A lot has changed for Incult over the past year. After completely changing his sound, he found his place between raw and hard techno, with bookings following in rapid succession. In January, he will take the next step with his own All Night Long at Effenaar. During THE SIEGE, he wants to bring all sides of his sound together. “Things have gone insanely fast.”
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Incult’s current sound emerged after he started growing tired of his earlier, more euphoric style in the studio. “I kind of felt like: you find a vocal somewhere, put a few chords underneath it, add a build-up and then a drop. It didn’t feel very challenging.”
His love for old-school hardstyle then became the foundation for a new, darker direction. During an opening set at Intents, he decided to test tracks including ‘PTSD’ and ‘Hit The Floor’ to see how his new music would work in front of a crowd. With the latter, everything immediately clicked. “I was on stage and played Hit The Floor first. I immediately thought: this is it. I’m really going all-in on this now.”
Incult now describes his music as ‘industrial with an old-school twist’ and performs at both raw and hard techno events.
“The perfect concept to show my journey”
Following that rapid development, Incult will host his own All Night Long in January. While artists sometimes work towards an event like this for years, the speed at which things have changed for Incult was actually one of the reasons why he wanted to do it now. “That’s actually one of the reasons why I said: I really want to do this. Things have gone insanely fast. I just thought it would be really cool to do an All Night Long after a year like this.”
The extended set also gives him the opportunity to bring together the different worlds he currently moves between. “With techno, I simply have more room to play longer drops and create more of a build-up throughout my set. That’s the biggest difference for me.”
With raw, he notices that something different is expected from his sets. “With raw, I feel like you can go a little harder and that the music needs to have more stimuli.” During his own event, he does not have to choose between the two. “We’re trying to bring everything together again, combining that classic sound with the new sounds. I think an All Night Long, especially because of how long you get to play, is the perfect concept to show your journey: from what I love, to where I am now and what’s still to come.”
Plenty of room for new music
he set will not be completely planned out in advance. Incult also likes to play by feel during his regular bookings and wants to maintain that approach during THE SIEGE. “Just the tracks where I genuinely think: this is what I love, or this is something I’ve listened to a lot. I’m going to put all of those on my USB and then just start playing. I really like feeling out what the crowd wants as well.”
The fact that he will be behind the decks for much longer gives him more freedom to build his set. “If I’m playing somewhere for an hour and a half, you can start by going full throttle, take it down a bit and then finish full throttle again. You can go in so many different directions. I think it’s really cool to see what I can do with my music and my sound over an entire night.”
THE SIEGE will also be an important moment for new music. “I definitely want to play a lot of new Incult music.” He also expects to create special edits specifically for the night.
Want to hear the full story from Incult? In the latest episode of PLAFONDDIENST, he talks extensively about his new sound, the combination of raw and hard techno, THE SIEGE and his plans for the future. The full episode with Incult is available now on your favorite podcast platform.
Images via: Incult
