About c8core
A modern renewal · dark, sick music · since the 90s
What was c8.com?
Some stories are too weird, too out there, to believe them. There was a messageboard and website, coming into existence in the mid-90s, that focused on electronic music and underground subculture — and became deeply influential to the evolution of extreme electronic genres like hardcore techno, breakcore, and speedcore.
c8.com — or Circuit 8 — was set up on the early internet, run out of the UK (rumour has it the admin was a stockbroker-turned-underground-figure). Apart from its own content, it became a host to other labels and artists — some of the truly big names in darker electronic music history.
The payment for hosting Planet Core Productions — rumoured to be free choice from any of the 200+ vinyls PCP released in 7 years.
The Circuit 8
Timothy Leary's model of the mind described 8 circuits. The eighth — the highest — accessible only through near-death experiences, deity interventions, or extremely high doses of acid. c8.com took its name from this concept. The site's tagline: "dark, sick music".
Ahead of its time
c8 was a test field for the newest internet technology — music streaming and downloads were already established on that site decades before our present commercial streaming services. No matter if you lived in South Africa, India, Berlin, post-Soviet Moscow, or South America — the music was there.
The secret layer
Eventually a mailing list was set up — a bit like a message board. A crowd began to rise, and when the noise-to-signal ratio began to teeter in the wrong direction, a new, secret group was set up within c8 — unknown to regular users. This second layer was instrumental in setting up and coordinating underground projects and record releases. Some things are better left unnamed.
Tracks from the archive
- Miro — Purple Moon (online at c8 months before release)
- Base Force One — Welcome to Violence (early breakcore)
- Society of Unknowns — Dead by Dawn (The Endless Mix)
c8core — the renewal
c8core is a modern renewal of the original project — a complete rethinking and an effort to bring a community of musicians and artists worldwide back together again. Not nostalgia. A new chapter, built on the same underground spirit.
The survey you're reading was sent to 95 artists from that world. Their answers are on this site. The scene is still here.
Source: The Hardcore Overdogs — The Enduring Legacy of c8.com
Archive: darksickmusic.com/c8/archive/