Digital Hardcore Music Guide: 5 Notable Digital Hardcore Artists

Digital hardcore is a music genre that merges hardcore punk energy with the sounds of electronic music. It bears strong sonic similarities to drum and bass, hardcore techno, breakbeat, gabber, jungle, industrial, and glitch music.

The digital hardcore scene sprang up in 1990s Berlin, where the group Atari Teenage Riot fashioned music that combined the raw energy of punk rock with the ferocious electronic sounds of breakcore and hardcore techno. Atari Teenage Riot frontman Alec Empire coined the genre's name, and he started a record label called Digital Hardcore Recordings (DHR) that fostered many of the scene's early acts. These included Cobra Killer, EC8OR, Christoph de Babalon, Nic Endo, the Mad Capsule Markets, Hanin Elias, Curse of the Golden Vampire, and Lolita Storm.

The twenty-first century saw a new wave of digital hardcore bands, as the scene expanded from Berlin to the world at large. Groups like Rabbit Junk, Motormark, Left Spine Down, Death Spells, Death Grips, Machine Girl, and the Shizit brought elements of industrial rock, grindcore, metalcore, and electronicore to the core digital hardcore genre. Meanwhile, Atari Teenage Riot (ATR to their devoted fans) remains a linchpin of the genre.

Several core characteristics distinguish digital hardcore from other forms of electronic music.

1. 1. Frenetic energy: Digital hardcore music tends to be played at rapid tempos with a cascade of sounds from synthesizers, drum machines, and the occasional guitar.
2. 2. Paranoid energy: Leading artists of digital hardcore coat their music in an intense, paranoid veneer.
3. 3. Political elements: From the start, digital hardcore artists invoked a spirit of rebellion. One example is Atari Teenage Riot's cover of "If the Kids Are United" by Sham 69. The song is reinvented with a hardcore techno aesthetic, as samples of anti-authoritarian speeches layer over the music.

Many groups have contributed to the overall sound of digital hardcore music.

1. 1. Atari Teenage Riot: With records like Delete Yourself! and 60 Second Wipe Out, Atari Teenage Riot brought roaring punk rock vocals to the early ’90s hardcore techno scene. Later in the 1990s, they reached mainstream audiences as the opening act for groups like Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Wu-Tang Clan, Rage Against the Machine, and Moby.
2. 2. Alec Empire: ATR frontman Alec Empire has released digital hardcore classics under his own name, including The Destroyer (1996), an exercise in breakcore freneticism and grindcore dread.
3. 3. EC8OR: Led by Patric Catani and Gina V. D'Orio, EC8OR closely adhered to the sonic aesthetics pioneered by Atari Teenage Riot. They achieved mainstream notice when they were included on the All Of Us Can Be Rich... compilation, which was released by the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal Records.
4. 4. Christoph De Babalon: German DJ Christoph de Babalon gained notice for records like 1997's If You're Into It, I'm Out of It, which brought elements of dark ambient, noise, and soundscapes to the digital hardcore template.
5. 5. Shizuo: Compared to other digital hardcore artists, Shizuo offers an intentionally lo-fi sound that leans heavily on filters and synth bleeps. 1997's High on Emotion offers a good primer on the Shizuo approach to electronic music.

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