Max HeyraudFor the 302nd Local Selection Mix, we welcome back a long-standing fixture of Dublin’s abrasive techno circuit. Making his return after time away from the spotlight, Elliott Craig delivers an hour of unrelenting, high-intensity industrial and hardcore techno.
This mix channels the spirit of the Hangar, Reaktor, and Unpolished era, a time when hardcore, gabber, industrial, and schranz collided into a ferocious melting pot. It was a reaction against the stripped-back, polished sounds that had come to dominate techno, pushing tempos beyond 140 BPM and breaking conventions in ways that felt genuinely exciting and rebellious.
Elliott Craig has always embodied that ethos. A devoted champion of the era’s raw energy, he continues to stand firm while many contemporaries have shifted toward more refined and accessible sounds. Craig remains committed to the uncompromising, brutal edge of techno and hardcore, rejecting the notion that intensity equates to gimmickry or poor taste, something often misrepresented in today’s harder techno landscape.
This marks his first mix in six years, and he returns with the same defiant attitude. It’s a statement piece, an unapologetic dive into the harsher, anti-commercial side of the genre. Expect heavily distorted and compressed drums, pounding kicks, and gnarly saw-wave leads that tear through the speakers. It’s a full-throttle assault on the conventional idea of “classy” techno.
Relentless in its progression, Craig pushes the intensity further and further, culminating in full-blown Dutch hardcore euphoria. Strap in.