Contents
What is gabber exactly?
What about different styles in gabber?
Why is the music so aggressive?
Are many gabbers rascists or nazis?
Why all the blood and skulls of gabber-music?
Where can I find gabber-parties in Sweden?
Where can I find the records?
Is there a dresscode or typical image among the
gabbers?
What's the history of gabber?
What's the scene like abroad today?
Trivia: Dutch words used in gabber...
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Gabber is a branch of techno - by many considered to be the hardest single style of techno there is. As stated above, it's usually fast and noisy, but equally important for gabber is its atmosphere of darkness and aggression. Real gabber sounds the way frustration feels! It's completely without compromises and the crap commercial elements of much of today's trance and house. It's music completely lacking respect and manners, which's just kept going by a solid, compact bassdrum banging with an energy, that's found nowhere else in the world of techno.
When the term gabber is mentioned, however, most people associate to the cheesy and often deeply commercialized compilation-albums of Thunderdome and Happy Hardcore. While these records quite correcly are labeled as hardcore-albums, this is far from the whole story.
Gabber is Thunderdome and it is Happy Hardcore, but it's also the dark, underground steady beating of acts such as Nasenbluten and Manu Le Malin. It is ID&T (the Thunderdome label) and it is Ruffneck (another Dutch semi-happy hardcore-label), but it is also Crapshot Records (very underground and innovative Britsh label), Industrial Strength (classic gabber-label from N.Y), Bloody Fist (groundbreaking Australian label) and Storm (Scottish underground label). Plus much more.
Gabber and hardcore is often defined by speed and by counting bpm. It's a common view, that once a song exceeds 180 bpm, it's hardcore. And once it has reached 220, its gabber. However, gabber and hardcore is more than anything else, a matter of atmosphere and energy. The atmosphere is always dark and threatening, the energy aggressive and driving. Don't be concerned with counting the bpm! Gabber is not speedblind, stupid music, only aiming to be fast and noisy.
Because what distinguishes a good hardcore track from a bad one, is the ability to make something fast and noisy, which is also, at the same time, innovative, underground and interesting to hear. This is where most Thunderdome-acts run short. And this is probably where gabber got its bad reputation. Not from the true music of the scene, but from the cheezed out and dollarized attempts of making gabber and still wanting to be mainstream in order to sell records. This is the same thing as if trance would be defined and judged after the standards of Antiloop and Sash...
At this site you can find files to download - both mixtapes and clips from songs. If you think you know what gabber is and you don't like it, or if you just don't have a clue... Check these out! You might find yourself listening to a new style of techno, that you actually like and haven't been looking at in this way before!
What about different styles in hardcore and gabber - are there any variations?
A rough and arguable distinction could be the following:
Hardcore
Techno with a compact and massive bassdrum, running at about
170 - 200 bpm. Its usually dark and contains an evil atmosphere,
often set by the use of samples, such as curses and screams. It
can also be slightly melodic and positive, but then its
bordering to happy hardcore (see below).
Examples of artists are -
Delta Nine
Knight Vision
Dano
The Ruffneck Label - check out the CD-compilations Raver's Knight
Neophyte
Happy Hardcore Uses the same speed as hardcore, but the atmosphere
is a jollier,
often funny and slightly silly, one. Samples can be pitched-up
pop-hits like Macarena, Don't Speak or Listen to Your Heart. Also
more often than not, the songs are filled with MC-rap and "clap,
clap,
clap your hands"-chanting. Needless to say, this is more for
the
teenage living-room than for the real dancefloor.
Examples -
MC Rage - Fuck Macarena
Technohead - I Wanna Be A Hippie
Party Animals - Hava Nagila
The Prophet
The Stunned Guys
3 Steps Ahead
Paul Elstak
Gabber
Gabber in its true form is evil, aggressive, brutal and provocative
techno, ranging in speed from 150 bpm to more than the double.
The typical gabber-track is built up from a distorted 909
bassdrum, and kept going by the use of similarily distorted guitar-
samples, blurry noises and sometimes acidic sounds. It also
contains vocalsamples from gangster-, war- and horror-movies -
often with a provocative and obscene theme.
Examples -
Nasenbluten - Intellectual Killer, Cocksucker and No More
Fucking Soul
D.O.A - Brooklyn Mob, Ya Mutha, Wanna Be A Gangsta
Lenny Dee - Fucking Hostile
Industrial Terror Squad - Welcome to the Killingfields
Delta Nine - No More Regrets and Hardcore Chicago
Speedcore/ The
total fuck-up of techno gone crazy. With the kill- and fuck-
Nosebleed
mentality of gabber, taken to its extreme, its the definate
deathmetal of techno.
Never below 250 bpm and always with a dark and evil
atmosphere.
Examples -
Noizecreator - Three Times Fuck
Syndicate - Appetite For Destruction and Farse Down Arse Up
Embolism
S37 - Riot
What is it with all this aggression of gabber - why???
This is a question often asked - why is gabber so aggressive? What about the PLUR of techno and all of that? Love, respect, hugging, flowers, happy puppies and the hippie-culture... What has gabber got to say about this?
Gabber contains aggression and frustration.
So does life.
Its fine with all the love and happiness in the world and its great
with all the parties celebrating this.
But you can't go around denying the feelings of built-up frustration
that are inevitable for the man and woman of today's society. And you can't
deny the urge and desire to just lift the lid off sometimes and just let
it blow.
This is what hardcore and gabber is about.
Releasing pressure and having fun.
Celebrating and enjoying also the fuck-ups of your life and getting
rid of them by banging your head at a speaker, throwing at you a bass which's
so solid and distorted and fast, that it just blows your worries
out through your bleeding, tormented ears.
And then you go home.
You buy a flower for your mom or whatever!
You don't bring the aggression with you into everyday life and you
don't let it hurt someone else.
You leave it laying on the dancefloor until next time.
The aggressive attitude and the shaved heads of many gabbers have given birth to the assumption that gabber is a nazi-movement.
This is wrong.
Gabber is not prejeduiced. It's aggressive and provocative, but not
towards any specific group of society. The aggression is general and non-selective.
This is important.
Gabbers work against rasicm. The Dutch record-label of Mokum, once came
up with this symbol:
It's a logo which has been often used. On record-covers, CD:s, flyers,
outside clubs etc. And this is what gabber has to say about rascism.
What about
the skulls, curses and blood - isn't this just a little bit childish?
Yes, it is childish.
But, it's also ironic and done with a lot of self-distance.
Take movies such as Pulp Fiction and Starship Troopers. Everybody realizes
that these movies are made with an ironic blink of the eye - we often laugh
at the gore, the blood and the hardboiled characters.
Its the same thing as with hardcore. We laugh at the "a day without
blood is like a day without sunshine"-sample from Full Metal Jacket. We
smirk on the dancefloor when the massive guitar-riot is interrupted by
an upset girl shouting "i'm out of here, i leave you with nothing anymore
- you piece of shit!". Or when in the beginning of a song, there's a distant
moaning of someone being in pain and anguish.
This is made to be fun and to provide an amusing surrounding to the
equally aggressive and frustrated music. If you have a problem with this,
look upon it as you look upon the blood and gore in Pulp Fiction or Reserviour
Dogs (movies often sampled in gabber, by the way): its gross, its shocking
and revolting... But it fits the theme of the story and it's still a damn
good story!
What about
this music in Sweden - what does the scene look like?
The movement in Sweden is a small and scarce one. There are quite a
few people, listening to compilation CD:s such as Thunderdome and Terrordrome,
and I'd say most of today's "coolest" beats/drum n' bass/house/detroit/whatever-freak
has a copy of Rave the City or Thunderdome, hidden away in a drawer or
shelf somewhere in a dark end of their homes... But with the bad reputation
of gabber and with the lack of real music from the scene, the movement
has stayed small and often been misunderstood and miscredited.
There has been some parties over the past though, and some hardcore
has also been played at other, trance-oriented, parties. But not many times.
Back in '95, DJ Mourad from Boras surprised everyone at a trance-party
(I've forgotten the name - somebody knows? It was organized by Packhus-Micke...)
in Gothenburg, by putting on some widely freaked-out hardcore, which, at
the time, took everyone with their pants down, with its energy and tempo.
However, Mourad made as many enemies as allies during this unique evening
of one hour of hardcore in Gothenburg. He did the same thing a year later
in ... (forgot the name of the town - smally city, close to Boras - somebody
knows?), playing alongside goa-addicts such as Anti and wiping everything
clean with the banging hardcore-tracks he put on, to everyones surprise...
At the party ... (name, anybody?), in Stockholm back in 1996 - there was some music, at least bordering to gabber, being spun by a, by me, still unknown DJ. The crowd just loved this, and this was the first time I came to realize, that there might be a scene for this music in Sweden after all?
In Vaxjo, mainland Sweden, a few parties was hosted back in '95. Some local hardcore-enthusiasts put togeather a couple of real gabber-parties, organizing and playing everything themselves. Petrol X and DJ Insane, where two of these pioneers of the field, nowadays tragically having been sucked up by the almost all-succombing swamp of trance...
In Stockholm, there has been a small gabber-scene as well. However, I don't know much about this (anybody else?). One of the leading forces behind this movement has been Ivan Alfaro (a.k.a Hellhead and Leatherface) of Pitch Control. How these efforts have turned out, I'm unsure - but I do know that Ivan long since has gained international cred, and today has played alongside many of the scenes most upfront artists and DJ:s.
Additions will be made to the above sections later on.
In November '97, then, the first gabber-party in Gothenburg ever took place, perhaps also presenting the most interesting DJ-lineup ever in Sweden (gabber-wise...). The party Nosebleed saw Trauma XP, Daniel Beats and Sparky - all from Germany - demonstrating all the aspects of hardcore, gabber and nosebleed during one unique night, togeather with local warm-up act Icepick.
This was intended as a kick-off for a growing gabber-scene in Sweden. As an eye-opener for all the people, thinking they can get nothing out of gabber but didn't really know what it was about. As an effort of providing the next step for people being tired of the now often shallowed out scene of psychedelic trance and house.
And, as for now, there will be regular hardcore parties in Gothenburg. The club Bult is opening up in April and will hopefully be a monthly gabber-get-togeather in the south of Sweden. For those not being able to join us, maybe TechnoEnergy in the north of Sweden (Orebro) might be an alternative, knowing, however, that this is more of a mainstream-club with a hardcore-department in the basement, than a place devoted entirely to the music.
Combining today's techno- and housescene, with the upcoming gabber-movement could provide us with interesting contrasts and something that the techno-scene has long since been missing here in Sweden - change and variation!
A good idea to find out about when and where there'll be hardcore-parties, both in Sweden and abroad, is to check back at this page - both in party- and in the news-section of the site.
OK, I want records - where can I find them and what should I buy?
Finding the CD-compiltions mentioned above, Thunderdome and Terrordrome, is easy. These are ofted stocked in most of the major record-stores. The series Rave Massacre, Napalm Rave, Happy Hardcore, Fucking Hardcore, Earthquake and Raver's Knight are also easy to find - or if you can't find them, just tell the store to order them for you. This is of course a good start, but you'd be seriously lacking what's considered to be real gabber and the risk is that you won't have found anything you like and hence get discouraged.
There is, however, one CD around which's considerably better than the rest. This is the Industrial Strength "Industrial Fucking Strength" compilation-album. Here you can find artists such as D.O.A and Nasenbluten (however they call themselves Bloody Fist on this CD...) and it's definately worth checking out. It should also be available - or possible to order - in major music-stores. Worth checking out for what's not really gabber, but similarily fucked-up, distorted noise with a lot of attitude and aggression is the Digital Recordings compilation-album of last year. Here they've thrown in everything from jungle and techno to gabber and semi-metal, to provide you with a thorough soundtrack for your odd hours of frustration and confusion. Atari Teenage Riot is a group from this label, which has actually been granted some media-attention lately. Alec Empire is one of the groups front-figures.
To find the real gabber and speedcore, you need to buy records and for this you need to order them from your local 12"-retailor. If you just know the name of the record and the label, this should be no problem. If you encounter difficulities, you can check out mailorder-companies on the web. Below are some good starters.
UM - Underground Music
PCD Recordstore
FOG Recordstore
Also check out the Bloody Fist web-site for information on how to get involved in their hardcore-network. They'll help you with finding good music, if nothing else, by selling you their own mixtapes.
Coming section of the FAQ: Guide to good 12"s and CD:s...
Is there a dresscode or typical image among the gabbers?
Actually, you're talking to the wrong man about clothes. Personally, I don't give a shit about fashions or whatever. And actually, that's quite allright among gabbers. Many people just don't care!
However, there are of course some trends and "should-be:s".
The camoflage-pattern is one thing. Shaved heads another. Sportswear, especially
when it comes to shoes and trousers.
Black is the color of the day and shirts with
a hood and some evil, provoking picture or text should make you feel at
home anywhere.
That's it basically.
If you care!
The logo of the on of the most
popular shirts among gabbers.
Actually, there's a couple of Swedes who produce
"their own" shirts etc, mostly by modifying the ID&T stuff. You can
check it out if you want to, as it's actually also a quite good site.
DJ
Tarani's page
What's the history of this music?
Coming soon.
What's the scene like today abroad?
Coming soon.
Trivia: Dutch words used in gabber...
Coming soon.
