Happy2bHardcore

Chapter 6: The Final Chapter (Moonshine)
by Scott Hefflon

While not being a part of the culture or purchasing any of the accessories, I’ve always kinda liked happy hardcore. It’s easy to slag it, saying it’s just accelerated dance beats with no style, ingenuity, or soul, and that the melodies are dippy and disco diva nonsense candy-coated and repackaged for E-popping kids looking to sweat, and, that’s all perfectly valid, but you can criticize any genre from the outside and completely miss how fun it is to not be so judgemental and just enjoy life a little…

Honestly, I think Chapter 6 is too streamlined. It all blends together, which might be ok if yer dancing the night away, but it makes for a rude awakening if yer driving or working and snap out of the trance, annoyed that “that same fuckin’ song” is still playing. I much prefer Chapter 3 because, while it’s also a continuous mix by Anabolic Frolic, each track is a song in its own right. While morphed in and out to be part of the whole, each blossomed into a song worth learning the words to and belting out during the chorus. Call me old-fashioned for wanting “songs,” but I liked Bang!’s “Break of Dawn” and “Shooting Star” even if they were quite simple, the kinda stuff Whitney Houston could knock out in a single take, were she ever so inclined. Actually, the further you get into Chapter 6, the more diverse it gets (guess that kinda makes sense if ya look at a CD as a unit… The first couple verses are served straight, and as bridges and refrains are checked off, more and more florishes are added). I’m still not convinced it’s melodically on par with Chapter 3, but I look forward to playing both a lot more to really make an accurate assessment.
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