Hardstyle Singapore
Cary Polachek
Only in Singapore could you enter an 80s Art Deco mall, take an elevator to the movie theater, and\u2014wondering am I in the right place? as you dodge giggling teens on dates\u2014open a door at the end of a hallway to discover a secret noise show. The carpets still smell like popcorn grease, but theater\u2019s seats have been ripped out to make room for moshing in this ad hoc music venue. Avant-garde haircuts and bulbous black outfits surround you as the crowd moves towards the stage. When the music begins, it sounds like an exorcism: a scuzzy seance of slide guitar distortion and hardstyle drum kicks creeping across the soundproofed walls. And to think there are kids cheerfully watching a blockbuster anime next door as all this demonic shit goes down!
Singapore, winner of the dubious honor of most expensive city in the world, doesn\u2019t exactly have the most fertile conditions for a thriving underground. Social conservatism often relegates the nightlife industry as an immoral afterthought; during the pandemic, a government-mandated party prohibition was so strict that clubs were shut down for two years and even spinning disco balls were banned. Breakneck real estate development has resulted in the closure of many indie venues. Instead, the hyper-capitalist microstate has a rotating roster of luxury nightclubs, including a megaclub with its own ferris wheel and a luxury lounge that once boasted the world\u2019s highest number of billionaires per square foot.
Singapore\u2019s glossy reputation as a playground for crazy rich crypto-kings belies a chilling authoritarianism where state power is enforced with a noose. This week, a local man was executed for allegedly attempting to traffic a kilo, or two pounds, of weed\u2014evidently, the state is doubling down on its policy that cannabis has zero medical value, even as decriminalization sprouts across the region. Yet, despite this paranoid prohibition of altered states of consciousness, sky-high rents and a scourge of $30 cocktails, plus a crushing conformism that pushes deviance deep into the underground, the local rave ecosystem has never felt more potent.
Next week, Singapore will be the site where local and international DJs who peddle the hardest and heaviest sounds in the spectrum of dance music will gather. At Afterdark Singapore, you'll be graced by the turbocharged power of Dutch hardstyle kingpins D-Block & S-te-Fan, as well as that of local heavy-hitters. And from the latter group, Singaporean duo ParaMercy is deepy committed to delivering the hardest and most dynamic sounds.
ParaMercy is a duo act specialising in raw hardstyle and consists of Paranoid and Swave Emercy, two out of the hardstyle veterans in Singapore. The combination of our styles gives our fans a unique, electrifying performance on stage.
Hardstyle is more than just a music genre. It means so much to us as well as many others out there. Paranoid grew up in the era where Jumpstyle was still active and Swave grew up with friends who dance to hard music. The influences we had in the past brought us to where we are today.
We were local DJs when we first met, Swave was a band musician who decided to take on the world of electronic music and Paranoid was a student studying audio engineering and who was inspired to be a electronic music producer. Our common interests brought us together, hence, the launch of the duo act Paramercy.
It feels great! Though the hardstyle scene in Singapore is still new, the love and support for the genre is overwhelming. The unity stands strong in this scene where most hardstyle fans are diehard. The numbers started out as low, but the dedication brought the scene to where it is now and that's what we love and will never stop loving.
Always support your local hard dance acts. Every artist would be nowhere without the support they have. As artists, our aim is to give our audience a unique experience with the genre we love. And we believe that is what makes hardstyle special.
Throughout the years, hardstyle has grown into an international phenomenon that reaches millions of people from all around the world. These are 16 hardstyle documentaries completely filled with insides of our beloved scene, labels and festivals.
Qlimax has been known for being one of the biggest indoor hardstyle events out there for many years now. On the 26th of November 2011, Qlimax took place at the GelreDome in Arnhem, and Q-dance gave us a unique behind the scenes. In this documentary the organisation follows Coone, a visitor, a camera man & editor, and the people responsible for rigging and lasers.
Back in 2013, Brennan Heart came out with his full documentary Evolution of Style. In this film you learn more about Brennan Heart, his life and dedication for hardstyle music. From his private life, life on the road, studio-time and events all the way to new music, interviews and DJ-colleagues: this documentary is worth a watch for every hardstyle lover.
In Ascension, Warface gives his fans a look behind the scenes of the time between the release of his albums Art of War and The 9 Circles. It follows his journey throughout the year during the creation of his new album as well as his experiences and growth within the scene.
This documentary is all about the hard dance scene in Singapore, and features interviews from party-goers, event organizers and the founders who started it all. This film is a must-see to find out more about the hard dance scene in Singapore.
This short documentary is all about Digital Punk and his life, and his pure dedication for hardstyle music. It features how he became a famous raw hardstyle producer/DJ, his thoughts on the scene, the Unleashed Podcast & much more. The short documentary is definitely worth a watch if you want to get to know more about Digital Punk.
2020 will be a big year for Hard Driver: All Or Nothing. With this brand new concept he will release at least one track each month, starting with his 4-track All Or Nothing EP. Furthermore, the DJ/producer introduces an upgraded live experience of his live act and provides his fans with unique behind the scenes in a four-part YouTube-series, of which you can already watch the first two!
In 2019 the well-known Gearbox Digital label celebrated its 10th anniversary. Especially for these 10 years celebration they presented a documentary completely filled with stories about the label and interviews with artists such as Rooler, Luminite, Thyron, Rebelion & many others. So, definitely a must-see for raw hardstyle lovers!
We spoke to Nick (Ganjaguru) and Hoong (Mr.Nasty) of Bass Agents to learn more about why this small tropical peninsular in Asia has such a great outreach for this genre and what they have been doing to pave the way for its popularity in Malaysia.
We were the only DJs playing hard dance in KL in the early 2000s. At that time, we were still playing UK hard dance / hard house on vinyl and slowly integrating hardstyle (when it was still in its infancy) into our sets. It is safe to say we paved the way for Malaysia as we were the only DJs/organisers that were promoting hard events then. We used to throw a lot of parties at Barcode located at Philleo Damansara, then slowly progressing to our own nights taking over clubs around KL called Hardsequence. The biggest was at Ruums before it was turned to KL Live.
We started as solo DJs playing from progressive house to hard house. It's when we really got into hard dance that we formed Bass Agents by Nick and Kenneth in Melbourne. Hoong joined shortly after when he came over for his studies. During that time as a DJ, having a big track on vinyl was a big thing, whereas mp3s weren't a thing yet. Every Thursday, we would rush to the record store and see who would dig the best tunes. We figured it would be better to all have the best tracks in a set rather than see who is better. Two is always better than one, but three of us, even better.
Many would say that we introduced hardstyle to Malaysia and we would like to think it's true. However, even when most promoters and party goers would laugh at us playing hardstyle in the early days, we persevered and never got off track.
We were strong at branding since day one, making our own hoodies with our logo on them and that got sold out pretty quick. The Melbourne shufflers started wearing our hoodies and dancing to our own music on YouTube even before it existed. It went viral before viral was digitalized (haha). Our hoodies were sold around the world, and till today, we still get people as far as the US, France and Germany wearing our hoodies. Occasionally, we would get stopped by them to have a picture as well. One significant track was 'Black Winter', it was a track that we believe touched and inspired many across the world.
We never thought it would take off, and of course, we were ready to be taken into custody by the authorities. It was at the right time when everyone was stuck at home and constantly online listening to what the Prime Minister had to say. We were just fast enough to turn into a meme track the very next day to have a good laugh in these trying times. Luckily enough, it was acknowledged by the Prime Minister as a form of creativity. It went viral on TikTok and the rest was history.
We are still finding our sound in this ever-progressing genre. But we always like to ignite our Asian pride into our sounds with instruments and vocals. Most of the time, we will start with the melody and chords and then slowly build from thereon. It would be hard thumping reverse bass with euphoric melodies if we were to describe it.
Over the past few years, the festival scene in Malaysia has been seen as almost obsolete. It almost seems as though the genre thrives around festival culture. How did it affect your genre and what did you guys do to work around it?
From Taiwan, we should be looking out for is Narcyz and Pie Star. For Singapore, it will be Theo Gobenson. In Korea, that would be Ssombo and for Japan, Yuta Imai. All of them are great producers and are signed to major labels. Locally, we have Kyori and SLVRZ, an up and coming hardstyle DJ you should look out for.
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