Doormouse

Doormouse is one of the founding fathers of breakcore. The Miami-based Milwaukee native produces twisted, breakbeat-driven dance music that makes extensive use of samples from a wide array of unexpected sources, including wrestling matches, obscure movies, and prank phone calls. He became one of the primary figures of the Midwest hardcore scene during the mid-’90s, then gradually began pushing his music into more complex and absurd directions. Doormouse founded Addict Records and sublabel Distort Records, releasing several vinyl EPs and mixtapes before making his full-length debut with The Album? in 2002. Once notorious for his drunken and violent antics, he later cleaned up and devoted more time to family life, and he largely quit music in order to open a gym in 2008. He returned to producing and performing by the end of the 2010s, and released several EPs, including 2023′s Breakcore.
Dan Martin began producing and DJing as Doormouse during the 1990s. Initially making gabber and hardcore techno, he released the EP 414 Tracks on Digitalhut Sounds. Somehow, one of its tracks ended up on the K-Tel-distributed compilation Digital Empire: Electronica's Best two years later. He released two more EPs on Digitalhut (a 1997 split with Joey Jupiter and 1998′s Inside Out Liver Meat Balloon) as well as the mix CD Noisecore Volume 1. By the time he launched Addict and Distort Records, his sound had evolved from speedcore to a more erratic, breakbeat-heavy sound similar to Australia’s Bloody Fist Records but with more of an irreverent sense of humor. He released several compilation EPs on Addict and split EPs with Unibomber on Distort, as well as Your Drugged Future (featuring the original version of the track “Skelechairs,” later infamously remixed by Venetian Snares) on Deadly Systems. More EPs, mixtapes, and tour-only CD-Rs followed, and The Album? and Freaked Out Mess both appeared on Addict in 2002. Planet Mu released Broken the same year, and Tigerbeat6′s bootleg/mashup imprint Violent Turd released the mix CD The Method Volume One: The Streets of Miami in 2003, packaged as a double CD with Freaked Out Mess. In 2004, Doormouse started the I ♥ Music series, dedicating EPs to a particular inspiration. Entries included I ♥ Polka, I ♥ Country (including a David Allan Coe megamix), I ♥ Kraftwerk, and finally I ♥ Everything.
In 2005, Jason Forrest’s Cock Rock Disco released the Doormouse album Stanley Yershonowski Presents Xylophone Jism as the Ridiculator. The same year, Sublight and Hymen Records co-released Major Changes, a more introspective, melodic Doormouse album reflecting his desire to improve his life and leave his destructive tendencies in the past. Several tracks incorporated the voice of his daughter, while longtime collaborator DJ Anonymous (Joshua Jenquin) contributed drums throughout. A split EP with Abelcain, Ghosts, appeared in 2006. Doormouse toured with Anonymous, performing vocal-heavy material that at times resembled a more hardcore Jamie Lidell.
By 2008, however, Doormouse had left the music scene and opened a personal training gym in Miami. He slowly returned to making music, and new tracks began appearing during the late 2010s, proving that he hadn’t lost his sense of humor or his prowess as a producer. Several loose tracks and remixes, including collaborations with longtime associate Otto Von Schirach, preceded the 2019 EP Millions of Dead Wrestlers. A split single with the DJ Producer appeared on Enduser’s Sonicterror Recordings in 2020, and Doormouse additionally collaborated with U.K. acid techno producer D.A.V.E. the Drummer on the track “Sample Jacking MTF.” In 2022, Doormouse and fellow hardcore pioneer Hellfish released a single together as Fishmouse. As a new generation of producers and listeners began embracing breakcore, leading to the term’s highest number of search engine hits in over a decade, Doormouse responded with an EP simply titled Breakcore, released by PRSPCT Recordings in early 2023. ~ Paul Simpson