I am writing this coz I don’t like to flame and I ve the greatest respect of Wikipedia, but its page regarding Speedcore is not as good as I would like. I know there are Guidelines to follow, so I am doing my own page, hopefully other will help for their respective country (I can speak for Italy and Switzerland and some Germany).

The Motherfuckin’ History of Speedcore

Speedcore: MY Definition

Let’s start with a proper definition of what is speedcore and what is not.

BPM: The definition of what is speedcore has changed over time, but i feel free to safe that everything above 260 is Speedcore.

270-290 is a wicked bpm range, and few tracks are produced at that speed, probably coz everybody like to start at 300 for psychologial reasons.

At what bpm speedcore end to be speedcore and become “splittercore”?

I’d say something above 450-500 Bpm. As long as the bassdrum is fast and has prominence, in my opinion it s speedcore.

Defining Speedcore

1.  Speedcore is DANCE music, if the music you listen is only good at home, or when it’s played in a party noone can dance it (headbangin’ is ok, too) it’s NOT speedcore. Call it Experimental, call it IDM, call it whatever but it’s not speedcore in my opinion.
2. The “dance” and “rapture” factor are two other important thing: if a track lacks them it s basically bad speedcore.
3. Track must be fast, but have a good bassy kickdrum. Putting a 300 Bpm base under a track that should go 150 does not make it speedcore. It s shitty dance.
   1. As a corollary: It should have not any happy singed part in it (save for the gimmik intro / small part here and there – like komprex did many times). If there is a “singed” part you cannot put enough base on track.
4. While it s ok to have some broken part here and there, the track should be straight base (see point 1)

About the name

The name Speedcore has been popolarized by D.O.A (in NYC Speedcore) but the name has been already around for some time when they made the track. There is a mix tape by Liza N Eliaz and Jessy James from 1995 named Speedcore Mix. We will speak about them again below, coz the stormed Europe.
On partyflock there are scans of party using the word “speedcore”, too.

Nevertheless Disciples Of Annihilation (and all IS record) have been an huge influence on the producers and brought the name speedcore on the map.

I guess that a lot of people were comparing Hardrock to Hardcore so they named speedcore after speedmetal; for the same reason in the years we have seen the “doomcore” “trashcore” “deathcore” name coming up.

Speedcore sub-Genres

J-Core.

J-Core / JapanCore. As per definition above (and my ignorance in the matter) it’s difficult to frame where the japan happy speedcore fits.

Is OK to consider a 300 bpm Nightcore track as “Speedcore”? I am not saying that all japanese stuff is fast Nightcore, but a lot is

Dark Melodic Speedcore.

If the producer comes from Black Metal instead of techno, probably he will release Dark melodic Speedcore. Lord Lloigor is the prime example of it, but we also had The Dark Orchestra and many many more.
Short Time line

FlashCore

is kinda new style to me… but track as Neurocore – The Magellan Chronicles hooked me istantly. La Peste and his “Hangars Liquides” label are primary example of this genre, which I am sure will grow bigger in the future.

Short Time line of Flashcore:

• 2005 La Peste. Alors le doute s’immiscea, Hangars Liquides 26 is probably the first Flashcore track
• At the moment (2018) Flashcore is departing from its pure speedcore root and is growing with IDM influences.

Other Genres faster Speedcore

First: Let’s look at the following table…

Should we consider Splittercore and Extratone as Speedcore subgenres or as Hardcore Subgenres that starts where speedcore ends?

In the 2000s Splitter and Extratone were so small that I would consider them as speedcore subgenres, but as time pass by they are getting their own dignity, their own producers and such. As I am writing this (end 2010s) I am considering them as different styles.

Let’s dig a little more:

Splittercore

I’ve already mentioned Splittercore ( where the base start to be too fast to bounce, but slow enough to be hearable).
At what bpm speedcore end to be speedcore and become “splittercore”? I d say something above 450-500 Bpm.

Listen to Hassfront vs Pengo to understand what i mean with splittercore

Extratone

Extratone is even faster (bpm above 900). Here the base is basically a single tone… it’s experimental music, not dance music :-). – I know that a lot of people like it and someone also dance it, but it lack – in my opinion the bouncing bass a dance track should have.

I am not dissing Extratone, since i ve produced my fair amount of track in that genre with both my Name and the Extratony nickname since mid 2000.

History of Speedcore

Early fast hardcore (pre 1995)

1992

in 1992 (!!!!) the canadian (!!!!) Cybersonik released the  Jackhammer Ep which was proper speedcore for present standard, too. noizy, fast, disturbing. well done. I am impressed.

1993

Moby (yes that Moby) released the Thousand track. It was standard hardcore. Many label it as first speedcore track, but in my opinionion it lacks the estetic to be “speedcore” and the timestamp to be the first.

Nevertheless, impressive and I remember i wanted it on my Xtreme.core compilation.

1994

The 1994 was a good name of harder hardcore. Nowadays I would label them Gabber / Gabba / industrial / Terror , back then those name were used in a different way.
Oliver Chesler (Temper Tantrum, Dj Skinhead, Horrorist…), Delta 9 and Lenny Dee‘s Industrial Strenght were behind a lot of them.
On this side of the Atlantic we had first Napalm Records and the French Gangstar Toons Industry collective.

Juncalor Record released an Ep By Dj Heaven – another speedcore act no one remember

Explore Toi – Human 1000 BPM De Rebel Va Te Faire Enculer Rubik

Gabba Years (95- 98)

Speedcore youth (99-2003)

 

Speedcore “Explosion” (2005-2008)

The sleepy years

The comeback? (2016 – ??

 

 

Links
Bandcamp about Extratone