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A look at breakbeat
On YouTube this video is called A look at break beat for the new DJ.
What this lesson teaches
A short introduction to a genre, and the definition is rhythmic and precise.
House against breakbeat
House is four to the floor. Bang, bang, bang, bang - a steady bass kick, and not much between the kicks.
Breakbeat has a lot between them. The beat has been chopped up to put emphasis in the middle of the bar rather than only on the pulse: bum, cha-da-dum-dum, cha-da-dum-dum.
So the difference is not speed or instrumentation. It is where the activity sits relative to the kick.
Related to drum and bass
He places it close to drum and bass - lots of percussion, beefy sounds, emphasis on the whole beat rather than one part of it - and that is the right family. Both are broken-beat, both reward counting the snare rather than the kick, and the techniques from the drum and bass lessons transfer directly.
Fatboy Slim
His reference point is Norman Cook, who came through the Housemartins and Beats International before Fatboy Slim, and who mixed a great deal of this material.
Useful for anybody trying to find a way in: a producer's catalogue is often a better route into a genre than a compilation, because you hear one person's taste developing rather than a snapshot.
The dating
He notes that plenty of people think breakbeat started in the mid-nineties, and the implication is that it did not - the chopped-up break goes back much further, through early hip-hop to the funk records those producers were sampling.
Which connects to the funk lessons elsewhere in the curriculum: the Funky Drummer break and everything built on it is the same lineage.
For selection
The practical consequence of all of this: breakbeat sits comfortably next to hip-hop, drum and bass and funk, because it shares ancestors with all three. It does not sit easily next to house, for exactly the reason the lesson opens with - the space between the kicks is doing completely different work.
Contents of the video
0:00 Breakbeat is quite similar to the likes of drum and bass
Alright folks, in this video we're going to be looking at a style of music called breakbeat. Now quite a few people have mentioned that they would like to get into breakbeat and what is it? Well, breakbeat is quite similar to the likes of drum and bass. It's not like house at all because house is a 4-4. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. One of the original DJs who loves breakbeat and who used to mix quite a lot of it, I'm sure still does, is the guy by the name of Norman Cook, Fatboy Slim. He was in Beats International, in the House Martins, that guy, alright? Now, what can we say about breakbeat? Like I said, very similar to drum and bass, lots of percussion, lots of beefy sounds going on, more emphasis on the whole beat. The bum, cha-da-dum-dum, cha-da-dum-dum, as opposed to just bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. In other words, house music, if you think about it, house is that steady bass kick. Bang, bang, bang, bang.
Nothing really much in between. But with breakbeat, there's a lot more in between. The beat has been chopped up to emphasise in the middle of the bass beat as opposed to just that bang, bang, bang. Now then, a lot of people actually think that breakbeat started mids of the 90s, but actually I've got a record here to prove you all wrong because this record is from 1989, Play It For You Now, it's by Silver Bullet, it's on Tam Tam Records and it's called 20 Seconds To Comply.
2:47 Mid-90s, alright
Okay, that was 20 seconds to comply by Silver Bullet. Now what we're going to do now is we're going to move on to the mid-90s, alright? Now there was a tune out, it was actually used in an advert, okay? This is about, I think it was 96, 97 and it's by Leffield and it's entitled Fat Planet. Now I don't know how rare this actual 10 inch is but this, believe me, let's have a look because we've got the right side, not sure. This is one hell of a tune and I believe it was used on a Guinness advert. Check it out, see what you think. Again, this is breakbeat. Here you can hear that bassline. The beat. It's not bang, bang, bang, like house music. There's more in the middle of it. Alright, so I hope this tiny insight. Any more comments, bung them underneath, alright? This tune here is left field, it's called Fat Planet, alright? And the other one is on Tam Tam Records, Silver Bullet, 20 seconds to comply, practice and enjoy.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
