Desolate
Ways is a four-track Australian hardcore techno / gabber (or whatever the kids
call it these days) by Australian dark n bass artist Paulblackout — and yes,
that’s the correct spelling. Many people use “Paul Blackout” but this is
incorrect, as is evident on the cover artwork below.
Desolate
Ways is a vinyl record released at the end of 2004. It came out on the now
defunct French hardcore techno label Epileptik Productions — and let me tell
you, the title track Desolate Ways
has to be one of the best hardcore techno in my (admittedly modest) collection.
HARDCORE, GABBER AND SPEEDCORE
The standout
quality about Desolate Ways is the superb title track. Quite simply, brilliant,
dark and menacing — but not overdone. It’s fast (180bpm), pounding, analogue-sounding
hardcore techno, with rolling beats and with that ominous analogue edge to it.
Keep in mind that this was released a decade ago, from a guy who runs, lives
and breathes a dark drum n bass record label, and yet it still stands up magnificently.
In all
honesty, I could come up with words to describe how this track should make you
feel — but they’d be mere words. The first time I heard this I thought it was a
cool, nasty and somewhat fast kind of track. That was just the first 30 seconds
of the intro. Then the main kick on this track began and I was floored.
Unfortunately,
the Epileptik Productions label is now defunct so finding a legitimate online
version of this track may prove challenging. So take my word for it when I say
you can and totally should buy this record because. Last I checked, the Discogs page for this record was flogging it for less
than $2.
IS IT SPEEDCORE?
The other
memorable thing about Desolate Ways
is that fact that it’s a fast record, but not unnecessarily or pretentiously
so.
I’ve encountered
this problem on various hardcore techno and gabber records I’ve acquired over
the years. While I like fast and hard music, the problem with a lot of the
speedcore I own is that it comes across as unnecessarily obnoxious.
Don’t get me
wrong, I love the fact that speedcore is legendary for its piss-taking qualities,
surpassed in its lack of seriousness only by grindcore and breakcore.
What
gets old pretty quickly is the way far too many artists engage in what is essentially a giant dick
swinging contest. Just
as with so many extreme
heavy metallers, who vie to see who can play the fastest and the hardest, so
too does this phenomenon exists among certain electronic artists making
hardcore and speedcore. Who can crank up their software and drum programming to
the limit of human endurance? Who cares if it’s any good?
Fortunately
that feeling does is not present on the Desolate
Ways record. Two of the tracks on Desolate
Ways clock in at 220bpm — that’s speedcore territory in anyone’s book — and
one comes close to 230bpm, yet it somehow all feels that it’s at the right
tempo. Sure, it’s still extreme music by mainstream standards, but it’s not
extreme music that’s trying to out-extreeme the extreme. It feels entirely
right, it sounds excellent, and the
result is an outstanding hardcore sound.
DESOLATE WAYS ARTWORK
I once had
the pleasure of briefly meeting Paulblackout. This was at a gig in support of The
DJ Producer. Apart from being a nice bloke, he asked me, after I mentioned I
was a fan of Desolate Ways, if I owned
the real vinyl pressing, which of course I did.
As you can
see, the sleeve artwork is a creepy black and white negative-reversed photo on of
what looks like a desolate (see what I did there?) country road; nearby is a post
box or street number with the number 666.
It turns out
that this is an actual photo, shot (if memory serves me correctly) on a back-road
down here in the Australian state of Victoria. I don’t know if Paul took the
photo himself, but the fact that this is a local piece of “artwork” I think is pretty
cool.
The Desolate Ways sleeve artwork is in Melbourne, Australia, apparently.
It’s just a
shame, as mentioned previously, that the French hardcore techno label that
released this record, Epileptik Productions, is now defunct. Of course, Hardline Rekordingz, Paulblackout’s drum and bass music record
label, is very much still around and releasing killer hard tunes. Check it out.
PAULBLACKOUT: DESOLATWE WAYS TRACK BPM TEMPOS
A1 Desolate Ways | 180bpm
A2 Baby Cloners Came From Outer Space | 230bpm
B1 Sui-Sonic | 220bpm
B2 Violent Behaviour | 220bpm
