breakcore

Melting Pot 42: Stefan ZMK – Stamppasta mix

 
Midnight … Dark soundz on 106fm šŸ™‚
 
Too young to enter the clubs, Stefan did so anyway. Scouting all the mainstream electronic scenes at an age of 15, Stefan absorbed all the styles he could find. At age 16 he discovered the dutch free-party scene and it was here where Stefan found the ultimate setting for his music. It's 1998 when Stefan started DJing/producing and a year later he teamed up with his friends to start their unique brand of free-party: ZMK Soundsystem. In 2000 Stefan was already a notorious vinyl collector and he was one of the members to start the ZMK record label, which contributed even more to ZMK's european succes. Stefan's tracks were featured on the first 2 EP's, which sold out within several months. Stefan has performed at countless free-parties all over Holland and Europe, promoting the dutch unique brand of acid, hardtek and hardcore. Over the years Stefan has not forgotten his roots, and the integration of different styles (breakbeats, electro, techno, rave) became more and more evident. While his style really started to develop, his number of solo-bookings at clubs and parties exploded, including most mayor venues in Holland and touring through Europe regulary. With over 12 years of experience, he is considered to be the most booked dutch DJ of the free-party movement. But his development does not stop there. With the rise of Ableton Live and Traktor Scratch, Stefan has found the tools to incorporate all that is good in electronic music into his mindbendig sets. Mixing obscure elements, custom remixes with the freshest beats available, digital and analog. What was considered to be impossible, now sits waiting at his fingertips! Are you ready?

Melting Pot 01: Sickboy

The tradition of combining perversity and playfulness into a true soundclash has never left post-modern music alone, acting as culture vultures ramping their way through carcasses of crispy produced megabits to vigour sampling of smirky headlines. Sickboy has more than upped the ante with this hairsplitting slab of digitized breakestral chaos, never suggesting melodies or functional rhythms it draws from but juggling without remorse on the dividing line between acceptability and grimy flavoured cynism. Crucially it's not the neglect of human consciousness, it 's the utter impulsive sheer excitement that blends in with a deliberate throwback of mostorted needle-sharping. Imagine a dedicated Manowar maniac with the 'wimps & posers leave the hall' principle, incarnated in a sparkling aural torturous display of mashed-up breakbeat galore. Gonna clear rooms quicker than a megaton fire alert with music that'll stir up any godforsaken industrial pigeonhole with a whirlwind…

Not only has Sickboy become one of the best recognized names in breakcore all over Europe, but he keeps improving his production by big steps with every releases. Following the "Musical Therapy" breakthrough from his noisy and dark past, "Times Infinity" speeds things again, and see this musician present a much more up-beat, party-oriented and mashed-up album, in which he evens uses some 8bits or old school breaks influences. A hard-as-concrete but definitely joyful and colorful great breakcore album. The force is strong with this one.

While Sickboy has made a name for himself with noisy, aggressive, and not-so-serious breakcore, this new album sees him taking a big step forward. Rather than throwing in your face a wall of breaks and noise, Sickboy's "Musical Therapy" slows things down, add quite a lot of melodies and sample, resulting in something which is somewhat reminiscent of of Kid606's "Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You". Less clich?, more mature, accessible and catchy than before, here's in my opinion the best Sickboy material so far. Recommended.

Sickboy's exhilarating, enthusiastic and insane-as-ever fifth full length album features this musician's most infectious, catchiest and most efficient material. While the noise might be gone for good, Sickboy's new clothes are of the colourful party kind. Mixing old school rave, new school electro, breaks and madness, Sickboy hits the nail on its head and invites everybody to play, rave and party non-stop. Refreshing!