Hardcore Techno is the genre most people did not know about. With fast tempo and powerful bass lines, plus a bunch of aggressive samples, you know why some of us like the genre. And then there’s a sub-genre of this Hardcore Techno thing called J-core. J-core, originated from Japan and popularized by some guys like DJ Sharpnel and DJ Shimamura, emphasizes melody, akin to most trance songs. J-core takes on many hardcore sub-genres like happy hardcore, gabber, hardstyle, UK Hardcore and turns them into melodious audible music. HARDCORE TANO*C is one of the prominent doujin circle that focuses on J-core music.
Oh, we’re not focusing on J-core as in groovy, rave-friendly music. Artcore is a blanket term, a portmanteau of “Art” and “Hardcore”, for yet another sub-genre of J-core (or more into J-electro music in general, because some songs are not hardcore-based) that primarily roots on the beauty of classical music (as in, using piano and violin as melody tracks, and especially using orchestral) and the impactful sound of drum ‘n bass, well mostly DnB but other drum loops like the ones found in trance and rock are used as well. Considered as “experimental music” and not officially defined genre, Artcore is even more unknown to many people, but is beautiful to those who enjoy it.
In 2002, dj TAKA’s “A” served as the basis of a Drum n’ Bass hardcore track. This song is a fast DnB-filled progressive hardcore track, complete with violins and piano. The genre he used, “Renaissance”, travels back in the renaissance era, when classical music peaks up there, inspiring Taka to create this piece of music. Are we considering that track an “artcore” music?
I asked myself, who introduced Artcore genre? The earliest known time when Artcore was introduced was back in 2002, the same year Taka’s A was released, when Kennosuke Ono (onoken) made a DnB track named felys, although he did not use the term “Artcore” as a genre. It was not just a typical DnB song slapped with some hard basslines and Amen Break samples, but it also incorporated progressive piano and synthesized violins as main emphasis of melody. At that time, none of these can be found in popular DnB and Hardcore tracks. Artcore fans considered “felys” as the birth of Artcore genre.
Onoken’s felys has inspired a few doujin artists like sasakure.UK, AcuticNotes/An/Feryquitous, Tsukasa Yatoki, Sakuzyo, Lunatic Sounds, and Bernis to make artcore-focused music in various tempo, artificially acoustic or electronic. YouTube channels like Elegant Sister and Akasagarbha promote artcore music to a bunch of listeners who want something different from electronic music (and especially J-core, which I believe I probably misused for this one little article).
Meanwhile, the blanket term “Artcore” was earlier used by Ryu* to refer his genre of a DnB-filled song, Narcissus At Oasis, found in beatmania IIDX 10th style, released in 2004. Although Ryu* makes happy hardcore tracks, he dabbled in Artcore like this song he did, albeit rarely nowadays. Yes, this “artcore” term was introduced by a happy hardcore artist.
Here above is sasakure.UK’s attempt at making progressive “artcore” music, titled Jack-the-Ripper◆, released in 2009. Previously in 2007, Sasakure created an artcore trCK named Kamui, an obvious typical drum’n bass song slapped with piano melodies. Listening to Jack-the-Ripper◆ means that I appreciated how Sasakure crafts a wonderful and mysterious violin backing to this song. It gives strong emotion more than most EDM track gives.
The Clear Blue Sky by Tsukasa Yatoki featuring Aki Misawa, first introduced in DJMAX Portable Clazziquai Edition video game, is simply melodious. Combining happy hardcore beat with melodies inspired by Onoken’s Felys, some would grow up with this song.
DJ TOTTO composed Adularia, in which genre he used is “Artcore”. Personally, I was brought into the term “Artcore” thanks to Adularia. In this song, electronic synths and the beats of J-core are primarily used, in a progressive-artcore-iffic way that blew my mind when I first time listened to it.
And then it was Axeria by AcuticNotes that sparks my interest towards artcore music. AcuticNotes, or shortened as An, in my opinion, is the living embodiment of Artcore music. Throughout the years, I’ve grown up with An’s way of expressing beautiful emotions through his songs such as Xhroria, TearVid, OrVid, Abstreact, Finally/Saigo, and HerVid (compilation for An’s songs here).
When An changed alias as Feryquitous, he still brings the lines of artcore genre, and thus songs done under his Feryquitous alias like Dstorv, Strahv, orca (featuring xi), Sincuvate (collaboration with sky_delta and Nakuru Aitsuki), Lividi, and Koe/Rhuzerv melt my emotions (playlist for Feryquitous’ songs here). Boy, I even looped “orca” a hundred times than most songs found in my music library, because “orca” is definitely a god tier Feryquitous song. It shows how appreciative I am towards Artcore music through An/Feryquitous. For me, it’s addictive yet so emotional I might gonna burst in tears when I’m listening to some of his songs, all because of his classical music inspiration. He was inspired by Onoken’s Felys and perfected the artcore synergy done by Onoken, Tsukasa, and sasakure.UK, among others. A total of 15 albums under An or Feryquitous were made and I can’t get enough of the so-called “Artcore god” artist.
For some reason, people often overlooked Artcore because it’s an acquired taste of music. Some people prefer listening to easy-to-listen EDM tracks, or maybe popular J-core music. Little they did not know the appreciation of classical music genre infused in this progressive, intelligent dance music-inspired genre.
And now, where to end? Artcore is a genre mostly unknown to many, but beautiful to few. Maybe it’s experimental, maybe it’s intelligent, or maybe it’s melodious; I enjoyed artcore because it is the point that I want to fully appreciate classic, acoustic style electronically. Primary players to Artcore music like An, sasakure, Onoken, Tsukasa, and others bring the lost beauty expressed by (mostly minor-scaled) piano plus violin backings, while putting the electronic beats to test.
As a note of reminder, I listened to An’s songs while writing this piece of article, trying so hard to explain about artcore music.