Posted - 2020/10/30 : 22:06:05
With all these whingers and moaners saying UK Hardcore has to sound same as it did back in the 2000's Trance era and never ever change on this forum.
I thought I would show you a clip of how well the evolved sound is working. While I wasn't a huge fan of 160-165 bpm initially. It has grown on me. I like the fuzed elements of Hardstyle/EDM/Reverse Bass incorporated into UK Hardcore.
Have been some unbelievable releases on Electric Fox lately.
Anyways here is a load of clips of Darren Styles playing the new sound at an event down under in Melbourne on Instagram. Before covid obviously. The crowd is well up for it and probably one of the biggest crowds UK Hardcore has been played to.
To me it is big F you to all the haters stuck in the past hating on people for doing things fresh and innovative in the scene.
Darren Styles live at Knockout Outdoors Melbourne below.
quote:Originally posted by rafferty:
With all these whingers and moaners saying UK Hardcore has to sound same as it did back in the 2000's Trance era and never ever change on this forum.
I thought I would show you a clip of how well the evolved sound is working. While I wasn't a huge fan of 160-165 bpm initially. It has grown on me. I like the fuzed elements of Hardstyle/EDM/Reverse Bass incorporated into UK Hardcore.
Have been some unbelievable releases on Electric Fox lately.
Anyways here is a load of clips of Darren Styles playing the new sound at an event down under in Melbourne on Instagram. Before covid obviously. The crowd is well up for it and probably one of the biggest crowds UK Hardcore has been played to.
To me it is big F you to all the haters stuck in the past hating on people for doing things fresh and innovative in the scene.
Darren Styles live at Knockout Outdoors Melbourne below.
Posted - 2020/10/31 : 08:20:45
How is that any different from Hard House?
There is nothing there that resembled anything I'd ever call Hardcore, even the stuff I hate to called Hardcore!
And to be honest, I dont mind this part, if it was just a mid section or what'd they're called. But when these kind of sections take up 70% or more of a track, and belong closer to 160 than 170? No, that's not Hardcore anymoer
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Samination, Swedish Hardcore DJ
Happy, UK Hardcore, Freeform, Makina and Gabber http://samination.se/ ---------------------------------------------
Alert moderatorEdited by - Samination on 2020/10/31 08:23:31
Posted - 2020/10/31 : 15:53:17
Electric Fox, OneSeventy, & BionicBear are getting showcased on the ZYX CD Series: Technobase.FM, which is mostly "Hands Up"/Hard Trance/Hardstyle blend, so they're adding "Happy Hardcore" on the CD cover because of these labels, so it's like a double-edged sword: The genre is getting some time to shine outside of HU, BUT the 160-165 tracks are being pushed to crowds as "Happy Hardcore", so that's why it's becoming big.
Posted - 2020/10/31 : 16:05:55
Well, based on what I've heard people discuss the Force & Styles interview, the thought of slowing down Hardcore has been going for a long time, longer than UK Hardcore or even Upfront Hardcore existed as genre names
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Samination, Swedish Hardcore DJ
Happy, UK Hardcore, Freeform, Makina and Gabber http://samination.se/ ---------------------------------------------
Alert moderatorEdited by - Samination on 2020/10/31 16:07:16
quote:Originally posted by warped_candykid:
Electric Fox, OneSeventy, & BionicBear are getting showcased on the ZYX CD Series: Technobase.FM
Very interesting that you mention these compilation albums. I'm from Germany where these compilations are released and for the most part also compiled. Similiar to Happy/UK Hardcore Hands Up music is also considered to be mostly dead. The style was huge during the mid 00s being featured on some of the most commercially successful German compilation albums. This changed when House started to take over. Most big Hands Up producers started also producing House which resulted in a huge decilne in the amount and quality of releases. Sine a few years this series is the only one to survive with a focus on Hands Up music. The series is doing suprisingly in sales for a genre that's been considered dead.
I personally love this series and I do own all entries so far on CD but that's mostly because I'm also a big fan of Hands Up (the albums are full of unreleased on exclusives tracks). The UK Hardcore track selection rarely manages to convince me.
quote:Originally posted by warped_candykid:
[...] which is mostly "Hands Up"/Hard Trance/Hardstyle blend, so they're adding "Happy Hardcore" on the CD cover because of these labels
I think the inclusion of the Happy Hardcore tag on the front cover is fair as Hands Up and Happy Hardcore are pretty much the only two styles featured on these compilations. Hard Trance and Hardstyle tracks are very rare (if any).
Also with the last few entries in the series the trend shows that the amount of Hardcore tracks is constantly increasing. Starting from volume 16 there was usually at least one mix featuring 3-4 hardcore tracks at the end of a mix (out of 75 tracks in total). With the latest few volumes about 20-25% of the featured tracks are UK Hardcore.
If your issue though is with the term Happy Hardcore being used instead of UK Hardcore, I agree. However Happy Hardcore is clearly a term that more people are aware of (remember that these are mostly for the german market), so I get why they're using it.
quote:Originally posted by warped_candykid:
BUT the 160-165 tracks are being pushed to crowds as "Happy Hardcore", so that's why it's becoming big.
Yeah, the "Happy Hardcore" selction deserves a lot to be desired. Most of these tracks are by the same 5 artists or from one of the three big labels that you named. The reason for that is very obvious though. All three discs are mixed by DJs/producers that are home to Hands Up and don't know any of the more underground producers. Also quite a few Hands Up producers have tried their hand on producing UK Hardcore lately (Quickdrop, Ziggy X, Critical Strikez, DJ Gollum, Nick Unique, ...). So these tracks are also obviously more likely to end up on the tracklists.
The bpm the tracks are being played at least varies a lot though. Some prefer to keep the tracks at 160, others however play them at 175.
Posted - 2020/10/31 : 20:06:49
DLMD is actually one of the better 160 bpm tracks in my opinion and i bought it however, it is not stored with my UK hardcore music. It's part of a folder names 160 stuff because it doesn't fit any other classification for me, let alone either UK or Happy Hardcore.
I remember a dougal interview in 1998/1999 on channel 4 where he spoke of changing the music and slowing it down etc so it is an idea that has been kicking around for a long time. Didn't work so well last time.
To Rafferty - Anyways here is a load of clips of Darren Styles playing the new sound at an event down under in Melbourne on Instagram. Before covid obviously. The crowd is well up for it and probably one of the biggest crowds UK Hardcore has been played to.
To me it is big F you to all the haters stuck in the past hating on people for doing things fresh and innovative in the scene.
It's not UK Hardcore.
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remain calm do not be alarmed do not attempt to leave the dancefloor
quote:Originally posted by rafferty:
With all these whingers and moaners saying UK Hardcore has to sound same as it did back in the 2000's Trance era and never ever change on this forum.
I thought I would show you a clip of how well the evolved sound is working. While I wasn't a huge fan of 160-165 bpm initially. It has grown on me. I like the fuzed elements of Hardstyle/EDM/Reverse Bass incorporated into UK Hardcore.
Have been some unbelievable releases on Electric Fox lately.
Anyways here is a load of clips of Darren Styles playing the new sound at an event down under in Melbourne on Instagram. Before covid obviously. The crowd is well up for it and probably one of the biggest crowds UK Hardcore has been played to.
To me it is big F you to all the haters stuck in the past hating on people for doing things fresh and innovative in the scene.
Darren Styles live at Knockout Outdoors Melbourne below.
Posted - 2020/11/01 : 00:27:29
Darren doesn?t play hardcore anymore, he doesn?t even label what he produces as hardcore either, it?s basically edm and said in that interview he labels it as 160 edm music not hardcore.
Nothing wrong with pitching it up to 170 plus though and playing it with current hardcore tracks
quote:Originally posted by Gazza1712:
Darren doesn?t play hardcore anymore, he doesn?t even label what he produces as hardcore either, it?s basically edm and said in that interview he labels it as 160 edm music not hardcore.
Nothing wrong with pitching it up to 170 plus though and playing it with current hardcore tracks
This. Not sure why people are getting so offended by it. Not my thing either but he isnt trying to claim that its hardcore. Styles will always be a legend in my eyes for his back catalogue and the memories but life goes on and hes free to make what he wants.
Posted - 2020/11/01 : 07:40:30
I'm not offended that Darren Styles makes the stuff. I'm more offended rafferty keeps calling this the new hardcore, or the direction Hardcore should take.
And if it's like Triq said, it's more of a devolving of hardcore, not evolving.
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Samination, Swedish Hardcore DJ
Happy, UK Hardcore, Freeform, Makina and Gabber http://samination.se/ ---------------------------------------------
Posted - 2020/11/01 : 08:44:46
Is there even such a thing as hardcore these days? Genuine question. I dont even try to keep up with it anymore and was under the impression that most people on this forum were in the same boat and only here because of a love of hardcore in the past.
Posted - 2020/11/01 : 09:26:03
I genuinely wonder why at this "Meeting" they decided the best course of action was to slow it all down.
It was the crowbarring of the trancey sound (Bang the Future etc) into the scene at the time I guess, but how they arrived at that
There was a winning formula, it filled a club out every single Friday night for many many years and it never stopped until the club stopped.
This was the winning formula, Kinetic never changed, even the slower DJ's like Dougal had to speed up. And even the cheese music sounded better at 175+ Stu Allan , Demand, Mikey B, this formula only ever really made it to the bigger raves in the form of Brisk.
I used to go to Kinetic as often as I could, and I'd go to a local rave called Southern Style Exposure. And when was hanging about with the Kinetic faithful, i'd play Southern tape packs, and they all said the same thing, "Fk thats slow" Same tunes by same DJ's (Apart from Brisk) but played slower. And Southern was popular but it died quicker. I think if they'd speeded things up, and allowed this messy fast as fk style to rule hardcore, the UK Hardcore evolution would have had a bouncy HHC sound and that would have been really interesting.
Pitching shit up and getting messy with it, was the essence of it for me. I always played UK Hardcore at 180+ I play Dutch Hardcore now at similar speeds