DJ Sharpnel

Beginnings and style

The beginnings of DJ Sharpnel came in 1996 when Jea, Tanigon and Viscon formed Project Gabbangelion and started to release music in MOD format across forums and BBS pages. In 1998, after Project Gabbangelion disbanded, 高速音楽隊シャープネル (High Speed Music Team Sharpnel) was formed by Jea and La-Quebrata, with three other members Lemmy, Quebradora and JunQ joining soon after its creation. "Sharpnel vs Project Gabbangelion" was the first release under SHARPNELSOUND, shown first as a cover only demonstration at SPEEDKING Vol.2, and officially releasing later in 1998 at Sega Hardcore Generation.^[2] High Speed Music Team Sharpnel released six full albums between 1998 and 2000. In 2000 the group was disbanded and Jea and Lemmy formed the "DJ Sharpnel" unit.

DJ Sharpnel's active contribution to the Japanese underground hardcore techno 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 or spoken voice samples from various anime. These are also often fused with more Western influences, such as lyrics from American hip hop music and cartoons.

Much of the sales of SHARPNELSOUND records, as well as management of the hardrave online radio station and promotion of SHARPNELSOUND events, was done through Guhroovy, a primarily hardcore record store located in Shibuya 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.^[3]

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, speedcore, and breakcore 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 music and tracks related to the SPRH series and "DJ Attackerz" when creating trance.

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), Western recognition of Japanese hardcore has increased. Many up-and-coming new music artists have acknowledged DJ Sharpnel's influence, including DJ Zaiaku,^[4] T2Kazuya,^[5] Spy47^[6] and Shingo DJ.^[7]