and gabber died before their time, there was still a lot of things that could be done, the style could have been pushed farther ahead... more experimental.
and the new generation seems to just do that.
and i guess this might be the future. what year is it? again? laura? there is fire where we are going (with ominous voice)
-OOS: What equipment do you use to make music? Do you use hardware or do you only make music “in the box”? What is your favorite DAW?
LE:
yes i make music in the box, in the big brain box of me (laughs, snickers, sneezes two times).
i use mostly software yes.
an old tracker daw called jeskola buzz is the piece where i produce most music with.
but i also like to improvise and use as many methods available.
for example, on the second day of christmas, i went for a walk, and heard people hitting the ice with... dunno how they did it, but it was quite the ruckus. so i sampled it, looped that one sound, and it became a fourteen minute long track.
-OOS: One of the genres you’re most known for representing is doomcore. How do you define doomcore for somebody that has never heard of it before?
LE:
do you like scary movies? you know, with drew barrymore and the rest of the gang...
no, how i see is that hardcore split into various styles, that deliver the ruckus in very different ways.
and doomcore is very melancholic, and it's dark, and your goth friends will like it.
but it's still hardcore.
oh and lately, i noticed, there are some really downer nihilist types roaming the doomcore scene. i get that, i respect that.
but doomcore was actually started by some funky party guys from germany, on the label planet core productions.
and yeah they were hardcore and dark and twisted, but they new how to enjoy life at its fullest too, ya know?
so enjoy doomcore and keep smiling!
-OOS: What other artists are some of your biggest influences? Are there any types of music that isn’t electronic that still influences you when making electronic music?
LE:
yes yes of course.
after the millenium my interest in hardcore and techno was not 100 percent central anymore.
i love indie rock and pop, or vintage doo wop. also a bit of karl-heinz stockhausen or schoenberg (hey, arnold! arrrnold).
i like taylor swift. for real. she sings about darkness and the end of the world or wanting to destroy everything and everyone. dressed in sugarcoat melodies. that's quite hardcore, isnt it?
coldplay is great. kim wilde is wild. she's a scorpio, babe!
there is also some kind of wormhole of late 70s and 80s music that is totally weird and often even more nihilistic than a lot of hardcore.
fad gadget, ende shneafliet, dalek i, modern eon... whoops i guess that might be borderline electronic again then.
-OOS: Let’s talk about parties and performing live. What kind of events have you DJed for in the past? Have you ever performed live? Where do you think electronic music performance is headed - will there be more improvisation and live electronic sets as opposed to artists only mixing tracks that have already been recorded?
LE:
have i ever been mellow? have i ever smiled (sings)
yes i played a lot of gigs... in tresor berlin, at the fuckparade in berlin... sometimes i played in front of 1000s of people, and then in front of empty clubs.
when i view some performances on internet video today, i am negatively amazed about how tame everything is... these folks walk on stage, do their thing, everyone cheers, cut, the end.
i think hardcore should be controversial. i want you to come up on stage and then you vomit all over your equipment. or you dress up in non-euclidean geometry. something that shocks people. that is out of the ordinary.
not playing hit tracks to a docile crowd.
but i think the new generation is more interesting again in that regard.
and regarding the technical side, yeah, more improvisation would not hurt. and more attempts to get beyond that whole electronic music circuit.
sing during your performances. hit a gong. get the east european army choir on stage, and let them accompany you while you perform your music.
perform outside the box!
-OOS: Do you think anybody is capable of making music or do you think this requires a certain innate musical ability?
LE:
i do not only believe that everyone can be a great and genius artist, but that everyone is a great and genius artist already, right now. they just dont realise it.
it's because there are structures and standards, a hierarchy in art so to say. with famous artists, and the media and organisations tellings what is art and what is not, which rules you should follow, and people think they cant follow this and their art is lesser than other people's creations because of that.
but i don't think so.
if you follow your own inspiration, creativity, if you follow your star, you art, music, painting, whatever, will be brilliant.
it's actually a minor quote problem unquote, when running the labels. i listen to people's music, and reach out to them, telling them we would like to release their music.
and some of them go "oh, sorry, but i do not think my music is good enough for release yet"
and i think "what the hell makes you think that? it's brilliant!"
-OOS: Let’s talk about values in music. How do you define a “good” techno or hardcore techno song? What traits or qualities would make a song less “good” in your eyes?
LE:
i think this is entirely subjective. hardcore is actually a good topic, because there were, and probably are a lot of people, who go "hardcore is bad for listening, but good for dancing". so they might not actually like this kind of music or think it is well produced, but for them it suits a purpose - in order to dance at a rave.
and other music could fit other purposes, like making you sad, happy, mellow.
or being the background of a video game, movie...
so one track can be good or bad for you, depending on the occasion. and on your individuality.
i think, in the end, in an objective sense, all music is good. and whether you like it or not is down to subjective opinion. and values.
-OOS: What advice do you have for people who are new to electronic music and want to start producing music?
LE:
please please do not listen to what others say. there is a whole legion of people out there who jump on newcomers and say their stuff sucks, and that they should stop producing, and so on.
but that's not true.
also, like i said above, a lot of people think if they copy others, or follow contemporary trends, they can go ahead, the opposite is true.
even if you do believe that you need to follow a trend or fit in to get somewhere, think about this:
the music, the styles, the attitude that are hot right now will be cold in 3-4 years. so even if you ride this wave, you will drown in 3-4 years. do you want that?
and here is also something i wish somewhen had told me early on:
the actual impact of your music is often invisible.
nowadays people reach out me and say "hey i'm in canada, or russia, or la paz. and i liked your early music and always was a fan".
and i never knew that. i might have thought, early on, "oh, nobody likes or listens to my music". and if i had given up at that point, i would never have known. tomorrow never knows.
so please dont give up.
-OOS: And finally, what advice do you have for artists that already have some self-releases or songs put out by free netlabels and want to take their career to the next level by signing with a bigger indie label?
LE:
mmm yeah as i said there seems to be the impression that there is a world of bigger, more professional labels.
i released on bigger labels, but i never quote signed unquote with them. these label folk are just chilled freaks like us
also, with the internet, you can easily reach millions, or billions of people, without labels. i think we all know songs or artists that did that.
this might contradict my earlier statement, right? well i think labels are important for the scene, for the overall music structure. for us. but not necessarily for artists if you want to make a hit, and nothing else.
either way, it either happens or doesnt happen. the labels reached out to me, and i dont think there was a magic trick on how i could have gotten a release on these labels in another way.
so, just follow your star, follow your inspiration, follow your self!
and here is a little piece i prepared just for this show.
number seven...
number seven...
number seven...
number seven...
number seven...
number seven...
number six...
[bassdrums come in, and everything seamlessly fade into the track which is called "number seven" too]
