andi

This week's mixtape was originally going to be an introduction to Breakcore but then at some point I started listening to the Tetrisphere soundtrack and got distracted

1. "beg4life", Dr. Mario

What if I told you possibly the greatest Drum & Bass song ever, and possibly the origin point of modern breakcore, was recorded by a guy named "Dr. Mario" whose entire release strategy was "mp3.com", switching to MySpace when that went away¹? What if I told you you've already heard this song, in the Napster/Gnutella era, but it was mislabeled as being by Amon Tobin, possibly named "Kill You Now" and possibly misattributed to a Splinter Cell soundtrack? What if I asked you to listen to it?

2. "Cyberia Lyr1", sewerslvt

Enigmatic, prolific, JVNE/JVNKO blessed us with an incredible amount of amazing music and an internet mythology casting them as the DJ at Club Cyberia from "Serial Experiments Lain", then disappeared in a puff of internet harassment. (The new artist "AgonyOST" might be them, no one's sure.) This track gives us some retro and (if you're listening to it right) very loud chaotic drum & bass. Music for a Dreamcast time attack

3. "Abraxas", Purity Filter ft. Catastrophi

Consider the Zoomer breakcore artists, who spill out in sewerslvt's wake like dismembered cartoon body parts. All incredibly hardcore, extremely traumatized and probably trans, hiding behind indistinguishable names that look like net handles and baffling joke song titles like "assadist pussy got me actin strange" (?). Here's a noise wall archetypical of the genre. It needs to go so hard you cannot think

4. "Compliant Confuse" (Tetrisphere), Neil Voss²

One time I made a serious go at playing "Tetrisphere" for the Nintendo 64. What I found was:

1. Although I was legitimately having fun and seemed to be getting better over time, I never really understood what I was doing.

2. The soundtrack was incredibly hype. Oh my god. Why is this soundtrack so hype

This is some hardcore 1997 tracker jungle, with a nice crispy taste from the N64 sound chip.

5. "BEATS OF THE JUNGLE THAT ARE ANTIFUNGAL!!", Max Sansalone

So like, "Drum & Bass", or "Breakcore", or "Jungle". (I'd be lying if I said I understood the difference on any level clearer than vibes.) By stereotype this is computer music, like, Cubase or trackers. It's just too complicated to make it any other way. There are drum samples, but mostly only like, the one drum sample, the Amen. Maybe Think. No new breaks, canonically.

Max here just decided to sit down and drum some drum and bass. On some drums. It sounds good.³

⬇️ Click below for more Purity Filter and Lauren Bousfield ⬇️

6. "Crysalis", Purity Filter

This was the song that introduced me to Purity Filter and is probs my favorite track by them still. How do I describe this when it's more defined by an emotion than a genre? This is rave music for the people at the back not dancing (maybe a little sleepy because it's 3 AM), the warehouse ceiling echo already built into the song. There is light and sound and joy but they are somewhere else and happening to someone else

7. "Riverrun Humbling Allegory", Lauren Bousfield

I posted that other song so now I have to post this one. Bousfield was part of the original Soundcloud flowering in 2009 as "Nero's Day at Disneyland" and in my head sorta bridges vaporwave and net breakcore, while having this wild, unique style apart from any genre. I want to play you entire albums of hers but if I have space for one song here's a manic wound of D&B breaks and distorted synths.

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¹ That was then; as of the 2010s you can now buy Dr. Mario's discography from a service named Juno Download. Apparently Dr. Mario died in 2021, so I assume royalties go to his widow, who wrote a lengthy obituary of him in 2021.

⁴ This isn't a real footnote, but I would also like to note Sewerslvt, Purity Filter and Lauren Bousfield all have large, rich discographies available on Bandcamp if you feel like supporting some queer artists this afternoon.