Harktek thread ;)

What you lot think then? Best artists, labels, tracks?

Well for me number 1 has to be Spiral Tribe :clap:

Favourate mix tape is 'High Voltage Occilations' - soo hardtek rave, bought at Czechtek 1995-ish (the one with the WW2 bomber) - with one of the best acid tracks I've ever heard.

'sound of technival' is still one of my favourate LPs. I love them because to me it's proper rave music.

Spiral Tribe had a number of key artists 69db, Automanic Josh, Crystal Distortion, Ixindamix, Jano and Jeff. This is kinda a world wide network now - Network 23 inc. a number of UK Rigs like headfuk. Quality and you still hear them out and about every weekend at free parties (see squatjuice..)

Network 23- MP3 Downloads

Also Vegantekno - free mp3

Crystal Distortion is still putting out good tunes and playing in London at the moment. One worth looking out for is 'Extension Sonore' and the seminal 'Anyone can dance that's the law'.

DB69 was never my thing but Jeff SP23 is the man!

Drop Bass Networks is pretty damn impressive too! Woodly McBride did some of his best work there, imo.



Where to buy?
Bangin Tunes - Little Portland St, London shop (not website)
Trackheads - Kentish Town or website
Music-head.de (website)
Satellite Records USA, NY (website)
Label sites
Parties

not a fan

i'm not sure i even know what it is

To me, Harktek is up-tempo squat music with a strong industrial feel and a mix of techno/break percussion, over a mis-mash of influences from Reggae to Acid to Gabba.

Real free party music - none of this chin stroking that Hard Techno suffers from, imo.

Mainly associated with the French labels (so kinda helps if you speak French, but not essential) but also massive all over central europe. I'm personally a bit of a fan of Italian stuff such as Mechanic Willow and Sinthe Labo on Idroscalo Dischi.

Check out lots of samples on Expressillion.com = also with releases from Le Passe-Muraille and Perce-oreille


Peace :cool:

check the Headbreak label - link is in the Record Labels section of http://www.teknival.co.uk

wicked music!!

Have Banging Tunes started selling it again then? It's been ages since I've been down there, they used to sell quite a bit and then the supply dried up :eh:

The secret is to ask and order with UK record shops. Not a huge market for it over here so most shops (like Banging Tunes London and Trackheads) only stock 20-30 titles but you can get anything you want if yer ask. Ambient Soho used to be good, back in the day :(

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Originally Posted by jonnyspeed

Crystal Distortion is still putting out good tunes and playing in London at the moment. One worth looking out for is 'Extension Sonore' and the seminal 'Anyone can dance that's the law'.

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Strangely, Simon (Crystal Distortion) doesn't even intend most of his stuff to be Hard Tek, Just so many DJs insist on playing his records at 45 (Which is why the Kik and hats sound so pitched up when you hear it at parties) that it seems like he's still writing Hard Tek stuff.. And since Pioneering this sound 10 years ago with Sebastien (69 DB) he's definately moved onto pastures new, writing a lot more breaks sounding stuff....
He's definatly an enigma though, one of a kind...

If you want to buy this stuff though, probably best to go record shopping in Paris, in London Trackheads has a bit of a selection too....

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Originally Posted by crime

Strangely, Simon (Crystal Distortion) doesn't even intend most of his stuff to be Hard Tek, Just so many DJs insist on playing his records at 45 (Which is why the Kik and hats sound so pitched up when you hear it at parties) that it seems like he's still writing Hard Tek stuff.. And since Pioneering this sound 10 years ago with Sebastien (69 DB) he's definately moved onto pastures new, writing a lot more breaks sounding stuff....
He's definatly an enigma though, one of a kind...

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That was something about Hard Tek...it took me ages to work out at first what speed the tunes were supposed to be. Most of them sound good on 33 or 45 though ;)

The trax were cut at 33 for sure....

i tried my best to get alot of stuff like this to the stores, basically anyone whod have a hardtek/breakcore record would be kept well informed. trackheadz was always kept to their brim, and rubadub in glasgow would be bold enough to carry this genre.
i'm surprised you say banging tunes, as they would only ever take the most commercial techno off of me. they wouldnt give anything else the time of day. so who the hell are they buying it from??

Not a fan, the production is never up to standard.
Bleedin Crusties.

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Originally Posted by Tony

i tried my best to get alot of stuff like this to the stores, basically anyone whod have a hardtek/breakcore record would be kept well informed. trackheadz was always kept to their brim, and rubadub in glasgow would be bold enough to carry this genre.
i'm surprised you say banging tunes, as they would only ever take the most commercial techno off of me. they wouldnt give anything else the time of day. so who the hell are they buying it from??

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The last batch I saw came from Fred's Distribution.

this kinda music is very popular in french underground scene...

this is the basis of all the free parties and teknivals gathering thousands of people in our countryside fields ...

this is a very important part of french techno scene, which our successives fovernments tried to anihilate bcasue they are illegal .

the only problem is that in such event 90% of the people take hard drugs and that there are dealers everywhere.personnaly, even the techno lover i am,i cant stand this music, and totally understand that you have to be under the influence to listen to it

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Originally Posted by dirty_bass

Not a fan, the production is never up to standard.
Bleedin Crusties.

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lol - I lived with crusties for years in the North East, but escaped and just find it all very funny now. But big 3 day free parties in the early 90s - kinda so influential on yoof culture and that. maybe :maybe: