my new experience with freeform hardcore, and broadening my music horizons

Mar. 27, 2024 5:20 PM

This post was originally written for my Dreamwidth blog on the timestamp written above - the original formatting has been preserved whenever possible.

It's 23:02, March 26th 2024, as I write the opening portion of this post. Why do I use 24-hour time here? Perhaps it's a strange flight of fancy.

Regardless, I've been listening to an assortment of freeform hardcore over the past week, mostly inspired by my prior musings on the works of Betwixt & Between and the evolution of J-core over the last two decades. Some of you who witnessed my findings might have seen this comment I made regarding my thoughts on the genre during the early 2000s:

"freeform hardcore is a genre I absolutely could not have wrapped my head around 10 years ago. there's something about how these kinds of tracks have remained steadfast to their roots for so long that I come to enjoy them for, now that I understand music a little better"

This comment sparked an interesting discussion with a friend of mine, who asked me about my conscious awareness relating to the genres I've gravitated towards in recent years. How does an artist's style affect the historical context of when a track is produced? Is there a correlation between greater historical understanding and the "enjoyment" of a particular music piece? Do you actually need this kind of knowledge to influence how you perceive the music you listen to? These are all valid questions, ones that I think deserve more care than a passing anecdotal mention.

Looking at music genres from a more active perspective is a process that I don't think comes naturally to many people. The average person will be able to tell you the difference between pop and rock, for instance, but differentiating something esoteric like psytrance from a niche genre on the obscurity scale of Japanese hi-tech, especially by defining characteristics, is asking far too much of the general public. The point is that most people don't inherently need to know, because it scarcely matters in the long run. You wouldn't need to look up the exact serial number of one house lightbulb you might not change again, right? Sure, this is a contentious point in itself, but most of my friends who enjoy music do so without worrying about the little details, just as I know nothing about the Shadowverse TCG, or League of Legends. (If you are one of the people who falls into this category, please leave me a sufficiently dissatisfied response in my private messages. Thank you for your time.)

I do think that developing a personal taste is important. Many will ascribe benefits such as "knowing what you like" or "being free from posting bad online," but I will present an argument slightly outside the box. Developing and cultivating a personal taste in music allows people to better organise and curate the kinds of music they listen to under a more defined framework. You might not like how artist A produces music in one genre, but perhaps there are elements that artist B (possibly connected to artist A in some way) illustrates in a more dynamic, or interesting way. Having that framework as a starting point can expand your music horizons in a much more comfortable and organic way than relying on an algorithm ever will, because you actively make the first step to judging whether a genre or artist matches your tastes or not. Of course, it's ultimately a subjective process at the end of the day, and you won't have the graces of autoplay forcing related music into your ear canals to make the choice for you, but a lot of music in niche genres don't provide those kinds of luxuries. Sometimes you just gotta take the leap - and that's the thrill of it all.

Learning of the context for a genre, especially if it's close to the public consciousness, is hardly necessary. I dare say that J-core only provides me the opportunity because of how obfuscated its history is. For someone history-oriented like me, I like having that extra awareness to enrich my understanding of early J-core because of how the environment has changed from when I started listening in 2011. You don't need that kind of knowledge, nor do you need to know exactly what goes into music composition. Hell, I can't tell you half of the elements that go into dariacore, and that's a genre I'm particularly biased towards, partially thanks to being friends with one of the more high-profile names in person. That kind of knowledge might spoil a person's experiences with music too much, because it creates the impression that you have to know everything about a genre and its artists to fully comprehend what's on offer. No way. You can do the reading if you want, but don't feel obligated to do so because it's one of a kind. It's the difference between black coffee and five sugars. Start with what you know, go with the flow, and take it nice and slow - music is entertainment all the same, not just a distraction or condiment.

tl;dr ゆっくりしていってねw

Having (hopefully) articulated my views on these topics, I want to spend time discussing my thoughts on freeform hardcore in more detail, so as to better answer my feelings on how I discover new music. I’m technically aware of the freeform style, having been an avid fan of Betwixt & Between for a long time, and I've come to learn that fellow TANO*C contributors like DJ Hase (companion to B&B as part of the RaverRose unit) and Alabaster have produced similar works that fit the classification. So what else did I find? What was my view of the genre afterwards?

As I previously mentioned in my introductory comments, freeform hardcore initially struck me as a genre that rarely strayed from its roots. There's an ever-present dark sound to most productions that evokes a certain feeling of melancholy, emphasised by the use of acid/psychedelic synths to drive a heavy-hitting, frantic kind of tone. B&B often mixed and matched the sharp acid synths with his frequent use of goa trance sounds to create a powerful melodic dissonance, while Alabaster leaned into the piercing acid as a trademark that defined his TANO*C works like Machine Messiah and Sarcomite. These kinds of tracks wouldn't have appealed to me a decade ago, but there's a certain immemorialism to this kind of sound production that draws me closer to the genre's past, even today.

Many freeform hardcore mainstays of the 2000s who've continued the tradition into the present owe much to the sounds that first defined the genre, a quality that speaks to my historian brain like no other. I can appreciate the acknowledgement of the "glory years" because there's no need to reinvent the wheel here. To me, the sounds in freeform hardcore are no different from the sounds of techcore in how they stick very close to the cutting edge - while the latter seeks to drive home that the future is now, the former reminds you that we are never too far off from music that pushes our creative imagination. Rather than saying "freeform is dead," I thus posit that freeform is still alive. Schrodinger's James Brown proves itself to be an inexhaustible phenomenon.

Something else that interests me with subgenres like freeform hardcore and techcore is how artists and DJs push the landscape of existing music beyond what many have already categorised, essentially creating a new breed of music built from the scaffolding of absolute freedom. Listening to Hardcore Baby's Revenge a few days prior to writing this definitely cemented this opinion, because I never felt the impression that "these songs sound the same" at any real point. There's an inherent danger holding this sentiment with mixed albums in particular, because one would expect a continuous "flow" to maintain the experience, but the variety of darker elements mixed together with the classic breakbeat hardcore of early 2000s underground tunes creates a journey in itself. My favourite track on this album is Good Night Tokyo by DJ Shimamura, containing much of the familiar rave-like elements that pulled me so feverishly towards compilations like Lilium Records' Rave Inside!! series.

Many grow tired of trance and deep house for arguably the same reasons that the aforementioned genres are held in such high regard, but my reasoning for why the reception is so different, and why I make it a habit to listen to a wide array of music, is because writing what you know can only take you so far when the extent of your awareness is solely built upon knowing that you know nothing at all.

I try to avoid speaking with certainty on matters relating to my hobbies. Music is a passion that I hold close to my heart because of the connections I've made throughout my life, but you can never be too certain as to how accurate you may be. Taking that first step during COVID-19 to enrich my perspectives on music and learn more about the various subcultures I encountered, as I did with society in academia, was a learning experience that I enjoyed undertaking partially because it felt natural to me. I like knowing more about obscure things by trade, but I acknowledge that such a process may be intimidating to others. Admittedly, I feel self-conscious typing this out, because I know it sounds inherently pretentious. Do people actually read these and give a toss about what I have to say if I just unfurl it into the abyss? It's why I'm very hands-off when suggesting new art to people - our tastes are ultimately decided by ourselves at the end of the day. I don't think there's a right or wrong way to enjoy art. Nor do I have any interest in admonishing others for their perspectives.

My first proclivity with music is to have fun. Nothing more, nothing less.
I hope you enjoy this journey through sound, just as I and many others continue to do.

[now and forever]