breaks

[tryptych]

This is definitely happening to some extent.

The 'bassline breaks' scene has grown a lot in the last couple of years - harder, more DnB styled stuff by peeps like Quest, Baobinga, Aquasky, Distortionz etc, although I don't see much crossover to the DnB scene itself - NuSkool Breaks doesn't get much of a look-in on DOA at any rate.

The people into harder breaks are looking to the broad dubstep scene now though, since there are already people that have been blurring the lines between the two scenes for a while - Darqwan, Zinc, Search & Destroy, Distance, Quest...Mark of the Beast by S&D was released on a breaks label, with a breaks tune on the flip, and seems to have gone down really well.

This seems to have been happening for a while - with a UKG/nu-skool breaks interpollination about 4-5 years ago. Anyone who saw the Stanton Warriors DJ around then, they were dropping quite a lot of garage-y stuff (Streets, early Jammin, Wookie, El-B...).

To me, at least sonically, a lot of more dance-y dubstep (for want of a better word - I mean the Darqwan/Bingo stuff as opposed to the more minimal Kode 9 and DMZ stuff) seems to have come out of a mixture of breaks and garage - breakbeat stuff getting more bassy, and more swing and skippy beats, and garage getting harder, techier and less rnb influenced. From what I've read, it seems doubtful that the people involved were actually listening to each others records much, but in terms of the sound, that's certainly the way it appeared to me.

I remember having a conversation with a mutual aquaintance of Martin Blackdown when Wookie's "Scrappy" came out, and commenting that a breakier garager/garagier breaks was the sound of the future. I think you probably had the same conversation with Dan Frampton, Martin..

 

[Blackdown]

i have conversations with Mr Frampton on a daily basis. Dan Frampton = Dusk. Our first Dusk + Blackdown release is out in July

 

[tryptych]

I just noticed that on the Tempa website, they quote a review of the Horsepower LP - "Awesome breaks album" - says Hard to Find records....

 

[Grievous Angel]

ah but this is the problem. i'd view that mix as prime big beat, back when it was fun.

But records described as breaks was around before big beat, IIRC?

breaks i'd see as more on the progressive tip, all that horrible arpeggio synth thing and wooshing fx which i'm sure you'd never subscribe to!

Ummmm... Plump's The Gate is all arpeggios, wooshes and higher state of consciousness rip-offs and I love that, so...

 

[Grievous Angel]

I've recently noticed a lot of the DJs mixing "electro house" (for want of a better term) into their sets, thus moving away from breaks back to four-four!

Fascinating post NJIM. Fatboy was moving from breaks to 4x4 a few years ago.

There's also a trend in progressive breaks for massive breakdowns and drumroll crescendos in the build ups and recently a spate of bootlegs of techno tunes like Red 2 (Dave Clarke) and Mentasm (Beltram) in this style which i find unlistenable. I think it's really progressive house mark 2.

Sounds great!