hardcore can be split into 4 categories for ease here.

You have the original hardcore, where it was easily intermixed with jungle music, think breakbeat type drum patterns, lots of hi-hats etc over the top, a deep bassline & some sort of rave-ish lead, or piano line.

4 beat, about 1995 ish the 4/4 kick came in & for a good 2 years there were some stomping tracks.

1996-1999

Hardcore became slightly more commercial, trancecore was also big then, check out the GBT label run by billy daniel bunter for ideas. DJs such as sy, slipmatt, vibes, hixxy, vinylgroover were all massive here. Towards 99 it tapered off a bit & some of the biggest events like helter skelter even stopped. the scene pretty much died apart from the london events run by slammin vinyl & the odd small independant one.

2002 ish - hardcore slowly began to rebuild, gaining more originality around 2004/5 time, but then it's died on it's ass again quickly, lack of imagination, shit new crowd into it as a rule, and commercialisation. Some dj's are still good, spinning freeform but that's also a bit boring lately. Only exception is Luna-C (Aka Cru-LT from the rave days) who's pretty much the best hardcore dj/producer around.

quote:

Originally posted by Ian You have the original hardcore, where it was easily intermixed with jungle music, think breakbeat type drum patterns, lots of hi-hats etc over the top, a deep bassline & some sort of rave-ish lead, or piano line.

And everything since has been shit in the genre.

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quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J And everything since has been shit in the genre.

i'd disagree on the basis that I have some very good sets from over the years, but most have been rarities. maybe 3 sets a year were total quality, a lot got overdone with the same tunes, and the original 4beat was really fun, stuff like Dune - I can't stop Raving still gives me chills, sentimentally.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J And everything since has been shit in the genre.

Dude... you can't possibly hate this album.

Hellfish & Producer - Constant Mutation

Also, this label has some massive records.

IST Records

If 'Unleash the beast' is the best you can do at the moment, there's lots to learn. Also, Scooter <> hardcore.

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d&b session 20090519
My take on... (various mixes planned, updated when I can be arsed)

Scooter were definitely part of the mid 90s Happy Hardcore sound, along with Dune as Ian mentioned. On the whole Germany did it best back then with Westbam, Marusha, Sunbeam, RMB, Star Wash, and others.
The Dutch were pretty good at it too, especially Paul Elstak, but their productions usually weren't quite as good as the Germans (a good exmaple is "I Wanna Be a Hippy").
One reason why German Happy Hardcore was better was b/c it borrowed a lot of from the Frankfurt Trance scene, which was also pretty fast at the time. So you had songs like Legend B's "Lost In Love" representing both Trance and Happy Hardcore.
Scooter were big on ripping off both the melodies from Trance anthems coming out of Berlin and Frankfurt, and for imitating Scottish Happy Hardcore act Ultrasonic.

The Dutch, and especially the British, Happy Hardcore was usually not all that different from early 90s Rave (like Smart E's "Sesame's Treat") only faster.

Even Italy got in on the fun though their records were the most Euro-Dance sounding. A good example was Usura & Datura's "Infinity".

Meh, I never think of happy hardcore when people start talking about hardcore. That might be the reason.

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d&b session 20090519
My take on... (various mixes planned, updated when I can be arsed)

make sure to check out : Korsakoff, Dj Lady Dana, Dj Promo, Endymion, Nosferatu & Rotterdam Terror Corps.

if you are getting into hardcore, you definatly cant mis out on these.

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Evil Activities, Art of Fighters, Scott Brown, Neophyte, The Viper, Dione, Dr. Z-Vago, Tommyknocker.. There's a lot of good names and those are some I can recommend (+ some great names mentioned in this thread already). I've liked hardcore for a while now, just seems to be the music for me.
Have fun getting hardcore

quote:

Originally posted by CHRles Scooter were definitely part of the mid 90s Happy Hardcore sound.....

True. Who could forget FRIENDS!?

force, darren styles, breeze, hixxy etc

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