FuckParade 2011 report
The annual FuckParade in Berlin is one of those events that many speedcore and underground hardcore enthusiasts worldwide want to experience at least once in their lives. It’s kind of like the speedcore pilgrimage. The FuckParade is of course a lot more than that, especially for the locals. In this report I will write about my personal first time FuPa experience and a bit about the history and politics behind FuPa.
The preparty in Tacheles
On friday 19th of August I flew from my city, Tampere, to Berlin Tegel airport via Helsinki-Vantaa. I had briefly visited some parts of western Germany in the past, but this was my first time to visit the east and Berlin. I don’t know if this is a common 
procedure, but the flight from Helsinki was delayed a bit, because a person who, according to the official announcement, needed medical attention was taken away in a police van. Go figure.. I arrived in Berlin in early evening and made my way towards Oranienburger Tor station by bus and subway. From there it was a short walk to Kunsthaus Tacheles (Art-Centre Tacheles) where the unofficial 2-day FuckParade preparty+afterparty, Non Standard Procedure, was to be held. Tacheles is a squat and a place for alternative artists. During daytime people visit Tacheles to see art galleries and weekend nights are dedicated to music, movies etc. The house is a huge contrast compared to the surrounding area, which is full of cafés and trendy shops for yuppies. The house is under constant threat of being sucked into this surrounding (more about Tacheles here: http://super.tacheles.de/cms/new_site/history_start.php).
I was invited by Miss Mindgrind of Splatterkore Reck-ords to play a live set at the preparty. After finding her in the building I was taken to the party room to drop my luggage. The space was of decent size, kind of like a theatre room with seats for audience in the back. Here I met some new people like Dionnaki (half of Kinsheeva), Stella Rabbit, who has done some vocals for Passenger of Shit and Junkie Kut in the past, and other international and local people. Before the party we went to get some vegetarian fast food nearby. I soon noticed that the word “nearby” has a different meaning in Berlin than what I was accustomed to. The first impression I got of Berlin was that it was in a way a mixture of Helsinki (the architecture and chaos) and Tokyo (many lights, atmosphere for all the senses and even more chaos), then again not exactly the same. All the houses looked the same in Western Berlin. The vegetarian fast food joint served organic pizza, burgers, fries etc. I really enjoyed my burger, if this concept was launched in my city it would definitely restore my faith in fast food.
When we got back to Tacheles the party had already started, but the start had been delayed by nearly one hour, so we got to hear it from pretty much the beginning. The room was filled with smoke from the fog machine and orienteering was a little bit challenging. Some people were already dancing totally mental to the music. If I remember correctly the local dj’s, Old Dirty Hardcorist and Lamagra, were playing speedcore and gabba in the early evening. I could feel the brutal sound pressure pounding on my chest. VJ Cyper did visuals for the event and they were also broadcasted live to an online chat along with the music stream. As I was building my live setup on the live artist table someone came to tell me to turn the volume down. It turned out it was the authorities (I had no idea first what German cops looked like). The dj turned the volume down and they left. At some point Junkie Kut had arrived and we had a reunion. I also met some new people like The Untitled from The Netherlands, Billy S from Switzerland and many other local and global people who I forgot (sorry!), partly because of the Finlandia vodka bottle I had grabbed from the Tegel airport and partly because of the confusing fog. After the local dj’s had finished and it was my turn to play the dancefloor was already filled pretty nicely. It was a little hard to have eye contact with 
the audience due to the fog, but judging from the screams and the positive feedback after the set it had worked pretty well. Junkie Kut performed after me in his usual energetic style. I think his live worked out even better when he was standing on the same level as everyone else. There was more contact with the audience than when he performed on a raised stage. Next up was Dionnaki with his acid fuelled breakcore/speedcore live set mixed with conscious themes. Very good stuff, though I missed a part of it. Looking forward to hear his tracks released. After Dionnaki, a 3 man band called Skat Injector, also from the UK, started to play. The closest thing to this I could think of was The Berzerker and I didn’t even expect to experience a band performance, so I was positively surprised. The performance consisted of a live drummer, hardware man and the vocalist. The audience were sure digging these torrents of bassdrums and distorted vocals. The night got even better for my taste when Psychotic Anarchist started playing. It was a nice change to hear the more underground contemporary frenchcore sound from in front of the speakers, not from behind the decks like I usually do in Finland. I didn’t pay much attention to the later performers as we were chatting and were about to leave soon to rest before the parade at around 5-7 in the morning.
My footage:
Footage by FaTeR:
The FuckParade
The parade started at 3 pm in front of the building where the legendary Bunker used to be. We didn’t make it to the beginning, because we slept a bit late, but we catched the parade close to Tacheles. 19 trucks were participating at this year’s parade. As we watched the parade floating by we could hear different kinds of sounds. There were trucks for techno, drum’n'bass, industrial, hard techno, mental tribe, German gabba, a funny core truck with only sub speakers, frenchcore/terror and last but not least a truck dedicated to more experimental speedcore and flashcore. I can’t remember hearing any breakcore, but maybe I just missed it. Of course all the trucks were not strictly one style, there were various dj’s with different styles, so it is very difficult to report everything that was going on at the same time. One of the last trucks played music that sounded like some sort of mixture of hard trance and hardtek. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. There was also a truck for hardbass/hardstyle and I didn’t really understand what it was doing there. Maybe it had something to do with the death of Loveparade.
What I’ve understood from the locals is that compared to the situation of 10 years ago now there are less trucks for hardcore, less banderols with a message and more trucks that are only promoting some crew or label, not really in it for the demonstration. Trucks with a message were not completely absent this year, but I can’t compare it to what it used to be, as this was my first time. Apparently the organizing people are very openminded and let almost anyone participate who has a truck. I am not really one to say anything against that, but I am just wondering what the true motivations of some of the trucks were and don’t they actually have better alternatives compared to the more uncommercial and marginal styles that have this as one of their only means to celebrate with a large amount of people in public.
Enough with the negativity and on with the parade! We started marching with the last 2 trucks that were playing core. Frenchcore with a nice sound pressure was played from the second last truck. The truck had Canadian Speedcore Resistance flags around it. A bit later DJ Noisekick played some Dutch style terror in the truck. At some point decided to stay in the back with experimental speedcore. There was one person who had had his face covered. This was a bad idea in Germany.. a pack of cops came to harass him. Generally speaking the parade seemed to go pretty peaceful though. Before the Berlin wall we sat down on the grass next to an underpass where the trucks stood still for a while. We only got on the move after the trucks, police cars and cleanup vehicles had driven past us and normal traffic started to come to the streets. German recycling culture came second when the cleaners smashed bottles on the streets so the cleanup vehicles could suck them in before they would let the normal traffic come. There was also a guy collecting bottles in his big cart for money. When the normal traffic came it was as if there hadn’t been a parade at all. It took us about 2 hours to catch the trucks again. It was already dark and Apokaliptik Panzer Symphony (Billy S. and Audio D. from Switzerland) were playing flashcore in the last truck. I went to get some chocolate from a nearby biomarket to energize myself for the final hours. The matrix of the commercial center was symbolically ripped apart and merged into another dimension with the power of flashcore.
My footage:
Robotik Speedcore Killers Truck’s report:
Apparently a new internet meme gave birth here to replace the techno viking:
This was not the first time for grandpa to attend FuPa though 
After the parade
The parade ended after 22. We headed to get some food and rest in the east. Bought some falafel at a kebap place where anti-fascist punk was being played. People are warned not to walk alone in eastern Berlin at night, because of violent nazi skins, but I didn’t see any during the entire trip, so I don’t know how big of a problem they really are. It kind of seemed to me that many locals wanted to show that they will respond hard against the hard if a nazi asks for trouble. Many of the FuPa trucks also had gegen nazis (=against nazis) flags. Considering the history it’s understandable that this kind of division is boiling under the surface, though I personally think it’s not very constructive to waste my time in any kind of hate or violence. After eating we went to chill, but in the end no one had the strength to go to any of the afterparties.
Later we heard that the official FuPa afterparty had been canceled by the authorities. Also the Non Standard Procedure afterparty in Tacheles was stopped by the cops. The reason supposedly was that there was too much noise, even though the volume was notably softer compared to friday. It was also odd, because loud music is not so uncommon in Tacheles during the weekends. The locals state that this was clearly action against the parade. There might have been some internal struggle between the organizers and the authorities. The parade seemed to go well, but repressive action, a show of power had to be performed at the afterparties for some reason. These 2 afterparties were the main parties where the hardcore listeners went, but I haven’t heard if there were any problems with the other afterparties. On sunday there was another after afterparty attempt in Tacheles where most of us didn’t go. Apparently there weren’t many people present, but it went better than the afterparty.
Some statistics and afterthoughts of the parade this year and thoughts on FuPa in general.. The parade this year was 11km in length and lasted 7 hours (+ I think there were speeches being held earlier before the parade started moving). There were around 8000 participants this year. This is twice the amount of participants compared to the average of 2009 and 2010. For those who don’t know about the history, FuckParade started out in the year 1997 with the name Hateparade and it was a demonstration against the annual Loveparade, which had excluded hardcore from the lineup. The parades would take place on the same dates. In 1998 Hateparade was renamed as the FuckParade. FuPa and LoPa walked separate ways in 2003 as the LoPa turned into a commercial event and didn’t have a demonstration status anymore. Now FuPa didn’t even have the need to demonstrate against LoPa anymore, as LoPa had made an obvious choice, and the events started to be held on separate dates. The all time high of FuPa participants was around 10.000 visitors in the year 2000. Towards the middle of the decade the amount of visitors seemed to decrease to an average of 1000 and now the amount of visitors has increased again by every year. As the years went by FuPa was no longer just a hardcore techno parade, but other underground styles joined as well. Due to the incident at the 2010 Loveparade, which wasn’t even in Berlin anymore, the Loveparade had to quit its action entirely.
As I speculated before there was a tremendous increase in the amount of visitors at this year’s FuckParade and I think this partly has to do with the end of Loveparade and its symbolic status worldwide. It seems that the commercial harder styles are now taking shelter at the FuPa, because it looks like the closest alternative. Someone else can maybe confirm if this development has taken place before 2011 though. When you look at the manifest of this year it seems like FuPa hasn’t changed at all. The strict protest attitude is still there for sure. I don’t think the organizers can be entirely blamed for this commercial development. The problem is not in the message. When the status of something grows too big it can get out of hand and become corrupted with the very same values that it was up against. This is what happened to Loveparade in the 1990′s and to the annual French Teknival in the last decade.
What can be done to prevent this? I don’t really have exact answers to this and it would require another article to be written. In short I believe that it requires a greater change in our societies as a whole, before we can find stability in diy action of greater numbers. And then again it is diy action in all the aspects of our lives that is the key to achieve this. If we are to do pilgrimages to these big annual events in the current world system we can expect the same pattern repeating itself over and over again. The best solution at the moment seems to be to create something new, but smaller, every time. Mutate and survive.
Before flying back
The following days we just hanged out and checked out Berlin a bit. On the streets one could notice Atari Teenage Riot gig posters with “FOR FREE” written on the band’s logo. Maybe it was a statement on the controversy between ATR lyrics and their gig prices. The text had been crossed out in some of the posters. On tuesday we went to the area of Ostkreuz to check out the Praxis Records shop, which was part of a pub called Cagliostro. Breakcore was being played through the small speakers as chillout music. Going to pubs is not a part of my lifestyle. This was my kinda pub though! The record selection wasn’t very massive, but there were relatively many records to my taste which are hard to come by elsewhere, namely experimental speedcore. I didn’t buy any records this time, but ended up getting the latest issue of the Datacide zine.
This trip to Berlin was a bit different compared to the travels I usually do, because I didn’t hang out with the locals that much this time. It was nice nevertheless since there was good synchronicity with the company. I might do it again next year, but it’s still open for me, only time will tell. If anyone is doubting whether or not to go to the FuckParade I can certainly recommend to do it at least once in your life.. and hey, next year might be your last chance to dance in the world as we know it!
Nawoto Suzuki video interview
Sorry it’s been so long since the last update. This past summer has been a very busy time with different kinds of parties nearly every weekend. I have made a decision to keep BDZ as a webzine for now due to lack of contributors and because I have to concentrate on my own music too. I visited Berlin 2 weeks ago to play a gig and experience the annual FuckParade, so you can expect a report on that soon.
1 month ago we also had the honour to have the oldschool Japanese hardcore pioneer, Nawoto Suzuki sensei (aka Smily Slayers aka Burning Lazy Personz), play at our party in Finland. A diy interview was done the day after the party. The answers were given in Japanese, so he could truly speak his mind. Now the editing, translation and English/Finnish subtitling processes are finished and we can present you the final video:
Junkie Kut – Terror, Rage & Liberty (CDr) review
Tracklist:
01: An Introduction To Destruction (feat. Stelldogs)
02: The Livestock Management Program
03: The Silent Majority
04: Chaostika
05: Interlude (Apocalyptika) (feat. Alex B)
06: Welcome To The Future
07: Land Of The Cyborgs
08: Hijack Your Tommorrow
09: Terror, Rage & Liberty
10. Anthropological CO2 Conspiracy
BDZ interviewed Junkie Kut and Splatterkore Reck-ords last year. Now it’s time to take a look at Junkie Kut’s latest release Terror, Rage & Liberty, which was released in collaboration with D-Trash Records and Splatterkore. The release itself has already been out for nearly half a year as a free web release. A limited edition CDr version with a bonus track was released this year. The CD comes with some nice artwork, 2 Junkie Kut badges and a guitar pick.
Terror, Rage & Liberty is a story situated in a perhaps not so distant future where society has consumed itself. A terrorist group called Planetary Peace Protocol destroys all electronics on earth with the use of an electromagnetic weapon in order to bring the current capitalist system down and plans to create a primitive dictatorship. An opposing group of humans and machines rebel against these schemes and try to bring the new world order down. This sounds very much like the conspiracy theories that are going on now, but the story is not a direct copy of them. More like a combination of ideas such as NWO conspiracies (secret societies behind governments striving for more control using false flag attacks), the Zeitgeist Movement (machines and humans working together for a more balanced society), cyberpunk fiction and of course the underground tekno movement. You can read more about the background story here.
Junkie Kut’s usual style is a combination of distorted vocals, energetic speedcore beats with marching percussion, heavy guitar riffs, acid lines and peaceful ambient pads and choirs. The track structures are non-formulaic, constantly evolving and not leaving room for boredom. All the tracks, except the interlude and Land of the Cyborgs, use these elements more or less, yet in an original way. One of the genres mentioned on D-Trash’s site is digital hardcore, but this is even more hardcore than the usual digital hardcore bands, maybe the term “speedcore punk” makes more sense. The intro track starts with a war alarm siren, sounds of chaos and an introduction speech by Stelldogs. After the intro ambience the distorted bassdrums, guitars and vocals kick in with power. The first 2 tracks are more focused on guitar and aggression, but the third track, The Silent Majority, starts with some uplifting choir pads. After 3 minutes of speedcore the beats come to a halt, acid lines come in and the track becomes even more epic. The 4th track Chaostika, named after the Splatterkore symbol, is again more aggressive in style. The bassdrum distortion and guitar distortion sound like they merge together. After this there is a dark ambient/breaks interlude with a speech by Alex B. The next tracks follow the usual concept, except track 7 which is a short hardcore punk interlude/track. The title track starts with a mashup of Prodigy’s No Good (Start The Dance) before turning into despairful piano melodies and energetic beats. In conclusion the bonus track Anthropological CO2 Conspiracy is based on a more present day topic, the climate change hoax. Good intentions may not always be what they claim to be.
Although “story” releases are not so uncommon in core, most of the releases leave interpretation of the story to the listener by only providing track titles and sounds to the imagination. In this aspect Terror, Rage & Liberty delivers more depth through the use of a background story and lyrics. Hopefully this will be an inspiration to other core artists as well. Only minus I found in this release was that, intentional or not, the speeches in some tracks and interludes sound blurry making it more difficult to follow the story. Being tired of most of present day speedcore this release was really a positive surprise for me. A release that can still give goose bumps after multiple listens is something that doesn’t come accross very often. My favorite tracks on the release were definitely 3 and 8. Junkie Kut’s best work so far.. I’m looking forward to experience these tracks performed live!
You can buy the full album for the price of £7 + postage by contacting Splatterkore: store@splatterkore.co.uk
The free online version is downloadable on D-Trash Records: http://www.lunaticfringe.org/~schizoid/dtrashrecords/digitaldownloads/digitaldownload.php?ID=DTRASH151
The bonus track Antropoligical CO2 Conspiracy is also featured on the Extreme Sound Anti-Nuclear online compilation by Extreme Sound Forum. All proceeds from the sale of this release will be donated to help the relief efforts in Japan. You can buy the track with the entire compilation (recommended release) or separately at: http://extremesoundforum.bandcamp.com/album/various-extreme-sound-anti-nuclear-benefit-japan
01: An Introduction To Destruction
02: The Livestock Management Program
03: The Silent Majority
04: Chaostika
05: Interlude (Apocalyptika)
06: Welcome To The Future
07: Land Of The Cyborgs
08: Hijack Your Tommorrow
09: Terror, Rage & Liberty
Neurocore interview
Bass Distortion Zine has moved to its own domain bassdistortion.net! As the first article here we are proud to present you the interview of Neurocore!
Hi Christophe! How are you? First, please give a short introduction about yourself to people who haven’t gotten exposed to your music yet.
Dzien Dobry, Bonjour Tuomas! Well, I build musical electronic architectures under the name Neurocore since 1999. I’ve released 2 vinyls on Hangars Liquides and Underground Perversions, and some apparitions on compilations/albums/mix. As a DJ, I have released 2 webmixes: La Divine Comédie / L’Enfer and Alice In Wonderland both for the Destruction Records label. As a Live act, I play some Cybersonic core deflagrations in Europe. Please check Discogs for more information.
In some flyers it is mentioned you are from Poland, but now you live in France. One of your tracks “Dlaczego Tak Daleko?” is also titled in Polish. Are you originally from Poland? This also raises a follow-up question: how and where did you get into electronic core music?
In fact I have the dual Polish-French nationality, but to be honest I feel more Polish than French, even if it’s been 22 years that I live in France I still have vodka in my veins… I was born in Poland (Kolobrzeg) in 1984, and grew up there until my 4th year, then I moved to France, Saint-Malo, where I did all my studies before moving to Paris.
“Dlaczego tak daleko?” means “Why so far away?” and it tells about my trip by train (around 9 hours! which corresponds to the 9 minutes of the track, from Kolobrzeg to Kielce), to meet I:gor, the famous Polish producer.
If I remember well, my first contact with electronic music was at 8 years old when I discovered strange vinyl records from my dad’s collection: Dark Side Of The Moon, Chronologie… Around 11 or 12 year old, I started to listen to techno/acid auditions on radio, there were really interesting programs at that time! Then after a while I was looking for something harder, something faster, and quickly discovered Gabber thanks to Thunderdome compilations. That was my first contact with the Hardcore before I got seduced by Speedcore.
Which came first for you: hardcore or experimental music? How did your music develop into what it is now?
I started my first compositions at 16 years old, on Fruity Loops 3.5, I was clearly devoted to Hardcores. I think I’ve tried every kind of core, but the one that clearly blew my mind and inspired me, was discovered through the Hangars Liquides label. This was a new way to perceive Hardcores and experiments with sounds, without any rules or dance floor specifications, this idea lead me to explore the abstract side of Speedcore, and thanks to that, I naturally opened myself to different kinds of experimental musics.
Your favorite core artists? How about for other type of music that inspires you?
A few musicians, I particularly appreciate: Zbigniew Karkowski, Laurent Mialon, Bernard Parmegiani, Krzysztof Penderecki, Duncan Avoid, Pink Floyd… Musically I’m opened to all kind of acoustic vibrations, from thunderstorms to peaceful nature, from piano to brutal noise. To quote A. Tomatis: “Everything is sound”! Music isn’t my only source of inspiration, I’m inspired a lot by books, movies, high-technologies and of course my own life experience.
The Hangars Liquides label promotes this genre “flashcore” and many people also use it when referring to your music. Do you also use this term for your music, some other terms, or do you think terms and genres are a waste of time?
Nowadays, the term Speedcore means nothing to me, if I hear this term it reminds me of old DOA stuff, fast beats, dirty guitars, obscene language and rock’n'roll attitude… this was 10 or 15 years ago… Flashcore is the HD Speedcore and was introduced to separate ways that producers were taking through years. The idea behind HL is not to go straight foolishly but to change directions, in a way you’re not expecting it. Fasten your seatbelt and take this exit. !!! Some people think it’s stupid to put tags on every kind of music, but music evolves, music changes, this is much healthier and more exciting! Flashcore is a color, a vision, La Peste put into his music, I think people associate me to Flashcore just because I released my first vinyl on Hangars Liquides. In fact I came from that “school” and I share the idea behind the “Flashcore Manifesto”. Personally, I would describe it as Cybercore simply because I love cyberkicks, sci-fi soundscapes, and cyberpunk.
Flashcore is pushing music forward to new extremes. Do you have some kind of special vision about the future of harder electronic music (or music in general) and the possibilities that new technology can create?
Music is as large as our universe, and as for future styles in music, you can compare them to far galaxies, some and most of, haven’t been yet discovered, reached and explored! In a world of constant technological innovations, music can’t stay at its current level. Today we have tools which allow us to go in every direction we want, some will stay on earth, others will join the spatial conquest…
What is important to notice, is the evolution of formats, the vinyl support is clearly dead or is at its end of career. The CD format is dying also, both let the place to digital formats, mp3, Ogg etc…We are currently going into dematerialization of all AV supports: Dj’s will not play with turntables in the future, but with iPads ! Or computers will play and do the mixing work for the dj, which is actually true ! Every one is a dj, every one is a producer or a musician. Electronic music became a game! If I had a wish, it would be to play on a multi-phonic sound system, but for now it’s only available for serious Acoustic Art performances or in high quality cinemas. It would be awesome to experience it at parties. I love to be lost in frequencies, disconnected from reality by sounds, images, and lights. Sound is something magical and I really believe in it’s power. Scientists use it as weapons: “the sonic canons”. It’s a gate to communicate with another dimension by the EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon), and who knows maybe one day, we will transcribe/understand the dolphin’s language ?
Do you think your music can contribute to such things as spiritual growth? It is known that different frequencies have different effects on the mind. Do you think drugs are necessary to go into a trance-like state or can this be achieved with the right soundsystem, lightning etc.?
As I mentioned before, I really believe into “Power” and possibilities of the Sound. It’s a natural phenomenon that you just need to control. As you said, frequencies have effects on the mind and particularly on our body. Hardcore is a physical thing, some frequencies can even kill you! And for this type of music it’s important to play it loud on a big sound system! Le Dépeupleur plays the most powerful Hardcore I ever heard in my life, it’s like the wall of sound push you back from the speakers, there’s such energy, where glasses, walls, ground all materials enter into vibrations as our body, this is the effect I appreciate the most. Then you have the “spiritual effect” or mind stimulation, when you’re get catch by the complexity of the musical equation, the interpretation of every sound at high speed could possibly turn your brain into overdose…Combine both elements allows you to reach a state of trance.
I don’t use any drugs, music is a drug in itself and as a listener, I’ve experienced that only few rare times, but it took me quite a while to comeback to reality. It comes a moment when you’re into music; you clearly forget where you are, for instance, in subway, everyone use digital players to escape from reality, forget about troubles and construct their own bubble, same at parties, people want to experience something mind-blowing, loud, physical, magical, they can’t achieve at home.
Several people report me how massive and awesome effects they got using drugs during core experimentations, and I truly believe drugs could help, but if you don’t have a good sound system, nice lights, strobe, and interesting music adapted for those sensations you’ll never reach that state.
On the other side, you have all sort of music that lulls you; I personally fall asleep every night with my headphones. Entity net label is the best solution for a comfortable sleep and beautiful dreams.
What is your opinion about the core scene in France?
Musically, it’s been a while that I haven’t been surprised, I think the last amazing release and that really touched me was “Le Chaos Ordinaire” from La Foudre/No Tek. As for entertainment, compared to Holland, France is an empty desert, sometimes an oasis could appear but it’s so rare… The problems in this country are mainly the costs to organize a nice event in a proper location, then the audience, which isn’t always receptive as European coreheads. But like Eddy aka Helius Zhamiq says, if we don’t go to the people with our music, they will not come to us! In France we have arrived at one point that producers and dj’s play only for themselves during small private parties!
Public parties for flashcore or the more abstract side of hardcore/speedcore in general seem to be very rare. Even in France. Are there perhaps some smaller insider gatherings in France for which you just have to know some people if you want to get exposed to this music?
I don’t go very often to Hardcore parties, most of the time I’m bored musically, hopefully there are always some nice people or friends to see there… I’m much more excited by noise expositions and art installations. Paris is an artistic city, every month there are nice experimental events, the Salle Olivier Messiaen at Radio France gives you multi-phonics diffusion concerts. The George Pompidou museum offers great sound/video installations, by the way, Ryoji Ikeda will expose his works there in April, I advise everyone to go see/hear it! It’s fabulous! Last week I’ve been to an unexpected concert gathering noise producers and professionals of contemporary music. They played from Stochastic music to distorted Breakcore, there were only 20 people at this event. So yes there are very interesting parties, after all you just need to pay attention and move your ass. Most of the time people prefer to stay at home waiting for the upload of the recordings…
At what type of events do you usually play? Are these usually core parties or something else too? What is your preferred type of event?
Unfortunately, I play only at Hardcore/Speedcore parties, but I had opportunity to play at some Breakcore events and it worked very well! I think people from Breakcore are more open-minded than Hardcore lovers, When I was young I played in my college in front of 2000 students and teachers, they were shocked!!! I love create this feeling, I’ve had also the opportunity to play at paint expositions, where I built my music in a real-time observation. I personally don’t like too much the acoustic of old factories or bunkers which provoke an undirect echo/reverb on music, ok, it does have its charm but I like it clear, deep, and strong and it’s perfect in clubs or concert hall. I also appreciate a versatile line up, when sound pressure is growing up all night long.
Do you often play gigs in Poland, and if yes, how would you compare it to French parties? Are there any interesting features that come to your mind when you think about the scenes in these countries?
In Poland, I only played twice, one time in Kielce, 10 years ago, which was kind of small party in a bar, and second in Warsaw, a bigger one, with 3 stages, it’s sad to say but although Poles produce fantastic music (Teoplitz, Slepcy, Raczynski….) the audience isn’t ready (during Hardcore parties) to hear something other than 180BPM4/4 kick drums, After only 5 minutes I completely emptied the dance floor, so I decided to play even more abstract and experimental during the next 2 hours ! At the end, few asked me how they should have dance on this? Well, music isn’t only make to dance, but firstly to listen or to feel. After this solo “concert” a dj took the turntables and started with an old Radium record, then the dance floor got back full in 5 minutes ! My conclusion is that the audience in Poland is behind and not ready for experimental sounds or simply I had the worst live set of my life…. ?
In which other countries have you played live? How has the reception been for this type of music?
I’ve been lucky to play through Europe: Belgium, Austria, Scotland, England, Holland, Germany… I love to travel, this provides such rich experiences, and thanks to music, I discovered new cultures, beautiful cities, places, nice people… Today, I play more in foreign countries than in France. Most of the time, people have difficulties to enter in those spheres, but when they’re in, they become crazy! At least, there are the feedbacks I get after my performances. Someone In Vienna told me “this is like an orgasm” another person in Belgium compared it to space travel. Reactions are different, and that’s fantastic, because everyone has his/her own perception, vision. You can’t really generalize audiences. But after a few years, I’ve noticed this works pretty well in Holland (maybe because some were bored by the terror wave?) and in Scotland, where people are so, SO crazy and enjoy it so much , I’ve played in Glasgow in front of 10/15 people, and the atmosphere was simply electric, huge energy, smiles on every face! Much more fun than in front of 300 dead people in France at rave parties… Can’t wait until July, to go back there for the HL Night ! I’m also very curious how it could work in Finland…?
What kind of setup do you use for producing and for live performance?
Live Performance is really important to me, and has nothing to do with the process of traditional tracks composition, I’m having so much fun on stage and I love the impact of my music produced on a big sound system. I use Ableton Live 8, which is the best solution adapted to my live requirements. By live I’m trying to open doors to an immersion and exploration of the cyberspace, building in real-time combos and sound-blocks from a large puzzle which can grow from 300 to 1000 loops for the long trips =) Everything runs on the last MACBook Pro which I boosted to maximum. It’s controlled by the AKAi APC 40 which is a nice controller especially designed and adapted for Ableton, the problem is that I very often destroy them, by pushing the faders to much. My live acts are real punishments for machines! Audio is delivered by the RME Fireface 400, recently I took the resolution to work in HD, in a 48Khz 32 Bits configuration, this really changed the creation/perception, I use Native Instruments, a large panel for every kind of sound I want to create. I particularly like the “chewing-gum” effect on sound, so you can make every shape you want in real-time (bubbles, explosions, stretchings etc). To render that I use plugins such as Live Cut, The Finger, Sugar Byte’s Effectrix…
You don’t release tracks very often. Are there any plans for future releases at the moment?
That’s true and there is a simple reason to that: I’m never plenty satisfied of my work, I erased hundreds of mega bits of unreleased tracks ! I don’t understand why certain people release empty tracks, already heard or simply that haven’t anything to say; After the cancellation of the Destruction -4 Fashion TV Ep, due to technical problems I drastically changed my perception on the music, and decided to diffuse it by Live Performances only. Now with the increase of digital platforms and players, it could be interesting to put this project out…
I had the intention to mix the three parts of the Dante’s Devine Comedy, Hell was already out, partition mix for The Purgatory was written and recorded for personal usage, and finally Heaven, is still in my mind. I was also working on two mix/stories based on movies: one called Vibroboy from Jan Kounen, and Irreversible from Gaspard Noé, but once again, the result never surpassed the expectations I wanted…
I’m currently working simultaneously on two new projects : a space electronic core opera called “Espace/Temps” where you’ll travelled thanks to music beyond our universe! And “Cube” sort of futuristic/cyberpunk Rubik’s version… Recently, I get in touch with one of the oldest French Underground Hardcore Label, so maybe new materials could see the light…
Thanks for the interview! Anything else you’d like to add?
Open your minds, be curious, and try to perceive music differently than a dance mechanism, it’s much more than that!
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about my passion and to those who have read this interview!
Upcoming Neurocore gigs:
23/07/11 – Hangars Liquides Label Night – Glasgow
Finland TBA
Links:
http://destruction.speedcore.eu/download/cat_view/40-web-release.html – Mixes
