Darkcore is a music genre that became popular in the United Kingdom hardcore rave scene in 1993. It is recognized as being one of the direct precursors of the modern electronic music genre known as drum and bass. Darkcore was a counter movement to the happy alternative that occurred at the same time - both styles evolving from breakbeat hardcore.

Qualities

Darkcore is characterized by layered breakbeats at around 150 to 160 bpm combined with very low frequency bass lines. In addition to these basic traits, dark themed samples such as horror movie theme music or cries for help were commonly included. As the style evolved, the almost gratuitous use of horror elements was dropped as producers relied more on simple effects such as reverb, delay, pitch shifting and time stretching to create a chaotic and sinister mood.

DJs

Many of the British hardcore and junglist DJs of the day dabbled in Darkcore for a time, mostly around its heyday in 1993, but some of the more notable DJ/producers of the darkcore include:

Tango
Bizzy B
Lewi Cifer
Hyper-on-Experience
Doc Scott
International Rude Boyz
Metalheadz productions

Darkcore today

Today, darkcore is used to describe the entire array of breakbeat producers and DJs who work within the 160-190+ BPM tempo range. This includes darkcore, though its current configuration is notably different in quality and process availability as well as the fact that modern drum and bass elements are included.