Artist
Partyraiser
- Followers:
- 81,229
- Popularity:
- 51/100
- Tracked releases:
- 90
- Latest release:
- 29 May 2026
Partyraiser is Wesley van Swol, the Dutch hardcore veteran whose habit of playing records faster and nastier hardened into its own genre: uptempo hardcore.
Releases (90)
90 tracks
About Partyraiser
Whole genres rarely trace back to one DJ’s habits, but uptempo hardcore does. Wesley van Swol (Partyraiser) started DJing in 1993, played his first hardcore party in 1995, won his first mixing competition in 1996, and pressed his first record, ‘A New World Order’, in 1998 with Endymion’s Bart Revier.
The B-side gospel
The pivotal move came in 2004: Van Swol began building sets from the nastiest, fastest B-sides in hardcore, the tracks other DJs skipped. Crowds and colleagues started talking about ‘Partyraiser style’, and by around 2012 the scene had a proper name for the tempo-pushed sound: uptempo.
Godfather status
In 2013 he founded Partyraiser Records as a platform for himself and new talent, and since 2016 he has doubled up in Scarphase, his exclusive live act with Italian hardcore heavyweight F. Noize. The hits kept ratifying his title: ‘Sound Becomes One’ with DT was named hardcore’s number 1 track of 2015, and ‘Ode to the Godfather’ took the same honour in 2017. The title says it all. Today’s uptempo generation, from The Dark Horror to Deadly Guns, works in the space he cleared.
Still raising parties
Three decades in, ‘A Little Bit Of Beats’ (2024) currently leads his Spotify catalogue in HDRR’s tracking, proof the godfather still delivers.
Every new Partyraiser release lands on the Uptempo Release Radar the day it hits Spotify. The full tracked catalogue is listed above.
Questions,answered
Who is Partyraiser?
Partyraiser is the alias of Wesley van Swol, born in Delft in 1977 and raised in Wateringen. A hardcore DJ since 1993, he is widely regarded as the godfather of uptempo hardcore.
How did Partyraiser invent uptempo?
From 2004 he built sets from the hard-edged, sped-up B-sides of hardcore records. Fans started calling it 'Partyraiser style', and around 2012 the scene settled on the name 'uptempo'.
What are Partyraiser's biggest tracks?
'Sound Becomes One' with DT was named the number 1 hardcore track of 2015, and 'Ode to the Godfather' repeated the feat in 2017.
What is Partyraiser Records?
The label Wesley van Swol founded in the summer of 2013, a platform for his own output and for new uptempo talent deserving a spotlight.