Darkcore (also referred to as darkside hardcore) is a

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other ...

of electronic dance music, considered to be a subgenre of breakbeat hardcore, which came out from the UK rave scene of the early 1990s; this genre in particular emerged from late 1992. It is recognised as being one of the direct precursors of the music genre now known as

drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

Origins

By late 1992, breakbeat hardcore was beginning to fragment, and darkcore was one of the subgenres to emerge, in contrast with

4-beat Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or "hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s. H ...

. Darkcore is often characterised by dark-themed samples such as horror movie elements, cries for help, sinister sounding stabs and

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis ...

notes, along with syncopated

breakbeat Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and ...

s in addition to

4-to-the-floor Four-on-the-floor (or four-to-the-floor) is a rhythm pattern used primarily in dance genres such as disco and electronic dance music. It is a steady, uniformly accented beat in time in which the bass drum is hit on every beat (1, 2, 3, 4)."T ...

beats and low frequency basslines. It also saw the introduction of effects such as pitch shifting and time stretching to create mood.

Notable releases

Notable releases include Top Buzz's "Living in the Darkness" (Basement, 1993), DJ Hype's "Shot in the Dark" (

Suburban Base Suburban Base Records is a British breakbeat hardcore, rave and jungle/drum and bass record label. It is based in Romford, Havering, England. It was established by Danny Donnelly and operated in the UK from 1990 to 1997 and in the United States ...

, 1993), Origin Unknown's " Valley of the Shadows" ( RAM Records, 1993), Ed Rush's "Bloodclot Artattack" (No U Turn, 1993), Rufige Cru's "Terminator" ( Reinforced Records, 1992), Doc Scott's "Here Comes the Drumz" (Reinforced Records, 1992), 4hero's "Journey from the Light" (Reinforced Records, 1993), and Omni Trio's "Feel Good" ( Moving Shadow, 1993).

Origins

Notable releases

See also

References

Further reading