DJ Plague

Pre-1997

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An endless search to find the ultimate high energy music that had a hard beat, good samples, and powerful sounds, oldschool rap came close, dance music had the beat, but was too mellow, guitar music didn’t have much beat at all.

And then…



1997

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Long long ago in a country far far away, there was nothing but mellow and crappy music.

It was 1997 and the grip of Happy Hardcore, Deep House and Ragga Jungle had swallowed Toronto whole.



Only one DJ, DJ Dominik was playing a harder sound that he called Rotterdam.

This style was unknown outside of this one DJ. However Dominik was not making new mixtapes fast enough to keep in pace with its demand.



A new DJ decided then to embark apon a quest to find this music, even better stronger and faster than he had heard this one DJ play.

He then chanced upon a mixtape from The Speed Freak, in a tiny back room store in downtown Toronto.

This style was called "Speedcore". DJ Plague made the decision that this was the ultimate in hardcore, and he set a mission to spread it across the world like a plague, so others in the future could experience this ultimate sound much more easily, without the troubles that had faced him.



The internet was to solve this problem, but the first target was to combat the insurgence of Happy Hardcore in Toronto.



1998

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DJ Plague teamed up with Lord Tekken to form a DJ group called The Construct, in order to show the public that there was a much broader world of hardcore than just the "Rotterdam" of DJ Dominik.



1999

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To show the Toronto crowd, that there was a better form of music, they held Canada's largest ever Hardcore party in the summer of 1999 called Gatekeeper '99. under the organization name of THR (Toronto Hardcore Resistance). This party was a success, but THR was not to last.



This was also the time when hardcore changed.

The mainstream went from being fast and upbeat, to slow and stomping.

This ultimately led to the dissolution of The Construct, as Hardcore itself began to split both faster and slower.



2000

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After the death of a partygoer later in 1999, and new restrictions put in place, Toronto's scene began a slow death of strangulation.



With dwindling audiences, and soaring budgets, THR eventually went bankrupt in 2000.

Its remains were bought up by Russian conglomerate Orbital Station, run by DJ Orbeat.



By this time DJ Plague had already split with THR, and set his sights instead on promoting music instead of parties, and also after a glimpse in 1998 of the size ot the Dutch scene, on Europe instead of Canada.



He then met the Calgary Speedcore producer Interrupt Vector who was looking for a label to release his tracks, and together they started CSR (Canadian Speedore Resistance),

And through Sound Base Music in Germany, produced CSR1.



They gained an internet presence at Speedcore.ca, thanks to Interrupt Vector's connection with server manage DJ Skinner, from blackmonolith.org in New York City.



2001/2002

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Through Speedcore.ca CSR then teamed up with Terrorist Kriss from D.I.Y. in Montreal, and played several of his parties at the classic punk venue, Club l'X.



These parties between 2001 to 2003 were the largest and greatest Speedcore parties in Canadian history.



This new alliance solidified CSR's standing and gave it a base as Canada's most successful Speedcore label of all time.



Some small parties by organizations like Smerk, and Resistor also continued in Toronto, but never much larger than a small back room at an industrial Goth party with but a mere handful of diehards.



In 2001 DJ Plague travelled to Berlin to see Fuckparade. (a sort of international Speedcore convention). To discover the European Speedcore scene.



2003

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In 2003 He went on his first DJ tour, and played in Bologna at a party by Frazzbass, and in Switzerland at 2 Hard 4 U.



After seeing the dramatic contrast he set his target to expand CSR in Europe.



2004

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In 2004 He went again on a longer tour, teaming up with DJ Tense, and Fiend from USA, they travelled across France, Germany, Holland and Switzerland.



Plague produced DVDs of each of these tours called Hardcore Worldwide 1 and 2.



Upon returning to Canada, the stark contrast between the massive parties in Europe compared to Canada was even greater.



He held his last party in a small record store that was soon to go bankrupt.



Even after giving an interview on Canadian national radio, there was no hope for anything coming of the Canadian scene.



DJ Plague thusly went to Holland in the fall of 2004.



2005 to present

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Now with the help of Rige Distribution, CSR has continued to skyrocket, and DJ Plague now plays at the world's largest hardcore parties, and continues to push the boundries of how far Speedcore (or Terror as they call it in Holland) can go.



Continuing always to stay true to the mission of spreading the plague of Speedcore, better stronger and faster.



For the real diehards, the entire progression of CSR can be seen on DVD in the following order:



2000/01 - THR - The Glorious Empire (pre CSR)

2002 - CSR - Sleeper Cell (Speedcore in North America)

2003 - Hardcore Worldwide (2003 Tour)

2004 - Hardcore Worldwide 2 (2004 Tour)

2005/06 - CSR - Welcome to Terrorland (CSR in Europe)



lots more to come



And for more, check out www.speedcore.ca



DJ Plague's MySpace designed by Dr. Eppo