Drum and bass is a genre of electronic music characterised by fast breakbeats with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, sampled sources, and synthesizers. The music grew out of breakbeat hardcore. The popularity of drum and bass at its commercial peak ran parallel to several other homegrown dance styles. A major influence was the original Jamaican dub and reggae sound that came into London in the 1980s. By the 1990s, this had grown into the jungle/drum and bass sound which the UK is famous for. Another feature of the style is the complex syncopation of the drum tracks' breakbeat.
Daniel Williamson, better known as LTJ Bukem, is a British drum and bass musician, producer and DJ. He and his record label Good Looking are most associated with the jazzy, atmospheric side of drum and bass music.
Jungle is a music genre that developed out of the UK rave scene and reggae sound system culture in the 1990s. Emerging from breakbeat hardcore, the style is characterized by rapid breakbeats, heavily syncopated percussive loops, samples, and synthesized effects, combined with the deep basslines, melodies, and vocal samples found in dub, reggae and dancehall, as well as hip hop and funk. Jungle was a predecessor to drum and bass, which saw success in the late 1990s.
Digital hardcore is a fusion genre that combines hardcore punk with electronic music genres such as breakbeat, techno, and drum and bass while also drawing on heavy metal and noise music. It typically features fast tempos and aggressive sound samples. The style was pioneered by Alec Empire of the German band Atari Teenage Riot during the early 1990s, and often has sociological or far-left lyrical themes.
Alec Empire is a German experimental electronic musician who is best known as a founding member of the band Atari Teenage Riot, as well as a prolific and distinguished solo artist, producer and DJ. He has released many albums, EPs and singles, some under aliases, and remixed over seventy tracks for various artists including Björk. He was also the driving force behind the creation of the digital hardcore genre, and founded the record labels Digital Hardcore Recordings and Eat Your Heart Out Records.
Breakcore is a style of electronic dance music that emerged out of jungle, hardcore, and drum and bass in the mid-to-late 1990s. it is characterized by very complex and intricate breakbeats and a wide palette of sampling sources, played at high tempos.
Maschinenfest was an annual three-day underground music festival in Germany, featuring industrial, power electronics, noise and other alternative electronic performers. It included both independent and signed bands as well as many vendors for music and related merchandise. Featured record labels and noteworthy companies included Ant-Zen, Hands Productions, Pflichtkauf, Spectre Records and Ad Noiseam.
Brian Williams is a Welsh industrial musician, sound designer and film score composer. He is often credited for creating the dark ambient genre with albums recorded under the name Lustmord. His experimental work has been described as "not traditionally 'musical'" with "more clearly visual aspects".
Kevin Ford, better known as DJ Hype, is a British jungle and drum and bass producer and DJ.
Power noise is a form of industrial music and a fusion of noise music and various styles of electronic dance music. It should not be confused with "power electronics", which is not influenced by electronic dance music and is closer to harsh noise. Its origins are predominantly European.
Tarmvred is a music group from Gothenburg, Sweden that is the brainchild of Jonas Johansson.
Ad Noiseam is an independent record label that has recently published mostly electronic music as well as hip-hop and jazz based in Berlin, Germany. Ad Noiseam was founded in April of 2001 by Nicolas Chevreux, who also has done some of the design work for the label's releases. Ad Noiseam originally started out as a webzine but quickly moved on to being a record-label establishing a name for itself with its first release "Krach Test", a true tour-de-force 3CDr set featuring anyone who was anyone in the 2001 electronic music scene. After releasing high quality, small batch (mini)-CDr releases, the label phased out the CDr's in favour of factory pressed CDs with 2001's "Subfusc" by Tarmvred, after which numerous releases on both vinyl and CD followed. Continuing its forward vision music- and designwise, Ad Noiseam built a huge following of music enthusiasts as well as musicians.
Terre Thaemlitz is a musician, public speaker, and owner of the record label Comatonse Recordings. Thaemlitz's work critically combines themes of identity politics – including gender, sexuality, class, linguistics, ethnicity and race – with an ongoing critique of the socio-economics of commercial media production. This diversity of themes is matched by Thaemlitz's wide range of production styles, which include electroacoustic computer music, club-oriented deep house, digital jazz, ambient, and computer-composed neo-expressionist piano solos. Graphic design, photography, illustration, text and video also play a part in Thaemlitz's projects.
Mille Plateaux is a German record label founded in 1993 by Achim Szepanski in Frankfurt. It mostly releases minimal techno, glitch music and other experimental electronic music.
Industrial hip hop is a fusion genre of industrial music and hip hop.
Gas is the main musical project of German electronic musician and composer Wolfgang Voigt. The project was created as an expressive medium inspired by his experiences with taking LSD in the Königsforst, a German forest situated near his hometown of Cologne, for long periods in his youth. He has claimed that the intention of the project is to "bring the forest to the disco, or vice-versa".
Robert Babicz is a Polish music producer, mastering engineer and live performer living in Cologne, Germany. With a career spanning nearly two decades covering genres from techno to acid house to minimal, Robert has also been known under the pseudonyms Rob Acid, Acid Warrior, Department of Dance and Sontec amongst many others. He has released a number of very well respected records on labels such as Kompakt, Treibstoff, Bedrock, Intec Digital and Steve Bug's Audiomatique, as well his own labels, Junkfood and Babiczstyle. He is well known as a live performer, never a DJ, as he uses synths and live equipment and improvises in every set he plays.
The Outside Agency is a Dutch hardcore techno duo composed of DJ/producers Noël Wessels and Frank Nitzinsky. The pair operate out of two studios based in Goes, Netherlands. They also run two record labels: Genosha Recordings and its sister label Genosha One Seven Five.
David Thrussell is an Australian musician and a prolific composer of a wide range of genres. He is a founding member of the dark ambient and IDM outfits Snog and Soma as well as his work under the moniker Black Lung.
