Insane and well-crafted (and very fast) music from a queer techno party, held in countries where it is not always safe to do so, carefully toes the line between celebration and outright hostility.
In their own words, “HARDER is a sex-positive queer techno party in Bucharest, Sofia and Zurich.” Which is a fantastic sentence in and of itself, a deceptively courageous mission statement. Bulgaria and Romania rank second and third in the EU, respectively, for incidences of homophobic violence. The first pride parade in Sofia a mere 12 years ago was attacked with petrol bombs, rocks, and glass bottles. Nightlife has always been a space for queer people to gather and find community, and the existence of an overtly queer techno party in countries where gay life remains a daily struggle for many is worthy of our support and attention, though this release more than stands on its own merits. A queer techno party demands energetic and danceable music, and this delivers.
A bouncy hardcore kick is your guide into the madness, a voice imploring you to listen as the hi hats pour in like the line outside the venue dashing in for front row seats in front of the speaker. The kick drums pummel and pulverize, warped instrumentation solidifying an impeccably dark vibe. One could easily imagine these tracks in the kinds of brooding, high octane sets delivered by Paula Temple or Rebekah.
Yes, this music is kick-heavy, the kind of techno release that cares about mostly one thing: creating the most insane vibes imaginable on a large dance floor. Who among us doesn’t crave this exact experience: after over a year with no parties; that is the only place many of us who have long found joy and safety on a dance floor want to be.
“Transform” is the kind of track that makes it sound like the building is being demolished all around you, girders and steel beams cracking under megatons of weight, huge foundations of concrete rippling under tectonic forces. The sound of pylons bending texture the background and the kick is a literal sledgehammer, taking out the last load bearing wall. It’s as though the music itself is deployed as an acoustic shield, defending the party and space against anyone who might threaten it.
On the other side of the anger is the well-deserved celebration, tracks like “Second Chance” deploying a fast rolling kick and sparkling melody. It’s placement in the track order make it sound like a kind of catharsis. This is followed up with cranking acid that careens up and down octaves, a heavily distorted synth firing off with mischievous tonal unpredictability. The album closer fuses all this, exploding with some of the most unhinged and grinningly brutal vibes of any release in the last few years.
Techno, ideally, is subversive and punk, and always sides with the outsider, the underdog, and the oppressed. This release succeeds on sheer adrenaline and madness, but music does not exist in a vacuum, all art is a product of the sum total of struggles and experiences endured by the artist. The origins of music are always significant, and long-suppressed queer anger may account for some of the defensively aggressive energy unleashed by the tracks. Their mission to insist on “putting artists from all different kinds of races, genders and sexualities in the spotlight” is ambitions and vital, and this is a great start.
-Winston Mann
Link – Bandcamp
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