interview by Simon Sellars

Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 3 January 2003.

Do you remember ‘hardcore’?

As a style of dance music, it’s become a historical footnote, the sound of rave’s innocence: primitive, immature music for immature people. Supposedly we’ve all grown beyond that — haven’t we? Only gurners and E-monsters listen to hardcore, these days — apparently. England’s dance music press would have you believe that this original strain of rave died a twitching, ugly death, long ago annihilated by the sophistication and glamour of drum ‘n’ bass (and, now, UK Garage). But in Tokyo, hardcore — and its kill-crazy variant, ‘gabber’ — is beginning to challenge that city’s high-fibre diet of trance and techno.

Ryuta Nakagami is a driving force behind the coup. He’s a promoter for the gabberdisco crew, an MC and DJ (both as ‘Jage’) and a producer (’Jea’) for the Sharpnel label. For Sharpnel’s recent Rave Spector and Neon Genesis Gabberngelion releases, he was the main composer, producer and sound engineer. He also generated the striking cover art.

Neon Genesis is a remarkable CD. Sure, it employs gabber’s trademark jackhammer beats. But there’s also warped, labyrinth melodical sensibilities, cute diva vocals sampled from manga and computer games, and sound effects from similar sources. While superficially similar to English and Dutch hardcore, conceptually it’s from a galaxy far, far away.

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