NTR / CRACK Invasion Of Brisbane!!

Surrealizt Xmas Podcast On Bpm-fm.hu!

An all new mix by NTR artist Surrealizt will be appearing on the next Extreme Beats show on BPM-FM.hu! The Extreme Beats Christmas edition will be streamed / podcasted on Christmas night (Hungary time) and will also feature mixes from Razor Edge, Noizemaker, TI(HARD)BY, Corngrinder & Mental Disorder! The all important link is HERE

NTR Artist Noistruct Response To Alec Empire Interview

Well It seems that the interview with Alec Empire only recently posted on here
has stirred up something of a controversy amongst the breakcore hardliners! Some of them are disputing Alec's claim to have been among the first to make breakcore and many are up in arms regarding Alec's comments about breakcore made on laptop computers!
NTR artist Noistruct has responded to Alec's interview answers with a scathing 2 part open-letter to Alec, and after much careful deliberation I have decided to print Noistruct's response in it's entirety on this here blog! In fairness to Alec, if he chooses to respond I will also post what he has to say, so Alec if you are reading this, feel free to reply, in fact please do - I am very interested to hear your response to Noistruct, as I am sure many other people are too! Anyways....

Here is Part 1 of Noistruct's letter to Alec!

DEAR ALEC EMPIRE: GO FUCK YOURSELF

"if one does breakcore with a laptop, it's not breakcore...it's somebody faking breakcore.
Breakcore must be done with hardware samplers and ANALOGUE desks to achieve the harmonic distortion which is essential for this type of music. The most important part of this music which separates it from the rest is the political meaning. If it doesn't stand in this context, it's a waste of time"
-Alec Empire 2009

"Breakcore must be done with hardware samplers and ANALOGUE desks to achieve the harmonic distortion which is essential for this type of music"

Rrrrrriiight...

Are you fucking serious?..

Are you talking about PCs as well? Are we talking about production or live shows? I notice you didn't specify that? Well. If you're talking about production..Please Alec go fuck yourself...

No wait...go fuck yourself two times.

I have and will always use any form of electronic, digital or analogue equipment that was even within my reach to produce breakcore. The most essential thing for this type of music is that it has some sort of intensity and confrontational aspect...

Anyone who can't get that with a PC isn't fucking, well trying hard enough.

True there are many producers who lack this intensity and confrontational aspect, but that's not all of us - so please don't speak for all of us. It's not important how it's made. It's important how it fucking sounds. It's not important how it's produced or performed live - just that it's fucking intense, confronting and has a purpose other than just pandering to dancefloors and dance culture apathy. The only thing that's really important is the sound that comes out of those speakers. I can think of many breakcore producers who have only ever used a PC and have produced some fucking intense, confrontational and brutal breakcore. You've obviously not been exposed to a large enough percentage of those producers ( or the worldwide breakcore scene in general) to know that. Honest intentions are also important.
Something most of the breakcore artists who followed what you helped to start have more than you. Which was evident in what happened with DHR artists. You are the single worst example of a musical sellout to emerge in the 20th century. I don't see anyone who is currently inspired by digital hardcore/gabber or breakcore saying shit like....

"Like the Prodigy, They have become very corporate, using live guitars and that sort of thing. I can never see myself doing that"
- Alec Empire of Atari Teenage Riot 1997

Good quote. That's my fave actually. I guess Prodigy corporate is different to Alec solo in 2002 corporate. glad we got that straight and we're living by our own rules (phew!)


I think that's the first time I've ever heard you use the word "breakcore" too. So it's funny hearing you speak for it...when you've been mostly avoiding it for the last 10 years and pretending instead to be Trent Reznor. I'm pretty shocked to hear you pissing on the concept of the use of PCs since it was within The Digital Hardcore
Movement that I first saw them being used so prominently as a live instrument. A video with the sight of EC80R screaming into mikes with a PC set up on the ground in front of them comes to mind.

"We take elements of styles of music that had at a certain moment in time what we call a "revolutionary energy".
THE TECHNOLOGY GIVES US THE OPPORTUNITY TO REPRODUCE THESE MOMENTS"

"A DJ has more responsibility than just a matter of taste! He is in the position to REPRODUCE RADICAL FREQUENCIES AND NOISES ANYTIME AND ANYWHEREWHICH IS MORE DIFFICULT FOR A LIVE BAND FOR EXAMPLE"

"A revolution always includes the destruction of something old and outdated"

- Alec Empire from the Basic ATR Philosophy "Riot Sounds Produce Riots" published in the DHR zine "DIGITAL HARDCORE RECORDINGS PART 1" 1998

"Of course the sounds of these genres would be different without certain equipment and it is not really possible to imagine how old school rap would've sounded without a TR-808 or so.
BUT I AM SURE PEOPLE WOULD HAVE FOUND OTHER WAYS OF CREATING STUFF"

"IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MACHINE IT'S THE PERSON WHO DRIVES IT"

- Alec Empire from the article "Equipment - Fuck The Shit Up" from the DHR zine "DIGITAL HARDCORE RECORDINGS PART 1" 1998

Like those quotes too. Inspirational stuff indeed. By the definition of the second quote of yours there. It could be translated as "reproducing radical frequencies anywhere and anytime" means "BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY" Fuck if that means plugging in a laptop and blasting out breakcore then fucking so be it! Fuck this "you have to have the rightequipment" shit!! I thought the idea was if you wanna make it...

MAKE IT!!

When did this music get rules? get fucked. I thought Digital Hardcore had it's foundations in
punk rock? Breakcore can be produced by analogue equipment and analogue desks true. It can get a lot of intensity that way - especially live. But I was under the impression ever since I got into this music that it DIDN'T FUCKING MATTER how it was made. If you really believe that little quote of yours in that interview you're a fool.

I could record myself playing the drums into a program on nothing more than a laptop and still make it intense. PC's are in most homes these days and it was through the widespread use of PCs I found like minded producers that used nothing more than PCs to make some truly amazing digital hardcore/breakcore. When we started a label/collective inspired by DHR it was under our own motto of WE DON'T HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY because we liked the idea of a music movement that encouraged
the production of digitally produced computer music that was intense and confrontational. We liked the idea of setting up PCs in pubs and blasting out our own digital hardcore at crowds more accustomed either to bands or more dance oriented or arty electronic music.

Apart from mentioning the obvious Australian producers/labels who have used PCs as part of their production of intense and heavy hardcore/breakcore and since you're reunion milking this year (a biiiig trend in 2009) with ATR and revelling in nostalgia (I notice your website is mostly scrolling advertisements for clothing merchandise. I guess anti-fashion really is fashion too by now). let's go back to that amazing label and in particular producers like Patric Catani and Christoph De Babalon.
Christoph's debut album for example was very influential on me for a number of reasons. From the title which to me suited the idea of DHR (If You're Into It I'm Out Of It) and the back cover photo with a
work desk of some sort with a well-used PC displayed as what appears to be the prime source of equipment for that incredible album. The minimal equipmentused to achieve the sounds made was what I thought DHR was about. Bomb20, Patric Catani and Christoph made some amazing sounds and genre defining albums with mostly PCs. Not even thesort of advanced ones that many of the more popular and in some cases ridiculously overrated breakcore producers use to produce substandard Venetian Snares
wannabe dogshit and then brag about their allegiance to programs like Ableton on forums. Artists on DHR as well as Bloody Fist in Australia used in some cases only PCs to produce their music and with astounding results.


"The most important part of this music which separates it from the rest is the political meaning. If it doesn't stand in this context, it's a waste of time"


Sooooooooo...if it doesn't have a title like DO SOMETHING NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE (insert 509 exclaimation marks here) then it's not political? is that what you mean? I think this music can be quite powerful without having a blatant political context. Who decides if it's political or not Alec? you?

Fuck Off. Most breakcore producers do have political themes in their music. It may not have samples from punk records or be screamed through a microphone but it's there. It's in some cases subtle rather than obvious. It's subversive. Cynicism and sarcasm has become a popular method of expressing what producers want to say in breakcore and this becomes evident in recurring themes in their tracks through their use of sampling and structure. This music has and always will have a lot of comparisons to punk rock. Remember "The personal is the political" was the motto of many great punk rock bands? I have followed breakcore for more than 10 years and I have discovered records by, met or played with many producers who have used the intensity, aggression and confrontation of breakcore's sound
and idealism to express those beliefs and say something real. From child abuse to relationships to conspiracies to police corruption to misogyny, to the hypocrisy and emptiness of dance
culture. Some like a straight-forward and direct approach, some prefer the subtle and subversive cynical approach (as I do).... Breakcore is the new punk rock...in more ways than one. Apart from the fact it's limited in appeal (fine by us), it's one of the LAST true underground music cultures left. It's abrasiveness ensures it's unmarketable, it's aggressive beats, non linear structures and use of distortion means it's unappealing to the dance crowds and is for the most part limited to pockets of communities of producers, promoters, DJs and punters worldwide which follow it because they FUCKING LOVE IT. Many of the people who produce it don't get any reward from it other than their love of playing it and producing it. Like any scene, it has it's issues and drawbacks and it's progressions and changes in direction are not always agreed upon and we already have enough to deal with, with those elements - let alone one of it's supposed originators sledging it when he hasn't been an active, interested or interesting part of it's scene in nearly 10 fucking years.

so seriously...

"if one does breakcore with a laptop, it's not breakcore...it's somebody faking breakcore.
Breakcore must be done with hardware samplers and ANALOGUE desks to achieve the harmonic distortion which is essential for this type of music"

Go Fuck Yourself.

Boris Otterdam
Noistruct (8-Bit Recordings Perth Western Australia)
WE DON'T HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY
It's never held us back (and is never gonna hold us back)
Noistruct Myspace HERE

Exclusive NTR Mini-Interview With Alec Empire!

Recently Alec Empire found some time away from his hectic schedule to be interrogated by Matt Bleak / NTR about the early days of Digital Hardcore / Breakcore, his thoughts on the current Breakcore scene and also about recent projects of his! So, Without further ado...



NTR : Hey Alec, thanx heaps for taking the time to do this interview!
First of all, the early days of DHC (Digital Hardcore)..it seems like there were a lot of similar things going on in different parts of the world at the very same time. We had Bloody Fist in this country and there was DHC in Germany and stuff going on in other parts of the globe also. So who got in on it first? A lot of people can't seem to agree on where what we now know as breakcore originated...did you invent breakcore? Or was it just a global phenomenon that simultaneously started in various parts of the world?

AE: Breakcore was done first by us. Clearly...We made the decision in the winter 1991/92 to step away from Techno and speed up breakbeats up to 170 BPM. Another goal was to push the limits in terms of programming those rhythms. The crazier the better. For us it was a political thing because the 4 to the floor bass drum became a symbol for mainstream dance music and was absorbed by the neo nazi movement. They started using techno to make their ideas seem more modern and get kids interested in fascism. They even declared techno as the 'true German music' which of course is stupid but in this environment we had to distance ourselves. So we wanted to use breakbeats which were rooted in Afro-American funk music in the late 60ties and 70ties. Also they symbolized the civil rights music and radical political groups like the Black Panthers. We believed that music can carry a lot of hidden information and it has a political effect on people's minds, the way they think. The Berlin based sound system 'Bass Terror' did the first raves with this style of music. Empty warehouse spaces, run down houses in the former East of Berlin. Force Inc Records in Frankfurt pushed the sound. First Breakcore record came out in Spring 1992 "Alec Empire - SuEcide Pt.1", some people say that "Alec Empire - Yobot EP" was the first, it came out a few months earlier...in my opinion this EP demonstrates the step into that direction and it is somewhere in between hardcore breakbeat, Detroit techno and breakcore. Atari Teenage Riot played a lot of music in that direction live, but the first record was released much later, early 1993. But I got to say that Bloody Fist was putting out great stuff, and in my opinion it never mattered as much who was 'first', it is about moving into the future and making exciting music. People need to give Bloody Fist and all the others big respect because all of the different labels and producers were so important, especially because they built their own scenes in each country.

NTR: One of the things that originally attracted me to DHC and Atari Teenage Riot was the ideology behind the music. Do you still stand behind all of the things you said when you were in ATR or have your viewpoints changed since the demise of ATR and now you have branched out into different things?

AE: I still have the same opinion...we still live in the same system which is based on the wrong ideals in my view. So of course time moved on , but the problems just got bigger. I don't feel though that I have to repeat myself and write more songs about the same issues though. But when I find it important to add something, I do it.

NTR: What is going on with DHR the label nowadays? It seems to have gone quiet for a while. Any new releases on the horizon? Any new signings?

AE: The DHR scene died with Carl Crack in 2001. After that nothing was the same anymore. We focus on releasing back catalogue since then. We won't sign new bands.

NTR: What do you think about the current breakcore movement? Do you listen to much breakcore at all these days? Any current breakcore artists or acts that you find interesting?

AE: I feel very loyal to the scene but think that nothing really tops what we did back then. The original idea was to have this intense physical music...if one does breakcore with a laptop, it's not breakcore...it's somebody faking breakcore. Breakcore must be done with hardware samplers and ANALOGUE desks to achieve the harmonic distortion which is essential for this type of music. The most important part of this music which separates it from the rest is the political meaning. If it doesn't stand in this context, it's a waste of time. A problem that the scene has to solve is that real breakcore doesn't work via mp3 because the digital compression of mp3s suck out the energy of the music.

NTR: I understand that you did some soundtrack work for the German movie 'Chaostage'...for people who don't know what 'Chaostage' is all about could you fill them in?

AE: The story of the film is based in Hanover in the 90ties . It's a city in Germany where all punks from the country used to come together and rioted for no reason. Just to spread chaos and anarchy. The film is controversial because the lead character kills a cop and gets away with it. Many critics in Germany didn't like that. There is also a scene where a Neo Nazi is shown who earns money on the side with gay S&M sex, so that scene is very heavy...this fat hairy guy shits on the Neo Nazi, pisses in his face and so on...some people left the cinema when it was shown...I love it when films can still cause these kinds of reactions. There were also actual riots at the premiere because the cinema was sold out and about 200 punks couldn't get in anymore...police came and so on...it all added to the excitement...The film has many of my favorite German actors in it. It was a great project to work on...real fun because the director Tarek is awesome and pretty much gave me a lot of freedom because he wanted someone who could merge punk with electronic, atmospheric music...and that was me...

NTR: So what is new in Alec Empire land these days? New projects? Upcoming performances?

AE: We just finished a two months tour in Europe - it was great...stage invasions, huge moshpits and a lot of noise...Now we have a lot of recording to do...various projects, Nic Endo is mixing her new album, I am finishing the new Alec Empire album...we might release an unreleased Atari Teenage Riot song next year...and of course various other collaboration projects...I am doing something with Dillinger Escape Plan, remixed IAMX, the collaboration with CX Kidtronik will come out in the next months...I am writing songs/beats for The Big Pink right now...we are constantly working...it's exciting!

NTR : Well thanks very much for taking the time to answer our questions Alec and best of luck with all of your new projects!

**For all the latest Alec Empire news, tour dates & infos,
go HERE

NTR Set To Devastate Brisbane!

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to follow!!