Digital Hardcore
Hardcore · 1994 · 160 to 200 BPM · also known as Digital Punk, Riot Beats
Digital hardcore was founded in Berlin in 1994 when Alec Empire started the label Digital Hardcore Recordings, welding together saturated breakbeats, screamed punk vocals and radical politics. Atari Teenage Riot became its commando unit, with the slogan riot sounds produce riot people. Closer to a riot than to a club, the genre passed its rage on to breakcore and its name on to an entire attitude.
15 reference tracks
- Atari Teenage Riot: Speed (1995)
- Atari Teenage Riot: Start the Riot (1995)
- Ec8or: AK-78 (1995)
- EC8OR: Cocaine Ducks (1996)
- Atari Teenage Riot: Deutschland (Has Gotta Die!) (1996)
- Alec Empire: The Destroyer (1996)
- Atari Teenage Riot: Revolution Action (1999)
- Alec Empire: Digital Hardcore (1994)
- Machine Girl: Blood Magic (2020)
- Machine Girl: Until I Die (2024)
- Atari Teenage Riot: Into the Death
- Atari Teenage Riot: Raverbashing
- Atari Teenage Riot: Atari Teenage Riot
- Machine Girl: MCHNGRL VS WLFGRL
- Atari Teenage Riot: Sick to Death
At a glance
- Tempo: 160 to 200 BPM
- First appeared: around 1994
- Machines: Atari ST, Akai S950, Guitare électrique, Roland TR-909
- The sound: Breaks saturés Atari ST, Cris punk, Distorsion sur tout, Samples politiques
- Labels: Grand Royal, Digital Hardcore Recordings, Digital Hardcore Recordings (DHR), Alternation
- Key artists: Atari Teenage Riot, Alec Empire, EC8OR, Shizuo, Hanin Elias
Producing Digital Hardcore
Digital hardcore runs 160 to 200 BPM, often 170 to 180, though energy matters more than the exact number since this is punk played with machines, its grid a saturated breakbeat, often the Amen. The break is chopped roughly and pushed through heavy saturation and eight bit reduction, sitting under a distorted 909 kick on one and three, or every beat in hardest passages, and a doubled snare on two and four. There is rarely a written bassline, the low end coming from the distorted kick and sampled guitar power chords through a saturated amp, or a heavily distorted saw or square holding a short punk riff in the guitar's key. Screamed political vocals, sampled guitar riffs, speeches, sirens and eight bit noise fill out the mix, all distorted without exception, nothing meant to sound clean.
The full production course, in French: tempo, drums, bass, sounds, arrangement, mix, plugins and machines, and a step by step start.
Frequently asked
What is Digital Hardcore?
Digital hardcore was founded in Berlin in 1994 when Alec Empire started the label Digital Hardcore Recordings, welding together saturated breakbeats, screamed punk vocals and radical politics. Atari Teenage Riot became its commando unit, with the slogan riot sounds produce riot people. Closer to a…
What tempo is Digital Hardcore played at?
Between 160 and 200 BPM.
Who are the key Digital Hardcore artists?
Atari Teenage Riot, Alec Empire, EC8OR, Shizuo, Hanin Elias.
In the same family
- Hardcore Techno
- Gabber
- Terrorcore
- Speedcore
- Nu Style Gabber
- Uptempo Hardcore
- Doomcore
- Frenchcore
- Dubstyle
- Happy Hardcore
- Bouncy Techno
- UK Hardcore
Listen to Digital Hardcore in the atlas · Cette page en français
