21 August 2019 • Victor Perez

This article was originally published for the Fall 2019 edition of WIRELESS, which can be found here

WIRELESS FALL 2019

It can be argued that we are currently living in the era most accessible for electronic music. Anyone with access to a computer has an incredibly wide selection of free and paid digital audio workstations, alongside a plethora of other music production tools. With this has come an explosion of hard-to-categorize music that transcends traditional genres.

With all that being said, It’s not enough to just say an artist produces “electronic” music. Even subgenres like techno and jungle have loose definitions that are often subverted by masters of the craft. Nonetheless, music fans and pundits insist on creating very specific categorizations, and electronic music is often broken down into what is essentially microgenres. In this scenario we’ll be looking specifically at Digital Hardcore.

The term digital hardcore was coined in the 1992 by Alec Empire of Atari Teenage Riot, the pioneer of the genre. He went on to form the label Digital Hardcore Records, which specialized in artists of the genre. Unfortunately the scene reamains small, much like other electronic microgenres such as witch house or vaporwave.

So what exactly is Digital Hardcore? For the most part, it can be considered a fusion of many different genres: techno, noise, drum and bass, breakbeat and hardcore punk. The end result is music that is especially fast, abrasive and angry. Occasionally it will make use of “traditional” punk instruments such as electric guitars , alongside synthesizers and drum machines.

Lyrically, there isn’t as clear of a theme in the genre. From a historical point of view, bands such as Alec Empire used many left-wing or anarchist ideals in their lyrics. While occasionally these will come up in other artist’s music, it’s certainly a less prominent feature of the genre. Despite losing the theme the genre used to have, the vocals are still typically screamed and shouted, with a powerful manic energy unmatched in other electronic genres.

Even though I have a fairly high interest in electronic music, the genre managed to fly under my radar. That is, until the band Machine Girl brought this style to my attention with their release …Because I’m Young Arrogant and Hate Everything You Stand For (their 2018 release The Ugly Art also made our top 92 list). Since them, I’ve come to find that few artists produce the very specific style that was popularized by Digital Hardcore Records these days. It lives on through its influence above all else.

Don’t know where to start with digital hardcore? Listen to this playlist filled with staple creators of the genre, as well as artists heavily influenced by it.