Audio documentary on the Amen break

Diggedy Derek · Jul 24, 2005

Have we done this yet? It's very possible, apologies if so. Mixed feelings on this documentary, which can be summed up by pointing out that this bloke says "Original Nuttah" in a rather haughty, academic tone.

http://www.nkhstudio.com/pages/amen_mp4.html

Diggedy Derek · Jul 24, 2005

In fact, half way through, it's just become quite annoying, talking about Squarepusher. "chin stroking" the documentary says- hang on, a bloke making a documentary about the Amen break isn't chin stroking? Gah.

Melchior · Jul 25, 2005

Yeah, it's a wierd one. It makes some quitte good points about copyright etc, but on the music it's a bit shit.

nomos · Jul 25, 2005

Diggedy Derek said:
this bloke says "Original Nuttah" in a rather haughty, academic tone.

I didn't find anything particularly haughty about that. It's just an American trying to pronounce London patois properly. It wasn't really "academic" either, just a pretty straightforward take on "Amen" and its implications packaged for a crowd that doesn't know jungle or intellectual property laws.

I didn't like when he reduced jungle to "a whole subculture based on a 6 second drum loop." Same with the requisite slagging of Squarepusher (who seems to fancy himself more than he deserves but has some good tracks on their own merits and never tried to impose himself on jungle). The example he used there was actually less abstract and "undanceable" (in the sense of being exceedingly complex) than some Remarc tunes. The difference was that Tom buried the break in noise and made it less physical, though that still doesn't make it somehow an illegitimate use of the break.

nomos · Jul 25, 2005

Melchior said:
Yeah, it's a wierd one. It makes some quitte good points about copyright etc, but on the music it's a bit shit.

Remarc being a glaring omission from the examples. The first batch of hip hop ones made sense.

Clubberlang · Jul 25, 2005

I thought it was rather good actually and Shy FX and L Double are fine enough jungle examples (Remarc is not the be all and end all of Amen-mashing.) And the copyright points at the end are all well made.

droid · Jul 25, 2005

I dont like the way he only provides one or two examples from each genre... He leaves out nearly ALL the great jungle amens - Dillinja, Trace, Crystl, Remarc, Paradox... all of which are vital examples of the Amen's mutation.

He also forgot that Johnny L and Posh Spice tune - for shame!

Maybe if hed talked a bit faster, he wouldve had room for some more music..

Landfill Elektronikz · Jul 25, 2005

I found it quite amusing. So's his TB-303 film

http://www.nkhstudio.com/pages/popup_bassline.html

mms · Jul 25, 2005

droid said:
I dont like the way he only provides one or two examples from each genre... He leaves out nearly ALL the great jungle amens - Dillinja, Trace, Crystl, Remarc, Paradox... all of which are vital examples of the Amen's mutation.

He also forgot that Johnny L and Posh Spice tune - for shame!

Maybe if hed talked a bit faster, he wouldve had room for some more music..

talking fast is overated

gumdrops · Jul 25, 2005

academic or not, i cant wait to watch this. i wish there were more mini docus like this on things as anal as a drum break.

droid · Jul 25, 2005

mms said:
talking fast is overated

Whatthehellareyouonabout? Talkingfastisthenewblack!

DigitalDjigit · Jul 25, 2005

Are you sure it is not narrated by a text-to-speech program?

nomos · Jul 25, 2005

Have to say though, I preferred this doc on scratching.

droid · Jul 25, 2005

DigitalDjigit said:
Are you sure it is not narrated by a text-to-speech program?

Now you mention it. Not 100%

Autonomic said:
Have to say though, I preferred this doc on scratching.

Genius!

Diggedy Derek · Jul 25, 2005

I didn't find anything particularly haughty about that. It's just an American trying to pronounce London patois properly.

Fair enough, yeah, I was being a bit flippant. I was trying to poke fun at the reductionist slant of the doc, really, and they do make some weird errors. For instance, they more or less say that whole looped samples weren't usedin hip hop till 1989 and varioius Amen tracks- well, surely that's just plain wrong- LL Cool J's Rock The Bells f'instance.

Mind you, those US adverts which used Amen breaks to conjour up a generalised "state of excitment" were well weird.

nomos · Jul 26, 2005

Diggedy Derek said:
the reductionist slant of the doc... they do make some weird errors. For instance, they more or less say that whole looped samples weren't usedin hip hop till 1989 and varioius Amen tracks- well, surely that's just plain wrong- LL Cool J's Rock The Bells f'instance.

Yeah I'm with you on that.

Diggedy Derek said:
Mind you, those US adverts which used Amen breaks to conjour up a generalised "state of excitment" were well weird.

Anyone remember that Levi's one that I think Underworld did with the snow globe and a j(u/i)ngle track underneath? It was xmas 1997 I think. That's the first one I remember.

Audio documentary on the Amen break

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