Sharpnelsound - m1dy - Speedcore Dandy

m1dy
Speedcore Dandy
[Sharpnelsound; 2002]

6.6








Speedcore is not a popular genre whatsoever. Even in the rather small world of hardcore techno, it is looked down upon by many groups. Most of the time, it is written off as a bunch of aspies playing around with drum machines under a “Let’s see how fast this fucker can go” mindset, throwing away rhyme and reason and taking a huge shit on music theory and melody while searching for youtube videos and torrents of B-Grade horror movies and low key electric guitar noodling. The result: One’s ears being blasted with a firehouse of bass beats and sped up samples that most would only find a few notches more bearable than noise music.

This album needs no introduction. Speedcore Dandy comes up very quickly in speedcore discussions. It’s practically one of the hallmarks of doujin music. It embodies everything I have listed in the opening paragraph. m1dy’s widely-considered magnum opus is a pillar proving the nicheness of the genre. Who could blame people for riding off stuff like this as a clusterfuck of breakbeat drills and blasts, bordering between torturous and annoying?

Talking about the songs do very little to describe the songs on the album. The standard tempo for the genre makes it difficult to have much variety because speedcore, as the name implies, IS FUCKING FAST. It doesn’t have time to build its way up or any of that pussy shit. It laughs at the idea of a patient and orderly line and instead bum rushes the senses right off the bat. Take the title track Speedcoredandy for example: Opens right up with a machine gun of distorted deep bass, only taking a breather at the one-third point to kick back up thirty seconds later. Reaf is the first track where I was able to get an idea as to just how fast it was going. Crash is the poster boy for all of the tropes for Speedcore that people jeer at. The lo-fi production of Midi Anarchism obscures the breaks and beats into some unholy drum machine orgy, and Kimoneverybody sounds like an abstract noise session turned into a legit jam. Closer Destruct is arguably the most tame song on Speedcore Dandy and is my personal favorite on the album, almost as if it was a song several minutes longer slashed down to 93 seconds, leaving us with the best parts.

Speedcore Dandy treads between energizing and irritating, giving almost a perfect split of invigorating and Goddamn obnoxious tracks. It’s a pretty good starting place for those interested in exploring the Speedcore genre (the questions “Who?” and “Why?” are anyone's guess). This might change a small audience of peoples minds about the genre being complete trash, but it certainly won’t change the stereotypes that it carries eight years after being released. To call it “better than most speedcore” isn’t much of a compliment, or probably even a true statement.

DDBY - Highway2

Bizen
Highway2
[DDBY; 2010]

6.2









I cannot deny that the circle DDBY can produce some classy-ass shit. If all of the music in the world as opposed to two-thirds of Comiket were just Touhou arranges, Bizen would be listened to by gentlemen in top-hats sitting by the fire in their lavish chairs as tall as thrones sipping pricey brandy and wine while polishing their monocles while pulling out the 78 RPM Touhou Synthesis set (assuming we all don’t hang ourselves from their being only two-hundred fifty-something or so songs ever made and billions of arranges of each first).

In late June, DDBY has released their third album of 2010. Likewise with the original Highway, Highway2’s arranges are based off the spinoff game starring Aya Shameimaru, who has been scorned and loved by many, either as a borderline-Tabloid reporter in canon, or as a cumdumpster by fanon. The original Highway were arranges of Shoot the Bullet, so now we are treated to remixes of Double Spoiler tracks. Based off Modern Youkai Colony, opener City is your standard jazzy liquid funk that we have come to know and love from Bizen. Piano Soon somehow sounds even more eastern than The Mystery in Your Home Town and sedates the original track’s hectic tempos with chilled out cheery flutes. Nemesis’s Stronghold is remixed twice on this album, with both arranges averting the usual formula Bizen has been known for in his past releases. Syncopation implements rough percussion and high-spirited synths reminiscent of Yellow Magic Orchestra and Square Night sounds like primitive instrument mimicking music programs and club music where funk is locked into combat with techno. Based off Bell of Avici ~ Infinite Nightmare and closer Auto Pilot is guitarist Takayan’s moment to shine, but even coupled with the spastic at first glance breaks, it still doesn’t save the arrange from sounding like something I’d hear playing on The Weather Channel.

Highway2 has no actual misfires but suffers from the never-changing drum line which comes off as tragically generic and seldom changing, similar to TS5. The breaks feel like they were made in a short amount of time and pushed out the door. The blandness is hidden by the instrumentals huddling together around it to keep it out of main sight, but every once in a while someone drops their amber-stem pipes and exposes the weakest part of the drum and bass offshoot remixes: The drum and bass itself.