Violet (artist name usedcvnt) is a breakcore producer birthed during the breakcore resurgence of the early 2020s. Categorised by artists such as Goresh*t and Machine Girl, modern breakcore is defined by its heavy ambient, digicore, dariacore and EDM influences, merging fast chopped up amen breaks with very soft chords and melodies on top. This very sudden change in what “breakcore” meant was met with heaps of controversy with bandcamp making a report on how “some feel like the term has been diluted to the point of a pure aesthetic,” and x.nte, a breakcore artist, says that “the bending of breakbeat, glitching it out or incorporating different sounds, it feels like this has been lost.” Ultraviolet tries to merge these two camps, making an album that pertains to its 2020 themes of “embracing anime and video game-inspired sounds and aesthetics” according to The Georgetown Independent; whilst also still pertaining somewhat true to the hardcore origins of breakcore and even trying to push the genre forward with new production ideas.
Violet first sprouted onto the breakcore scene with their slightly derivative song “sorry mom, im making berakcore xd” blowing up on TikTok. Not much about them is known apart from being a musician and drawings she makes and commissions of their character which is essentially their mascot and front for all their work (as seen on the album cover of ultraviolet). The only piece of information on Violet is from their Twitter in which they speak about how, during the creation of this album, they were dealing with severe mental health issues and had heavy anxieties about the album not meeting expectations. However, this was the most successful release ever for Violet with 1 million album streams within a week but got mixed reviews with some saying the album was a very fun listen whilst others complained every song sounds the same on sites such as Album of The Year.
Actually listening to the album, the criticisms are slightly justified with many songs sounding like the preset chopped amen break, synth pad and unison reese bass that many people call “bogus” according to Nina. However, there are many songs on this album that try to push the new wave forward as well as pay homage to older breakcore.
Songs such as yours forever show a much grander take on what can only be described as a very lofi genre. Collaborating with abyssal angel and sampling vocal chops from a remix of Caramelldansen, these artists add so much more to the genre to create a very etherial song. Taking many notes out of the album Nurture by Porter Robinson the final instrumental passage mixes elements of the botanica present on that album and mixes them with this breakcore (the song Unfold on the album Nurture seems to be the biggest inspiration however other songs such as Look At The Sky and Musician seem to also be big inspirations for yours forever). The addition of vocals to this song also add to this wide and grand feeling, being very reverbed and spacious. This song really encapsulates the future of the new wave on breakcore artists.
On the other hand, the song i want to eat ur heaty couse i love you, whilst a lot softer than its much older contemporaries, brings back the unpredictable nature of early 2000s breakcore with very glitchy breaks for much of the song and no clear beat to follow. In the documentary Notes On Breakcore, Hrvatski, a breakcore producer, described the genre as “dance music you can’t dance to” and “complex and impossible to follow, how could you ever dance to this?” and that is the feeling this song brings whilst staying within the normal production techniques of the album.
Leave a Reply