Beyond Metal: Scooter

 

 

CLICK FOR POLISH

I was wondering which Techno-like band I should feature on this blog. Basement Jaxx? Prodigy? Faithless? Daft Punk? I've found my old battered cassette tape and had an epiphany. Scooter. The famous "guilty pleasure", the kind of non-ambitious music, to which people don't necessarily want to admit that they listen to.

And that's a great opportunity, to scribe few words about the difference between the Electronic and Metal audiences. It's certainly a harder and more ruthless market. Majority of the sales are thanks to clubs, discotheques, radiostations, and so on, rather than private consumer, especially that the latter prefers to pirate stuff anyway. Another revenue was from licensing a particular "hit song".

From the artistic side it's not better. Rave, House, Dance, are the kind of music that works best as singles and compilations / samplers. Very rarely there are groups, or DJs, who are capable of creating a full length, let alone more than one. There are of course exceptions, like ATB, but they are not representative. I can even tell you about one other example, when one guy, under different pseudonyms, created a fictional compilation, as it probably had more chance to sell, rather than if it was an official solo act. I am then more than willing to bet my money that you won't find many acts in this genre, who managed to reach 21 albums (as of 2024 r.), which is what Scooter achieved.

The fact that under such tough circumstances Scooter is still active, with a relative success and recognition is impressive. Sure, it's music mainly created for partying, without many deeper thoughts, but does it mean that it's inferior? The crew started their career with performing "Happy Hardcore", which is basically a loud music with high BPM (sometimes reaching Gabber, which is basically blastbeats). The paradox of Techno etc. is that it can piss off people much more than Metal, due to its intensity and wall-breaking, bouncing bass. With time, their music started going the easy route and focused on covering and "commercially appealing hits".

And yeah, Scooter didn't hesitate to overuse samples, which understandably provokes scorn. But what it's really sampling than deconstruction of known and popular motiffs? Take any random Metal album, and start to analyze the riff department, and you'll come to the conclusions that majority of the riffs you already heard before, done by superior artists. It's sad, but true.

I mentioned before something about the tape that I have, which I received from a cousin, when I was a kid. It's "No time for chill" (OP pic) from 1998, which was already band's fifth album. Considering they debuted in 1995, their proficiency is admirable. I do have a sentiment for this plate. It's loud and obnoxious, but also varied, almost conceptual-wise. Maybe it's campy, but I would lied if I said, I didn't enjoy it.

From this tape comes the famous hit - "How Much is the Fish?". Personally, I really liked the Kiss' cover - "I was made for lovin' you", and it certainly laid some foundation to my then future interests. It's worth noting that year before the band recorded "Fire", which relied on a strong, Thrashing riff, which surprisingly enough, wasn't a sample, but rather recorded in studio by one of the members.

And now the time for the cherry on the top. I wonder how many people know that Mantas, the famous Venom (yes, THIS Venom) guitarist played live with a band in 2006. The wikipedia says that it was a short tenure that lasted a month, but I do have a suspicion that it eventually led to some guest guitar parts in a studio.

As one can see, even if we venture far away from Metal, we still can find some connection.