Bas Oskam, better known by his stage name Noisecontrollers, is a Dutch DJ and hardstyle music producer based in Veenendaal, Netherlands. Noisecontrollers was previously a duo before Arjan Terpstra left the project in 2013, prompting Oskam to continue as a solo act. They are regarded as one of the pioneers of hardstyle music, with an immense passion and focus in creating technical, emotional and euphoric hardstyle.
Noisecontrollers started producing hardstyle in 2005, beginning his career at Fusion Records. In 2010, he founded the label Digital:Age with frequent collaborator Wildstylez, which eventually ceased to release music in 2013. He released his second album on Q-Dance, before his third and fourth compilation albums were self-released. His final album to date was a collaboration with Bass Modulators (as part of group NCBM) which saw Noisecontrollers return to Q-Dance. Since his last album, he has founded his own record label, Spirit of Hardstyle.
Noisecontrollers has released five studio albums, all of which released between 2012 and 2016. He has also released over 200 individual tracks, and is currently working on his sixth studio album, Harmony. He has also produced tracks under different aliases and in different genres outside of hardstyle, most notably hardcore and dubstep. These sounds still inspire his production standards to this day.
Career
2005-09: Career origins, Fusion Records Oskam and Terpstra began communicating with each other through an online forum, and while they were both Dutch, they lived in different parts of the country, making collaboration difficult. Noisecontrollers began in late 2005, when Terpstra, originally a fan of hip-hop, and Oskam, a trance producer, began working together to create melodic hardstyle music.
Prior to making music, Oskam was a high school geography teacher. Oskam has mentioned that the early years of music production took a toll on his social and personal lives, leaving him unable to fulfil social commitments and even requiring him to prematurely conclude his studies in 2008 to pursue music full time. He has also talked of the uncertainty of the early years, and while, in retrospect, he's happy he made sacrifices to produce better music, at the time it felt like a big gamble.
Their original songs focussed on replicating the sound of Donkey Rollers, a hardstyle group from the 2000s (including MC DV8 & Zany) who had cofounded one of the most popular hardstyle labels of the 2000s, Fusion Records. Fusion Records, upon hearing Noisecontrollers work, brought the duo to work with the label in their Eindhoven studios, before signing the duo on a permanent basis.
Their first official release, "Wanna Freak You", was released on Scantraxx sub-label DJS Records in 2007. They debuted as performing DJs the same year, and in many of their earlier sets, they can be seen depicted as a trio, alongside MC Renegade, reminiscent of their idols, the Donkey Rollers, who had MC DV8 as their full time MC. In 2009, they made their debut at Q-Dance's biggest events: Qlimax and Defqon.1. At Qlimax's 2009 edition, the producing duo can be seen alongside MC Renegade, although other Noisecontrollers performances from the same year, notably their Defqon.1 set, do not include Renegade.
2009-10: Honing production skill, leaving Fusion Records As the duo continued to work together, Oskam took a more leading role in the studio while Arjan focussed his efforts on performing on stage. With Oskam taking the lead, Noisecontrollers' production quality changed noticeably after he was invited to the Scantraxx studios to work with producers such as Project One duo Headhunterz and Wildstylez. Scantraxx later released their three-way collaboration, Headhunterz & Wildstylez vs. Noisecontrollers: "Tonight", in 2009. "Tonight" is one of the most celebrated tracks in the history of hardstyle music, with the track being ranked as the 2nd most popular hard dance song of all time in 2013. The 2012 Alpha2 remix of "Tonight" ranked as the 4th most popular hardstyle song of all time, during Q-Dance's 20th anniversary celebration party, Dediqated.
Q-Dance reached out to Noisecontrollers in 2009 and requested them to make the anthem for In Qontrol, an indoor hard dance festival held at the RAI in Amsterdam. The anthem which Oskam produced, titled after the 2009 edition's theme, "CTRL.ALT.DEL", is celebrated by producers and fans alike for its distinctive deep, crunchy kicks. In a 2020 interview, Oskam explained that the kick was pitch shifted down from the G key they normally used. He also explained that, while producing the song, he was trying to emulate the Donkey Rollers. Five years later, in 2014, Oskam confessed that he still used the kick developed for "CTRL.ALT.DEL" in many of his later productions.
Noisecontrollers were put in charge of creating the Decibel Outdoor anthem for the 2010 edition, naming their effort "Summer in the City". Later that same year, the duo debuted in DJ Mag's annual Top 100 DJs ranking at 90th, one place above compatriot hardstyle producer duo Showtek. At the very end of 2010, they left Fusion Records and founded the label "Digital:Age" with fellow hardstyle producer, Wildstylez, who had left from the Scantraxx main labels.
2011-12: Digital:Age, Defqon.1 anthems, debut album The duo collaborated with Wildstylez for the first two releases on Digital:Age, which was a Scantraxx sublabel, in early 2011. The same year, they were invited by Q-Dance to create the anthem for the Dutch edition of Defqon.1: "Unite", after making their debut at the festival only a two years prior. "Unite" was released by Q-Dance Records in August, and Noisecontrollers were also invited to play at the Australian edition of the festival, held in Sydney.
Throughout the year, they also began work on their debut album, and released several popular singles which would go on to feature on the album, including "Gimme Love", which achieved widespread popularity within the hardstyle scene. Oskam would go on to proclaim "Gimme Love" as the biggest Noisecontrollers hit song. They finished the year by moving up 55 places in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs list, appearing at #35.
In January 2012, Q-Dance invited Noisecontrollers to the Heiniken Music Hall to feature in their very own event: X-Qlusive Noisecontrollers. "So High" was described by Oskam as the unofficial anthem for the event. This also marked the first time Q-Dance themed an event around a single artist with the X-Qlusive concept, which would continue on for over a decade. They continued 2012 by releasing their first album, titled E=Nc² (The Science Of Hardstyle). While working on the album, the duo made it clear they were spending time developing the concept, which was developed around the duo's shared interest in science. The album was assembled as a body of work, unlike many other albums from the hardstyle scene, which closer resemble compilations of singles. Oskam has claimed that the majority of the tracks on the album were produced by him alone, excluding The Pitcher collaboration "Knock Out".
Following the release of their debut album, the trio from "Tonight" re-emerged to produce their collaborative Defqon.1 anthem "World of Madness", for the Dutch edition of the festival. They finished 2012 moving further up the DJ Mag Top 100 charts, polling in 27th place.
2013: Collaborations with Duos, Final Split In January 2013, Scantraxx manager Rudy Peters issued a somewhat cryptic public announcement that Wildstylez (alongside Headhunterz and Frontliner) had departed from the label permanently, presumably ending the Digital:Age record label in which Noisecontrollers co-released their music upon. Oskam later revealed that Noisecontrollers and Wildstylez wanted to focus on brand building with Digital:Age, but eventually came to the conclusion that the exercise was a distraction from music production, and disbanded the project.
Nonetheless, Noisecontrollers continued to innovate their sound, releasing "Get Loose", a collaboration with Showtek, on Skrillex-owned label OWSLA. Previously, Showtek had departed from producing hardstyle to focus their efforts on more mainstream success, pivoting towards big room house. "Get Loose" features a combination of hardstyle, big-room, and screaming dubstep, a sound which Noisecontrollers claimed had an ongoing influence on their production. The track would receive an official remix from mainstream dance producer Tiësto, cementing its popularity. The year 2013 also saw Noisecontrollers return to Decibel anthem duties, releasing "Craving for the Beat", a collaboration with the Alpha2. The anthem was released on the brothers' label, A2 Records (a sublabel of Scantraxx).
Noisecontrollers slid almost 40 places in the DJ Mag Top 100 poll for 2013, placing #66th.
Late in 2013, the duo announced that Terpstra had decided to step away from Noisecontrollers, with their last performance as a duo occurring a few days later at that year's edition of Qlimax. Terpstra cited the need to produce independently again, exploring other genres of dance music beyond the hard dance scene. In the YouTube statement announcing the split, the pair reminisce on the good times they've spent producing and performing together, open up about their uncertainties regarding the split (especially Oskam's ability to perform on his own), but remain adamant the split is the best thing for both individuals. They also talk about potentially reappearing together in the future, highlighting their ongoing friendship despite the split:
Since leaving Noisecontrollers, Terpstra (much akin to "Get Loose" collaborators Showtek) has been producing music using the stage name Bloqshot, focusing on different musical styles including big room house and dubstep.
2014-15: First years solo At Terpstra's departure set, Qlimax in November 2013, Noisecontrollers played a variety of new tracks, which, according to Oskam, were very well received by the hardstyle community. These tracks would go on to feature on Noisecontrollers second album, All Around. Following Terpstra's departure, Noisecontrollers spent a significant amount of time doing public relations work, such as interviews and guest mixes for a number of publications, to remind fans that he was now a solo artist. Interviews and guest mixes also gathered attention for All Around, which was released in March 2014 on Q-Dance Records. He described the album as having both a melodic and hard feel, with deeper kicks than he's ever produced before. He also emphasised the importance of hardstyle having a shifting sound, which he believed was occurring in the scene around the release of All Around. His personal favourite track from the album is "Down Down".
Noisecontrollers finished 2014 in almost the same position in the DJ Mag Top 100 Poll as he had as a duo the previous year, polling at 67th. It would also be his final year appearing in the Top 100 poll. He was also given the responsibility to produce the 2014 Qlimax anthem, "The Source Code of Creation".
Early in 2015, Noisecontrollers collaborated with Bass Modulators to release "Rocked Up" on Scantraxx, where Bass Modulators were treated as prospective talents. The collaborative pairing were unofficially given the shorthand NCBM, as is common amongst hardstyle acts. They later returned to collaborate on "Solar", a bright, melodic track with a striking saxophone melody, which was selected to be played at that year's edition of the Defqon.1 endshow. Following the success of these two tracks, NCBM promised more collaborative releases in the future.