Every now and then, I go down a bit of a rabbit hole with music — usually some daft idea that ends up eating way too much of my time. This one started with a random memory of a track that’s haunted me since the 90s — a Loftgroover tune that was never properly released. What started as me messing around on the Behringer TD-3 turned into a full-blown attempt to resurrect a lost bit of hardcore history.
The Memory
A couple of years ago, I got myself a top-notch 303 clone — the Behringer TD-3. When I was learning to program it, I messed about with an earworm of an acid bassline from my youth — a long-forgotten track by Loftgroover that was never released.
After the Rezerection (Scotland's premiere raving haunt of the early 90s) Event 2 back in 1994, I bought the tapes of the set recordings, and even though I didn't remember it on the night, Loftgroover played a cracking track at the start of his set called I Am The Devil (it wasn't until much later that I discovered the title - but it makes sense when you hear the track). It was his own track, one he played at a few other raves around that time — then it disappeared (as far as I could tell), and I never heard it played out again.
A year or so later, Lofty released the ScareCore EP on his own Redhead label, which included a version of I Am The Devil called the “Event 2 5AM Remix.” Excitement! Was it finally being released? Seemed like it. Until I got the record home… and it was a completely different remix. Still a good version, but not what I was after.
Reading through hardcore forums at the time, it turned out the original was a dubplate that never got released — I assume the recording was lost. Anyway, back to the TD-3 — I managed to program the bassline from my memory of the Event 2 tape, recorded it into Ableton… and then forgot about it again.
Rediscovery in 2025
Fast forward to 2025. I recently changed laptops when old faithful died, and transferred all my old files (which was a bit of a chore) to the new one. I’ve got a habit of starting tracks and never finishing them — I’m into triple digits with unfinished projects — and thought, “New laptop, new me.” Maybe it was time to organise and start finishing (paradoxically) some tracks.
After identifying about eight that were just called “Untitled,” I stumbled across the acid bassline from Devil.
Sometime between recording the acid and the file clear-up (I may need to work on chronology — this story has more time jumps than Quantum Leap), I’d acquired the Lofty tape from Event 2 again (along with a few others from the same night) and acquired a 4 track mixer with tape deck.
Finding that file was one of those lightbulb moments. Now, I’m not a great music producer or musician, but I’ve got a bit of persistence in my arsenal (well, when I’m interested in something… I understand that’s a contradiction given the 100+ unfinished tracks, but when something gets into my head, I’m fairly unshakeable). Possibly some undiagnosed nonsense going on in my brain that keeps my stupid ideas running to completion (oo-er).
So my thinking was: since I can’t buy or borrow this track — and I even went as far as messaging Lofty to ask if he had any tapes with it on — why don’t I try to rebuild it from scratch? Off to Ableton we go!
Rebuilding the Track
The biggest problem (other than my production naivety) was that the tape was about 30 years old, shite quality, had MC XXX and (MC Ribbz for a bit) trying to spit bars over the top (I reckon the BPM was a bit higher than he was used to), and the track itself was mixed in with Rave A Graphixx’s There Is No Other (the good mix!). So… where to start?
The kick, from what I could make out, was a muffled, thumpy 909 with a little distortion, some basic snares and hi-hats — and the claps. I always liked how Loftgroover did claps: echoey, reverby claps that sounded like they were heralding the apocalypse. I managed to get the drum structure fairly easily. We’re off to a great start.
Now, the acid line. When I tried to shoehorn it into the drum track, it didn’t sound good — a bit too clean. I clearly wasn’t twirling my knobs enough when I recorded it all those years ago. TD-3 time again. This time I added a bit more distortion, vigorously twiddled the cutoff, and I think I got the melody closer to the original.
Sampling and Sound Design
The intro — “BRRRR BRRRR… Hi, is this the police?” The MC who came on before XXX talked right over the top of it, but I managed to sample one clean telephone noise — and that’s all I needed.
The female vocal I couldn’t sample because of the MC, but the ScareCore EP had the same sample. Got the record out — job done. The “What? This is Six… Six… Six…” wasn’t on the ScareCore record, but “I Am The Devil” was. So I had to clean up the tape recording and put some distortion on it.
The finished product sounds okay-ish — but it really does sound like I’ve sampled a thirty-year-old, minging mix tape. Tinny and hissy… but complete.
The easiest part — and the bit I’m happiest about — is the telephone riff, which I sampled from the intro and loaded into Ableton’s Simpler to create the melody. A straightforward bit to recreate from the tape and definitely the part that caused the least stress.
From the easiest to the hardest: toward the end of the track, when Rave A Graphixx is getting mixed in (and if you know Loftgroover’s mixing, he cuts between tracks pretty rapidly), it made it hard to properly hear the low, squelchy, evil synthy section.
I had no clue how to recreate it — or what it was made on (possibly a 303 through some pitch shifting wizardry). This is probably the section I’ll get the most criticism for (if anyone actually listens), but aside from the TD-3, I’m shite when it comes to synth sounds.
So, I tried mapping out the MIDI pattern, then loaded up every virtual instrument I could find until I got something vaguely similar. Then I added whatever effects got it closer.
Alright, I’ll level with you — it sounds nowt like the original, and it doesn’t sound like it was made in the 90s. But you can only piss with the prick you’ve got. So that’s what I stuck with.
Finishing Up
Once I had all the parts, I mixed it, remixed it, and over the course of a couple of months, tinkered with it more than I should have. But eventually, I decided enough was enough — time to stop messing about and draw a line under it.
Overall, it was a vaguely enjoyable process, then a crap process, then an okay process, and finally a relief when I decided to stop working on it. Not sure I’ll take on something like this again, but this was one of the only tracks I completely fell in love with but couldn’t obtain. I’ve always been able to get my hands on almost any track I’ve wanted over the years in some way, shape, or form — I’m a bit obsessive (one day I might write my memoirs about hunting down certain tracks for years).
I’d like to say I’m happy with the end product… but I’ve always been my own fiercest critic. Still — fuck it. It’s out there.
Making his debut on HCBXCast, DJ LSA steps up with a thunderous mix that fuses a number of different styles but is essentially industrial as fuck hardcore. An unmistakable underground edge that defines his sound. Ahead of the set, I catch up with LSA to pick his brains about his origins, his bloody excellent momentum in hardcore, and ermmm..... pegging.
HCBX: Alright Pascal! Thanks for agreeing to answer a few questions, and for the debut set on HCBXCast. How’s life treating you these days, and what’s been keeping you busy?
LSA: It's going well! Has been quiet for a while now, but there are finally some gigs coming up again and the next record of my label has gone into production too, so that's all great. Also working out a new hardware live setup, so that I can do that at gigs too!
HCBX: The set is an absolute cracker of Industrial hardcore. Tell me about how you pulled it together. Did you plan it out, or just hit record and go for it?
LSA: Thank you!! I just approached it the same way as I do for gigs. I always start by thinking about the vibe I want to convey, and then start picking out records that fit this. I do not play every weekend, and I really do want to give people the best I have, so my sets are pretty much always mostly planned ahead. I always want to put various styles in one mix, so I always also need to pick out "in-between" tracks, so that I can smoothly transition styles without it being too abrupt or obvious.
HCBX: What tracks or artists got you into this type or music initially. Do you have any favourite tracks from the early days?
LSA: When I started out as LSA I mostly just played Early Hardcore / Gabber - my favourite track from that time that pops into my mind is "Omar Santana - Wizard Of Oh". Other than that, it was mostly the Ruffneck and Cenobite people that inspired me.
For the (French) HardKore stuff I do now, I remember listening to Laurent Ho's mix on MCM. I heard it around the same time as I started as LSA. It was so different from all the other 90's Hardcore I heard at that point, and I did not fully understand it yet, but it did set a clear path for me that I would follow years later. All the tracks from that mix have become favorites of mine, but hearing that first (pitched up) track "Difficult Child - Big Bang" still gives me goosebumps.
HCBX: You’ve shared that as early as the age of 9 or 10, you were tinkering with hardcore in FL Studio under the alias “DJ Biohazard” — how did that happen? What got you into hardcore (and producing) at such an early age?
LSA: As long as I can remember I've always been into Hardcore, even before I actually knew what it was. I remember being very young, laying in bed way too early and not sleeping yet. I heard all the cars drive by, and sometimes I would hear these bass sounds with a high BPM coming from the cars' subs and I *LOVED* that. There was also a yearly festival around in my hometown when I was like 5 years old, which was loudly audible in our house. My parents hated it, I loved it. I later on discovered what it actually was, and have always been a Hardcore Head since. At that time though I mostly listened to mainstream (now millennium) and a bit of terror/speedcore.
I remember tinkering around with a shitty music maker program even before being 9/10, that was very limiting and you just put in premade loops or something. Don't remember a whole lot of it, but TBH I think it was a fun thing to play around with as a kid. After that, my dad arranged a copy of FL Studio for me and my brother with a Hardcore Sample pack. The stuff I made back then was absolute dogshit, but somehow the idea of being a Hardcore producer never left me.
HCBX: You eventually landed on “LSA” as a name — what's it stand for?
LSA: I hate the origin of my name, haha, and I've avoided this question for a long time now. When I started as LSA I was very much into that Psychedelic Hardcore stuff (think Ruffneck/Cenobite), and I was fully set on trying to make that style. I was also watching a lot of documentaries about drugs, just out of interest. DJ LSD seemed a bit too obvious, so I went with something close. LSA is like a similar but natural alternative to LSD that you can legally get in Smart Shops. Why I thought this was a good idea, I have no clue. People that know me well know that I've never used drugs and have no interest in it, and I've also moved on from the Psychedelic style of Hardcore. So, I don't really identify with the name anymore.
Since a few years it has been given a different meaning though, and not even by myself. It started out by Pardonax writing my name out as L.S.A. as if it were an abbreviation on his Sedation flyers.
I'm always tired late at parties (probably since I don't use dope, haha) and I've been caught asleep a few times. Because of that, Pardonax made up a meaning for the abbreviation. "Lethargic Sucker Audio" - a self-referencing nickname where I'm the Lethargic Sucker ;)
I've stuck with that since.
HCBX: You mention that for a long time you were almost isolated in the scene — you didn’t know other producers, organizers — and that made it hard to hammer out your sound. What kept you going?
LSA: Haha, that's the thing, I had actually kind of quit. At the start, I was too young to even go to parties so I did not meet people that way. I did try to get my style of Hardcore active again in my hometown (but it was not very successful). When I was finally old enough to go to a few parties, I did meet some people, but not really a lot of DJs and Producers.
I had a specific vision of the sound I wanted to make, but I did not know how. And at that time, there were of course no tutorials online on how to make authentic 90's psychedelic Hardcore, haha. Knowing no other producers as well, it was all up to me to figure it out. In the end, I got pretty close to the sound I wanted, but to keep up with coming up with new stuff was hard and frustrating. In 2015 I released the last LSA track of that period. I do have a millenium style track that I made early 2016, but I never released it.
I did continue DJing locally for a while after that, mostly at the youth center (where pretty much only I liked this stuff, haha), but that also got pretty boring. Also for the DJing side I never really dove into discovering more Hardcore (and especially did not have something like Soulseek to get vinyl rips), so I ended up playing the same tracks for too long and getting bored of DJing altogether. 100% my own fault. I played my last local party in the summer of 2017 (which was a pretty cool outdoor festival stage I organized with DJ Lunatic).
HCBX: Since then, your network has expanded, collaborations have grown, your label Aphotik Assault is active. What’s different now, for you, from then? And how is running a label?
LSA: Due to a certain person (which we'll talk about later on) I got back into the scene and met a ton of new people (and artists!). Talking with all these artists, working together and seeing how they do their thing has given me so much techniques and inspiration to work with.
Also, I started DJing with vinyl. With this I was able to find a ton of (obscure) material to play, which really gave me my love for DJing back.
About running the label, it feels weird. It all started out to just get our group's tracks on vinyl to play ourselves during sets. But now that we started doing publicly available releases, it's clear that there is a demand for our sound. I'm pretty introverted and my network is pretty small, so it just feels surreal to hear the label's tracks being played by other DJs.
HCBX: In 2016 you played your first gig outside of your hometown. Can you tell us how it came about, and what are your memories?
LSA: My brother and I occasionally did some design work for Early Gabbers, a Facebook Group that also sometimes organized parties. So, because they knew me, they booked me at one point. I felt really proud, but I was so incredibly stressed for weeks leading up to it. The gig went pretty shit because my self-taught DJing techniques absolutely sucked, so I was pretty unhappy afterwards. That, combined with the stress, really wanted to make me quit, and eventually I did. When I started again, I still had some issues where gigs gave me a ton of stress, but luckily that's all gone now.
HCBX: You've spoken about how in 2018, Pardonax reached out to you about your older tracks, reigniting your drive to produce and DJ. How was that? Did you get straight back into it?
LSA: It was pretty cool to get that message, asking if I still produced. I just silently went away at one point and didn't think people even still knew me. He kept on 'annoying' me, slowly getting my interest back. It actually took a while. I had all these 'rules' in my head about what my tracks should sound like, still stuck in what I originally wanted to do but couldn't. I also had this thing in my head that people expected a specific style of me as LSA.
That made it pretty difficult to get started again and motivation was still not that high. Eventually near the end of 2019 he started dragging me to parties, which caused me to meet some cool people (like I said before) which helped, but I still had these 'rules' in my head. To get rid of that, I started making some extreme stuff as HEADCRAP, just to get some more experience producing again, which greatly helped my productions as LSA. Now those rules are all gone and I just make whatever I want, hehe.
About DJing, pretty funny how that started again. I had been looking for years for a track I heard somewhere. Of course, Pardonax was able to ID that instantly and also sent me a seller on Discogs along with some cool and obscure stuff he was selling. I bought the records, and when I played them on my turntable (that wasn't meant for DJing) I just started screwing around with the record. That caused this "you know what..... this is kinda fun" moment, after which I bought legit turntables and started collecting vinyl. Thanks Pardonax, my wallet will never recover from this.
HCBX: I reached out to Pardonax to let him know you were coming to the show... he had a couple of questions for you. 1) Why is Pardonax a better producer than LSA. 2) Do you like to be pegged (not sure if he was offering...) - But seriously he wanted to know how you feel you are progressing and what your proudest moment has been in music?
LSA: Amazing.
1) I mean, I kind of have to agree. Just the way he does not give a fuck is inspiring. I should do that more often.
2) I will neither confirm or deny... But any goth baddies HMU.
3) I'm just always looking for new records and new techniques for producing, so I feel like I've been non-stop moving forwards for years. Especially in recent years my productions have gotten closer to the sound I also love to play in my DJ sets, which I'm really proud of. My proudest moment is hard to say. I've been proud of everything that I was able to do these last few years, from playing at the small private Sedation parties to playing for a full area on Madness XL, and now the release on Epiteth too.. So much to be proud of :)
HCBX: How do you approach your collaborations (like My Computer with Pardonax for example) — how do you approach working with someone else? Is it splitting stems, bouncing ideas off each other, or other ways?
LSA: Completely depends! For My Computer, Pardonax had already started the track and brought it into my studio, where we finished it together. Another time, we made a track where he just gave me 6 minutes of percussion, where I added some elements on top of.
Other times, with other producers, we just visited each other's studios and just started working from scratch, where we each just took turns adding stuff to the track.
HCBX: You are definitely gaining some serious momentum in hardcore techno. Do you have any highlights or memories you want to share from playing or getting involved in the scene?
LSA: I mean, the whole of 2024 was a big insane highlight. Aphotik Assault started getting real traction, I got booked in Italy and Germany and just had the most amount of gigs I've ever had before. I'm so insanely grateful for everything that happened.
HCBX: What's your gear setup like, both for DJing and producing? Have you stuck with FL Studio, or have you moved on?
LSA: For DJing I have these shitty Reloop RP4000mk2's. They work fine, but I cannot even properly put Tonar Banana needles on it because they keep on skipping (heard this issue from others with similar Reloops as well). As a mixer (and for the occasional time I have to spin digitally) I use an XDJ-RX. Since Pioneer's phono conversion absolutely suuuuuucks I had to get some external preamps.
Before that I used an A&H Xone:23, absolutely loved that thing.
For speakers I use Presonus Eris Studio 5's, not much to say about those, they sound pretty good.
For producing, most of the stuff I do is in FL Studio. Funnily enough, I built a sick hybrid studio last year. I never really used all the hardware I got though since it did not fit my workflow, which was a waste. Nowadays I mostly work with (self-made) samples, chopping them up a ton and adding FX beyond recognition.
I changed the hardware setup to mostly be focused on playing live, which I want to start doing again. Still got some of the stuff from my old studio, so now I have a Launchpad X, Launchcontrol, Eurorack modular, Behringer 2600, Behringer RD-9, Behringer TD-3, Mackie 32:8, a nice pair of Focal 65 Evo monitors, and a bunch of random effect pedals.
HCBX: Under your alias HEADCRAP, you go with more extreme music and speedcore. How do you get yourself into the two different aliases? Are you in different moods?
LSA: Mood never really has anything to do with it, haha. I can be really happy and make a dark and depressing track, or feel really shit and make something happy. It's just all about the inspiration I have at the moment I start making something.
HCBX: In 2024, HEADCRAP, played hardware live for the first time. How did that go in comparison to your usual performance style?
LSA: Yeah, that was sick. Pretty different from DJing. Spent months making sounds specifically to play live. Not sure if I'll do it again as Headcrap, but I did learn a ton from it and will apply those learnings on my new LSA live setup that I'm working on.
HCBX: As mentioned earlier, congratulations are in order for getting an LSA track onto the latest Epiteth record alongside some legendary producers - how did you get involved in this?
LSA: Thanks! This also still feels so surreal. I was working on a track that was meant for AA's 4th record, but then I saw that Hô posted on Instagram asking for demos for Epiteth. Normally, I don't approach labels to send demos, but for this I could not resist. If they would not accept it, it would've been released on vinyl either way. To my surprise, it was accepted and the response I've gotten from it was truly amazing. I'm incredibly thankful!
HCBX: Who are you listening to and who is inspiring you now in the hardcore techno scene?
LSA: Of course always the other AA guys (Pardonax, Arvid, Biscanna/Smoker/Ganjaz etc) inspire me a ton and make some of the best music in the scene IMO. There are so many more names to mention, but I won't for now. Don't want people to feel left out in case I forget a name ;) just check my reposts tab on Soundcloud to see what I really support, haha.
HCBX: You’re involved in a videogame project with your brother and design artwork as well. Must be different from producing hardcore tracks! Tell us about your other projects and what keeps you so creative?
LSA: I can just not sit still, haha. My mind is always going a hundred miles per hour, and I keep getting ideas for stuff I want to make. I won't say much about the game here, since I'm not here to promote that. But I can say that it's a very cute and wholesome adventure game (completely opposing my music style, haha) and the development is going well (albeit a bit slow since I have so much other stuff to work on). Every week I just focus on a different creative hobby to spend my time on. For now, it's mostly making music, making that game, making artwork for the scene (flyers and records), a bit of WH40K mini painting and some analog photography.
HCBX: What’s next for LSA / HEADCRAP — any other new releases, projects or gigs on the way?
LSA: I'll keep on going so there's always stuff coming! I will focus a bit less on producing for the coming time to focus on my new live setup. Got a backlog of unreleased or nearly finished material though, so tracks won't stop coming out. Gigs are finally coming in again after some months of silence. End of November I'm doing a sick b2b with Biscanna at the Zinloos Geluid release party. Also some more stuff coming up that has not been announced yet, so check my Insta for that :)
HCBX: Finally, anything else you want to get off your chest?
LSA: Yeah sure! You can't pretend you're 'different' from others if you're dancing in a sold out filled to the brim arena to your shitty hyper-commercial music. Stay small, stay humble, and go listen to some horrible noises. Cheers.
Doe Doe appeared on HCBXCast 2. I remember back in 2021 (gulp) that I wanted to start a regular mix show with guest DJs and Producers, a bit live banter on the old YouTube, but I had no idea what I was doing. So, I flung together a mix of my own for Volume 1 as DJ Asylum. Went OK, but I can't profess to ever being a big draw! I'd recently figured out how to do posts on YouTube, so I thought I'd put the feelers out for some talent and lo and behold Doe Doegot in touch with a flippin’ excellent set. Soit’s thanks to Doe Doe and the early DJs that reached out that HCBXCast is still going 4 and a bit years later! Here’s what I said at the time....
“Volume 2 of HCBXcast welcomes Doe Doe for an hour of 90's and 00's punishing speedcore. This one promises to blow your socks off with top notch track selection and mixing skills to match. The stateside DJ rose to prominence through the period play a shed load of parties across Europe.... the comeback is on!”
It’s always pleasure to welcome Spliff Monk, AKA Hammer Damage, to HCBXCast. A pivotal figure in the UK hardcore underground, both as producer, DJ and through his influential label Sensory Violation. His latest set is fully 1994 released Dutch Gabber tracks (a golden period for this sound) and is a proper trip down memory lane. The man himself was kind enough to answer some questions.
HCBX: Alright Mike, thanks for coming back on HCBXCast - how the hell are you?
SM: Not too bad...
HCBX: You’ve been involved in hardcore techno for a long time. Can you tell us how it all started — what got you into the music, and how did the Spliff Monk / Hammer Damage aliases come about?
SM: When at school in Bristol I was really into music, it was a good way to escape from the bullshit. I used to go and see indie bands at the Studio and the Bierkeller, so my love of loud music was born. In 1989 went to Reading Festival to see New Order, amongst others, was also lucky enough to see the Stone Roses at Alexandra Palace in the same year. I started to buy more records to add to my collection. In 1990 the electronic stuff was starting to break through, Sweet Exorcist and Tricky Disco on Warp, 808 State and A Guy Called Gerald, (who I saw live in New York that year with the Happy Mondays when the Hacienda took over a club for the New Music Seminar), The KLF, The Orb, Renegade Soundwave and the Shamen released "Entact", I liked the sound, it wasn't like the band music, even though at the time I was still listening to both, have a lot of records from the Manchester scene at the time and also was still seeing bands like the Pixies, Jesus Jones, Ned's, New FADs, My Bloody Valentine and the Inspiral Carpets. I went to Glastonbury that year too, and after the Cure on the main stage what was going down in the travellers' field was certainly an eye opener... The repetitive beats and non-stop attitude was infectious...
The following year started going to free parties, I loved the vibe, I am fairly inept socially, I normally just keep to myself, but this was different, that collective energy, it felt like home... More and more techno was filling out my collection with the UK pressings of R&S Records and UK labels like XL, Kickin, Network and Warp being of particular interest to me. Whilst at Art College in Hereford I used to play DJ sets at indie nights and make mix tapes, mixing all sorts really and in 1992 played my first techno set at a party in Ludlow, playing new stuff like Urban Shakedown, Orbital and Messiah with the tracks I had been collecting like Energy Flash, Mentasm and Dominator... By the Summer of 1993, after I had finished at Art College, some friends and I got together to put on small free parties in our local area, we did parties on and off for the next seven years, including a few club nights at the Niteowl in Cheltenham, barns, tunnels, the occasional forgetting of leads, a few too many fun (and not so fun) encounters with the old bill and a great time had with a farmer and his shotgun!!! We are still friends, we last connected in April, where I got to play a techno set (Spliff Monk - Carry On Up The Lode), it's always good to see everyone and re-connect...
At the end of 1993 I was definitely focusing my record buying exclusively on the electronic stuff, I used to listen to tapes of Colin Dale and Colin Faver nights on Kiss FM, scribbling down the names of the records I liked, recognizing certain tracks from mixtapes we had... It was from one of these tapes that I heard 100% by Total Output and Conquest by LSD Psychology, and after buying the records, I decided for some reason to call the number on the record, where I spoke to Hanni, who invited me up to visit, and it all snowballed from there...
Spliff Monk was a name that came from Art College after shaving my hair off, so I looked like a Buddhist Monk... It may also have had something to do with the almost religious rituals of preparing the spliff, but I can't possibly comment... Hammer Damage came about later, when I started producing, by extracting words from the letters in my name and it had a nice ring to it. It was only years later that I found a 70's punk band from Akron, Ohio, with the same name, so I put the (UK) in brackets so there is no confusion, although as a sign of respect, or to create more confusion, I named SV 011 The Noise Pollution EP after one of their tracks, I thought it was appropriate...
HCBX: Can you call out 5 tracks that have influenced you and got you into harder styles of electronic music?
SM: Instead of tracks I have chosen five records that definitely pushed me towards the harder styles of Electronic Music. All of these EPs were something new and fresh at the time, the distortion and tempos in Alles Naar De Kl-te were like nothing I had heard up to that point, External by Zekt, Acid Relevance by Total Output and Electro Comp by DX-13 had acid lines to die for with some monstrous kicks and there is just something about Psychotic Break by Critical Mass that does it for me, doesn't matter which mix, it's something about the sample, I can't really explain it...
Alles Naar De Kl-te - Euromasters (RSN 44)
Senseless - Zekt (Adam 014)
Clip-Lite EP - Total Output (Hanni 007)
Power Surge - DX-13 (IS 020)
Critical Mass EP - Critical Mass (INT 021)
HCBX: What prompted you to start DJing and producing? I know you've said in the past that Total Output has been a big influence.
SM: The DJing is pretty much covered in the earlier question... But after contacting the Clan, I went up to London and we got on well, I started drawing covers and doing ads for the ITAH zine that they were producing, at New Years 93/94 we took five or six cars up to London for The Institute of Goa New Years bash with PAs from Sean and Hanni. We met loads of great people and partied hard together... I got to play out in London at The Institute of Goa in April of 1994 and World War 4, New Years Eve 1994/95, what a party that was, DJ Freak's set was immense, as was Total Output's PA, I played the first set so had plenty of time to enjoy myself after I had finished... I was also playing out more back home as we put on more parties.
It wasn't until 1996 that I started doing tracks with Sean (Total Output), I would book studio time, turn up with my MC303 and Remix 16 with a bunch of sounds and samples and we would just spend time trying to work out what it was I wanted... Some tracks were finished in a day; others took a little longer. All the tracks I made there between 1996 and 1998 are here, some you will recognize, others probably not...
I was always learning from Sean, and it set me up for when I went out on my own to produce.
HCBX: What kind of gear did you use in the beginning to produce tracks and mix? Has your set up evolved over time, or do you stick to tried and tested methods?
SM: The first tracks I produced were with Sean, so I can't really give you a list of what we used but by 1998/1999, when I was working at Underground Music, Simon let me use his TR-909 and TB-303, I was running Cubase on an Atari ST with a dodgy Casio CZ-101 keyboard for midi controller. I had already got some bits and pieces, an MC303, a spectral audio protone, a couple of Peavey PMEs, a second hand Akai S950, a Deep Bass 9 (303 emulator), some effects units, pedals and an Akai Remix 16 that I had bought in 1996, which was ideal for collecting my samples, all going through a Behringer 2642 Mixer. Yes it has evolved, the MC 303 went first as it was a real pain in the ass when midi was involved, I have a much better keyboard a Korg Z1, a Nord2 rack, an Akai S5000 from Sean, a second hand MC202, I bought Simon's TB303 off him, a Jomox Airbase 99 (909/808 analog drum machine emulator), a Lexicon Vortex, other FX units, valve Parametric EQ, a bigger mixer and more recently I have got the Behringer 303 and 909 clones... The majority is still analog. I am also well behind the times, running Cubase 5 on a Windows 7 laptop, but it was the most stable it had ever been...
HCBX: Sensory Violation was a flippin' brilliant label that really pushed limits of hardcore (in my humble opinion). It's thrown out some amazing tracks (mostly your own - I've probably told you at some point that Help Us and No More (with Nevermind and Tyrant) are a couple of my favourite tracks of all time). How did you get it off the ground, and would you ever go back to it?
SB: Thank you, I appreciate the love, makes it all worth while... I was working at Underground Music at the end of 1998, into 1999. Was pretty hectic at the time, Luke was starting Rebel Scum, Matt was starting Corrupt, Freak was starting Boneheddz, so with Simons help I put together The Acid Casualty EP, which was a collection of tracks I had made with Sean in 1996/97 that hadn't seen the light of day, and Sensory Violation was born... Was a hell of a ride... It gave me the opportunity to put my stuff out there, and also the music of people I liked in the scene. I just love the fact that John Peel played a track off the first EP, and it wasn't The Demons!!! (Hammer Damage - Psycho (John Peel Radio Show)) As for going back, I don't think so, but never say never. I started a new label, Bass Line Disorder, a couple of years back with a release by Total Output, and I'm still trying to sell them (Bassline Disorder on Bandcamp)! Nowadays you have to do a low press run and charge too much, it's a vicious cycle and sort of a little dis-heartening... Hopefully there will still be Hammer Damage stuff coming out on vinyl, it just will be on other labels, fingers crossed...
HCBX: Running a label in such an underground scene can’t have been easy. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced trying to keep things going — especially in and before social media and the likes of Bandcamp came along?
SM: Simon at Underground Music does a fantastic job for our scene in this country, and credit must go to him, with his contacts in the UK, Europe, Australia and America distribution was not an issue, promotion was done through postcards and the Underground Datafile, which was a zine that I helped out on at the time and we sent out the releases to many DJs, including John Peel, which really is the best promotion. The challenges were really just getting the music done, I am restricted really to one track at a time, because of the way I work, and some took much longer than others, I had many, many different versions before I got to the final track... And I'm not really good at chasing people up, so the SV010 release took quite some time to sort out, but was definitely worth the wait...
HCBX: One thing that I'll forever dig about your Hammer Damage tracks is your samples. I've started doing sample source videos on the channel, and it would be good to do a Hammer Damage special but wouldn't know where you get half the samples from as there's a few obscure ones! How do you approach sampling when you are producing?
SM: I'm glad you like them, would love to see the Hammer Damage special, (I'll do you a list of the ones I can remember!) always wanted to do a visual thing with a live PA where the samples would be accompanied with their matching videos, just never got around to it... I normally start with the samples I am going to use, they are usually integral to the track, although that isn't always the case. I hugely enjoy films, especially UK stuff, horror and sci-fi, cartoons, comedy, documentaries and other weird TV stuff. Would also record comedy stuff and news reports from the TV, like Brass Eye, which pops up in Monumental Depression, then try and find more obscure stuff by the same person, so I found loads of good samples in Chris Morris's early radio work on GLR which ended up in They're All Cunts, with other samples from The Day Today (Radio 4 version), MC Hammer (from the single which I bought especially), The Carpenters (which was from a friends tape from his car. I took the front off the tape deck and manually fucked it up with my finger!!!), The Dead Kennedys (from a CD) and Derek & Clive (from my record collection) just to mix things up...
HCBX: Playing live - You've done this loads as a DJ and a producer - what's been a highlight for you? And have there been any interesting stories you want to share?
SM: I haven't really done that many compared to others, but I prefer doing live PAs as I'm more focused, when I started I used to take most of my kit out and run a track on Cubase that I would have written for the night, Help Us was the second half of my first PA in Rotterdam at Connected, the reason for the really long sample was to give me enough time to load the next track in to the Atari and the Remix 16, had got the samples from a bootleg video, and a couple came up to me after the PA and couldn't understand how I had sampled something they had just seen at the cinema before they came out! At Deliverance in Preston everything crashed half way through my set, so Jaseion had to play some tracks off his Amiga while I sorted everything out, but all was okay in the end. I love Live Evil London, I went to the first one as a punter and have been lucky enough to have played there many times, lots of great nights, got to meet lots of other producers, was an incredible time. I liked to go when I wasn't playing too, just to have a night out listening to the music that does it for me, surrounded by like-minded people, my hardcore family...
The parties in Scotland were always pretty good too, they certainly know how to party up there, and the after parties were always fun, such friendly people all round... And then there's the Geordie Gabba Mafia's Fuelled By Hate boat party... The only time I have played in the Toon but what a night that was... Three people fell in, the boat didn't go anywhere, it was very loud, the people who lived around the quay were definitely not too pleased about a 3 deck, oh no, make that 2 deck set from La Peste, as there wasn't enough room for the third deck, the speakers had to go back because they wouldn't fit through the doors, the ones they got in certainly made most things vibrate including your internal organs, was a cracking night though, met some great people and had a mental time... Had good times in France, Belgium, Holland and America too... Have also really enjoyed playing at the Unit recently, it has a really good underground vibe that brings back memories of early squat parties, the sound system is really loud for the size of the building it is in, just the way we like it, although it was pretty cold in February last year!!! Much more comfortable in the Summer!
HCBX: You've worked with a lot of great artists and some real influential hardcore heads, who have you enjoyed working with most, and is there someone you wish you'd worked with, but haven't?
SM: For enjoyment I guess it would have to be those early days with Sean in his studio under the stairs in Croydon... It was proper escapism for me. Apart from those tracks we haven't ever done anything together, which would be interesting. We had a little jam a couple of years back when he came up for a few days, 303 onslaught...
As for working with others, me and Matt Green were supposed to do a PA together at a Rebellion Christmas party at the Void in 1999, with the first UK appearance of a certain Micropoint PA, but alas, that never happened, I would have paid to see that!!!
HCBX:What are you most proud of out of all you have done in music?
SM: Well, being played on John Peel's show is pretty high up there and receiving copies of my first release on Outcast Clan, but a few years ago I got an email from a bod from the British Library, I think it was during Covid. So, after the lockdowns I went up to the library to give him copies of all of my UK releases, which you can now listen to in the British Library Listening Room... They're All Cunts, in the British Library... Priceless... They will be put safely in the Library vault with all the other records, mind blowing really... Legacy I guess...
HCBX: Your upcoming HCBXCast set is already shaping up to be a monster - previously you have played a full 1993 set. This one is the sequel! Can you tell us a bit about how you approached putting this one together and what made you focus on Dutch Gabber?
SM: I essentially open Discogs, where I have catalogued my collection, put the date in and see what there is, for 1994 I have over 100 records and I noticed 40 of them were from Dutch Labels, which at the time I was pretty into and I haven't really played them for ages, so I pulled them all out, had a few listening sessions to see what tracks I wanted to use off each EP, checked out their tempos, had a mix with certain tracks at certain tempos to see what goes well with each other, plan out roughly where I'm going to start and then commit to a mix, with a pretty firm idea where it's going to go.
HCBX: Further to these themed sets, your Sensory Violation sets on HardSound Radio were as good as you would imagine. You got any other themed sets you want to do?
SM: I really enjoyed doing the SV ones, sort of gave me a chance to reflect on what all the people involved did, including myself, and as a collection I am really proud of what we released. I also love the Drop Bass Network one I did during lockdown 2.0, it's such a good label and was good to spend the time listening through all the vinyl before the mix, you can find it here...
I was thinking about doing an Outcast Clan one as I have the complete collection and Epiteth would be fun as well...
HCBX: What's your thoughts on Hardcore Techno and the scene these days? Anyone out there (DJ or Producers) that you are digging or taking inspiration from?
SM: Have been reading How Music Works by David Byrne (from Talking Heads) and in it he discusses how bands sounds change with the size of venues that they play in. I believe that this is the way Hardcore Techno has gone, as the parties got much bigger, the sound became more expansive, there was more clarity, and the sound fundamentally changed to fill the larger spaces, I personally prefer the dirtier sounds of the past, but I also prefer smaller, more intimate venues. So it's each to their own I guess... Not overly keen on the glossy photos of moody DJs either but I understand that it is part of it now, it used to be about the music, not image, not likes, not followers, just faceless techno bollox, I prefer the simpler times. As for artists, I don't really listen to too much new stuff, the Oraj tracks on Sodom 21 were pretty cool, am still loving Total Output's new stuff, always enjoy the hard acid so liked Sean and Crabby's releases on AVC and Agro's last release on Epsilon 4, also noticed a new release from Acidgun on Audio Riots, although it doesn't seem to be on vinyl, loved his track on EAR, but that was years ago now... Matt Green's new stuff always stands out, Lorra Laffz on Must Trust was an absolute belter, again shame no vinyl, but that is the way it is.. I am also partial to a little bit of Perc, especially the EAS acid stuff, it is a lot of fun mixing his tracks into some of the early techno stuff, it just sort of elevates it to another level...
HCBX: What's the plans for the future? Any releases or gigs planned?
SM: I haven't been very productive this year, I have a load of samples, just haven't found the drive to get going, although I did finish a track for Larry at Apocalypse Recordings, clocking in at 300bpm with vocals from Alex B from Inebrious Bastard/Leech Woman/Shitspitter, so that should see the light of day at some point in the future... Have also started compiling stuff for a book about the Outcast Clan, which will hopefully be a collection of stories, a chat with Sean and a compilation of the zines ITAH and UTR that I was involved with between 93 and 95, have just finished scanning over 200 pages and there is a huge amount of hardcore history that many have never seen, a good snap shot of what was going on back then... As for gigs, I don't really get out as much as I used to. I don't really do the digital thing and there isn't a huge demand for vinyl DJs... Any promoters out there want a brutal acidic hardcore live PA then I will happily oblige... Get in touch... sensoryviolation@hotmail.com
HCBX: Finally - anything else you want to get off your chest?
SM: Not without getting myself into trouble, so I'll pass on that one...
Although... Legalizing cannabis in this backwards thinking country would be a good start...
