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Introducing The Hard Way

• 5th Feb 2014

The Hard Way is the mammoth drum and bass, breakcore and hardcore collab between three legends in the extreme electronica field: Limewax, Bong-Ra and Thrasher, creating a huge sound on stage as well as in the studio, reflecting the current sign of the times: aggressive, nihilistic and completely ruthless.

Armed with an arsenal of breakbeats, hardcore kicks, pounding guitar riffs and distorted vocals, The Hard Way are one of the few live acts to really capture the pure rawness of punk with the power of electronics. There is no fancy bullshit or political message, just an explosion of energy and power. Pushing the limits of provocation, musically and visually. These three heavyweights teamed up back in 2012, originally to tour together under the name ‘The Hard Way’ as the moniker for their sound and party endurance.

Bong-Ra explains, “It was clear that what we have in common is our sound/style and most important the attitude and view we have towards the music industry and being an artist. The (nihilistic) rock n roll attitude is probably what linked us the most and makes it bearable to hang out with each other, haha.”

One of their first shows in 2013 was Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands . They got a very good press response on that one. OOR Magazine even put them in their Top 10 of best acts, stating “Their ruthless, die-hard music made them one of the more striking acts of the Lowlands Festival.”

Why so hard, guys? Why? “Basically The Hard Way is ‘anti’ everything, provoking to a point which is on the edge, or maybe, just over the edge. Growing up with the whole ‘Cock ‘n’ roll’ imagery of heavy metal, it kind of became an instinct to add the metal imagery to our sound and image, as it felt a natural part of who we are and the music we grew up with.” Bong-ra explains. “The imagery itself is self-mocking in a way, just to show the total absurdity of everything, be it the society we live in…certain moral codes, ethics, symbolism, it’s very tongue in cheek, and basically a fuck all was given point of view, which always attracts a certain kind of debauchery before, during and after our shows.”

The combination worked so well that they decided to jump into the studio to produce music together, bringing a total unique sound in the hardcore drum and bass genre. Their first 12” became an instant underground hit with “Suck Satans Cock” getting played by a most of the big names in the hard dnb & hardcore scene; their second 12” “Devil Worshipping Motherfucker” had an even bigger impact with both tracks being supported by an even bigger group of key artists in the scene.

Thrasher explains their next step : “After seeing the impact of our live shows as well as the response to our two 12” releases, we decided to really start working on our live show, to become a real band and release a full-length album. Bong Ra and me had a long history playing in bands and taking this direction just made a lot of sense. I had being playing guitars and doing vocals in punk & hardcore bands since the age of 14 and for me hard drum & bass and hardcore always were the electronic music genres that felt closest to my punk rock roots. Even though combining these styles the way we were doing it was pretty new and experimental. From the very start of playing live, playing guitar and screaming my lungs outs to this music just added this massive amount of energy.”

Their self-titled debut album will be released in March 2014. Which is set out to be a complete sonic onslaught!

The Hard Way are:

Limewax : Synths / Electronics / Theremin – the originator of skullstep

Bong-Ra : Synths / Electronics / Bass – a pioneer in the breakcore genre (John Peel was huge fan and released a Peel Session in 2001)

Thrasher : Vocals / Guitars – head honcho of the ever rising PRSPCT Recordings, a world leader in hardcore drum and bass music. His uncompromising DJ sets have seen him high up the bill at the biggest European cities and festivals.