DJ Sharpnel is a Japanese

music duo A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumentalists, ...

composed of Jea and Lemmy, who are signed under their

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

record label Sharpnelsound. They are credited for pioneering the

J-core J-core is the style of hardcore techno associated with Japanese groups and DJs from the late 1990s onward. It is marked by its usage of samples derived from video games and anime, colorful kawaii imagery and album graphics, and the general borr ...

genre, recognized for their

speedcore Speedcore is a form of electronic music that is characterized by a high tempo and aggressive themes. It was created in the early to mid-1990s and the name originates from the hardcore genre as well as the high-speed tempo used. This music rarely ...

gabber Gabber (; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of hardcore techno, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as Hardcore, which is characterised by fast beats, distorted & heavier kickdrums, ...

happy hardcore Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or "hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s. H ...

and

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

productions.

History

Beginnings and style

The beginnings of DJ Sharpnel came in 1996 when Jea joined up with Project Gabbangelion and later released the album "sharpnel vs Project Gabbangelion" in 1998. DJ Sharpnel's active contribution to the Japanese underground

hardcore techno Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno or hardcore house) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos and a distorte ...

scene has helped form a new genre of music known as J-core. Although DJ Sharpnel never describes Lemmy as a DJ or producer, she has created several songs, such as those listed on SRPC-0004. The style of DJ Sharpnel’s music differs from that of other hardcore artists. Its aggressive overtones are often brightened up with sped-up

Japanese popular music J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...

or spoken voice samples from various

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

. These are also often fused with more Western influences, such as lyrics from American hip hop music and cartoons. Much of the sales of Sharpnel Sound records, as well as management of th
hardrave
online radio station and promotion of Sharpnelsound events, is done throug
Guhroovy
a primarily-hardcore record store located in

Shibuya Shibuya ( 渋谷区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern half) and Shibuya Station. As of April 1 ...

and operated by Akira Uchibori (Guhroovy). Aside from their prolific discography on the Sharpnelsound label, DJ Sharpnel has also provided tracks for other Japanese labels such as Maddest Chickn’dom, Ravin Beatz Japan, and Gabba Disco.

Aliases

DJ Sharpnel has used various artist names throughout their releases, depending on the specific style of the track or album. The main aliases are "DJ Sharpnel" (standard hardcore and happy hardcore style, with Lemmy) and "Killingscum" (terrorcore,

, and

breakcore Breakcore is a style and microgenre of electronic dance music that emerged from jungle, hardcore, and drum and bass in the mid-to-late 1990s. It is characterized by very complex and intricate breakbeats and a wide palette of sampling sources ...

style, with just Jea). Sharpnel.net is the name for the collaborative " performance project" of the Sharpnelsound label, with Jea as live DJ and Lemmy as live VJ. Although, according to their MySpace page, DJ Sharpnel is the name on the produced albums, Killingscum is occasionally credited to tracks, separating Jea from Lemmy. In addition to Killingscum, Jea also uses "DJ Jea" as a solo alias when he performs

hardstyle Hardstyle is an electronic dance genre that emerged in the late 1990s, with origins in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Hardstyle mixes influences from techno, new beat and hardcore. Early hardstyle was typically written at 140 BPM (''beat ...

music and tracks related to the SPRH series. Other group aliases have been used when Jea and Lemmy collaborated with other artists prior to the creation of the DJ Sharpnel name, such as Project Gabbangelion (which included Jea, Viscion, and Tangion) and High Speed Music Team Sharpnel (which included Jea, La-Quebrata, Jun-Q, Quebradora, and Lemmy). Still other albums are credited to "DJ Sharpnel & V.A" indicating that various other artists produced tracks on the album. The name "DJ Sharpnel" is commonly used to refer to any combination of musicians led by Jea (with or without Lemmy), even those prior to 2000 and those on albums not associated with the Sharpnelsound label.

Influence

Due to DJ Sharpnel's extended time and dedication to the J-Core music scene (as well as the increased popularity of anime in the

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

), Western recognition of Japanese hardcore has increased. Many up-and-coming new music artists have acknowledged DJ Sharpnel's influence, including DJ Zaiaku, T2Kazuya, Spy47 and Shingo DJ.

Discography

DJ Sharpnel's

discography Discography is the study and cataloging of published sound recordings, often by specified artists or within identified music genres. The exact information included varies depending on the type and scope of the discography, but a discography entry ...

is very large, tallying to over 53 albums in which the duo has contributed to (most likely not together at all times) and at least 10 albums in which they are the primary or sole contributor. Below is the primary discography associated with the Sharpnelsound label, with DJ Sharpnel as the primary artist (albeit with varying aliases used throughout). For most albums in the SRPC series, there are two versions. First, a CDr version released at

Comiket , more commonly known as or , is a semiannual ''doujinshi'' convention in Tokyo, Japan. A grassroots market focused on the sale of '' doujin'' (self-published) works, Comiket is a not-for-profit fan convention administered by the volunteer-ru ...

, then later a pressed CD version to be sold at shops. The CDr versions are produced in smaller quantities and are therefore rarer, and usually have a track list differing somewhat from the final pressed version.

References

# ^ "Sharpnelsound Other Works". http://www.sharpnel.com/otherworks.htm. # ^ "DJ Sharpnel discography". http://www.sharpnel.com/rel/rel.htm. # ^ a b c d ".:DR. Freecloud's Record Shoppe:.". https://web.archive.org/web/20110815062505/http://drfreeclouds.com/search.php?search_text=SRPC.

External links

Official DJ Sharpnel Website

DJ Sharpnel Discogs entry

DJ Sharpnel
at MySpace {{DEFAULTSORT:Dj Sharpnel Happy hardcore musicians J-pop Japanese DJs Japanese pop music groups Electronic dance music duos