Tag: Breaks

“The breakbeat is the essence of drum n bass”

1980-1988 Pre-Rave
Jungle has not yet formed but the elements that specifically influence jungle are alive and kicking. Dancehall being the most prominent of all the influences was ported to England from the Jamaican soundsystem culture. The traditions of jungle can be found rooted deeply into dance hall. From the dub structure of the beat all the way to the slang being used while a performance is being put on by the “Selector” and the way the crowd interacts with the MC. Dancehall has great influence on American hip-hop, electro, and continues to this day with its influence. Many people give all the respect to Afrika Bambaataa which I think is 90% proper, however, several dancehall legends like Nickodemus, Top Cat and others also contributed to the genre of rhymes over beats and soon breakbeats from the beginning.

In the late 80’s you can see the begining of the roots of breakbeat during the pre-“rave” days of the UK and with Manchester bands such as the Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, 808 State, James, The Charlatans and A Guy Called Gerald – all grouped into the term “Madchester Bands” whom used influences of house and breakbeats.

Way back in the hazy winter of the late ’80s, the northern English city of Manchester became known as a debauched clubland for the disenfranchised Thatcher generation, famed for baggy rhythms and endless Ecstasy. Coming from a working class universe of soft prospects, hard chemicals and even harder house beats, Happy Mondays became the kingpins of the scene dubbed “Madchester.” Led by onetime heroin addict and all-around felonious sort Shaun Ryder, this gang of hooligans defined the low-rent highlife with notoriously over-the-top hijinks and, more important, an addictive cocktail of northern soul, Detroit acid house, football chants and traditional British pop. With his cortex-addled chronicles of Mancunian thug life, Ryder was a rapping gangsta long before there was a name for it. And the Mondays’ ranks included the one and only Bez (Mark Berry), an utterly deranged friend of the band whose sole role was to supply the spastic fantastic dancing that remains the scene’s most enduring image. (from TrouserPress.com about the Mondays)

These shows in the Manchester scene laid the groundwork for the 92′ Summer of Love in London which some consider a peak for the UK “rave” scene but I only see that at the beginning of a global trend.

1990-1992 The age of UK Hardcore
The “Rave” hit big in this era and hit the kids hard. House began to take on new forms and genres and as people wanted more from their syncopated beats, breakbeat house began to take form. These “slowbreaks” were slower BPM tracks where the snare usually hit on just the 2 and 4 beat of a 4/4 track. The familiar tracks are 2 Bad Mice‘s “Bombscare”, led by Moving Shadow record company’s main man Rob Playford (later engineered Goldie’s Timeless), “The Bouncer” from Kicks Like a Mule which used sped-up hip-hop breakbeats, and SL2‘s “On A Ragga Tip” which is attributed to the foundations to what would become drum and bass and jungle.

The music tempo increased and more progressive which caused virgin producers to just speed up vocal samples as well, creating a “chipmunk” type sound to the music. This sound was associated with kids and happiness and excelled with the early Prodigy work like “Charlie” and the Smartee’s track “Seasame’s Treat”. Users of MDMA also began to revert back to child like behavior, dressing in bright colorful cloths, sharing candy and even sucking on pacifiers.

1993 – 1994 Breaks began to fracture
Attributed by the scene as an aggressive regression from the elevated weirdness of the “break” sound in the sped up beats and the increasing influence of corporatization of the music, UK Hardcore fractured into Happy Hardcore (as the breaks were cut out of the sound all together and sped up even further) and Jungle. Happy Hardcore continued to fracture into faster (170-200 BPM) Gabber, and Jungle progressed into a darker and more complicated rhythmic beat. The Jungle scene growth was influenced by the increasing London Reggae and rough and rugged sounds of dancehall began to mold the first darkside (soon to be called Darkstep) beats. The 4/4 beat was destroyed and the addition of MC’s over the live or recorded track garnered much popularity in the UK scene. M-Beat and General Levy (“Incredible”) are examples of the time.

1995 – Hardstep develops
Jungle scene began to take a solid form and had an umbrella label of Drum n Bass. The London Jungle scene was a complete splinter of the London Rave scene even though many parties dedicated now a room to the music. 95 was a year of many classic tunes from the genre such as Krome & Times “Ganja Man”, Origin Unknown’s “Shadow Of The Valleys”, and Dead Dread’s “Dred Bass” which pioneered the stop/start formula and more importantly popularized the sound of a reversed 808 kick drum sound which made up the fat bassline of a new Hardstep sound or later called “Jump Up”.

The Jungle sound further fractures into more genres:
Atmosphere/Intelligent: The track, called Demon’s Theme, laid the framework for the atmospheric genre, for which Intelligent jungle and Artcore are other sometimes used names. The sound incorporated continuous electronic sounds or strings (not violins), which were spacey, environmental and organic sounding (attributing the Atmosphere name), rolling breaks and either a flowing bassline or a more percussive structure of drums (associated with “intelligent” programing by the musician rather than just sped up samples). LTJ Bukem is attributed to pioneering much of the sound.

Jump Up/Hardstep: Evolved from heavy American Hip hop influences with climatic builds and drops and a rolling bassline. Jump up was typically the genre played at a system party to get a crowd “jumping”.

Techstep: Goldie, Ed Rush, Optical and Dillinja all helped to define this genre combining a minimal style of Detroit and German techno with almost exclusive use of synthesized or sampled sound sources to create a dark and sci-fi mood to Drum n Bass. Drum-machine kit and percussion sounds are favored over naturalistic human breakbeats which garnered the name Tech, from it’s use of technology as much as it’s use of techno. The sound was rarely played on radio stations or ever charted so it garnered a large underground following “keeping” jungle alive.

Neurofunk: a progression of Techstep by Ed Rush, Optical and Matrix by growing darker and funkier

Experimental:
With increased press on the Drum n Bass scene, producers tried to move away from the more popular sound and “experiment” with the breakbeat form. Wagon Christ, Aphex Twin and Squarepusher fall into this sub-genre.

Jazzstep: A result of a combination of the rhythmic drum and bass structure with contemporary electronic jazz composition.

Despite its roots in the UK, which can still be treated as the “home” of drum and bass, drum and bass has firmly established itself around the world. To review a more comprehensive history and primer on each of the genres hit up these sources:

Wikipedia: Drum n Bass
The Electronica Primer