Funny thing is that for all the bile and vitriol thrown at this company, they're still here. Arcade is dead, Mecado is dead, but I can still find new 5th gear releases on Spotify in 2020. Granted: the Quality is well.. Not good and the play-counts are hovering around 30.000-10.000. But I expect the sheer volume of releases makes up for that and that someone,somewhere is still making a decent amount of money of this.
What I find interesting about this label - considering what approach they had to marketing and how they've flodded the market with (often times) lackluster productions, you'd think they would've just called it quits after the hype was over - but oh no. How you can release the same songs on a differently titled compilation, with absolutely laughable covers (2016 - 2017, look at the state of those "artworks") for years on end and still not be closed down, is beyond anything I could ever comprehend.
With that being said - as other people already mentioned - in the midst of all this bullshit, there are some really, really cool and interesting productions by in house producers that have their own style and (sadly) never got to display it anywhere else.
The people behind this (and its parent-)label are a blight on music. There might even be some good music to be found on its releases, but you definitely shouldnt pay them any money to find out.
I agree that the label 5th Gear has ruined the gabber style ( 1998-2005 ) so did Mecado too and in a way the marketing from the well known label Arcade . But first things first
5th Gear started to offer great compilations look how Hellraider 1,2, their first One way Trip Mix and Hellraider 3 after that it started to be shitty at will ugly covers made by a kid from two , silly unknown DJ's artists or dj's from third zone ...who knows ?!?
Wheras Mecado failed simply because they rehashed compilations and tracks in their manner ( somewhat the same they do today with pop music stealing tunes from other bands .....we know how it goes now since the boring reality tv shows they offer us ) Mecado compilations where also bad mastered , used cheap reverberation techniques such as Brain Damage 1&2 or Killercore or they did the same mistake like an "Arcade label" 4x CD Hardcore Top 100 ....rehashed , brutaly stopped . Tracks that usualy were around 5minutes were only 2 and a half minutes for many .
How can they even talk about copyright stuff since in the electronic era alot bootlegs were made so it makes me really laugh and sad how fake artists today are whining for royalties .
About the Arcade label ( Indisc and sub-labels ) they also has made hundreds of non-needed compilations or the same clone compilation with an other fake title Dance Train , Clubhits , Yabadabadoo, Dance Hits , etc.... with exact the same Artists, mixes, duration, whatsoever ....
Then we had compilations from Arcade in Europe that came from another country and were renamed as such but you could easily recognize them back then at their cheap ridiculously prices between 1990-2000 ( usualy less than 5€ ) .
About Hardcore/Gabber/Happy Hardcore Arcade label also took the cake with cloning compilations Thunderdome, Earthquake , Razor Shock, ..... as the XSV Raver's Night , Ruffneck Collection or the Mokum since they all offered the same content, material , ......
But yes 5th Gear / Mecado ...... took it way too far in how to ruin a style !
This label is indeed absloutely shameless and blaming. It's such a pity, that there are some really talented artist under contract, who seem to be prisoned. With ID&T or other real labels they could have had so much more success in past. The rest of this in-house producers is a shameless, cheap copy of real hardcore artists with no knowlegde about correct producing. I can't deny that there are a lot of really, really good and unique productuions within, but nevertheless: blaming, shameless and phony.
Hello 5th gear, are you in anyway related to Mecado? because you look strikingly similair, loads of compilations, loads of inhouse producers with similair sounding names and a tendency to "cover" famous tracks. Your releases are just as shitty though and I thought this kind of label was dead by now, but apparently there's always room for this sort of thing, people like to be duped by the likes of you.
First time i bought one of these i already felt bought, the second time, i brought it back to the record store, none of the traxx really stand out, pity a big name such as DJ Dione has to be on a crappy label such as this one.
Their strategy was mainly about luring in poor suckers who didnt know better then this was the real deal.
Shame on them, i still want my money back!
A warning to artists, remember to re-triple-check your offered contracts by 5th gear thoroughly!!! I've never signed when I started in the music bizz in 1995 because of this reason. They tried to bind the artists to their company by obliging them to send all their future tracks to 5th gear the rest of their lives. Percentages are bad compared to others too. Companies like this one are in my opinion a disgrace to the music bizz!
Just like Mecado which was another example of a company that went bankrupt all of a sudden...
This label puts out an impressive quantity of CD compilations, especially 3CD sets, with a very impressive and eye-catching artwork indeed. Upon ispection of the tracklisting however, one will soon notice that there is a lot of repetion of the same tracks from its in-house producers, with occasionally a famous track from a famous artist thrown in between.
If this is the most money-making way for 5th Gear then good luck to them. However one must also say that a few of its in-house artist are indeed talented and could have their tracks released on vinyl too. Really a pity that their music is getting lost amongst the mass of compilations out there.
DoctorMachete
May 2, 2020