Ashtarot's Confessions

White Cough from Romania already did a release on Doomcore Records' sub Omnicore Records 1 year and 1 month ago.

Now there is another release, but not just an EP anymore, but a full-size album! 11 tracks.
White Cough also improved the sound and style a lot in the time.
Hardcore, Speedcore and Gabber with beautiful melodies.
The right tracks to dance ecstatically to, or to see a city burn down while sipping a glass of water.

White Cough - Ashtarot's Confessions

1. Ashtarot's Confessions (Part 1) 03:15
2. Don't Look Back 03:01
3. Hey There 03:42
4. I Believe 02:07
5. Micul GiganT x White Cough - Divine Rhythm 04:03
6. Raising From the Darkness 02:04
7. I'm Broken 01:35
8. Ashtarot's Angel 06:06
9. So in Love With HARDCORE 01:58
10. Faster Than Your Fears 02:48
11. Return of the Beast (Vocals by White Cough and Lord of Sp33d) 02:35

https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/ashtarots-confessions

Producer diary: Death waits in Samarra

All my tracks have an intention, but i guess this is one of the most intentional.
It references the infamous "death waits in samarra" tale which you can read about here: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/117849-death-speaks-there-was-a-merchant-in-bagdad-who-sent

In this story, death is inevitable, no matter how fast you run. Scary!
Yet i never interpreted it as being about... actual death or dying.
It's more like: no one can escape their fate.

There is a point where you have reached "the end of the line" in your life, and you do not know what comes next in your life, and you might be scared, because everyone is scared of change. Especially if it is profound change, change coming from the depths.

I wrote this track in 2021, at a weird time in my life. I felt like I had reached the point that I mentioned above.
The lockdown had changed everything, old friends had disappeared, my old therapist decided to quit... well, at all points in my life, formerly solid structures in my life were falling apart, and i was suspended in midair...

I had no idea what would come next, or if i would lose m7ind, or if things get better, or worse, or maybe all three of these would happen.

But i decided to stop running, and accept it, whatever might crawl up from the depth, come through the door, smash through the window.

Producing the track was my way of saying "i am ready. I surrender. I am not in control. It's over, and it's okay".

Let the next chapter roll in.

And, to my own surprise, it worked. My old life fell apart and a new one begun, on every level of existence for me.
It was not always easy, far from it.

But it was also super ecstatic and exciting.
My life went to places i never knew before, metaphorically speaking.

And, who knows...
Maybe fate has one or two nice surprises in store ... for you, too?

New radical and electronic music

Festival Riot

Low Entropy · Festival Riot (Defcon One Edit) - #gabber #rave #wild

Low Entropy's producer diary: there are no rules for a producer

it's weirdly fascinating, when i go through the internet these days, there are countless of tutorials and instructions like: how to produce a techno bassdrum in the "right way", how to set EQ right, how loud the bass should be, how "mastering" should be done. what kind of workflow one definitely needs to use. how to get a synth sound in the "right" way. what kind of chord progressions one should use when doing melodies... well, i could go on forever with these examples.

When the truth is: there are no rules. there are no rules whatsoever for producing. you can do what you want. feel free to do whatever you like when it comes to art.
there is not one single "correct" way how a bassdrum should sound, or how vocals should sound, or whatever.

it all depends on the specific song or track, on the producer, on the occasion, maybe even on the time of day...
one could argue that "good" and "bad" music are entirely subjective terms...
but even beyond that:

a good track does not become "good" merely because a producer used the "right" mastering technique or harmonic progression.
and a track does not become bad because someone somewhere somehow used a technique that is completely different to what everyone else is doing.
even if a "master producer" would never ever use *your* technique, that does not mean your track would be bad because of this.

there are countless, millions, infinite ways to create, design, shape, invent, evolve, metamorph, good, killer, amazing, marvelous songs.
and there is not "one way only" to arrive at gold.

let me give a few practical examples:

do you know how rock music, metal, punk came around?
the method of "distortion" was known to sound engineers and technicians for decades before the advent of harder guitar music.
but it was seen as a technical error, a failure in production, abhorrent, annoying sound. they spent a huge amount of braincells and energy to make sure that distortion never crept up in any recording or production session.

but then some hippies in the 60s literally blew their amps (and some also their minds, i suppose), started to actually distort their guitars during production... and well, no sound engineer would still consider "distortion" to be a general failure in production.

or another example.
there is a massive amount of tutorials around, that try to tell others how to create a good, dance, techno bassdrum. with lots of focus on bass power, punch, sub bass frequencies.
the idea that is communicated there is that you "fail" if your dance track does not have a bass packing drum set.

but i mean, look at disco or new wave dance music, from the 70s, 80s. best try to get an actual record from that era, not a "remastered" re issue.
and you will see (or hear) that these disco beats often have very feeble sound, they are buried in the mix, lack bass, are unsteady... they run against modern standards of dance production, and most producers these days would never create a beat like this again.
yet... millions of people danced to the tracks. night after night, year after year.

so these tracks can't be that bad... right?

so, never let anyone tell you that your production methods, technique, skills, would be amateurish, lofi, diminished, false, wrong, absent.

feel free to produce the music (and art) that you want to do, in the way you want to do.

low entropy's non-daily producer diary

I'll continue my producer diary. I'll write a series of short entries, that do not go into very complex details over my whole productions, but give an overview of a specific track

this time it is about:

Hell Is Only A Word (Believe It Or Not)



https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/track/hell-is-only-a-word-believe-it-or-not

This one was released on the "Armageddon" compilation by United Gabba Alliance Records. Back in 2019.
I think the label is defunct by now.
I later re-released as a self-release on the "Just Another Speedcore Shock" compilation.

When I wrote this track, I was a bit at a creative slump. I had more or less abandoned the Slowcore sound I "started" in 2017, was back to doing Doomcore again... but it did not feel as energetic anymore.
Most of my tracks were quite melancholic, and meandered with long, complex, glockenspiel or chime-like melodies. A bit like "depressive doomcore" if you will.
Because I felt I hit a wall, I went back to speedcore. A style I only sparsely did after... 2003 actually!
So it was quite the return, if you want.

My "speedcore" had mutated in the meantime, though. No longer the "full on to your head" noizecore I did in the 90s.
Which can be seen in this track.
It's overloaded with samples and sounds, speeds and drums change many times.
Plus there are influences and throwbacks to many other genres. Notably hardtrance, gabber, even a bit of goth and... doomcore once more!

Techno music for Meditative States - Part 2

Why should music for meditation need to be ambient, "world" music, or the sound of raindrops falling?
Of course there is nothing wrong with that.
But here is something different. Dark Ambient, Techno, Doomcore, psychedelic, electronic, danceable sounds.

A follow-up to last year's release.
The album comes with a sonic meditation instruction manual.

And here it is:

1.

During meditation, the body becomes very still, all energy gets pulled inward, towards the mind, our mental images.
This can be very beneficial.

But what about the opposite effect?
With the help of music and sound, I began exploring a method that allows the body to flush energy out of its system and the mind.
This helps release an overload of energy, or even traumatic, harmful energy.

And beyond that, it helps to clear and restart the mind.
The focus gets pulled away from the mind, and the mind, not the body, becomes still and starts to rest, this time.

2.

The methods work by listening to music and sound, and moving the body in an intuitive, instinctive, maybe even "subconscious" way.
The mind takes a step back, shuts down for a while, and the body sets to "automatic pilot" - it starts to steer itself.

Certain forms of music are better suited than others for this. It should be hypnotic, repetitive, entrancing.

I have begun developing certain techniques and "rules" for a type of music that is specifically designed for this purpose.

And then, when the music is playing, the next step comes easily:

Just move your body in an emotional, intuitive response.

After a while, the abovementioned "body trance" will get into effect.

I think this concept and technique could be extremely beneficial and helpful.

Apart from the other benefits, it allows a person to deal with energies that might feel extreme, dangerous, hurting, devastating... and that might be dangerous if they were channeled from the body into the mind.

But this way, the energies get channeled out of the body, and the mind is outside of danger.

I will try to do further research on this subject, and refine the method even more

Doomcore Records 232

https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/techno-music-for-meditative-states-part-2

The Nucleus Project: June

Time turns, the year turns, and so does project nucleus.
This is the entry for Juno.
While the entry for May was close to one hour, this one is close to 30 seconds.

And that's just the way the cookie crumbles, fellas!

https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/fast-love-the-nucleus-project-june

live production jam

 

The Gabber Elders - Compilation

Even your gabber heroes from the 90s get old.
They become dads, moms, uncles, grandpas, inmates, wine&cheese enthusiasts, snake-oil vendors, crooks, or corrupted Fortune 500 CEOs.
Like everyone of us.
Eventually, they'll start to watch re-runs of Matlock, Eurovision, and Golden Girls on TV.

But this does not mean they could no longer drop them distorted 909 gabba kicks like it's hot (or cool) !

Or teach all the youngins of today how noisy a hoover, mentasm, or synth sound can get.

The Gabber Elders are four individual persons from all other the world (USA, Bathgate, Germany and the Netherlands).
They were DJs, producers, promoters, or the weirdo standing in the corner of the record shop.
They did legendary, or less legendary stuff during the hardcore techno hey days of the 90s and a few years later too.
Now each of them is 300-400 years old.

They may look more wrinkly and with less hair now, or look like something the cat dragged in.
Their i-sight might no longer be as good, and they might need to use hearing aids to tell a mokum record apart from a rave records one.

They mgiht start to miss the lettrs on the kbyoard while their typing a txet.

But this does not mean they could no longer drop them distorted 909 gabba kicks like it's hot (or cool) !

So here is a compilation with 7 tracks by all 4 of them.

Maybe these justified & elderly gabber merlins can still teach you a lesson or two!

The style of the compilation on here covers (almost) the whole hardcore spectrum, from slower doomcore and acidcore to gabber and all-out speedcore.
The Gabber Elders consist of:

GabberGirl
Nikaj
DJ Asylum
Low Entropy

Read more about them at http://thegabberelders.com

And now shut up and sit down while you are talking to a grown-up, you annoying kid. and get off my lawn!

Tracklisting:

The Gabber Elders - Compilation (Omnicore Records 77)

1. DJ Asylum - Maniac 02:42
2. GabberGirl - These Motherfokers 04:14
3. Nikaj - Honor Never Dies 04:47
4. Low Entropy - Acidcore 4 (Short Mix) 04:19
5. DJ Asylum - VPOWC 03:55
6. GabberGirl - Death by Stereo 05:01
7. Low Entropy - Acidcore of Doom 05:57

https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-gabber-elders-compilation

Doomed Techno Mix

 

Doomcore Records Pod Cast #102 - The Ancients of Pluto - Doomed Techno Mix

The Ancients of Pluto just had their premiere release on the Doomcore Records sub-label Omnicore Records.
And now, they are here, on the Doomcore Record Pod Cast, with their doomed Techno mix.
And yeah, the name says it all. Very spooky and enigmatic vibes. For the dancefloor, or for home listening. Or for listening inside the underworld.

Judging by the tracklist, the focus is more on obscure and lesser known tracks.
Fitting the theme!

Tracklisting:

1. Alec Empire - Limited 07

2. Epoch 90 - Last Night Of The World (Last Zoop - Zoop)

3. X 101 - Rave New World

4. Hanin - Parfum

5. Radioactive Goldfish - Pink Potassium

6. Taciturne - Phenylephrin-Hydrochlorid
7. Cybermouse - My Dorectives
8. Hanin - There is no love in Tekkno
9. Pascal II - The Future is Ours
10. Sonic Subjunkies - Confusion
11. Polygon Window - UT1 - Dot
12. 100% Acidiferous - 303 State

https://hearthis.at/thehardcoreoverdogs/doomed-techno-mix/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1V02cvyPlc

Holmur

Holmur first appeared on Omnicore Records in 2023. The release was a spooky-scary audio tale. The story reminded me a bit of John Carpenter's The Thing - it took place in the northernmost cold, and via "logbog" entries we heard about some kind of alien or otherwise infestation.
This new "tale" does not take place underneath the northern lights. Instead it is ominously called "Grandview Family Insurance".
The story is a bit ambiguous this time.

Is there something sinister going on at the company? Maybe otherworldly forces at work?
Is it about some kind of dark / occult family?
The name "Grandview..." also reminds me of the "Overlook" hotel in King/Kubrick's The Shining... so maybe it is a bit left to the viewers to decide what is really happening... pardon, i mean, to *the listeners*!

oh, and what about the sound itself? dark ambient, horror drones, strange sounds... something for your hellbound heart!

Info + Tracklist:

Holmur - Grandview Family Insurance (Omnicore Records 76)

1 Holmur The Interview
2 Holmur First Day
3 Holmur After Hours Print Job
4 Holmur Breaching Security
5 Holmur Amber Alert
6 Holmur Cubicle Of Solitude
7 Holmur Already Promoted
8 Holmur Coffee, Black, No Sugar
9 Holmur Trust Issues
10 Holmur Caught By The Family

Mastering By GumGumKing (Emil Brix Kolstrup)

Coverart by:
- Rontobyte
- Torakk
- Per Mikkelsen

https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/grandview-family-insurance

Looking back at 30 years of producing hardcore and techno music - my message to newcomers

So, this year it's been 30 years already that I became entangled in the "dangerous" electronic underground of gabba, speedcore, hard acid, and so on...
actually feels just like yesterday - weird!
I achieved some kind of "liminal fame" that way. I don't get invited to talk shows, my face is not the cover of life magazine... but I know that literally millions of people heard my music at one point in their life, and likely the same amount has spilled their sweat (or blood) on the undercover hardcore dancefloors at one point or the other...
it's weird, even when i go to a forum specifically dedicated to hardcore electronics, the reaction usually is *either* "low entropy, you are a legend!" *or* "who the fudge is that person? i never heard of them in my entire life! when did they start producing again?". it's never inbetween.

but that's not what i want to talk about. the question is: was it worth it? all the years of sweat and hardships, just to feed an addiction to hardcore beats and dark, disturbing electronic sounds?

a lot of artists (in other genres, too), when they look back, either feed their ego, like: "i wanted to proof i am the biggest musical genius ever!" (hello, john lennon!) or they underplay it: "who cares if i have achieved something or not, the important thing was, we all had a lot of funs".


but there is something i never heard getting mentioned by an artist, and it is something peculiar.
i think it has to do with motivation and inspiration...

when i was a kid, teen, young adult, the time before i got "known" as an artist, i loved to watch scifi and action movies on TV, i watched clips and music performances on music television, i watched strange & obscure programs, like a lot of us did.

and i always felt like there was a world *behind* the screen, that seemed to be so much more exciting than the "real world" i was living in. it is very hard to explain what i mean, but i think a lot of people feel the same thing.
you know, we got the regular world, with schools, and jobs, and fast food joints, and annoying neighbors, and stuff like that. maybe life is good, or it is bad, for those people that live in this world. but even if it's good, it's still hella boring, dry and dull. it lacks adventure, mystery, magic.

and the world i saw on tv, that i heard on music, that i read about in magazines, felt like it was *full* of magic and excitement and adventures.
like everything was possible there. while *nothing* seemed possible in my real life.

and i always wanted to get to that place, even if it felt like an illusion to others.
and by that i do not mean that i wanted to become a literal gangster like in the action movies i watched, or that i wanted to become a real rockstar like on the MTV.

i just wanted to feel that special sensation, that strange magic, that i felt in my favorite media, movies, records, tracks... in my own life, too.

and i think i managed to just do that, and get to that place. and this made it worth it.

and this is my "message" to the young, or rather, to the newcomers of all ages, or rather, to those that are still stuck in "boring-world".
because i do not think it is very hard to do this, to achieve this.


just gotta have faith and do the leap.
and when you deeply think reality is too dry, too boring, too depressive, and that something else should be possible.
then, please trust in your own judgment. go out on an adventure!