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DJ Paul Elstak (full name — Paul Roger Elstak; born January 14, 1966, The Hague, Netherlands) is a Dutch DJ and music producer, and one of the key figures in the history of hardcore, gabber and happy hardcore. His career is closely connected with the development of Rotterdam's hardcore scene in the early 1990s, the Rotterdam Records label, and the popularisation of the genre's more melodic side through hits such as Life Is Like a Dance, Luv U More, Rainbow in the Sky and The Promised Land.
Early career and Holy Noise
Elstak began his professional career in 1987, becoming a DJ at the Rotterdam club Bluetiek-Inn. There he met producer Peter Slaghuis, one of the notable figures of early Dutch house music.
Together with Rob Fabrie and Richard van Naamen, Elstak formed the project Holy Noise, which released music on Slaghuis' Hithouse label. The group's best-known track was James Brown Is Still Alive from 1991 — a response to the popular rave single James Brown Is Dead by L.A. Style. The track reached the Top 10 of the Dutch Top 40.
Rotterdam Records and the rise of gabber
In 1992, Paul Elstak founded Rotterdam Records under Mid-Town Records. The label became one of the important platforms of the early Dutch hardcore scene and played a significant role in spreading the sound that soon became widely known as gabber.
The early history of the label is closely linked with the project Euromasters, which included Elstak, Rob Fabrie and other producers. One of its first landmark recordings was Amsterdam Waar Lech Dat Dan? — an explicitly Rotterdam-oriented response to Amsterdam's dominance in the Dutch music and media landscape.
It was followed by other hard rave releases, including Alles Naar De Klote!!!. Through Rotterdam Records, Elstak became one of the most prominent representatives of the generation that shaped Dutch gabber culture in the early 1990s.
Life Is Like a Dance and Rainbow in the Sky
In the mid-1990s, Elstak began developing a more melodic side of hardcore. In 1995, he released Life Is Like a Dance, followed by Luv U More and Rainbow in the Sky.
These tracks combined fast hardcore rhythms with bright synthesizer melodies, pop vocals and a more accessible song structure. Several DJ Paul Elstak singles reached the Top 10 of the Dutch charts, while Rainbow in the Sky became one of the most recognisable happy hardcore tracks of the 1990s.
In 1996, the success continued with Don't Leave Me Alone and The Promised Land. These releases made the name Paul Elstak known far beyond the original gabber audience.
Return to harder hardcore
The commercial happy hardcore period received a mixed reaction from part of the gabber scene. During the second half of the 1990s, Elstak once again began focusing more heavily on harder hardcore.
One of the characteristic tracks from this period was Thrillseeka, created together with the Italian project The Stunned Guys. It belongs to the considerably harder side of his catalogue and became a classic of European hardcore.
Offensive Records
In 2001, Elstak left Rotterdam Records and founded his own label, Offensive Records, associated with Rige Entertainment. The new platform was focused primarily on hardcore and allowed him to continue working with the heavier side of the genre.
At the same time, Elstak did not abandon his happy hardcore legacy. In his live sets, he gradually began combining material from different periods — from hard gabber tracks to melodic hits from the mid-1990s.
New Kids Turbo
A new wave of mainstream popularity arrived in the early 2010s thanks to the Dutch comedy project New Kids, which made extensive use of hardcore culture and Paul Elstak's music.
For the 2010 film New Kids Turbo, he contributed to the title track Turbo and also appeared in the film itself. The project introduced his music to a new generation of listeners who had not experienced the original peak of gabber and happy hardcore in the 1990s.
Kind van de Duivel and Engeltje
In 2017, Elstak once again found himself at the centre of Dutch popular music through his collaboration with rapper Jebroer and producer Dr Phunk.
The single Kind van de Duivel combined hardcore with contemporary rap and festival aesthetics and received multiple platinum certifications in the Netherlands. It was followed by Engeltje, which also became commercially successful.
These releases demonstrated that Elstak's signature happy hardcore elements could still work within a new generation of Dutch pop and rap culture more than twenty years after Rainbow in the Sky.
Gouden Harp
In 2023, Paul Elstak received the Buma Gouden Harp award for his long-term contribution to Dutch music culture.
The award recognised not only his own hits, but also the role of Rotterdam Records, his contribution to the development of gabber and his lasting influence on several generations of Dutch hardcore producers.
Europapa
In 2024, Paul Elstak contributed to Europapa by Joost Klein, the song representing the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Elstak's influence is particularly noticeable in the final section of the track, where its pop and eurodance structure suddenly shifts into happy hardcore. He later released his own official Europapa remix.
That same year, Elstak continued collaborating with a new generation of artists. Together with Rooler and Sickmode, he released Take Me Away, while his collaboration with Reinier Zonneveld, XTCWTF, brought his hardcore approach together with the modern hard techno scene.
Musical style
Paul Elstak's discography spans several different directions within hardcore. The early work of Holy Noise and Euromasters belongs to the formative period of rave and gabber in the early 1990s. Through Rotterdam Records, he participated in the development of the harder Rotterdam sound, built around distorted kicks, high tempos and aggressive samples.
In the middle of the decade, Elstak brought happy hardcore to the forefront: the fast rhythm remained, but it was joined by bright synthesizer melodies, female vocals and structures closer to pop songs.
After the creation of Offensive Records, the harder side of his music once again became an important part of his catalogue. For this reason, Paul Elstak cannot be accurately described only through Rainbow in the Sky or only through gabber: both directions have continued to exist side by side throughout his career.
Key releases
- 1991 — James Brown Is Still Alive — Holy Noise
- 1992 — Amsterdam Waar Lech Dat Dan? — Euromasters
- 1995 — Life Is Like a Dance
- 1995 — Luv U More
- 1995 — Rainbow in the Sky
- 1996 — The Promised Land
- 1999 — Thrillseeka — with The Stunned Guys
- 2010 — Turbo — with New Kids
- 2017 — Kind van de Duivel — with Jebroer
- 2017 — Engeltje — with Jebroer and Dr Phunk
- 2024 — Europapa — contribution to Joost Klein's recording
- 2024 — Take Me Away — with Rooler and Sickmode
- 2024 — XTCWTF — with Reinier Zonneveld
The significance of DJ Paul Elstak
Paul Elstak belongs to the generation of musicians who helped turn Rotterdam into one of the main centres of European hardcore in the early 1990s. Through Holy Noise, Euromasters and Rotterdam Records, he contributed to the formation of the gabber scene, and later helped bring happy hardcore into the mainstream Dutch charts.
His later career connected this music with several subsequent generations — from New Kids and Jebroer to Joost Klein, Rooler, Sickmode and Reinier Zonneveld. As a result, Paul Elstak has maintained a rare connection, for an artist from the early rave era, with both hardcore history and the contemporary Dutch electronic music scene.
