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SatIn the second of two panel discussions focused on gabber and hardcore, Groove writer Alexis Waltz will speak to Marc Acardipane, a pioneer and “godfather” of the genres, and to three producers at the forefront of a fast-tempo revival.
Acardipane’s Frankfurt-based label PCP, widely considered the first hardcore label, was established in 1989, three years before Rotterdam Records started in Holland. This was almost 30 years ago – before the internet, before social media, and before many CTM audience members were even born. Meanwhile, New York-based Kilbourne, Stockholm-based HAJ300, and Berlin-based HD Mirror are all flagbearers in the celebration and reappropriation of 140+ bpm bangers for today’s millenial underground dance music landscape.
Marc Acardipane (also known as Marc Trauner, Mescalinum United, and Marshall Masters) is a pioneering hardcore producer and DJ from Frankfurt.
Affiliated with Country Music and Stoscha, among others, is the energetic HAJ300, who plays frenetic and uncompromising hardcore/gabber sets. They are a founding member of Drömfakulteten - a Stockholm-based collective of female and transgender artists.
Ashe Kilbourne is a hardcore producer and DJ from New Jersey. She plays in a grindcore band called Cicada, is affiliated with the irreverent New York dance music collective KUNQ, and in 2016 released the EP, Sourland.
Hailing from the internet (as well as from Berlin and Capetown), HDmirror is part of a new wave of artists emerging from online communities and netlabels. Their work, as their name suggests, engages with the internet’s implications on musical production.
Alexis Waltz studied art history, cultural studies, and philosophy in Berlin with Christina von Braun, Friedrich Kittler, and Horst Bredekamp, among others. In his Masters degree, he specialised in Wim Wenders’ road movies.