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> Lol, Belgian acts like Technotronic's with 'Pump Up the Jam' and the hyper-commercialisation of the Eurodance scene were not really comparable … I didn’t say that. I said Belgian techno, not Eurodance, specifically the scene itself, which inspired the UK rave scene (amongst other influences like acid house, which is a different lineage). The Belgian hardcore techno [1] DJs would play Detroit techno and over time that evolved to have more rave elements like the big synth stabs, hoovers, etc. that then evolved into the hardcore breakbeat sound that dominated the UK rave scene. From the link [1]: ”Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno)[4][5] is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany[6] in the early 1990s... In 1990, German producer Marc Trauner (also known as Mescalinum United) released the first hardcore techno track with "We Have Arrived".[17][18] The British group Together released its track "Hardcore Uproar", also in 1990. Music journalist Simon Reynolds has written books on hardcore techno, covering bands related to the Belgium hardcore scene like Second Phase and T99 or Dutch hardcore bands such as L.A. Style and Human Resource. Many of the iconic "stabs" that would become part of hardcore were popularized by these and other Belgian techno producers during the early 1990s, like the "Mentasm"[19] and the "Anastasia" stabs.[20]
In the early 1990s, the terms "hardcore" and "darkcore" were also used to designate some more aggressive or high tempo forms of techno, breakbeat and drum and bass which were very popular in England, and from which have emerged several famous producers like N-Joi, The Prodigy, Altern-8 and Goldie. One of the earliest uses of the word in the context of English releases/the English rave scene which gained prominence was 1990's "Hardcore Uproar" by Together. The track's title was derived from a promoter of acid house parties of the same name that hosted controversial raves in and around the town of Blackburn, and was agreed on between the members of Together and Hardcore Uproar's organisers in exchange for letting them feature a recording of the crowd at one of their nights in the track. Symbolically, according to Together member Suddi Raval, the night they attended to acquire the recording also turned out to be the final event under the Hardcore Uproar banner before its founders were forced to disband and stop the raves by the police. A slogan associated with these events and the anti-establishment ethos behind them, "High On Hope", was later used on a 1991 release on Blackburn-based label All Around the World, aptly under the artist name Hardcore Uproar.[21][22] Later English hardcore introduced sped up hip-hop breakbeats, piano breaks, dub and low frequency basslines and cartoon-like noises, which has been retrospectively called 'old skool' hardcore (a.k.a. breakbeat hardcore) and is widely regarded as the progenitor of happy hardcore (which later lost the breakbeats) and jungle (which alternatively lost the techno style keyboard stabs and piano breaks” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardcore_(electronic_dance_mus... |
Baby Ford's - "Oochy Koochy (FU Baby Yeah Yeah)": Widely regarded as the first British acid house track, was released in 1988. "Voodoo Ray", the de facto anthem of the period by A Guy Called Gerald, was released in 1989. 'Pacific State' by 808 State - the infamous closing track at the Hacienda at the height of the period - was released in 1989.
The reason I bring up 'Pump up the Jam' is that it was the earliest contemporaneous electronic music from any of the Belgian scenes to break the UK charts - doing so in November 1989.
Comparatively the first hardcore techno track of any description released was in 1990. T99's Anaesthesia was probably the entry point for Belgian Hardcore into the UK when it charted in the middle of 1991.
Q.E.D. It's hard to inspire a scene when you come after it chronologically.
Energy Flash by Simon Reynolds is worth a read as cited; that Wiki entry has a serious whiff of Ishkur's Guide to it in comparison.
I mean you can basically attribute the Belgian Techno scene to the American Joey Beltram (who released Mentasm as second Phase) and the Alpha Juno-2 B86 preset if you want to get that reductive. Similar bit of sophistry in grouping in The Prodigy and Goldie due to the journalist usage of "hardcore" and "darkcore" - at best you might describe Experience as broadly "breakbeat hardcore".
Also "jungle (which alternatively lost the techno style keyboard stabs and piano breaks” - are we completely ignoring Metalheadz as a label? Lemon D/Dilinja in particular who bridged the breakbeat/jungle divide, stabs and piano breaks intact.