Alex Tune and Hardy-Smile: New Ukrainian Break- and Hardcore

Now that the summer has come to an end, Moscow’s RusZud label has cast a glance back over a season of break- and hardcore compositions, not only from Russian and Ukrainian DJs, but with a few French and Italian cuts, too. The result is a dual LP, modestly titled “RusZud #12,” yet emblazoned with the face of a very peeved alien. Clearly the contents of this release are not designed for the PA systems of day spas.  The album comes with a couple of sentences in English to announce its arrival: ”Sounds of hot summer 2009!!! In this collection that that was also that so did not suffice. That it will be pleasant to you more…” We have no idea what that means, hence the following attempt to contextualize the album in slightly clearer terms.

The entire release, together with accompanying artwork, can be downloaded from several locations, such as the zip file housed at an Archive.org page. Rather than document all of the contributors to that download, though, it makes considerably more sense to showcase a couple of the musicians about whom we have not written before: Alex Tune and DJ Hardy-Tune.  The former is from Odessa (shown above) and humbly declares himself to be the nation’s “most famous hardcore DJ – and producer, too.”

Having begun his career in the local rave scene circa 2004, Tune would later join forces with other prominent figures of the south, such as DJ Belkin, in order to create Bangin’ Beats - which is now one of the most significant organizations in Ukraine dedicated to the rougher, more elemental end of the dance spectrum.

Bangin’ Beats claims to be “much more than just a music company,” since a lot of its effort and attention is directed towards the hosting of hard-style and hard-dance events nationwide. These functions all further the primary aim of BB’s roster of DJs, which is “to develop hard-dance music in Ukraine, whilst also improving the public’s perception of the genre.” Tracks such as Alex Tune’s “Mashcore Mania” play the role of calling cards in that public relations campaign.

In a recent interview, Tune was  asked to assess the Ukrainian hardcore scene as a whole, taking into consideration the large selection of tourist venues and night clubs along the sandy shores of the Black Sea . Perhaps not surprisingly, he claimed that Odessa is the most developed in terms of both experimentation (from the DJs) and popularity (among the club-goers). He mentioned that high-quality events, dedicated exclusively to his style of music, now take place maybe several times a month within the city limits, and can attract up to 600 people. In the context of a nightclub, those numbers are quite impressive. This constant ability to fill local venues was – of course! – attributed to the PR savvy of Bangin’ Beats staff, not only in Odessa, but also in Lvov and Kharkov.

By collaborating with nearby PR groups that specialize in parallel styles, such as techno or D&B, Bangin’ Beats had allegedly been able to reach beyond the strict limits of “acceptable” or marketable taste – created by curmudgeonly purists – and invite club-goers to experiment with the more insistent or angry sound that characterizes a hardcore or breakcore set. These shows were advertised as a musical “walk on the wild side,” so to speak – and an intriguing alternative to the MOR horrors that await most tourists on the dancefloors of most hotels. One could, in fact, argue that this kind of growling alternative to Top 40 banality is a logical phenomenon in a resort-town, where kitsch rules the roost.

In the able hands of Alex Tune, all cliched notions of sonic “normality” are tweaked and twisted.

Any of the more adventurous visitors to Odessa’s club scene, however, will quickly be thrown something of a challenge, in that our disc-spinning hero believes that his hardcore is played faster and with greater “severity” than anywhere else…

In a similar celebration of rapidity above all, Tune is more than happy to zip in and out of his record collection as he composes sets on the fly, with no respect for generic purity. “When I play my sets, I never stick to one style. Everything depends on the kind of party I’m at – and, of course, the atmosphere out on the dancefloor. Based on those two factors, I’ll choose whatever people would like to hear from me at any given moment. It might be some old gabba, to get people in a good mood… or some crazy hardcore! I never know beforehand what I’m going to play! Actually, I’ve recently been playing more and more of my own stuff…”

There’s a slight tension here between the claim that the dancefloor dictates the content of his sets, and the personal choice to play one’s own releases (come what may). The inherent logic here would suggest that – given time – the public always calls for Tune’s back catalog. Yet that would contradict the assertion that he never knows what he’ll be playing beforehand. Two solutions suggest themselves to this conundrum: (1) He suffers from fleeting, yet regular fits of amnesia – which is not very likely – or (2) one of the above statements is not entirely true…

He smiles knowingly.

Whatever the truth may be, Tune’s purported aesthetic of chopping, changing, and other deviations is – he insists!- what first attracted RusZud to his work in 2007. The label was more than happy to see him play around with the extreme leanings of, say, speedcore or frenchcore. As those and other sub-genres keep nudging their way into the conversation, it soon becomes no surprise to learn that Tune is a big mashup fan, especially since one of his tracks contributed to RusZud 12 is explicitly entitled: “What Is a Mashup?”

The answer to this question is provided by the voice of an elderly female teacher, speaking about her musical passions as if to a group of preschoolers. (The effect is somewhat creepy.)

That track is buried deep in the running order of RusZud 12, which is not arranged according to any evident system. Given that several DJs – from various nations – have provided multiple compositions, that begs the question as to whether there might be discernible differences (or similarities!) between Russian and Ukrainian hardcore exponents. If, in other words, if RusZud has made no effort to categorize the contributors, does that indicate the label’s view that no such commonalities exist? Tune says: “Each and every DJ is unique in their own way – and it goes without saying that even people playing the same music will do so in different ways, too. In essence, I’d say that Russia has more gifted DJs, since the hardcore scene has been going longer than in Ukraine.”

He keeps his ear close to the northern beats, listening and learning.

In fact, on that note of Russia’s status vis a vis any hardcore hierarchy, we’re left with the impression that Tune is more than keen to play catch-up with his northern neighbors. When asked about his future plans, he almost says as much out loud: “I want to work really hard on writing more music. That way I’ll get wider experience and hone my skills. I’ll be working with Bangin’ Beats, too, in order to keep promoting hardcore all around Ukraine. We’ll be setting up some major parties, shipping in some big-name guests – and we won’t be deterred by any kind of problems!

And that brings us to Hardy-Smile, shown above, who is from Kiev – and known off stage as Iaroslav Rybakov. Even though he is only 20 years old, he does not shy away from the bold claim to be Kiev’s first ever(!) DJ who championed hardcore. In this respect, both he and Tune are kindred spirits when it comes to a penchant for cocky PR.   His standard Russian-language blurb reads that “Hardy-Smile may be Kiev’s youngest DJ in this area of dance music, but he’ s certainly one of the best!”

Whereas Tune set up the Bangin’ Beats promo group, Hardy-Smile’s contribution to the organization of hardcore in the capital has been the Hardcore.net.ua site, which includes a built-in web radio signal for those who’d like to acquaint themselves with the specificities of a Ukrainian style ASAP.

Given that hardcore is based on the transformation of a desire into drives (round and round with almost insane insistence), it’s interesting to note that Hardy-Smile, perhaps wishing to show how music in the capital is more “advanced” than anything a seaside town might offer, tends towards an a rather moribund aesthetic. Extreme hardcore, driven as far as it’ll go, starts to evoke a “death drive” in that Hardy uses all manner of Gothic elements in his PR material. They help to suggest that the most radical parties of all will push the experiential limits of party-goers to their furthest point.

To a point, perhaps, of no return. It’s a dangerously literal interpretation of “bop till you drop.”

Earlier this month he hosted a “Night of Techno-Corpses,” the poster for which is shown above. The advertising blurb read as follows, and is presumably designed to be spoken out loud (in a room with maximum echo): “We not only promise, but guarantee the following… Absolute hellllll; a cryyyypt; a dark briiiiidge; smoke and fire; ladies and friars; the blessing of a pastor; crosses buried in the ground; crazy hardcore, breakcore, gabba, happy hardcore, and techno…; plus stage-makeup and fake blood for those who’d like it!”

The invitation continues: “Dear Ravers, Clubbers, and All Fans of the Most Extreme and Violent Music Around… Here’s an interesting proposition for you all! Stop wasting all your time on those depressing and faceless parties you keep going to! COME AND JOIN US! Use the powers of good – and your biceps! – to help us battle the Flesh-Eaters who want to overthrow Truth!  Help us fight those who proclaim the ‘rightfulness’ of tolerance! Help us battle those who raise the price of gas, bread, and beer for no reason!”

Suddenly the fundamental cause of hardcore’s endless, persistent thumping comes to the surface: daily life. What we hear are the sounds of people banging their heads against the status quo. It can be a strangely consoling process, at least initially, a kind of comforting rocking movement, back and forth. Nonetheless, there may come a point where speedcore breaks the limit of physical pain, and hardcore becomes rigor mortis.

Hence, we suspect, the stage makeup. If you are going to bop till you drop – forever – you may as well look good on the way down.

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