This song came from the school of Drum N Bass that centered around
Reinforced records, and their intelligent approach to making rough
experimental music.
So no. It's more Drum N Bass than breakbeat (especially because this
track was released in 1994/5).
Defining breakbeat isn't so simple.
When I was listening to The Prodigy in 1991, it was commonly referred
to as Breaks, or Breakbeat where I was hanging around. Others called
it rave, and when things started to speed up in 92, hardcore become
the dominant term. The term Breaks still hung around until the it was
replaced by Jungle or Drum n Bass because the music was evolving.
Further down the road - there's also the whole Big Beat scene, which
could also be considered breaks music, as well as more Beat-Centered
AJ, ala Cup of Tea records or Wall of Sound. Early Skint, some MoWax,
etc.
And then there's the whole West Coast "new breaks" scene, which got
rolling around '98, spearheaded by folks like Simply Jeff and the
Bassbin Twins.
And don't forget Tipper, who is perhaps the next step for Breaks -
with a liberal dose of Bass Terrorism.
+++
Afrika Bambaataa wrote an excellent essay in the early eighties,
under 500 words, on what "break music" was, which explained
beautifully what Planet Rock was all about.
It centered around his experiences as a DJ, noticing that the crowd
typically went nuts when the song would "break down" to just beats
and bass, or when the band would cut out and let a bigger beat take
over the song. Well, Bam started buying two copies of his records so
he could extend the breaks as long as he liked. Eventually this gave
birth to the idea of making music which is *only* about the breaks.
Which led to quite a few other things, obviously.
So if you take Bam's perspective, pretty much all dance music with
looped beats is breaks music...
If anybody knows where a copy of this essay is located online, please
let me know. I've been looking for one for a while. I think I read it
on the wall of the Release The Groove record shop in soho.
+++
Anyhow, breakbeat is sort of a big umbrealla that a number of schools
of music are under.
To narrow the discussion down, are we looking for historical examples?
Or current ones?
cheers,
.aaron shinn
At 2:29 PM +0100 12/7/01, Francesco wrote:
>Can we say this is breakbeat:
>
>4 hero - UNIVERSAL LOVE (GOLDIE REMIX)
>
>?????
>
>if it isn't, can we try to define it with example?
>
>ciao
>
>Francesco
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