So, in 2017 I really got into producing Slowcore Techno again. I already wrote a lot about this "bizarre" genre elsewhere, so if you are new to this, I refer you to my other tracks. And no, it's not (really) related to the guitar based Slowcore genre of the same name...
So... where was I? Ah, I will give you an introduction anyway. "Slowcore" is Hardcore and Techno music below 130 bpm... and some tracks get *really* slow, slow, as in, like, 80 bpm, 50 bpm, or even less.
In the 90s, I had already helped driving up the tempo threshold in the opposite direction... by having the first, full, from-start-to-finish 800 bpm hardcore track released on vinyl in 1998!
So it felt almost "obvious" to me I now needed to do the inverted case, too.
I decided to do a track with 1 bpm. yes, one fudging bpm only. one beat, in one minute. sounds almost biblical right? like an apocryphal proverb... not sure.
Either way, to go get back to the point... I did one, and called it Thunderdoom. Obviously a nod-by-name, to a popular Hardcore compilation series. I put it on my soundcloud, and the feedback was positive.
But the naysayers were banging on my door quite quickly. "this is not really 1 bpm".
Because both the percussion and melody ran at a... let's say faster speed, and just the bass drum itself, did a loud "bang" every 60 seconds.
which is a kind of buckwhip argument in my opinion... 1 bpm is 1 bpm. most speedcore tracks have slower elements too, and this does not make them any less... legit.
naysayers come and naysayers go... but they did not blame this on any "meagre" productions skill on my part... instead they said i failed because it was simply impossible... it was technically impossible to produce a track, that really is 1 bpm speed, and would still sound sensible or enjoyable to anyone.
this "enraged" the need to defend the entire slowcore genre inside of me...
so, back to the producer room again.
and i did one, where the entire clock of the track really clocks at 1 beat a minute...
this one was called "creeping doom" (maybe... just maybe, a nod-by-name, to a popular track by a band called metallica... which also a has cool, slow middle part, btw).
so, let's get down to the production details:
the beat hits home one time every sixty seconds.
because there is a lot of "space" inbetween each "hit", this allows the kick drum to be really, really, distorted, and deep, with lots and lots of bass frequencies... and an overkill of reverberation, delays, and echos!
the percussion elements are at each 16th note (which means, for example, a snare drum could come in after 15 seconds... but not one second earlier).
same goes for the melody and the pads.
i decided to use one of my favorite chord progressions again, four descending chords separated by notes or half notes...
plus i added some additional notes, too.
i sustained the chords as, obviously, nothing else (or not much) would happen in the 59 seconds before the next hit... in the track.
bang, bang, bang, bang, track finished, it goes up and released, and the naysayers go "uhmm... okay, 1 bpm is really possible after all".
the track became one of the most popular tracks i ever did, and by the end of 2017, it appeared in at least one "best music of 2017" charts in one of the well known music mags (forget which one, but i guess it was either groove or the wire). it keeps getting mentioned again and again, also by the music press, in the years that followed.
and i suppose it also generated enough interest so that other things happened, for example that a record on my own label got reviewed by the music mags again. and more good things.
and, i do not say this as "ego", but i try to give an advice for other, or new producers this way:
it is always good to go on a dare, a dark dare, and to risk a lot with your projects, and your music. and do not listen to the naysayers ever!
and that way, you can get a lot of feedback and reactions, and very good things!
Music:
Creeping Doom https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/track/low-entropy-creeping-doom the original
Thunderdoom https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/track/thunderdoom-1-bpm-2 the other track
Creeping Doom (Nekra Damage Remix) https://cultureofviolence.bandcamp.com/track/creeping-doom-nekra-damage-remix a cool remix (with faster bpm)
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