20 tracks every broken beat fan should know

20 tracks every broken beat fan should know

20 November, 2009 | 9.17AM

• Written by: Caleb Rakes
• Filed under: Music News: 20 years of dance music

The beat changed one day. Four-to-the-floor’s steady dominant drum march fractured, as chaotic new patterns emerged in the ranks of uniformity.

Once the familiar heartbeat of disco, house, and techno skipped, the boundaries tumbled down. The tempo rule book was thrown out, sounds warped, and strange new dance moves emerged. It was a jungle of rhythms, drums, and gut-wrenching basslines.

Two-step, breakbeat, dubstep, big beat, drum & bass, and garage - all dared to break the rules, all broke the beat.

Today Beatportal’s Caleb Rakes grabs his whistle and airhorn, and shouts ‘Oi Oi’ from the rooftops, as he takes a rewind through the disorderly and boisterous side of dance music with 20 tracks every broken beat fan should know.

4hero ‘Mr Kirk’s Nightmare’ [Reinforced Records] (1990)

The first ecstasy related death in the UK occurred on July 14th, 1989. Clare Leighton collapsed and later died after taking a pill at the Hacienda club in Manchester, fueling the mainstream media’s vilification of the rave scene, which had begun back in 1988.

With headlines like ‘10,000 Drug Crazed Youths’ (The Sun, 1988), the moral panic surrounding rave culture was in full swing by 1990, when 4hero penned their precursor to breakbeat.

‘Mr Kirk’s Nightmare’ juxtaposed a sample of a father’s tragic news that his 17-year-old son had died of an overdose, with a simple looped breakbeat and three note bassline.

‘Why would anyone want to dance to this?’ might have been the reaction of concerned mothers and fathers back in 1990, had they heard what their teenage children were listening to. But for a youth culture movement that had been attacked constantly over the last two years, it was a grand ‘f*** you’ moment.

And in 4hero’s bid to break the moral boundaries, they splintered the 4/4 rhythm that had dominated acid house into a simple rolling breakbeat, that helped lay the blueprint for the entire drum & bass and breakbeat scene.

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly who created the first broken beat dance record, but 4hero were certainly there right at the beginning.

2 Bad Mice ‘Bombscare’ [Moving Shadow] (1991)

2 Bad Mice weren’t far behind 4hero when they broke the 4/4 rules, and their work arguably had much more impact. By increasing the tempo to a raucous 134BPM, the Brit trio of Rob Playford (founder of pioneering drum & bass label Moving Shadow), Sean O’Keefe, and Simon Colebrooke went straight for the dancefloor jugular with ‘Bombscare’.

With an intro that had the sound of vinyl scratching on a beat separated by a bomb explosion, the track jumped straight into a pumped up hardcore breakbeat, before reaching one of the most famous rave riffs of all time.

The sheer energy and joy of the record made ravers skip like loonies, and it became an instant underground hit. This was at a time when DJs could play whatever they wanted, an innocent period when ravers didn’t give two hoots about what it was they were losing their minds to.

It was even one of the biggest records in 1991 for a certain DJ named Sasha, who had only just begun his DJ career. Even today, when ‘Bombscare’ drops the night sky is filled with the sounds of ‘Oi Oi!’. If I had to pick one anthem to sum up the early breakbeat hardcore scene, this is it.

Future Sound of London ‘Papua New Guinea’ [Jumpin’ & Pumpin] (1991)

With the disturbing trips of 4hero, and the lairy rave sounds of the 2 Bad Mice crew, it’s easy to forget that the broken beat movement also gave us some of the most beautiful dance records ever made.

Future Sound of London’s debut single ‘Papua New Guinea’ was a magnificently melancholic concoction of trip hop, ambient dub, and breakbeat, and must surely be one of the most poignant, awe-inspiring dance records of all time.

Featuring a looping Lisa Gerrard vocal sample and a bassline from Meat Beat Manifesto’s ‘Radio Babylon’, the track sounded like nothing that had come before, and ravers were hypnotised.

Rufige Kru ‘Terminator II’ [Reinforced Records] (1993)

Once Rob Playford saw the dancefloor damage that could be caused by quick-paced breakbeat as 2 Bad Mice, he began experimenting with faster, and faster tempos.

Where was the limit? 160, 170, 180BPMs? Playford’s 1993 EP ‘Ghosts of My Life / Terminator II’, produced alongside drum & bass protagonist Goldie (who later founded the influential label Metalheadz) as Rufige Kru, cruised through layers of aggressive drum loops, and epitomised the early sound of jungle.

Dark, twisted, and blisteringly quick, ‘Terminator II’ helped forge the nasty edge of drum & bass, where imprints like Renegade Hardware, and artists such as Noisia and Konflict hide under hoodies and metal teeth.

Deep Blue ‘Helicopter Tune’ [Moving Shadow] (1993)

We asked our Twitter followers to name their favourite all-time broken beat records, and Deep Blue ‘Helicopter Tune’ won by a long way.

Why? Well, produced by 2 Bad Mice’s Sean O’Keefe, the revolutionary piece of music saw pitch shifting drum loops contrast with hypnotic rave pads and exotic jungle sounds, to create a tribal dancefloor journey full of production prowess. Even by today’s standards, ‘Helicopter Tune’ is a soundsystem destroyer bound for the reload.

But that doesn’t really mean much. The fact is, the track hovered high above the 1993 crop of electronic music when it was released, and perhaps indicative of the ground if once broke, ‘Helicopter Tune’ is still impossible to define.

A wormhole of sound afterall, is still a wormhole.

Alex Reece ‘Pulp Fiction’ [Metalheadz] (1995)

Those early years were unbridled, crazy times. No one in particular was driving, and there were no rules. As tempos went skywards, the music got rougher and edgier, so it was only a matter of time before someone brought order to the chaos.

Reece forced himself into the early drum & bass scene as a conductor of wild rhythms. He locked beats to steady tempos, gave the music straight edges, and cleaned up the messy jungle built by labels like Moving Shadow and Metalheadz.

‘Pulp Fiction’ was arguably the first drum & bass record to steer away from the traditional junglist sound.

Aphex Twin ‘Come To Daddy’ [Warp Records] (1997)

Aphex Twin did something completely different. Attracted by broken beats’ apparent lack of rules, Richard D. James experimented with sound, creating strange new textures that bordered on the insane.

A mish mash of warped guitar riffs, stupendously fast breakbeat (called breakcore), aggressive vocal screams, and speaker crushing sound waves, ‘Come To Daddy’ was as violent as broken beat could get.

A warzone of radioactive sounds and evil intent, Aphex Twin’s music was an assault of the senses, yet the work behind the scenes was that of a genius, with beats programmed to the millisecond, creating precise and intricate patterns of sonic destruction.

The Freestylers ‘B Boy Stance’ [Freskanova] (1998)

At the other, more accessible end of the scale was big beat. The funk and soul-driven sound borrowed heavily from early hip hop, and combined with reggae ideals became a style capable of mass consumption.

The Freestylers were one of the most successful big beat acts of the day, and even reached the US Billboard Top 40 chart with the single ‘Don’t Stop’. ‘B Boy Stance’ was one of their biggest UK hits, and featured the infamous ragga MC Tenor Fly, the perfect man for the new sound of urban funk.

The Wiseguys ‘Ooh La La’ [Wall of Sound] (1998)

The epitome of mainstream big beat, The Wiseguys’ ‘Ooh La La’ was a marketeer’s dream soundtrack - a perfect bridge between 70’s funk, early hip hop, and modern club music in the era of Fatboy Slim.

By the end of 1996, big beat was big business thanks to Fatboy’s debut album ‘Better Living Through Chemistry’, and Pepe Deluxe and The Wiseguys weren’t far behind.

Beer companies and car companies alike, came knocking at the door of The Wiseguys’ DJ Touche and DJ Regal, who like Norman Cook, banged the drums for the Brighton-centric scene proudly.

Plump DJs ‘Electric Disco’ [Fingerlickin Records] (1999)

Out of the big beat sound, emerged nu skool and funky breaks at the turn of the century led by the likes of Krafty Kuts, Stanton Warriors, and Plump DJs.

More electronic and bass heavy than big beat, Rennie Pilgrim, Chew The Fat!, Tayo, and other London-based figureheads helped kick start a movement that captured the imagination of more than just the club scene.

For a while breakbeat was as big as house in the UK, and the Plump DJs spearheaded the scene via their long-running club night at London’s Fabric club and their funky, electronic rhythms. ‘Electric Disco’ in particular, was huge for them.

Zed Bias ‘Neighbourhood’ [XL Recordings] (2000)

The UK garage term covers a broad range of urban dance music styles, which includes speed garage, and 2-step, which saw significant commercial success around the millennium through artists like MJ Cole and Artful Dodger.

The name originally came from New York City’s famous Paradise Garage dance club, which offered a distinct form of dance music soon coined ‘garage’. At drum & bass raves in the UK, garage was regularly played in back rooms, but DJs had to speed up garage tracks to please the adrenaline seeking drum & bass crowds.

That led to the inception of speed garage (epitomised by Armand Van Helden’s remix of Sneaker Pimps ‘Spin Spin Sugar’), a faster version of garage with warped vocals.

It also gave rise to UK garage MC culture as some DJs preferred to play dub versions of the records to avoid warping the original vocals - with a purely instrumental base, there was room for live MCs to perform.

Zed Bias’ garage classic ‘Neighbourhood’ is one of UK garage’s most loved tracks, and will see a re-release later this year. Some even believe garage will have a dramatic return in 2010, albeit, under the ‘UK funky’ moniker. Sweet bruv!

Horsepower Production ‘When You Hold Me’ [Tempa] (2000)

Dubstep is the new frontier for broken beat. A uniquely London sound, the UK garage spin off has captured the imagination of both the chin stroking, white middle class (even British broadsheet The Guardian regularly gives dubstep a metaphorical blow job), as well as the rude boys who live and breathe it on the streets of South London and Bristol.

Horsepower Productions’ ‘When You Hold Me’ is widely considered to be one of the starting points of dubstep, a track that considers no single strain of dance music its master.

Somewhere in between house, garage, drum & bass, and breakbeat, the track opened up a whole new world of UK urban music, and promised so much, as defined by the staggering number of offshoots the dubstep scene has endured since (see below).

Andy C & Shimon ‘Body Rock’ [RAM Records] (2001)

Andy C deserves his rightful place at the top of the drum & bass DJ tree, such is his prowess behind the decks. But with his mind-boggling three deck vinyl shows, it’s easy to forget that the Brit has also given the scene some of its most memorable anthems.

Along with Shimon, Andy C gave us ‘Body Rock’, one of the most commercially successful drum & bass tracks of all time, a complete departure from the standard jump-up and jungle templates. It has the rare distinction of being one of the only drum & bass records to make it into the UK Singles Chart (reaching No.28 in 2002).

DJ Zinc ‘Casino Royal’ [True Playaz] (2001)

DJ Zinc along with Hyper (aka. The Ganja Kru) were responsible for spearheading the UK centric jump up dnb scene, which emphasized heavy basslines and huge drops, the kind of explosive moments destined for jubilant rewinds.

For a while, Zinc was the backbone of the UK dnb scene, and ‘Casino Royal’ is one of his all-time classics. We should also not forget his brilliant ‘138 Trek’, which when dropped in 1999, caused waves that were felt well beyond the breakbeat scene.

Pendulum ‘Another Planet’ [Breakbeat Kaos] (2004)

No one expected three young blokes from Perth, Australia, to become one of the biggest and most controversial drum & bass acts of all time. Their 2004 single ‘Another Planet’ set the template for a career of immaculately produced, hard hitting, non-repetitive d&b.

Characterised by massive build ups, magnificent breakdowns, huge synths, time and key changes, Pendulum went on to achieve great success (for a drum & bass group), and even made it all the way to No.9 in the UK Singles Chart with ‘Propane Nightmares’ in 2008.

Skream ‘Midnight Request Line’ [Tempa] (2005)

A defining record for the dubstep movement, Croydon’s Oliver Jones aka Skream penned ‘Midnight Request Line’ when he was a mere teenager.

The track’s UK garage roots - 2-step beats, gun sounds, and square basslines - were recognisable, yet the track’s musical flourishes owed much to reggae and dub. Skream has since become one of dubstep’s most celebrated producers.

Konflict ‘Messiah’ (Noisia Remix) [Renegade Hardware] (2005)

Nothing comes heavier than Konflict’s ‘Messiah’, the pinnacle of darkwave, hardstep drum & bass. With its eerie atmospherics and twisted vocals, ‘Messiah’ became an instant classic in 2005, and still beckons the occasional rewind today, for those DJs who are brave enough to spin it.

Shackleton ‘Blood On My Hands’ [Skull Disco] (2006)

No one expected dubstep and techno to link up, yet a group of producers led by the likes of Shackleton decided to create “interesting bass music” that was a far beat from the warped garage sounds of Skream and Benga.

If ‘Midnight Request Line’ was the sound of the streets through the eyes of a teenager, ‘Blood On My Hands’ was the intellectual leanings of an elitist on the fringes of dubstep.

The stripped back percussion and simplicity of the arrangement owed much to the music of Berlin’s Basic Channel, and as such opened the door for a wave of techno producers to get involved, including artists signed to Hotflush Recordings and Ostgut Ton.

Lynx ‘Disco Dodo’ [Creative Source] (2007)

Drum & bass still has new creative dimensions to explore. In 2007, Lynx spearheaded an avant-garde style of minimal drum & bass that helped pave the way for producers like Icicle, Alix Perez, and Critical Music’s Kasra.

‘Disco Dodo’ is not as obvious dancefloor filler, yet Steve Nobes broke all the conventional rules of contemporary drum & bass by stripping away the big fluid basslines and rolling beats that characterised the genre, to leave a raw, infectious, and almost techno sounding 170BPM broken beat record.

Joy Orbison ‘Hyph Mngo’ [Hotflush Recordings] (2009)

Joy Orbison ‘Hyph Mngo’ was produced by the nephew of legendary drum & bass artist Ray Keith, a poignant generational hand-off, if ever there was one.

With mangled 2-step beats and soulful r&b vocals, the track moved away from basslines and samples, towards something altogether more musically complex.

It has set the benchmark for dubstep in 2010, and even won the accolade of Featured Single of the Week in indie rock rag NME, a strange achievement, considering that it wouldn’t have existed was it not for a bunch of raver experiments 20 years ago.

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