Drvg Cvltvre - what's good? Is there a sort of scene

IdleRich

IdleRich
A while back now (few years even) I was flicking through some of my records and I found this one that I didn't recognise but which was quite a nice tune. I couldn't remember buying it and there was no artist info on the sleeve or on the record itself. It does say the label in the middle but nothing about the artist or the song. Eventually I noticed that scratched into the run off it said Drvg Cvltvure

DrvgCvltvre.jpg

And then I figured out that it was this tune



Seemed to be quite a nice sort of moody warm up piece and I started to play it sometimes when I DJ-d, and I realised it was actually more effective than I had thought, on the dance-floor people reacted to it, so lately I've been playing it later in the night when it's busy and the result is absolute pandemonium, people go crazy to the tune, much more so than I was expecting. In fact I still don't understand what exactly it has that makes it take the roof off more than almost anything else in the box. Yeah it is actually pretty heavy, the beats have real weight to them (much more so than when you hear it on youtube) and I like the kinda doomy menacing sound it has, it's right up my street for sure but when I first span it at home a couple of times I would never have thought it could do so much damage.

So, can someone tell (actually explain to) me, what has it got that other sort of medium-slow dark tunes with a touch of acid to them don't have? What makes it so effective in short?

Second question... once I realised what a good DJ weapon it was, my next thought was "I wonder if this guy did anything else" and so I stuck the name into discogs and immediately discovered he's slightly more prolific than Morricone and Prince put together, it seems like the maniac releases two or three albums every day. Well, ok, I'm exaggerating slightly here but he does have about 25 albums and probably over a hundred singles. So question number two is an obvious one - which are his best ones? If the random one I have is such a dancefloor destroyer what will his very best ones do?

I do get the feeling that his sound is kinda formulaic and that is why he can bosh out so much material. But there is nothing really wrong with that - I certainly feel that there is room in the world for people who have found a blueprint for producing or even mass-producing a certain type of thing that they, along with some members of a specific group of people, are gonna want. Some artists are geniuses, some are hacks, some blow hot and cold, some are just bad etc So if this guy has a formula and makes dancefloor tools that work then fair enough... but if someone can point me in the direction of his best work so I don't have to listen to every single thing that came off the production line then that would obviously be helpful.

And third question is gonna make me sound stupid but... well, it's too late to start worrying about that now, so, here goes. What would you call this kind of music? Who else does this sound and does it well? I realised that I do have a few things that remind me of it. There are a few bits and bobs by this guy Alessandro Parisi that have the same darkness and heaviness eg this one but it's obviously a lot slower



Then there is this one



Now when I played the Drvg Cvltvure one in Porto the other day someone asked me if it was on Pinkman and it did sort of click with me that Pinkman is putting out stuff that is not unadjacent to his sound. So I suppose there are a few people making this kind of racket. So is there a scene? Is it located in any particular place? What DJs play it? What's it called? When it has vocals it kinda feels like electroclash the revenge or something.... except taking itself more seriously.



Long rambling post that I know. But basically it boils down to "Tell me about Drvg Cvltvre - what are his best records and is there a scene with people deliberately concentrating on this sound or have I just heard a few random records that I think are similar and invented one in my head? And if there are loads of other records that are like this which ones are the best overall".

Or, if you prefer, it could be a vaguer "Let's talk about records that sound like this, particularly those by Drvg Cvltvre".
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich
I have to say that i do like this Parisi guy, I've got this one as well which has this really dirty sound and then the hook which only drops in for a bit but it reminds me of this record I used to really love from about ten years ago by a Swiss (I think) band called Scorpion Violente. They both have a kind of soundtrack feel to them... a kinda scuzzy John Carpenter feel I suppose.


This is the Scorpion Violente one


It's got a real DIY kinda feel to it, I saw them in a basement in Paris about ten years ago.
 

bassbeyondreason

Chtonic Fatigue Syndrome
Assuming you're familiar with the 90s Hague scene? Unit Moebius/Bunker records etc.? Drvg Cvltvre is sort of the continuation of the more slow'n'sleazy/electro end of that. He was actually part of that scene and this archive of his early Ra-X recordings is nasty as fuck:
 

bassbeyondreason

Chtonic Fatigue Syndrome
Some of the stuff on Rat Life hits a similar vibe, that sort of quasi-EBM but with a nasty funkiness to it:


This Cliff Lothar has that same slipping-into-darkness nightmare vibe as that DC tune IMO, unfortunately none of his other work comes close:
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Assuming you're familiar with the 90s Hague scene? Unit Moebius/Bunker records etc.? Drvg Cvltvre is sort of the continuation of the more slow'n'sleazy/electro end of that. He was actually part of that scene and this archive of his early Ra-X recordings is nasty as fuck:

I noticed he did some stuff with Speedy J in fact. So I kinda saw he had connections to what I was thinking of as an older generation of Dutch dance music for want of a better word.

I sort of get the feeling he's kinda been there in the background for quite some time. In fact not exactly the background, but not right at the front of the shot either, someone who is not super obscure, but not mega-famous either, just under the radar enough that someone like me could completely miss him.
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich
Some of the stuff on Rat Life hits a similar vibe, that sort of quasi-EBM but with a nasty funkiness to it:


This Cliff Lothar has that same slipping-into-darkness nightmare vibe as that DC tune IMO, unfortunately none of his other work comes close:
Nice one... I like to hear that word EBM, gonna check this out.
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
A while back now (few years even) I was flicking through some of my records and I found this one that I didn't recognise but which was quite a nice tune. I couldn't remember buying it and there was no artist info on the sleeve or on the record itself. It does say the label in the middle but nothing about the artist or the song. Eventually I noticed that scratched into the run off it said Drvg Cvltvure

View attachment 11231

And then I figured out that it was this tune



Seemed to be quite a nice sort of moody warm up piece and I started to play it sometimes when I DJ-d, and I realised it was actually more effective than I had thought, on the dance-floor people reacted to it, so lately I've been playing it later in the night when it's busy and the result is absolute pandemonium, people go crazy to the tune, much more so than I was expecting. In fact I still don't understand what exactly it has that makes it take the roof off more than almost anything else in the box. Yeah it is actually pretty heavy, the beats have real weight to them (much more so than when you hear it on youtube) and I like the kinda doomy menacing sound it has, it's right up my street for sure but when I first span it at home a couple of times I would never have thought it could do so much damage.

So, can someone tell (actually explain to) me, what has it got that other sort of medium-slow dark tunes with a touch of acid to them don't have? What makes it so effective in short?

Second question... once I realised what a good DJ weapon it was, my next thought was "I wonder if this guy did anything else" and so I stuck the name into discogs and immediately discovered he's slightly more prolific than Morricone and Prince put together, it seems like the maniac releases two or three albums every day. Well, ok, I'm exaggerating slightly here but he does have about 25 albums and probably over a hundred singles. So question number two is an obvious one - which are his best ones? If the random one I have is such a dancefloor destroyer what will his very best ones do?

I do get the feeling that his sound is kinda formulaic and that is why he can bosh out so much material. But there is nothing really wrong with that - I certainly feel that there is room in the world for people who have found a blueprint for producing or even mass-producing a certain type of thing that they, along with some members of a specific group of people, are gonna want. Some artists are geniuses, some are hacks, some blow hot and cold, some are just bad etc So if this guy has a formula and makes dancefloor tools that work then fair enough... but if someone can point me in the direction of his best work so I don't have to listen to every single thing that came off the production line then that would obviously be helpful.

And third question is gonna make me sound stupid but... well, it's too late to start worrying about that now, so, here goes. What would you call this kind of music? Who else does this sound and does it well? I realised that I do have a few things that remind me of it. There are a few bits and bobs by this guy Alessandro Parisi that have the same darkness and heaviness eg this one but it's obviously a lot slower



Then there is this one



Now when I played the Drvg Cvltvure one in Porto the other day someone asked me if it was on Pinkman and it did sort of click with me that Pinkman is putting out stuff that is not unadjacent to his sound. So I suppose there are a few people making this kind of racket. So is there a scene? Is it located in any particular place? What DJs play it? What's it called? When it has vocals it kinda feels like electroclash the revenge or something.... except taking itself more seriously.



Long rambling post that I know. But basically it boils down to "Tell me about Drvg Cvltvre - what are his best records and is there a scene with people deliberately concentrating on this sound or have I just heard a few random records that I think are similar and invented one in my head? And if there are loads of other records that are like this which ones are the best overall".

Or, if you prefer, it could be a vaguer "Let's talk about records that sound like this, particularly those by Drvg Cvltvre".
The special sauce is the brooding and unresolved atmospheric pad/reverb effect that sits just below conscious awareness - it's an arty version of a never-ending snare roll
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
There’s an electro tune with a surreal androgynous *WWII voice to text* element taken maybe from Stalingrad? After 80mins and ltd mobility had to call it quits Rich. REALLY annoying, thought along a Feindflug tangent yet still can’t find the cunt

Severed Heads come to mind even if they added lighter touches than acid facets to 100-110 bpm groovers
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Assuming you're familiar with the 90s Hague scene? Unit Moebius/Bunker records etc.? Drvg Cvltvre is sort of the continuation of the more slow'n'sleazy/electro end of that. He was actually part of that scene and this archive of his early Ra-X recordings is nasty as fuck:
Had a bit of a chance to listen to this... I like these tunes but definitely they have a different approach and feel as though they are trying to do something different to that one I posted above. Just different sounds at different points in his career I guess, which is fair enough of course.
Some of the stuff on Rat Life hits a similar vibe, that sort of quasi-EBM but with a nasty funkiness to it:
This one is great, and yeah I see why you say it's similar, nice one.
 
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