Where are the breaks?

MatthewH

makes strange noises.
Does it seem strange to anyone else that we're currently almost completely devoid of that typical breaks rhythm: i.e. kick on the 1 and 3, snare on the 2 and 4?

I was never a huge fan, aside from some of the Plumps stuff or maybe Bedrock Breaks around 2001-02, but I'd always just expected it to be around. Now it seems like there's a big hole in dance music just waiting to be filled by that particular rhythm.

Occasionally I'll hear a straight breaks rhythm in some of the more future garage-style stuff and think "oh, I guess it's coming back" but it never seems to.
 

Leo

Well-known member
i was never a fan either, but i wonder why "discerning music fans" never supported it. too bloke-ish? it was often portrayed as dumbed-down dance music for rock fans, never seemed to have any artistic cred. there must be some decent stuff...who's the kode9 or ill blu of breaks? :) was/is there a cool breaks underground? anyone worth checking out?
 

hint

party record with a siren
It was never really cool because it was polished and trancey before all the cool kids decided that being polished and trancey was a good thing after listening to lots of 00's R'n'B.
 

MatthewH

makes strange noises.
Although I'm not really sure what you're referring to with the "kick on the 1 and 3, snare on the 2 and 4" part with regards to breaks.

Classic example: http://mp3.juno.co.uk/MP3/SF1476142-02-01-01.mp3

Boom-tick-clack-tick-Boom-tick-clack-tick etc.

Sometimes it was Boom-tick-clack-tick-Boom-Boom-clack-tick-
or Boom-tick-clack-Boom-Boom-tick-clack-tick.

...but the basic idea is that there's rarely any swing in the groove and the snares are spot on the beat. 2-step was more interesting (IMO) because the snares often didn't fall exactly on the beat.
 

Leo

Well-known member
i was also thinking of slightly less trancey stuff like uberzone, crystal method, monkey maffia.
 

wonk_vitesse

radio eros
Nowt wrong with breaks but for now we need a good 'break' from them i rekon. I'm sure they'll come back but i'm not missing them just yet.
 

michael

Bring out the vacuum
Kicks on 1 and 3, snares on 2 and 4 became a huge thing in hip-hop beats over the past decade-ish, though. Just with heaps of shuffle, I guess. And frankly nothing like the same feel as those breaks tunes.

I know it's a totally trainspotter call, but it always did my head in how much of the "breaks" genre didn't involve breaks.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"It was never really cool because it was polished and trancey before all the cool kids decided that being polished and trancey was a good thing after listening to lots of 00's R'n'B."
Yeah, I remember when I would see people such as Freq Nasty and Adam Freeland or whatever and be saying to my friends that "this music sounds entirely computer generated from start to finish without any kind of human input at any stage" - not necessarily as an insult, more as just a descriptive thing but I could see that that inhuman polishedness could put people off.
Why is it called breaks?
 

BareBones

wheezy
a few years ago after a night out, i ended up at a friend-of-a-friend's house, which friend-of-a-friend was himself friends with one of the plump djs. the plump dj was there as well and was wearing a tie around his head and acting really wacky. he was a right wally. that's about all i have to say about breaks.
 

JWoulf

Well-known member
Kicks on 1 and 3, snares on 2 and 4 is about as straight as you can make a rhytm. boom tick boom tick boom tick.

But yeah breaks were used in so much shit music that no "hip" people wanted to touch it. Of course this just means it will come a point when it becomes the new cool thing, probably this thread will be what turns the tide.
 

hint

party record with a siren
Why is it called breaks?

It was originally "Nu Skool Breaks", wasn't it? The early days of Adam Freeland playing d'n'b records at 33rpm. Ils and Tipper on Fuel. Rennie Pilgrim and TCR. That earlier stuff was certainly more "breaky" than some of the stuff being referred to here I think, and is around the period where I lose track of any further developments.

MatthewH said:
Classic example: http://mp3.juno.co.uk/MP3/SF1476142-02-01-01.mp3

Boom-tick-clack-tick-Boom-tick-clack-tick etc.

...but the basic idea is that there's rarely any swing in the groove and the snares are spot on the beat. 2-step was more interesting (IMO) because the snares often didn't fall exactly on the beat.

OK - I see what you mean. It's not something I associated with Breaks, but I guess it's a route the sound went down after I lost track.

I put on the radio in the car last night. Mista Jam played this and I thought of this thread and your description:

 

Sectionfive

bandwagon house
Why is it called breaks?

Mixmag?

I liked the trancey stuff like Hybrid or Way Out West when I was younger and later the bits with West London connections.
People like kraftykutz too that kept the hiphop in it, not so much the rest though.

Probably saw alot of crap DJs though to be fair.
 
Last edited:

MatthewH

makes strange noises.
I'm still confused after hearing some of the clips. Breaks doesn't have to have break(beat)s in it?

Nope. In 2001-2003 breakbeats (i.e. the Amen break) were totally out of fashion in 130-140 bpm music. It was largely individual kicks and snares, from drum machines or whatever.

I noticed the same thing in some dnb at the same time as well, actually. Some of the True Playaz crowd, for example, were using individual samples - the heaviest possible - instead of lifting breaks. Didn't happen to the same extent as in Nu Skool breaks though; you still heard a lot of Amens.

Can't help myself but here are a couple of standout tracks in my books:
 
Last edited:

Dr Awesome

Techsteppin'
To be fair, the vast majority of dnb made since roughly 2002/2003 has stopped using sampled breakbeats in favour of individual hits/kits. Those that do are normally sliced up beyond all recognition anyway...

Some guys buck that trend however; Fanu probably being the best example. Lots of the drumfunk'y type stuff feels like it uses real breaks that are just chopped up - or at least used to.
 

routes

we can delay.ay.ay...
i guess stuff like instra:mental, breakage is pretty much breaks to me... zero swing, druggy amniosis, tracky arrangements with clever edits, trancey squiggly bits, precision engineering... very computery

 
Last edited:

nomos

Administrator
Nope. In 2001-2003 breakbeats (i.e. the Amen break) were totally out of fashion in 130-140 bpm music. It was largely individual kicks and snares, from drum machines or whatever.

I noticed the same thing in some dnb at the same time as well, actually. Some of the True Playaz crowd, for example, were using individual samples - the heaviest possible - instead of lifting breaks. Didn't happen to the same extent as in Nu Skool breaks though; you still heard a lot of Amens.
Yeah this happened earlier in DnB too with the techstep and neurofunk stuff. But they had the sense not to name their music after something that wasn't in it. I'm quite vexed by this.
 
Top