The Mercalli Effect – a collaborative EP by hardcore artist Gabber Eleganza and anonymous gen-z techno project 9Den – effectively cosigns the new, hyperpop-inspired evolution of EDM. The record features three fast-paced club tracks: EPICENTRO, TME, and DOR; with features from performance artist and musician, Aun Helden as well as experimental rock singer Giorgio Valentino.
Alberto Guerrini is a seminal figure amongst the hardcore scene. His project, Gabber Eleganza, transformed from a memorialisation of the post-rave continuation of hardcore into a defining soundtrack of the era. His dedicated documentation of rave culture shines most prominently through his platform Never Sleep, an archival publication of records, zines, and apparel. Through Never Sleep, Alberto has created and published two books, Archivio #1 and Manga Corps, which accumulate artefacts and ephemera from the 1990s Western and Japanese rave scenes respectively. For the last decade, he has toured EDM scenes around the world with The Hakke Show: a live dj set featuring a group performance of the integral gabber dance style known as the hakken.
9Den is newer to the scene, having only discovered EDM during lockdown, yet the project has become emblematic of the high-energy evolutions taking place amongst the foundations of traditional hardcore. He belongs to TEAMCRO: a multi-disciplinary arts collective whose extensive archive of visual and musical creations has been continuously expanding since their formation in 2019. His party, Hardcoccola – a witty play on hardcore using the Italian word for cuddle, which encompasses the free party community perfectly – stays definitively underground. No posters, no online presence, just Telegram and Whatsapp chats to attract those deeply connected with where the scene began.
Over Google Meet, I spoke with them both about the new EP, the ramifications of lockdown on the rave scene, and the energetic, post-covid take on EDM.
Alberto grew up surrounded by music. He was introduced to the intricate world of hardcore around the age of 10, as the genre painted the atmosphere of the Italian village where he grew up. He recalled to me that he would hear it blasting from cars, houses, parties, and even amusement parks; “I was really surrounded,” he reminisced with the distinctive twang of nostalgia in his voice, “it was street music”. He began attending raves in the late 90s, conforming to the time-honoured tradition of teenage rebellion.
9Den’s entry to the scene was anticlimactic. He discovered a genre built on community; gritty parties; and bustling, sweaty, skin-to-skin crowds during the quiet isolation of the Covid-19 lockdown. “I don’t have the same OG background” he told me, referring to Alberto’s initiation with a mouse-like timidity as though I would lose respect for him after learning that he hadn’t been in the thick of the genre’s inauguration. Music became an outlet for him, a way of channelling the pent-up aggression of being confined to a four-wall radius. He used it to assuage his boredom whilst he studied philosophy and passion grew. The feeling that isolation evoked was so intense he struggled to find the words for it in English; so he turned to Alberto, who translated the emotion as an “urgency to explode”.
This same urgency shaped a generation, shaped a genre, birthed the new wave bouncing-off-the-walls-and-desperate-to-escape hardcore. Kids who grew up online, with attention spans that formed through doomscrolling endless fifteen-second TikTok snippets, yearned for the intrinsic freedom of a nineties rave. A place to let go of yourself completely and not have to worry about the videos that might surface the next morning. The experience that 9Den and the rest of the EDM-obsessed gen-zers were seeking, though unconventionally, was the same one Alberto described as a “baptism”. To branch out beyond your born family and find your own place in the world. The stark differences in their origins were unable to change the fact that in the end, Alberto, 9Den, and every generation of ravers seek and ultimately find the same thing; themselves and their people. Finding the EDM community forced 9Den to grow up for a second time, to embrace his thoughts and his energetic nature and cling to those who embrace it too. “Like Alberto said, this is my family now”.
The scurry for connection and self-expression in the face of isolation led to the fusion of gritty EDM, hyperpop, jcore, and a fashion sense reminiscent of 2000s scemo MySpace. Subcultures escaped the need for strict archetypes and instead huddled like penguins under the umbrella of breaking the status-quo. Reservations from the OGs were rife across the board, the influx of young people who grew up online felt like an infiltration of sorts. “Hardcore and techno are very conservative in terms of scene. So, ‘if you don’t play by specific rules, you are not part of us’,” Alberto told me as we discussed the rising popularity of hyperpop in 2020. Traditions were discarded, rules were broken, and it felt like the new generation were ignoring the foundations of the scene so they could fast-track their way in. Performance and aesthetics were seemingly platformed above the music itself, and taste-signalling overtook experience. However, these techno-traditionalist views fail to understand the breadth of what was actually happening; Alberto and 9Den know this better than anyone. This genre-bending patchwork of fresh artists “changed the cards on the table” according to 9Den. They spread dance music beyond its typical listener base and opened the doors for new influence and new expression. The focus on performance is simply a part of growing up, of balancing fitting in with trying to discover yourself. “The young need to be young” Alberto told me, challenging his own concerns about the shifting priorities within the community, “They don’t really give a fuck about what’s happening there or then, so they just do it because they want to do it. ”
According to Alberto the rave scene will never die, it exists in a state of perpetual evolution.
“From ancient times we were gathering in places, listening to music, and drinking strange things to make us happy and escape from reality… It’s just part of our urge to be human.” The “pure essence” continues to fight its way through the surge in “commercial, capitalist raves,” and that essence has always been rooted in community. Creating a safe space for people from all worlds to come together and set themselves free.
Gabber Eleganza and 9Den combined their talents in The Mercalli Effect to unite the OGs and the new generation; allowing them to focus on creating a new direction for EDM together. They’re describing this new rave language as “Italian Earthquake”, which befits not only the sound but the energy of everyone coming together to rebuild the raving community after covid took its toll. It’s a perfect, impossible-to-miss siren warning us all to let go of rules, aesthetics, and performance, and focus on what matters most: connection.
The pair’s bond is undeniable and it translates into everything that they create. 9Den’s youthful spirit reminded Alberto to revisit his own, resulting in an EP that defies tradition and “unintentionally” incorporates hard hyperpop amongst the foundations of OG 90s hardcore. “He put his sound, I put mine, and it was a perfect match to make something new,” 9Den told me of the EP’s creation, describing their relationship as a “super friendship” though I witnessed something much deeper, almost fraternal, between them. Alberto is intrigued by “collective spirits” in art, such as TEAMCRO, and makes every effort to platform them with Never Sleep to subvert the stereotype of electronic music as a solo, “ego-type production”. Since 9Den’s first hardcore gig, a Gabber Eleganza headline at the Hacienda in 2022, Alberto’s experienced hand has introduced and guided 9Den through the world of techno. “I love 9Den’s work because it’s young and rough, in a good way.” This rule-defying and carefree nature pushed Alberto to throw caution and tradition to the wind, to explore the endless possibilities of art without restriction. It made music fun again.
