Break-Counter – Aberdeen’s vinyl-driven industrial hardcore and speedcore specialist – returns to HCBXCast for his third appearance, following Vol. 39 and Vol. 53. This time he delivers a double set for Vol. 75, along with a full video of him working the decks.
We jumped on the phone for a long chat about the new mixes, years of free parties and Aberdeen nights, his sister’s role in the early Scottish scene, building (and losing) a studio, and what keeps him chasing hard, fast, nasty sounds.
HCBX: Alright, thanks very much for coming back on HCBXCast. It’s basically a double set you’ve sent this time, which is great. I like how you've sent me the video of you mixing part 1 of set as well. Do you want to talk us through what you’ve sent in?
Break-Counter: Aye, no problem. The first tune is Joshua & Micropoint, on Epiteth. It was a recent purchase – I’d been after it for ages and there were hardly any left, so I grabbed it.
The second tune is brand new one from EPC, even though the tracks themselves were made back in the early 2000s, according to the info. I’m a big fan of his so I was buzzing to get that one.
Those first two records I knew exactly what I was doing with. By the third tune you can actually see me in the video flicking through the crates – nothing planned at that point. That’s just me down to a tee.
It kind of feels like playing live in a way. Recording it puts you under a bit of pressure. I don’t usually record video. I’ve planned to do it for a few years but never got round to it. So you’re actually the first person to get a proper video of me mixing.
HCBX: I’m honoured! Is it like that all the time then with your mixing – you don't plan out, just hit record and go?
Break-Counter: Well… usually there is a bit of a plan. I’ll do a draft mix first. When I’m happy with it, I know roughly where I want the mixes to come in and out, and I’ll set those records aside.
Then I’ll hit record while it’s still fresh in my mind. It still has an organic feel. If I do more than two or three takes, the feeling goes and I end up trying to recreate something instead of just mixing. Sometimes I just chuck it and start again.
The second set I gave you this time was actually meant for the last HCBX, but I came up with those other ones instead. There was a crap mix about three-quarters of the way through, so I shelved it. Then when you asked again, I already had something nearly ready for you – plus the bonus of the video.
I just used my phone to film it and my mate Jack merged the audio and video. He’s good with computers, so credit to him for making that video.
HCBX: It’s cracking. I get Tony Katana on the show sometimes and he does a similar thing. I like that setup. I’ve started trying to mess with it myself but need a bit more practice. I don’t get as much time on the decks as I’d like.
Break-Counter: Aye, real life comes first, doesn’t it?
With recordings, since about 2012 I’ve had the mindset that every time I mix, I record. That way I capture tracklists and can come back to things. After a while I get comfortable and forget I’m recording anyway. Video is obviously a bit different – that adds another layer.
With gains and levels, I’m always listening back to my sets – partly to learn the new records, but also to hear what recording levels are shite so I can fix them for future recordings.
I don’t actually sit and listen to individual records much. When I buy new ones, I’ll quickly get a set together, record it, and then listen back to the mix instead. Between that and the parties we were running up here from about 2012 to 2015, it’s just become a habit.
HCBX: Let's go back to how you got into this stuff. When we were speaking earlier, You mentioned your sister – was she the one that got you into hardcore?
Break-Counter: Aye. When I was in Primary 7 / first year I was buying tapes – stuff from The Eclipse Club in Coventry, all the drum & bass and that. Grooverider and all that kind of thing. That was my first taste of electronic music of the “modern” era.
Then around ’93–’94, as soon as my sister turned 18, she started promoting parties – Bass Generator, Technotrance, ZBD from Shoop Records, things like that. She was one of the youngest promoters around here at the time, 18. I’ve no idea where she got the drive from, but she just did all the networking.
She ended up writing for M8 Magazine and Eternity Magazine as well. I’ve still got some of her articles from back then. She’d organise coaches from Aberdeen to Rezerection, and she was well in with the people who ran Rez – friends with them and all that. I never went to any Rez – I was only 14/15 and always thought I might not get in. Looking back at the pictures now they let everybody in – so I could probably have gone!
From there, with her promoting parties and bringing up people like Bass Generator, Technotrance, and then got to know Loftgroover, Mad Tech, Tempest – that’s where I got most of my influences.
Lofty and Tempest, their styles of mixing, and Mark Newlands as well – those three are probably the main influences on how I mix. I don’t mix exactly like them, but listening to their sets over the years shaped me.
My sister's name was DJ Majesty. There’s not much about her online now. She passed away in October 2013. She was involved with Fusion up here too and danced for Rez and the Fusion nights.
But by ’96–’97 the scene all kind of died off.
A lot of the records I buy are European now, with some British labels. I’d love if Scotland had more stuff like, say, Mouse In No Name or Low Entropy but from here. You’ve got Storm Records and that, but it’s very little. There was not much going on for Scotland unfortunately
HCBX: A bit later you said you were involved with Gabberdeen - how did that all come about?
Break-Counter: Once everything died down up here around ’97, there were really no more parties. Then in 2001 I saw a flyer – “Gabberdeen” – for a hardcore night just outside Aberdeen. I tore off the phone number, phoned it the next day, and that’s how I met the guy who ran it.
He gave me my first gig in August 2001. Mark N was booked for that night too – I’ve got flyers for it.
Before that gig I had a few Widerstand records, but not loads. I remember picking up the first Widerstand release from Sleeves Records in Kirkcaldy – I just saw a skull on the sleeve and thought “I’ll have that.” Took it home and went “what the fuck is this?!” In a good way.
HCBX: Back then that’s what you did – anything that looked evil as fuck, you assumed it was decent and bought it.
Break-Counter: Yeah, the number for the label was on about the third Widerstand release. I phoned it and Eiterherd answered. I told him I loved the label and said there couldn’t be many others making stuff like that. Then I just said, “I’m coming over to Austria to visit you.” He was like, “Yeah, no problem.” Couldn’t believe it.
So in June 2001 I went over to Graz for a week, visited him, bought records, did an online radio mix. It was just a random thing – there were no breakcore nights or anything on, I just wanted to meet him because he was a big influence.
He turned me on to Venetian Snares, Low Entropy and a few others. It blew my mind – it was a whole new thing with breakcore.
When I came back with those records and played them at afterparties in Aberdeen, nobody knew what it was. Broken up drums, weird arrangements – people were asking, “What’s this stuff?” I’d just say, “That’s breakcore – dislocated drums or whatever.” It was refreshing because it wasn’t just hardcore – there was this whole other thing.
Breakcore kind of fizzled out for a while and life took over. I met my son’s mum in the early 2000s, and my son was born in 2006, so everything went quiet for me with tunes and mixing.
Fast forward to 2011, I bumped back into a friend who’d been involved with the Aberdeen nights – my mate Collie, who promoted under the name Trash. Around the same time I bought a sound system and said to him, “Fancy doing some free parties?” I don’t like nightclubs – I prefer free parties, they’re more relaxed.
HCBX: The last time you sent me a set for the show, you had the Don't Panic picture on the flyer. Tell me about these nights and the others you ran in Aberdeen?
Break-Counter: Early 2012, my friend’s cousin’s stepdad had a farm about 20 miles north of Aberdeen. He had a barn, so I laid a temporary dancefloor in it – I’m a joiner by trade – and we did three parties there in 2012.
They were our first three barn parties. He handled the promotion side – he had bands on too and tried to make it like a tiny T in the Park. We were covering the dance side with the decks. We didn’t play really hard stuff because the crowd might not have been receptive, but it was good.
After that, me and Collie started doing our own parties in Aberdeen, in The Tunnels. The night was called Short Notice at first, then we changed it to Don’t Panic. That ran from the end of 2012 through to 2015. The Short Notice name only lasted maybe six months, then it became Don’t Panic.
There’s never really been a proper, consistent hardcore scene up here – just dribs and drabs over 25–30 years. So we kind of built our own little thing during those 2012–2015 years. We had Mark N up in April 2014 on his tour – that was big for us.
Fast forward a couple of years, my friend Jack from Kirkcaldy got his hands on a unit in an industrial estate in Aberdeen to create our own studio. I decked it out, floored it, soundproofed it, put in the decks and a desk. We called it Southside Studios.
We had it from summer 2017 up until just after New Year 2019. We put a lot of heart and soul into it, but we got chucked out when the place was redeveloped. We didn’t know that when we signed the contract – they never tell you their future plans.
There was a guy in the unit next to us, same size place, who’d been there 20-odd years – he got his marching orders as well. He was a welder/fabricator, worked on his own in what was basically a garage-sized unit. Everyone just got told to go. Gut-wrenching, really.
HCBX: Was it just for mixing or did you get up to other things
Break-Counter: We did more than just mixing in there. Jack (Stitched Closed Mouth) formed a band called Legion back in the early 2000s, so we had drum kits, guitar amps, the lot. He makes his own tunes as well and, like us, loves hard, fast, nasty stuff.
There’s a Southside Studios mix tracklist up on Gabber Tracklist World – a “Southside Studio Mix”. It’s still up there. We thought it was cool when the studio address popped up in a Google search.
We put so much into that space for those two years, then suddenly everyone was out. That’s just how it goes.
HCBX: Where else have you managed to play out over the years?
Break-Counter: My mate Gareth (Extremest) from Edinburgh ran nights called Terror Events. He invited my mate Dee Gabberdeen from Aberdeen down, and me as well, to one of his nights in late 2012. We got to know him – really sound guy.
I did a few of his parties around 2014, then got a wee gig off him at a castle in Dundee. It was a crossover party with folk from Glasgow. We only played for 20 minutes but it was class. That was end of 2018, around the time the studio was winding down.
Then he packed up, moved to Berlin, and started promoting over there with people like Christoph Fringeli from Praxis Records, breakcore heads and so on – all the right people.
He invited our mate Luke (Misery Cuts) over to Barcelona in 2018. That was Luke’s first gig abroad, playing his own tunes live. He’s from this area – one of our guys from the nights – and he’s a bloody good DJ as well. I usually go back-to-back with him when I can pin him down.
Not long after, I was invited me over to Berlin in October 2019. That was my first gig abroad. I was blown away. What a venue – huge turbo rig, serious sound system. Probably my best DJ experience so far.
The set’s on YouTube on my channel. It was hard from start to finish – proper hardcore. There was breakcore and all sorts played that night too, because Berlin folk love everything. It wasn’t breakcore from me that night, though – just hard all the way.
HCBX: As well as the YouTube channel, I see you have a bunch of SoundCloud account. Trying to avoid the subscription costs?
Break-Counter: On SoundCloud I’ve got a few different accounts – different variations of Break-Counter – just because of the upload limits. I didn’t fancy paying subscriptions, so I just changed the dash to a wavy line or a space and created multiple accounts to put sets on. It’s probably annoying for folk – they have to look closely to see which Break-Counter is which.
HCBX: You’ve clearly got a solid record collection – you always pull out cracking tunes when you’re on the show. Have you got a favourite record you always go to?
Break-Counter: That’s a tough one – like picking your favourite film. I like Gwal on Widerstand Records a lot. I’ve used that record loads over the years; that’s a definite go-to.
But generally, I try not to repeat tunes too much. Each set I put out, I try to use different tracks. The odd one might show up again, but I’ve got so many records sitting there that I probably don’t know well enough. I should be using them and getting them out there instead of always going to the familiar ones.
Gwal, Eiterherd, Low Entropy, Acid Enema, La Peste, Fist of Fury, Armagued Nad, Angel Flo, DJ Freak, NoizeCreator, Xylocaine, Embolism – all the usual suspects. I like PCP stuff, the Cold Rush Records material, and I like the slower stuff as well. I like all kinds – I can mix breakcore, hardcore, all of it.
In the early 2000s I was still buying breakcore, but I don’t really buy much of that now. There’s probably good stuff out there but I’m more focused on the newer hardcore and related things that are appearing. There’s not a massive amount, but it’s better than a lot of the “gabber gabber fuck you” nonsense you see, where it feels like mid-90s all over again.
Berserk Events – you seen them? They run nights in Holland. On their socials they’ve said they’re specifically into the kind of stuff we play – not Frenchcore, not the current Dutch mainstream. They’re purists. It was funny hearing that from Dutch folk.
They’ve had Senical and – I can’t remember if it was Freak or Lofty – on flyers. That was September ’23, a couple of years back. Seeing Senical and Freak/Lofty on a flyer again was like: now you’re talking. Where have they been hiding?
I’ve always liked Bloody Fist, Senical, that whole line. They stuck to what hardcore underground is, and they stuck with it. Same with a lot of Widerstand artists. I’ve got most of the Hangars Liquids label too.
HCBX: Cheers for that! I’ve got loads from you there. Is there anything else you want to get off your chest or talk about? And what's next for Break-Counter?
Break-Counter: That’s pretty much the timeline for me right up until now. And then obviously yourself getting me on board with HCBX and all the rest of it.
I’m planning to do live streams myself – more in the summer – in different locations around Scotland. Proper scenic backdrops. I’ve wanted to do that since I got the sound system but just never got round to it. That’s still a goal.
HCBX: Sounds like a good idea, as long as the weather holds! Thanks again for doing this. Really appreciate it – and thanks for all the quality sets you’ve sent to for the show.
Break-Counter: No worries at all. Cheers for having me on again.
Break-Counter's set is live on Saturday 13th December 2025 at 9pm UK Time - Here: HCBXCast Vol 75 - Break-Counter
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