Direct me to broken-beat in London please

[ThinKing]

someone up a mix of this stuff please, something good and danceable.

here's a mix of mine from last year when i was doing a show on a pirate in Bristol, some more danceable stuff alongside a few slightly more 'nujazz' tracks. Hopefully the banter doesn't distract too much.


http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1RS0IV7Z


I-Wolf - Fallin' (Stereotyp remix) - Klein
Freeform Five - Electromagnetic (Seiji remix) - Four Music
Nitin Sawhney - Rainfall (Bugz in the Attic remix) - V2
Season - Juice (Afronaught remix) - Nuevo Ritmo
Fat Jon - Everywhere (Desha remix) - Exceptional
Flowriders - Soul Searchin - 4 Lux
Bugz in the Attic - Zombie - Bitasweet
Just One - Love2Love - Neroli
Al Da Bubble - Double Trouble - Archive

Daz-I-Kue - Black - Bloodfire
October - Ya Know - Fluid Ounce
Lekan Babalola - Asokere (I.G. Culture Mix) - Lex 51
Seiji - Loose Lips - Bitasweet *
Daz-I-Kue vs. Exile - Melon Bounce - Sound In Color
Tito Sensai - Shelembeh - Main Squeeze
Afronaught - Carnaval - Bitasweet
Seiji & Spoonface - Yin Yang - Honest Jon's
Afronaught - Golpe Tuyo Calinda - Bitasweet *
Daz-I-Kue - Move Part 1 - Sound In Color



I think Hint has it pretty right saying it existed in a bubble, most of the above tunes are from 2000-04 I think. The Bugz were responsible for a large amount of the quality output in their individual guises - see how many of the above tracks/remixes are by Seiji, Afronaught, Daz-I-Kue or I.G. Culture.

Since they found success with Booty La La and the Doghouse LP they stuck to the Bugz stuff which I find more sterile and generic, certainly less inventive. Broken to me usually meant experimentation with drum placement (compared to breaks etc), flirtation with soul/house/latin/ethno influences and finished off with a healthy dollop bass, and always with a sense of humour in there somewhere.


What's quite interesting is how many of the original W London broken crew came from the Reinforced jungle sound - Dego 4hero aka Nutmeg, Seiji, Domu (of Sonar Circle on Reinforced), Mark Force aka G Force, Colin Lindo aka Alpha Omega and so on...


edit btw I fucking HATE Future Rage, and Trash Da Junk which was a similar-ish early broken anthem.

 

[viktorvaughn]

I think Hint has it pretty right saying it existed in a bubble, most of the above tunes are from 2000-04 I think. The Bugz were responsible for a large amount of the quality output in their individual guises - see how many of the above tracks/remixes are by Seiji, Afronaught, Daz-I-Kue or I.G. Culture.

Since they found success with Booty La La and the Doghouse LP they stuck to the Bugz stuff which I find more sterile and generic, certainly less inventive. Broken to me usually meant experimentation with drum placement (compared to breaks etc), flirtation with soul/house/latin/ethno influences and finished off with a healthy dollop bass, and always with a sense of humour in there somewhere.


What's quite interesting is how many of the original W London broken crew came from the Reinforced jungle sound - Dego 4hero aka Nutmeg, Seiji, Domu (of Sonar Circle on Reinforced), Mark Force aka G Force, Colin Lindo aka Alpha Omega and so on...


edit btw I fucking HATE Future Rage, and Trash Da Junk which was a similar-ish early broken anthem.

Thanks for that info. Is there any good stuff still about now to watch out for?

 

[ThinKing]

dunno really mate, i've been buying/playing mostly dubstep the last few years, and since Goya (distro central to the broken scene) has gone under, i'd imagine it's harder than ever to find.

Older stuff shouldn't be that hard to find though, and as above the best stuff for me was mostly by the Bugz producers working as individuals/under pseudonyms - esp Seiji (and his millions of amazing remixes), IG Culture, Daz-I-Kue and Afronaught (and sometimes their keys player Kaidi Tatham). Also Domu, Dego 4Hero/Cousin Cockroach/Nutmeg, Mark de Clive Lowe, and others are worth a look - there are many others to recommend but the music quickly strays too far into Nu Jazz territory and becomes rather sterile and bereft of any real bollocks.

 

[stelfox]

Do you at least accept that there are lines to be traced between that track and what the likes of Apple are currently doing?

Apple readily admits to being heavily influenced by the whole West London sound and making broken beat tracks. This is pretty undeniable but also not much of a connection to make, really. He says it all on his MySpace page!

 

[hint]

Apple readily admits to being heavily influenced by the whole West London sound and making broken beat tracks. This is pretty undeniable but also not much of a connection to make, really. He says it all on his MySpace page!

Yes, I know... DJ Naughty is another example. I wasn't putting it across as some major revelation! Although I recall a few rants on here about how artists' listed influences aren't always so clearly represented in the music they make, so in that respect perhaps it is remarkable.

I was just trying to point out that the Broken Beat sound made its mark and continues to be relevant in club music (in the UK at least), despite the suggestion in this thread that the Dubstep Monster rendered it impotent.

 

[hint]

hedit btw I fucking HATE Future Rage, and Trash Da Junk which was a similar-ish early broken anthem.

... and yet you like Love2Love? Not a million miles away, eh.

 

[ThinKing]

weird init, i know they're 'anthems' and were widely loved, but I found them both strangely cold and devoid of musical interest to me. Love2Love is a percy though, the broken 4/4 and widdly LFO bits flick my switches.

 

[Grievous Angel]

I really like a bit of broken beat. Saw Tom Churchill do one of the best dj sets I've ever experienced at a broken beat party in Glasgow a couple of years ago - absolutely mental, twisted, agonisingly funky sound. Loved it.

Ignore Marc's antipathy for jazz - in ten years time he'll be lapping it up. (C'mon Marc, you know this is true!)

Jazz chords = the shit.

The line from broken beat to dubstep as in 2562 and Martyn is very direct and very short - i.e. it's immediate! See the 2562 interview in the next Woofah...

See also - the UKG version of Nights Over Egypt. Awesome.

 

[viktorvaughn]

dunno really mate, i've been buying/playing mostly dubstep the last few years, and since Goya (distro central to the broken scene) has gone under, i'd imagine it's harder than ever to find.

Older stuff shouldn't be that hard to find though, and as above the best stuff for me was mostly by the Bugz producers working as individuals/under pseudonyms - esp Seiji (and his millions of amazing remixes), IG Culture, Daz-I-Kue and Afronaught (and sometimes their keys player Kaidi Tatham). Also Domu, Dego 4Hero/Cousin Cockroach/Nutmeg, Mark de Clive Lowe, and others are worth a look - there are many others to recommend but the music quickly strays too far into Nu Jazz territory and becomes rather sterile and bereft of any real bollocks.

Thanks.

 

[elgato]

Jazz chords = the shit.

The line from broken beat to dubstep as in 2562 and Martyn is very direct and very short - i.e. it's immediate! See the 2562 interview in the next Woofah...

definitely, 2562 used to produce broken didnt he? also something which gets forgotten a lot is that there are strong links between both broken beat and jazz and detroit techno & its descendents... jazz chords surely play a pretty massive role in the musical backbone of detroit, not to mention more explicit references (e.g. Jupiter Jazz). then you've also got all those guys like Aardvarck, Nubian Mindz, Titonton Duvanté, Nu Era (Marc Mac) and of course Anthony Shakir drawing even clearer lines across the genres

its funny how jazz always seems to get automatically derided as fiddly muso material for geeky white people (not that imo there is necessarily anything wrong with that kind of music), when the situation seems much more complicated when any scrutiny is applied

 

[UFO over easy]

you should still be able to get the broken beat cd 2562 did as dogdaze. it was a self-distro thing, check his myspace and see what's up

i will love jazz forever, was raised on it. an absolutely vast inexhaustible goldmine, decades of music to explore

 

[Pestario]

I love broken beat. The positive vibes are a great anti-dote to a lot of the dark wankery I listen to. And ok, so it can be a tiny bit pretentios sometimes but I think there's a lot of humour and silliness to it.

I miss the days when J Da Flex was still on 1xtra , all I know about broken was from his show.

 

[bassnation]

I really like a bit of broken beat. Saw Tom Churchill do one of the best dj sets I've ever experienced at a broken beat party in Glasgow a couple of years ago - absolutely mental, twisted, agonisingly funky sound. Loved it.

Ignore Marc's antipathy for jazz - in ten years time he'll be lapping it up. (C'mon Marc, you know this is true!)

Jazz chords = the shit. .

oh i got no problem with real jazz - just dance producers thinking its a short hand for sophistication. and i've remained consistent in that view for ten years as you know! i was listening to some grime yesterday and thinking how effortlessly grime beats surpass what broken beat was trying to acheive but just sounding so much rawer.

 

[Pestario]

i was listening to some grime yesterday and thinking how effortlessly grime beats surpass what broken beat was trying to acheive but just sounding so much rawer.

Agreed. I still consider grime to be the most advanced dance genre in terms of rhythm structure.

 

[hint]

Sure... if you consider "dancing" to be a bunch of blokes shouting and moshing.

 

[michael]

Recloose makes house music (mostly).

Yeah, sorry, he probably doesn't write broken beat at all, I just associate him via that mix of mannered jazz-funk and Detroit techno influences, plus the NZ thing (I got the impression NZers Mark De Clive-Lowe and Nathan Haines were caught up in the West London scene?).

I found his new album on a listening post at a CD shop yesterday. One reggae track, other 9 tracks definitely in the funk / electro / hip-hop traditions, beat-wise. Bits that were very blatantly on that Prince / Cameo tip, other bits like ... Brand New Heavies? Live sounding jazz-funk. Definitely nothing with a kick drum on every beat... I haven't heard a house track from him since his first album (the new one is number three), but I may have (easily) overlooked something off his second...