- DJ Universe – Has a lot of speedcore in his sound area.
- Dr. Macabre – The Paranoid Section – Dr. Macabre’s personal site, a lot of released and unreleased tracks, studio pictures, and a lot of weird stuff. In English
- Extinction doesn’t Exist – This site is in Dutch as well as in English, it has partypictures, some information and links and non-gabber related fun-stuff.
- Gabba Front Berlin – Terrorizer from Berlin brings you all about Gabber, Hardcore, Speedcore, and Noisecore.
- Gabber Library – Large Gabber directory with search. Lots of links.
- Gabber.org – Gabber search and directory.
- Industrial Strength Europe – Resurrection of the legendary Industrial Strength label, now headed by DJ Jappo. News and releases. The site uses a lot of Flash and is a bit slow because of that.
- Made Of Dreams – News, party agenda, reports, clubs, hardcore and techno lyrics, charts, adverts and remakes index.
- Mortified Rage – Gabber/Hardcore music with lots of synths, and build ups, keeping the speed and aggression of old school gabber. Page includes artwork and links to mp3 downloads.
- Neophyte – Home of the Dutch producer. News, Real Audio, Fun Stuff and Pictures.
- Dutch Gabber Network – Nieuws, agenda, interviews, charts, partypics, forum, nieuwsgroep, recencies, links en een column.
- UnitedGabbers.nl, the underground hardcore magazine – Online gabber magazine gericht op Nederland en Vlaanderen. Nieuws, interviews, feesten, muziek en lifestyle.
- Rave-O-Lution – Party reports, pictures and agenda, and nice online DJ Mixes.
- Rige Entertainment – Dutch record company and organizators of Megarave parties. The most famous artists on their label are Rotterdam Terror Corps, dr. Z-vago, dr. Macabre, Hardcorps and Chosen Few.
- TerrorForm Alliance – Gabber Hardcore Terror Militia
- Unit Productions – Small record label from Holland. Listen to their (upcoming) releases and learn more about their producers.
- Xplizit Hardcore – Hardcore/Gabber tracking group. This site used to be a lot bigger, still they have some quality releases.
Gabber, gabba (pronounced gahba or gahbuhr in Dutch), or hardcore, is a subgenre of electronic music that is closly related to hardcore techno. The style was born in the Dutch city of Rotterdam in the early 1990s. The essence of the gabber sound is a distorted kick sound, overdriven to the point where it becomes a square wave and makes a recognizably melodic tone. Gabber tracks typically also include samples and synthesised melodies with the typical tempo ranging from 160 to 220 bpm.
The term traces its roots back to the Hebrew word for ‘mate’ or ‘friend’. Apocryphally, one of these gabbers wanted to enter the Roxy in Amsterdam, where the bouncer said, «No gabber, you can’t come in here.» Source of the Dutch term for the genre, «gabberhouse», was DJ «Hardy» Ardy Beesemer.
In general the track We Have Arrived (1990) by Mescalinum United is considered to be the first gabber track. The first Dutch gabber track is Rotterdam Termination Source’s Poing (1992). The record shop Midtown in the Nieuwe Binnenweg of Rotterdam is one of the shrines of Gabber music. Fans dressed in Australian and Cavello tracksuits, Nike Air Max sport shoes, bomber jackets, and many of them would have shaven heads. Female fans often kept a small tail of hair on the back of their heads. Later, in 1999 and beyond, their clothing style more and more changed and brands like Fred Perry, Lonsdale and Ben Sherman were added to their outfits.
The style began in the late 1980s, but some claim that it was diluted by happy hardcore and, for hardcore fans, by commercialisation. The commercial organisation ID&T helped a lot in making the music popular by organising parties and selling merchandise. After the airing of what were felt by some as humiliating video clips, some gabbers felt they were being made fun of and were discriminated against. The name gabber is somewhat less used these days to describe this music style. Many would now prefer to call the style ‘hardcore’. After surviving underground for a number of years, in 2002 the style has became more popular again in the Netherlands.
There was a somewhat divisive split in the hardcore scene starting in the late 1990s. Some producers started embracing a slower style characterized by a deeper, harder bass drum that typically had a longer envelope than was possible in the traditional, faster style. This newer sound was referred to as «New Style» (or «Nu Style») and «New Skool» and as the tempo got slower and slower it began to become similar to hard house. Many hardcore enthusiasts hated hard house and the club scene it typifies, and frequently DJs would be booed by one group of fans and cheered for by another at the same party, depending on the tempo and style of music they were playing. This is similar to the rivalry and mutual dislike that surfaced earlier between fans of «regular» hardcore and happy hardcore. Eventually the two styles met in the middle, and most gabber today is produced in a bpm range of 160-170. This is typically a little bit slower than the Rotterdam style of the mid-90’s and somewhat faster than the slowest Newstyle tracks that emerged.
Gabber is characterised by its bassdrum sound. Essentially, it comes from taking a normal synthesized bassdrum and overdriving it heavily. The approximately sinusoidal sample starts to clip into a squarewave with a falling pitch. This results in a number of effects: the frequency spectrum spreads out, thus achieving a louder, more aggressive sound. It also changes the amplitude envelope of the sound by increasing the sustain. Due to the distortion, the drum also develops a melodic tone. It is not uncommon for the bassdrum pattern to change pitch throughout the song to follow the bassline.
The second frequently used component of gabber tracks is the «hoover», a patch of the Roland Alpha Juno synthesizer. A «hoover» is typically a distorted, grainy, sweeping sound which, when played on a low key, can create a dark and brooding bassline. Alternatively, when played at higher pitches, the hoover becomes an aggressive, shrieking lead. Faster gabba tracks often apply extremely fast hoover-patterns – gapping (changing the volume rapidly between the maximum and silence) is often used. Common elements also include guitar riffing (often done live at gabber parties) and MCing (more often than not also distorted).
Lyrics and themes of gabber usually deal with self-indulgence, sex, violence and anti-establishment. However, it must be noted that gabber songs usually carry a hint of irony in themselves – although some songs are meant to be taken seriously, this is by no means a trend.
The aforementioned two subgenres of gabba differ in essentially one thing: the tempo.
Oldskool gabba, staying true to its mentality, defines «hardness» in speed: tracks rarely go under 160 BPM, and bassdrum rolls often go up to a speed where the beats themselves are hardly distinguishable from each other.
Nuskool gabba, however, slows the speed down to 150 BPM, but extends the length of the bassdrum so the bass-frequency resonation keeps on longer. (In this aspect, «nugabba» obviously cannot be considered less powerful than its precursor, although slower hardcore is often less energetic.) A typical style in the subgenre is what fans apostrophe as shuffle gabba or triplet gabba, a style best made known by Rotterdam Terror Corps: the beats are divided into triplets and all hoover notes are played in a short, staccato-like fashion, giving the song a march-like feel.
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Subdivisions
The gabba genre has a number of different styles related to it, including speedcore, terrorcore, hardcore, breakcore, darkcore, frenchcore, hardstyle, jumpstyle, bouncy techno, nu style gabba, extratone and noizecore.
It is a misconception that all gabber is simple and loud music. The style later became (somewhat limited by the fans’ taste) a creative style, in which complex rhythmic and melodic combinations are very common. In much of gabber, melodies and drums are overlayed with a number of filter effects, which adds richness to the music. Gabber has grown into a serious style of music where producers are encouraged to experiment.
Because of the extreme tempo of the music, and the shaven heads and clothing preference being associated with skinheads or neo-nazis, some generalize that gabber fans are all members or supporters of neo-rightist or neo-Nazi groups. For example, in the early 1990s, gabber gained a following in the very small neo-fascist rave scene in the American Midwest and in Germany.[1] Yet most gabber fans are opposed to racism, fascism, and sexism.
The gabber scene is often associated with the use of speed, ecstasy, ketamine and other drugs. This, of course, is also just generalization – while it is true that many drug-user gabber fans exist, it is no way required.
While this music style is very distinct, some sampling from the UK rave music scene is apparent. Gabber events follow the same DJ and MC format, and many of the same philosophies of unity.
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