The path not taken: Looking back at Ec8or's Self-Titled Album from 1995 - and its Context
Ec8or's debut release - the eponymously titled "Ec8or" - was actually the first CD I bought at the Container Records store - a real "underground" Techno store - and not some supermarket or music chain store.
I.e. in a sense the first "real" hard electronic release I heard, instead of stuff that was more catered for the MTV and mainstream generation.
And this listening experience defined what was Hardcore, "Breakcore", etc. for me.
It was so different from the routes the various Techno sub-genres had taken. In the mid 90s, for the general population, "Techno" now meant chart topping Hardtrance and Rave - Mark Oh, Marusha, Raver's Nature. And then there was also Gabber, which left most of its gritty and dirty roots behind, and had become a much cleaner sound with pop chanting or samples. Music aimed at the dancefloor, music aimed at "fun".
Ec8or's CD seemed to take a much more serious approach to Hardcore - and to music in general.
But, more importantly. The abovementioned genres had become clichéd. Stylistically extremely limited. If you picked up a commercial hard trance record, you knew what to expect: build up with fast beats until a breakdown, when sawtooth arpeggiated melodies came in, usually enforced by soothing female vocals, rising snare roll until the "beat drops", possibly a middle part with a rising 303... etc etc etc. been there, done before.
For gabber it was the same: mentasm, fast Juno riffs, build ups, climaxes, "beat drops", all by the very number.
Yet on Ec8or's album, nothing was predefined. Anything could happen at any time. It represented a vast experimental approach to hardcore, electronics, and music.
There was the intro track that combined death metal riffs with hip hop beats, Gina's riot grrl screaming against the establishment, and a sound that resembled a dying transistor radio.
"You'll never find" is a dub downtempo number with no Gabber beats at all, lamenting TV and other culture, against the background of what could be described as the Commodore 64 recording of a pile driver.
"Pick da best one" is a rough and fast gabber track... or is it? There are elements of opera, speed metal, video game culture, natural born killers, and haunting screams... so it is definitely crossing over into all genres.
"Lichterloh" is one of the most peculiar tracks I ever heard... a monotonic-hypnotic excursion, with not much more than a low tempo breakbeat and swirling, meandering outer space sounds in an almost endless loop... but oh so beautiful!
"Ich suche nichts" is a nihilist take on the philosophy of nothingness, until it evolves into punch-to-your-nose Gabber madness...
"We are pissed" is a hardcore punk agit prop song with hyperactive breakbeats.
The best known track from this album is probably "Discriminate Against The Next Fashionsucker You Meet".
It connects various threads of this album together: starting with Gina's haunting screams once more, going into super distorted slow-mo industrial breakcore dub, before picking up a hardcore beat in the latter half of the track, then going into all-out screaming noizecore hell.
but the favorite track for me, back then, as it is now, is "Cheap Drops".
never heard anything like that before, nor will I likely hear anything like it again.
super strange, super bizarre / futuristic flowing ambient sounds... electronic tweaking and chirping, melting with drones and distant rumbling (how could they do this on a mere Amiga 500 computer?)... intermingled with Gina's spoken word part, that is so processed that one can barely understand any words or sentences.
until it all ends in a deafening scream once more.
i never could truly make out what the track is about... to me it gives of the feeling of being in cryosleep on a spaceship far away while the commander is shouting the execution orders...
but either way... audio material for dreams and nightmares.
These were just some of the tracks on this album, there is much more to discover.
When i listened to the album in its time, i truly believed this was the direction of music to come. That genre boundaries get jettisoned.
That thorough experimentation and exploration of sound begins. That hardcore and gabber take on a serious, philosophical, deep, political approach.
That hardcore music becomes ever-changing, ever-evolving.
That anything is possible.
But things did not pass that way. The ec8or album did not become the leading example for legions to follow. It is more of an "obscurity" in the chain of discographies.
hardcore and gabber quickly abandoned any experimental intent. The tracks become more by-the-number, more strictly tied to formulas and genre conventions, than ever.
The idea of "serious" electronic music became a thing of the past, replaced by "dance" music destined to keep the consumers happy and in line. Preemptive entertainment for model citizens in future dictatorships.
Now, looking at this, not all of this new music or "hardcore" is bad. Some of it is indeed quite entertaining. And yes, this goes for the commercial gabber and hardtrance of the 90s, too.
But sometimes I sit and wonder... "what if"?
what if music really took that direction from the mid 90s on, instead of giving in to sonic conservatism and rigidity again?
Of course not just based on this one album, but on the other releases that had this bold rebel approach, too.
What kind of music, what kind of sounds would we have now, if there indeed had been a steady evolution since then?
But then i realize... "It is not over yet".
Why shouldn't we go back, and pick up from there, and start creating a whole new sound - in the present day?
Or maybe we do not even need to go back...
Why do we not jettison and kick all the style limits, the genre rules, the conventions, the sonic and political conservatism, the pre-defined tracks and attitudes and clichés...
And create something truly new and beautiful?
Let us make it happen!
Ec8or - Ec8or
Digital Hardcore Recordings (DHR)
DHR CD 3 / DHR LP 3
https://www.discogs.com/de/master/13312-Ec8or-Ec8or
https://thehardcoreoverdogs.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-path-not-taken-looking-back-at.html
