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toml123
New Member
United Kingdom
69 posts
Joined: Dec, 2011
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 Posted - 2025/03/03 : 16:18:01
Sadly we have all witnessed the steady decline in UK Hardcore since c.2008 when the "Clubland era" began... Djs we had known for years (Darren Styles, Breeze, Hixxy and Gammer) all became fixated on the X-Treme Hardcore series and would only produce slow dancey hardcore to suit the commercial needs of the AATW label. The branding of Hardcore Til I Die was used on 3 very clubland-esque albums and Bonkers was bought from Resist by AATW and hammered straight into the ground with more club cheese. Worse was to come c.2011 when Breeze suffered some sort of injury to his head and tried to develop a new style.. "Dubcore". The less said about that the better.
2012 - 2015 UK Hardcore started to pick up ever so slightly, gaining real momentum in 2015 and onto to 2018 with Darren Styles, Scott Brown, Dougal, Gammer producing some slammers and even some new names popping up and doing their thing but with the loss of HTID as an event after 2016 the only events you could attend in the UK were Westfest (once a year) and the marmite that is Ravers Reunited....
Since 2018 we have lost a truly great producer in DJ Gammer to the Hardstyle scene, Which is fine, if that's what he wants to do... Darren styles has also followed him to this scene and it seems Hixxy and Dougal are also heading down that dark path too. With "HTID" now pretty much being a hard style event, The hardcore we once new and loved has sadly gone down the pan. We have lost many great producers in different ways over the years, And with the lines between Hardcore and Hardstyle now being blurred, And with the likes of Klubfiller and Stonebank producing the very scraps of what you could call hardcore...
Will be ever see a return to UK Hardcore?
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Edited by - toml123 on 2025/03/03 16:22:22 |
Vladel
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
1,524 posts
Joined: Feb, 2008
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Posted - 2025/03/03 : 18:09:52
Well alright, losing Gammer and Styles in the 2004-2010 era would have been such a hammer blow but nowadays it's not much of a loss at all because neither of them produces anything any good. Dougal, has never really been up to much without Gammer who already sucks and lets not forget Hixxy hasn't released more than probably four tracks since 2011, again not a loss.
Regarding the rest, where have you been? I'd hardly say what's left of the scene is being picked up by Klubfiller and Stonebank, i'd say that 24/7 hardcore and Brutal kutz would have something to say about that. Both are very accomplished labels with a lot of talented producers who are producing some great music.
Now regarding the Hardstyle stuff, history has taught us that what sucks shall not last long. At the end of the 90's a few of the producers wanted to slow down Happy Hardcore and make the tracks similar to proper songs, IT DIED and was replaced by Upfront hardcore. Then some realised that Upfront hardcore was a stupid name and it became UK Hardcore.
2012 brought around Dubcore which sucked and guess what, IT DIED. Ever since then the so called saviors of the scene have tried and tried again to reinvigorate the scene with the lastest merging and copying of other types of music/genres. We had mininal drops, Big room, Kazoo Core, EDM core and now 160 crap and none of it has lasted and guess what, the latest stuff will die. The sad thing is that everyone seems to have gotten the silly idea that it's Happy Hardcore all of a sudden.
Now considering how picky i can be with these things, I have less issue with the modern music being called Happy Hardcore (which shouldn't apply to anything after 2001 in my opinion) if it's at least happy. I could make the case for the following being called happy:
Most of Darwins Music, Impulse Riders, A lot of 24/7 particularly Alaguan, Dy5on and even at push S3rl but ffs it needs to be happy.
A gammer snoozefest does not count.
Can it be redeemed? Well again if you look at history even during the dark times of Dubcore, you had Hardcore Underground and Magic Chord and since then we've had happier and UK hardcore in the background. I just don't think it will ever be massive again because quite frankly, as UK hardcore has lost it's way and slowed down, it's been replaced by Frenchcore.
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remain calm do not be alarmed do not attempt to leave the dancefloor
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toml123
New Member
United Kingdom
69 posts
Joined: Dec, 2011
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Posted - 2025/03/03 : 22:46:42
quote:
Originally posted by Vladel:
I'd hardly say what's left of the scene is being picked up by Klubfiller and Stonebank, i'd say that 24/7 hardcore and Brutal kutz would have something to say about that.
You seem to have completely skipped my sarcasm on that one.... What Klubfiller and Stonebank are trying to pass off as hardcore is very reminiscent of the "donk" music scene of putting the same continuous beat over every track they produce.
Hopefully once HTID has finished it's world tour we will see more events in the UK and producers might start giving a shit about what we want to listen to. Djs such as Fracus & Darwin, Al Storm and Technikore are the only ones that seem to do a decent set these days outside of "classics" sets.
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Winterlake
New Member
United Kingdom
35 posts
Joined: Jan, 2022
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Posted - 2025/03/04 : 12:34:17
Im releasing regularly and there are a few of us pushing the sound on Vinylgroovers World of Obsession label.
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New release from me, very much vocal Clubland-era style.
Listen here: https://soundcloud.com/alstorm/winterlake-thunderclap-everytime-you-fall-radio-edit
Buy here: https://snd.click/thunderclap
Please support new hardcore in 2022 :)
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Trance_is_Life
Starting Member
United Kingdom
2 posts
Joined: Mar, 2025
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Posted - 2025/03/05 : 20:25:42
i wouldn't say hardcore is failing but is defiantly been in a lul for the last few years...... but, its not the first time it has neither. sometimes it needed!! but, its defo picked up in 2024 and into 2025..... dont worry hardcore is definitely on its way back!!!
Klubfilla can **** off tho hes total dog shit
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Sparkz_LuckyStrike
New Member
United Kingdom
57 posts
Joined: Jan, 2021
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Posted - 2025/03/09 : 21:43:42
IMO..... The clubland era was actually a great thing for the scene.
Hardcore lost it's way around 1999 with even Hixxy doing a Makina track mix for Bonkers 4 in 1998 and the scene was clearly going in a trancy direction (with Bonkers 7 and a load of B-Trax releases) but a lot of it was experimental.
Jelly/Raver baby stuff became the new sound and branded UK Hardcore. Oxygen, Black magic, then the one, Electric, You're my angel, slide away. Great times!!!
CLXH was decent. It started off in 2005 when that UK Hardcore sound was at it's best. With being on a big label and released mainstream it gave people who liked that sound even more music that may never have been made otherwise (I'm sure the cash incentive was enough to get artists in the studio making even more tracks than they would have making tracks for vinyl releases on small labels).
I don't understand what you mean by the 2008 decline? Good stuff was still being made. On CLXH5 it was all the Hixxy stuff with Juliette Jaimes (Deep in the night, face in the crowd), Technikore was making some decent stuff like Calling out to you.
From what I can remember, when the scene first went from Happy Hardcore to trance influenced, a load of Happy Hardcore fans hated the new sound and gave up on it, but a lot enjoyed it and even more people started listening to it. People more or less kept on board with it through the clubland era until the last few albums where it tailed off. Looking at the tracklists now of CLXH and 7 is where it started to go all wrong, then by 9 it was forgettable tracks like "mix your sex", "bitch slap", "fk that sh*t" and a load of Klubfiller and modulate rubbish.
I remember someone saying at the time that it's such a shame Styles went from making classics like Save me and Sound without a name and started making tracks like "Like a bitch".
Cheese was fine. It was that darker edgier sound with dirty baselines and dubcore that changed the scene again. What was the point of a beast of a breakdown with piano, pads, really nice sounds and then....wham the drop.... no melody just some du de du du duuuu/whom whom whom acid hardstyle rough bass? Complete garbage IMO and it seems a lot of people felt the same about it.
Unfortunately people like a genre depending on what the main players are doing. They were making hardstyle/dubstep rubbish (pulling in people who enjoyed hardstyle music but putting off many who liked hardcore) and unless smaller producers followed suit, they'd be left behind to become obsolete so many just gave up.
The scene shouldn't have changed like it did into dubcore and hardstyle stuff, it should have stayed as it was for at least another few years but for some reason that's the way the big names wanted to take it and so it's goodbye hardcore scene.
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Samination
Advanced Member
Sweden
13,202 posts
Joined: Jul, 2004
195 hardcore releases
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Posted - 2025/03/10 : 22:29:19
Hixxy played three German Hard Trance tracks on Bonkers 4, none of them are Makina. Why do people keep getting this wrong? The only Makina-ish to them is that spanish DJ started playing more Hard Trance from Bonzai and Tunnel Trance in their makina sets
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Samination, Swedish Hardcore DJ
Happy, UK Hardcore, Freeform, Makina and Gabber
http://samination.se/
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Edited by - Samination on 2025/03/10 22:32:10 |
DJ Bluesoul
New Member
United Kingdom
24 posts
Joined: Oct, 2024
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Posted - 2025/03/11 : 09:36:58
quote:
Originally posted by toml123:
Sadly we have all witnessed the steady decline in UK Hardcore since c.2008 when the "Clubland era" began... Djs we had known for years (Darren Styles, Breeze, Hixxy and Gammer) all became fixated on the X-Treme Hardcore series and would only produce slow dancey hardcore to suit the commercial needs of the AATW label. The branding of Hardcore Til I Die was used on 3 very clubland-esque albums and Bonkers was bought from Resist by AATW and hammered straight into the ground with more club cheese. Worse was to come c.2011 when Breeze suffered some sort of injury to his head and tried to develop a new style.. "Dubcore". The less said about that the better.
2012 - 2015 UK Hardcore started to pick up ever so slightly, gaining real momentum in 2015 and onto to 2018 with Darren Styles, Scott Brown, Dougal, Gammer producing some slammers and even some new names popping up and doing their thing but with the loss of HTID as an event after 2016 the only events you could attend in the UK were Westfest (once a year) and the marmite that is Ravers Reunited....
Since 2018 we have lost a truly great producer in DJ Gammer to the Hardstyle scene, Which is fine, if that's what he wants to do... Darren styles has also followed him to this scene and it seems Hixxy and Dougal are also heading down that dark path too. With "HTID" now pretty much being a hard style event, The hardcore we once new and loved has sadly gone down the pan. We have lost many great producers in different ways over the years, And with the lines between Hardcore and Hardstyle now being blurred, And with the likes of Klubfiller and Stonebank producing the very scraps of what you could call hardcore...
Will be ever see a return to UK Hardcore?
The answer to that question? YES, 100%. I've got something HUGE lined up soon, so stay tuned. Lostwave Records will be taking it back to the old school, but with new rules. (did you notice the hint I used there?)
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Sparkz_LuckyStrike
New Member
United Kingdom
57 posts
Joined: Jan, 2021
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Posted - 2025/03/13 : 14:15:30
quote:
Originally posted by Samination:
Hixxy played three German Hard Trance tracks on Bonkers 4, none of them are Makina. Why do people keep getting this wrong? The only Makina-ish to them is that spanish DJ started playing more Hard Trance from Bonzai and Tunnel Trance in their makina sets
Wasn't slashing fun kids - imagination "makina".
Still, it shows change was incoming. Putting in stuff that weren't the typical hardcore released tracks.
It reflected the scene at the time. We had the Bradley carter engineered stuff across the board almost and that sort of sound. Then more trancy synth stuff came about and even artists playing stuff in sets like the German hard trance and or makina.
Events were down in numbers, and then in comes the sound that was jelly/raver baby to go all the way with the trance style in its unique way.
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Sparkz_LuckyStrike
New Member
United Kingdom
57 posts
Joined: Jan, 2021
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Posted - 2025/03/13 : 14:27:08
"The answer to that question? YES, 100%. I've got something HUGE lined up soon, so stay tuned. Lostwave Records will be taking it back to the old school, but with new rules. (did you notice the hint I used there?)"
While I admire optimism, I'm not inclined to believe anything someone says who claims to have a label releasing unreleased stuff, punk, "new wave" and "power pop".
We all had something "huge" lined up, namely in the days of MSN messenger but it all came to nothing and wasn't "huge" at all.
The scene and the sound is dictated by those at the top like styles, hixxy, klubemptier and so on and they're happy making £1k+ per set based on their past reputation playing garbage to people who are into dirty sound, dubcore and whatever other crap is considered "hardcore" these days.
No other individual will change that. People who may have given a sh*t about a new sound or movement have mostly long gone and in an era with so much choice of music to listen to, nothing will bring in a new audience like the glory days.
All we will see is when the big names hang up the boots, is a scene based on replaying classics over and over. It was good while it lasted.
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Samination
Advanced Member
Sweden
13,202 posts
Joined: Jul, 2004
195 hardcore releases
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Posted - 2025/03/13 : 19:01:53
quote:
Originally posted by Sparkz_LuckyStrike:
Wasn't slashing fun kids - imagination "makina".
Released on the german hard trance label EDM
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Samination, Swedish Hardcore DJ
Happy, UK Hardcore, Freeform, Makina and Gabber
http://samination.se/
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Icewind
Junior Member
Canada
129 posts
Joined: Jun, 2013
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Posted - 2025/04/03 : 02:27:29
The old guard can't steer the ship forever. Maybe what we need is a total reset...
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https://linktr.ee/dj_icewind
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