If you were into hardcore techno in the '90s, you definitely knew about the Thunderdome compilations. These legendary albums, released by ID&T, were packed with fast BPMs, distorted kicks, and raw, no-nonsense energy, shaping the hardcore rave scene, especially in the Netherlands. Featuring artists like The Prophet, DJ Promo, 3 Steps Ahead, and Neophyte, they were the soundtrack to countless nights of glowsticks, sweat, and questionable life choices.

Gimme the Beat! took heavy inspiration from one of these Thunderdome classics: Go Get Busy by DJ Weirdo & DJ Sim, featured on Thunderdome VIII: The Devil in Disguise (1995). But unlike the pros, I had to work with very limited gear: a sampler that could only handle four audio tracks at once and a sequencer to sync everything together. No fancy effects, no reverb... just raw, unfiltered hardcore, the way nature (or budget constraints) intended.

To give it a happy hardcore twist, I sampled Light of Love (1989) by Cerrone, featuring Terry Brock & Steve Overland, and layered in some aggressive rave sounds from Rexanthony's Techno Shock 6.

Fun fact: That police siren intro? Not from a random cop chase: it's actually lifted from Mötley Crüe's Dr. Feelgood album, specifically the track T.N.T. (Terror 'n Tinseltown). Because if there's one thing hardcore and hair metal have in common, it's over-the-top intensity.

Go Motherfucker! dives headfirst into techno hardcore gabber, cranking up the speed, intensity, and aggression compared to my earlier tracks. The title alone should probably come with a parental advisory. It starts off deceptively calm, featuring a mystical, monk-like chant sampled from Mao Mak Maa (1994) by Freaky Fukin Weirdoz, a german crossover band - but of course, I couldn't leave it untouched. I layered it with breakbeat hip-hop drums and that unmistakable high-pitched whinnying sound from Insane in the Brain (1993) by Cypress Hill - which, let's be honest, always sounded like a demented horse.

Then... all hell breaks loose. A bloodcurdling horror scream kicks things into overdrive, launching the track into full gabber madness: high BPM, pounding rave energy, relentless beats, and, of course, the ever-present "Go Motherfucker Gooooooo!" vocal sample echoing through the chaos.

Fun fact: Like many of my later tracks, this one also sneaks in vocal samples from Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) and Jurassic Park (1993), both of which I owned on VHS... and yes, in English, please! (I'm a French-speaking guy from the PAL region, but luckily, my grandfather had a special universal VHS player that could handle tapes from anywhere, including NTSC English releases.)

Trying to pin down the genre of this track is like trying to explain why cargo pants were cool in the early 2000s... it's complicated. It mashes up an electric guitar metal riff with a breakbeat/hardcore rhythm, a weird looping background noise that sounds like a haunted bell, hypnotic Bulgarian choir vocals, and... my absolutely questionable early 20s attempt at "singing". And let's be real: the lyrics don't actually mean much. But back then, as a French-speaking guy, I thought they sounded badass. Something along the lines of:

"Back to Christianity! Christianity!!
Darkness, Madness, Unclean the Tyrant. POW!
In the Mouth of Gloom, he died - what a doom."

For the rhythm, I took inspiration from Tied Up by British electronic duo LFO (released in 1996). But at the same time, I was really into throwing in some crunchy metal guitar sounds - because why not? The result is something vaguely Industrial Metal, maybe in the same ballpark as Fear Factory or Ministry... but with a little less industrial grit and a lot more young adult enthusiasm.

Fun fact: The Bulgarian choir vocals come from a CD I borrowed from my grandfather, titled Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares - Volume 1 ("The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices"), released in 1975.

Hulk Hogan: "Okay, you guys! Listen up! People paid good money to see this movie! When they go out to a theater, they want cold sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in the projection booth! Do I have to come up there myself? (rips his shirt off) Do you think the Gremsters can stand up to the Hulkster? Well, if I were you, I'd run the rest of Gremlins 2, right now! (to the audience) Sorry, folks. It won't happen again".

Hey You Guys! is basically a love letter to Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), a movie as chaotic and absurd as the track itself. It's packed with samples from the film, including the legendary moment when Hulk Hogan interrupts the movie to scold the Gremlins for messing with the projector. Then there's the hilarious "Rest your butt here" line and the eerily corporate-sounding announcement: "Alert personnel. We have a career opportunity on level seven", right after an employee gets instantly fired. Talk about efficiency!

Musically, this track jumps between techno, breakbeat, acid house, and even a touch of full-throttle gabber in the middle. And as for the melody... well, here's a little backstory: I rented a sci-fi horror movie on VHS, didn't care much for the film (I don't even remember the title), but thought the soundtrack was incredible. So naturally, I took a section and made it my own, especially in the track's intro. And that intense hardcore segment in the middle? It features a sample from The Frighteners (1996), another horror movie (but a great one this time!).

This track is kind of a weird one. I'm not sure I've ever heard anything quite like it, but if I had to name an influence, I'd say it's like The Chemical Brothers crashing into Terrordrome VII Badcore Massacre, or something along those lines.

Fun fact: I named this track Hey You Guys! even though Hulk Hogan actually shouts "Okay, you guys!"... but the way I cut the sample makes it sound more like "Ay you guys!". So, technically, I just went with what my ears heard (or misheard).

"Eric, don't do it! I saw the look in his eyes. This guy's crazy. He's fuckin' crazy!"

That iconic line comes straight from Kickboxer (1989), a classic Jean-Claude Van Damme martial arts flick. In the scene, Eric Sloane (Dennis Alexio), a champion kickboxer, is about to fight the brutal Tong Po in an underground match in Thailand. But before the fight, Kurt Sloane (Van Damme) witnesses Tong Po casually warming up - by kicking a concrete pillar with his bare shin. Hard. No wincing, no hesitation. Just pure, terrifying power. That's when Kurt realizes this guy isn't just another fighter; he's a bone-crushing maniac.

I took that legendary line and transformed it into an Acid House/Big Beat-inspired track, channeling the energy of artists like Fatboy Slim and The Chemical Brothers. Speaking of The Chemical Brothers, I also borrowed a sample from their track Morning Lemon, a lesser-known but killer B-side from their Loops of Fury EP (1996), packed with squelchy acid synths and punchy breakbeats. That track always stuck with me, so I had to slip a bit of it into my own creation.

In 1999, I decided to apply to a multimedia school because I wanted to learn all sorts of new things - and, you know, officially become an Interactive Media Designer. And hey, it's never too late to learn, right? Even today, I feel like I'm still leveling up my artistic skills.

To get into the school, we had to submit three works based on the theme "outil" (which means tool or instrument in French). The challenge? Create one written or artistic document, one visual piece, and one audio track. Naturally, I went all in: I wrote an essay, drew a 13-page comic, and recorded a one-minute track filled with the sounds of hammers, drills, and saws, all tied together with a playful melody. The final masterpiece? Proudly recorded on a cassette tape.

Fun fact: I passed the entrance tests, attended the multimedia school from 1999 to 2003, and officially became an Interactive Media Designer. Mission accomplished!

Fun fact: Rumor has it the examiners couldn't even listen to our audio submissions, because they didn't have a tape player. Guess we'll never know if my track Outil was ahead of its time... or just too experimental for human ears.

Fun fact: Speaking of audio tracks, during my multimedia school years, I composed a short film soundtrack titled Huit Bougies (Eight Candles). Check it out here!

Originally created using Reason by Propellerhead and released on June 13, 2000, this remix of the platform game The NewZealand Story by Taito was one of my submissions to OverClocked ReMix, a community-driven website dedicated to video game music remixes and arrangements, where musicians from around the world submit their reinterpretations of classic game soundtracks.

I took the original Nintendo Entertainment System chiptune melody, layered it with a punchy rhythm, and gave it an extra dose of energy, making the track feel vibrant and upbeat. It was hosted on the OC ReMix site as OCR00321, but removed in July 2006 due to a policy change that disallowed remixes "directly sampling the game audio with minimal original contributions". Sadly, I also lost the original project file, and only a 128 kbps MP3 version remains.

Fun fact: My remix on OC ReMix was removed from their database with the stated reason: "NSF rip + drums".

Fun fact: When I submitted the track to OC ReMix, I used the pseudonym cornflex.

"Before the beginning, after the great war between Heaven and Hell, God created the Earth and gave dominion over it to the crafty ape he called man. And to each generation was born a creature of light and a creature of darkness. And great armies clashed by night in the ancient war between good and evil. There was magic then, nobility, and unimaginable cruelty. And so it was until the day that a false sun exploded over Trinity, and man forever traded away wonder for reason."

BrikaBrak was my ambitious (not really) yet unfinished attempt at making a DJ mix in 2007 using Audacity. But hey, even in its "unfinished" state, it still runs over 19 minutes; so let's just call it a work in progress with commitment.

This mix is basically a musical rollercoaster that perfectly reflects my open-minded approach to genres. Expect chiptune crashing into hardcore techno, the Indiana Jones theme casually handing things off to symphonic metal, and even a bizarre mash-up of Mr. Scruff and Ace of Base. In total, BrikaBrak stitches together 15 wildly different tracks into one unpredictable, genre-hopping ride. Buckle up!

Fun fact: BrikaBrak comes from the French word "bric-à-brac", which means a jumble of miscellaneous objects, perfectly summarizing my DJ mix.

Fun fact: I actually loved the TV series Carnivàle (pictured above). It's a shame HBO didn't let the creators wrap up their story; but at least the Season 2 finale felt like the end of a cycle. And here's a fun fact inside a fun fact (Inception!): fans of the show are called "Carnies"!

"Recognize this gentleman? In english, he is called cockroach, croton bug, roach, water bug, or black beetle. The Germans call him Schaben, the French la blatte, and in Spanish, he is known as la cucaracha. No matter what the language or country, the cockroach is an unwelcome and disgusting pest in any home. Let's take a look at Señor Cucaracha, how and where he lives, and better still, how to get rid of him".

Created in 2015 using only Audacity, Señor Cucaracha leans into an electro-acid sound, a style known for its squelchy, resonant synth lines, often produced using the legendary Roland TB-303. Acid techno and house emerged in the late '80s, characterized by hypnotic, evolving basslines and a raw, psychedelic feel.

For this track, I sampled a speech from a 1959 educational film, Good-Bye Mr. Roach, about eradicating cockroaches. I've always loved the vintage sound of these recordings and the distinct way people spoke back then; it adds a strange yet charming character to the track.

One thing I really wanted to nail in this track is that classic build-up; the kind where you're just waiting for the main rhythm to kick in. You know the drill: instruments start layering in, the acid synth climbs higher and higher, the snare drum speeds up, everything intensifies.. then BAM! A brief pause, just enough to make you hold your breath, before the full beat finally drops and everything explodes into motion. A perfect example of this is Pump Panel's remix of Confusion. Yes, the iconic club track from the opening scene of Blade (1998) with Wesley Snipes.

This remix, created in 2018, is based on the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) game Kung Fu (also known as Spartan X in Japan). Its main theme features an incredibly short and minimalistic loop, built mostly around a simple bassline with limited melodic elements. The challenge was to remix this basic tune and make it as interesting as possible, avoiding repetition and adding new dynamics.

I introduced a digitized voice that provides hints about the game's story (the player must save Sylvia from Mr. X) and the current floor. As the player progresses through the floors, the song evolves by adding new instruments and dynamics with each level. I also incorporated real sounds from the NES game, such as footsteps and the voice of the final boss laughing.

What makes this remix unique is the rhythm, which is also driven by digitized samples of old Asian martial arts movie screams, giving the track an energetic and dramatic feel. Unfortunately, I lost the original files, and only a 256 kbps MP3 version remains. Because of this, I decided not to submit the track to the OC Remix community.

Fun fact: To compose this remix, I used GarageBand and its built-in instruments. I didn't add or install any additional samples (as far as I know).

Lombrique électronique is a wild ride of electro-acid goodness, packed with distortion and saturation - kind of like its chaotic sibling, Señor Cucaracha. The tempo picks up midway, and by the time you reach the end, the whole thing is glitching out and falling apart in the best possible way. I like to think of it as the kind of track Mr. Oizo might have cooked up after a particularly weird dream.

Speaking of Mr. Oizo (aka Quentin Dupieux) he's the French electronic music wizard best known for Flat Beat, the 1999 banger that gave the world the iconic yellow puppet, Flat Eric. His music is glitchy, unpredictable, and often absurd, blending electro, acid, and experimental sounds with a signature offbeat groove. Basically, if electronic music had a sense of humor and a slight malfunction, it would sound like Mr. Oizo.

Attention! Kaiju! was a quick, cinematic orchestral track I whipped up for fun. In this little world, it seems a giant kaiju (think Godzilla or Pacific Rim) has just wiped out the city. A couple of explorers are strolling through the wreckage when, out of nowhere, the kaiju reappears! Cue the panic.

To bring this track to life in Apple Logic Pro, I went all out with massive, dramatic sounds: timpanis, cymbals, orchestral hits, horns, tubas... basically, if it's big and powerful, it's in there. And just when you think it can't get more intense, a gritty electric guitar crashes in halfway through to shake things up. Kaiju-approved chaos.

Fun fact: I actually started working on this track while my ♥daughter♥ was at her synchronized swimming course. I did all the timpani parts while waiting in the car. Who knew that waiting in a parking lot could lead to creating epic kaiju chaos?

Fun fact: I did the voice of the explorer at the beginning of the track, but unfortunately, I didn't quite nail the "utter panic" part. It ended up sounding more like "mild surprise" instead of full-on kaiju terror. Guess I need more practice screaming for my life!

Fun fact: For the kaiju roar, I blended a few sounds together: two from freesound.org: "Cthulhu Growl" by cylon8472 and "Monster Growl" by ztrees1 - and combined them with three timpani sounds to give it that monstrous vibe.