FearFM Hardstyle & Hardcore Top 40 February

Posted by Ool on Feb 5, 2009 in Uncategorized | 4 comments

[UPDATED with hardcore top 40 list & comments]Lists. Even hardstyle and hardcore cannot escape them. FearFM, probably the biggest harder styles (internet) radio station, has been kindly pointing this out for quite a while now. A monthly hardstyle, hardcore and tek/jump top 40 prove that even us hardheads apparently like to know what others like… or whatever the point of a top 40 is. One use of these lists is for analytic purpose though, it gives us some insight into popularity trends within the scene. So let’s take a look.

We will consider the hardstyle top 40 first, skipping the jump/tek one. Why? Because I do not know enough about the style to say anything meaningful about it, that’s why. You can, however, view it on the FearFM site if you wish to do so.

Alright, so here the hardstyle hitlist is. And let’s not forget a download link: FearFM Hardstyle Top 40 February 2009.

01. Killer Clown – Silentium
02. Davide Sonar – Natural
03. Abyss & Judge – Rok It
04. Wild Motherfuckers – B2BW (Wild Mix)
05. Headhunterz – The Fear Of Darkness
06. Crypsis ft. Sasha F – Get Hit
07. Deepack & Frontliner Ft. MC Lan – To Ya Brain
08. TNT – Double Dutch Darkies
09. Killer Clown – Tormented
10. Hardstyle Masterz – Junior
11. D-Block & S-Te-Fan Vs. Coone – Creation Of Life
12. Dutch Master – Floorspin
13. Abyss & Judge – The Vision
14. Wilstylez – Pleasure
15. Zany & Tatanka Ft. MC DV8 – Connection
16. Headhunterz – A New Day
17. Showtek – Dominate (Melbourne Mix)
18. Phillipe Rochard – Lonely Day
19. Degos & Re-Done – Rawness
20. Coone – Earthquake
21. Zatox Pres. Vyolet – Master & Slave
22. Abyss & Judge – Another World
23. Zappaman – Sexual Healing (Back In Da Days Mix)
24. Crypsis ft. Kold Konexion – Sonic Sabotage
25. Showtek – Partylover (Sydney Mix)
26. Davide Sonar – Dedication
27. Haze – You Like My Style
28. Tatanka & Zany ft. MC DV8 – The Recepy
29. Dark Oscillators – Trapped
30. Hardstyle Mafia – Stab U In The Back
31. Acti – In The Club
32. Dutch Master – Motion
33. Deepack & Frontliner ft. MC Lan – Phreakerz
34. K1ngsm4n & B.A.C.H. – Rampage
35. Wasted Penguinz – We Live For The Day
36. Pavo & Blutonium Boy – Echoes 2009
37. Degos & Re-Done – Hardsound Amplifier
38. Plastmaravers – Shake & Dancing
39. Hardstyle Mafia – Boom & Blast
40. Crypsis – The 6th Pathway

The first thing that occurs is how FearFM might as well ask us to be their personal trendwatchers, with all those releases we reviewed op top. Not very relevant to the list itself though.

Silentium as number one is an extremely surprising, yet solid choice. It certainly is one of the very best, if not the single best, track this month. However, it does not seem to be widely popular within the scene, probably due to its ‘difficult’ melody. Number two, Natural, was to be expected. Curiously, they picked Rok It over The Vision, even though the latter is clearly better. We encounter some more usual suspects and surprisingly, To Ya Brain on number 7. Strange, because it is a very badly produced track. Typical case of a fantastic idea which just isn’t executed right – it sounds flat, boring and plain amateur, even though its double-voiced melody deserves a lot of praise.

DDD is placed, conforming to the slight disappointment it was in comparison to its hype, at the 8th place. The rather pointless Hardstyle Masterz remix of Junior lands on the 10th spot, higher than such masterpieces as Floorspin and Pleasure. A New Day gets an undeserved high ranking, and is again followed by way better tracks like Sonic Sabotage and Sexual Healing. Let’s hope that Sexual Healing, which is actually a February release, will end up higher in next month’s top 40. It is at least as oldschool and certainly better than DDD.

Also released in February are the new DMW records – the Showtek remixes and the DMW E.P.. Seeing Motion, You Like My Style and Another World in the list certainly makes one happy, although especially the first two deserve a way higher ranking. Zushi – Arabica is left out of the list for reasons unfathomable to me – it is certainly not less refreshing than the rest of the EP. Although not bad, the Showtek remixes are nothing overly exciting and get a rightfully earned 17th and 25th spot.

We end off the list with The 6th Pathway, Crypsis’ hardstyle-hardcore crossover masterpiece. You might have expected me to whine about its low ranking but I am opting not to, since only half of it is hardstyle anyway. Which is a good thing.

Taking everything into account, it seems this top 40 doesn’t really know where it wants to go; there are some unexpected choices like Silentium in it, which certainly do not reflect most of the public’s opinion. On the other hand, the largest part of the list does seem to be dedicated to hardstyle hits. It makes one wonder how the list is compiled – we might ask the guys at FearFM at some point in the future. For now, let us just say the list mostly reflects the taste of the general hardstyle public very well. This leads us to a wonderful conclusion: generic ultra-nustyle finally seems to be losing some of its popularity, making room for fresh, experimental stuff like You Like My Style. Things might not end up that badly after all.

[Update] Found it: FearFM Hardcore Top 40 February 2009.

1: Endymion & Nosferatu – Act Of God
2: Nico & Tetta – Gangsta & Gangsta
3: Neophyte vs. The Stunned Guys – The Soul Collector
4: Meccano Twins – Unnecessary Sacrifice
5: Catscan – Bad Beat
6: Source Code – I’m Not A Number (Headbanger Remix)
7: Hellsystem – Mad Pimp
8: The Genesis Projection – Three Fucking Seconds
9: DJ D vs. DJ Piwi – Destiny
10: Evil Activities vs. The Viper – Project Hardcore (Nexes Remix)
11: Meccano Twins – Magnitudo
12: Kasparov – Time
13: Headbanger vs. Delirium – Danger (Scott Brown Remix)
14: Na-Goyah – Going Down
15: Beatstream & Accelerator – On Fire Again
16: Nico & Tetta – Untouchables
17: Masters Of Ceremony – 2008 Skulls (Headbanger Remix)
18: Promo – Different Breed Of Men (Meccano Twins Remix)
19: Triax & Mr. Sinister – Forever To Stay
20: Slavefriese – Wonderpill (Five Minutes)
21: Catscan – On Fire
22: The Genesis Projection – You Inside Me
23: Hellsystem – Undercover
24: DJ D vs. DJ Piwi – Always Naked
25: Meccano Twins – Dissolution
26: Na-Goyah – Put It On
27: DJ Mad Dog – Awful Sound
28: Negative A & Tymon – Methods Of Madness
29: Headbanger – Sweet Dreams 2008 (Marc Acardipane Headbanging Remix)
30: Slavefriese – E-boat
31: Nitrogenetics – Pledge Of Resistance (Nexes Remix)
32: Rotterdam Terror Corps & Paul Elstak – Skull Dominion
33: Javi Boss & Juanma – Pression
34: Nosferatu & Endymion – Pass The Bottles
35: Triax – The Hard Life
36: The Hitmen feat. Mike Redman – Band Your Head Again
37: Angerfist feat. Cixx & Kokka – Brother’s Keepers
38: DJ Mad Dog – Last Motherfucker
39: Weapon X – Planet Rocker
40: Day-Mar – Pole Position

What we have here is, as can be expected, a typical mainstream hitlist. There are some exceptions in the positive sense, like the Meccano Twins releases and Catscan’s Future is Now, but most of it is mainstream pulp. Some of it good mainstream pulp, like Act of God and the tracks from A Gathering of Styles 03/Enzyme Injection 5. Recent Italian mainstream is not bad either, but not what it used to be. Sadly, Na-Goyah also seems to have abandoned his unique own sound in his latest release, trading it in for a 70% generic pulpcore, 30% Na-Goyah mix. Besides, some heavenly releases like Promo – Time to Shine and the really good tracks from Enzyme 30 have been left out.

Wait, there is one track from Time to Shine: Meccano Twins’ Different Breed of Men remix. This song, when compared to the other 39 here, deserves a #1 spot with miles’ distance. Hardcore the way it’s meant to be: relentless, hard, and most of all, extremely fuckin’ relentless.

Besides this, there’s really not that much I can say about the hardcore list. It is boring, only has a couple of industrial songs that just happen to be popular with the mainstream as well, and is generally unsurprising. And it shows the current state of hardcore: there still is a lot of interesting stuff coming out, but in order to hear it all, you will certainly have to look past the mainstream stuff at parties and MOH compilations. Most mainstream certainly is not bad, but we have got to a point where some more diversity would be very welcome indeed. Industrial, on the other hand, is woefully underrated; it is musically superior and shows more variation if you pay attention to detail.

Better luck next month.