V/A - "The Virus Has Been Spread / A D-Trash Records Tribute to Atari Teenage Riot" [2007]

Label: D-Trash Records

Title: The Virus Has Been Spread / A D-Trash Records Tribute to Atari Teenage Riot

Genre: Breakcore, Digital Hardcore

Release date: 2007

Track List:

1. RABBIT JUNK - Start The Riot
2. HOWARD ROARK - No Remorse (I Wanna Die)
3. ZYMOTIC - Into The Death
4. UNITUS - Death Star
5. CTRLER - Deuthschland (Has Got To Die!)
6. HANSEL - Ghostchase
7. 64REVOLT - You Can't Hold Us Back
8. noCore - U.S. Fade Out
9. DHC MEINHOF - Revolution Action
10. THE SECRET LIFE OF TEENAGE GIRLS - Speed
11. PHALLUS UBER ALLES - Heatwave
12. EVESTUS - Delete Yourself
13. HERCKLEKOT - Fuck All!
14. CYANOTIC - Your Uniform (Does Not Impress Me)
15. THE PHOERON - The Virus Has Been Spread
16. SCHIZOID - The Future Of War

The amount of contributions to the digital hardcore scene by the Canadian label D-Trash Records can't be overestimated. They were releasing obscure breakcore, digital hardcore, noise, industrial, dark ambient, IDM and all other sorts of sci-fi/cyberpunk-themed underground electronic music since late 90s, and the best of all - all their releases are freely available online, and they were at least since the mid-2000s. It was very difficult for me to find such music back then, so their site was truly a blessing at the time.

Here's a tribute to the seminal band in the whole digital hardcore genre - Atari Teenage Riot - made by various D-Trash artists in 2007, keeping all the tracks as close to the spirit of original ones as possible. My personal highlighs are the rather unusual interpretation of "Death Star" (my favourite noise ballad of all times!) by Unitus, and the surprisingly danceable cover of "You Can't Hold Us Back" by 64Revolt. If you're not familiar with D-Trash Records yet, I hope this compilation will make you to explore the rest of their releases (and they have LOTS of great but little-known stuff for all lovers of extreme electronic music with a DIY spirit).

P.S. In a retrospective, it's quite ironic that I've posted a compilation named "The Virus Has Been Spread" right in the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic. Who would believe now that it was completely unintentional?..

Venetian Snares - "Rossz Csillag Alatt Született" [2005]

Artist: Venetian Snares

Title: Rossz Csillag Alatt Született

Genre: Breakcore

Country: Canada

Release date: 2005

Track List:

1. Sikertelenség
2. Szerencsétlen
3. Öngyilkos Vasárnap
4. Felbomlasztott Mentökocsi
5. Hajnal
6. Galamb Egyedúl
7. Második Galamb
8. Szamár Madár
9. Hiszékeny
10. Kétsarkú Mozgalom 
11. Senki Dala 

This is my favourite album in the whole Aaron Funk's large discography, and not only because it features a very interesting and unique mix of breakcore and classical music (see Wikipedia to find out what pieces of classical music were used on there). Most important of all, it's based on the urban legend of the "Hungarian suicide song" ("Szomorú Vasárnap" by Rezső Seress), which greatly impressed me at the time and became one of the most important reasons for me to became interested in the culture of Finno-Ugric peoples. As for Funk, he became interested in this story when he was on his European tour, after imagining himself turning into a pigeon on Budapest's Royal Palace, and he decided to record this album when he came back home to his cats in Winnipeg:

An extremely detailed musicological analysis of "Rossz Csillag Alatt Született" can be found here. Too technical for you? Check out this review then. It's a very interesting read (probably much better than anything that I could ever write on this subject), and I can relate to its author's feelings very well. Just like him, I have never self-harmed and have never attempted suicide, yet I'm diagnosed with depression (F32.1), and the late 2016-early 2017 period was especially horrible for me (thankfully it slowly gets better now).

Playing Dead Man / Individual Distortion / Perusak / Anus Apatis - "Grind Kemana-Mana" [2011]

Artist: Playing Dead Man / Individual Distortion / Perusak / Anus Apatis

Title: Grind Kemana-mana

Genre: Grindcore, Digital Hardcore/Breakcore

Country: Indonesia
Year: 2011

Track List:

1. Playing Dead Man - Global Suffering
2. Playing Dead Man - Cannibal Creation
3. Playing Dead Man - ExistenShit
4. Individual Distortion - Giving Dropkicks To Fixedgear Riders On Sunday
5. Individual Distortion - Anjing Lu Ngentot
6. Individual Distortion - Ojo Ngono
7. Perusak - Sepele Tapi Krusial
8. Perusak - Big Bang and Boom
9. Perusak - Make Moral Judgement
10. Anus Apatis - K.R.S.G.T.H.
11. Anus Apatis - Senimu Tak Semurni Bensinku
12. Anus Apatis - Nothing Happen with Your Pusssy

Official release notes from Stone Age Records:

"Its a 4 way split made up by Individual Distortion, Anus Apatis, Perusak, and Playing Dead Man. And such an honour thing to know that the split's cover is done by one of the most famous dangdut star nowadays, Ayu Ting Ting! :p Ok. Each band in this split playing different styles of grind music. First we got Individual Distortion which is very very very pro in wrecking up your stereo with the super annoying noisecore tunes, Playing Dead Man playing grind with the powerviolence taste inside, and then we got Perusak bringing you the heavy new school grind stuff, if you're fit with Missery Index well you'll be into it, then the last one we got Anus Apatis from Jogja blowing you the insane cybergrind tunes. We'd like to say sorry if you feel that the split is way too short but it's the way that grind should be. Once again, if you think that grind is not a humorous music well you're wrong :p Cheers!"

For the most part, grindcore indeed is a humorous genre (see my previous entry); however, Playing Dead Man doesn't look like a typical "funny grindcore" band - it's rather more serious, political hardcore/mincecore. On the other hand, there's still a lot of humorous industrial grind/noise/breakcore on this split. Generally reminds me of a duo called Super Postman, whom I was acquainted with several years ago, when I studied in the uni. They were originally from Kirovo-Chepetsk, a relatively small industrial town ~570 km north from here, but came here to study. Their music (if it deserves to be called so)  was made purely for fun, since they had neither the equipment to do anything serious, nor the sufficient audience for such kind of music in their hometown. Judging from how quickly the Indonesian death/grind scene grows - I guess the situation in there is better...

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