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Old 08-22-2009, 08:17 AM   #23 (permalink)
djchameleon
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Hardcore breaks

Hardcore breaks is a genre of electronic music written in the style of old skool rave music or breakbeat hardcore using modern technology. The music is composed of from looped, edited and processed breakbeat samples, intense bassline sounds, staccato synthesizer riffs, and various vocal samples (frequently taken from old house records). The speed of this genre typically falls between the range of 140-150 BPM, although there are exceptions within a 10 BPM buffer on each side, and the DJ will often change the speed when playing at a rave. Originally being produced by a small group of artists with the vision of carrying on where oldskool hardcore left off before the jungle/happy hardcore split using new production techniques and technology, its appeal has now expanded to include artists from the original breakbeat hardcore scene creating new productions. Many large rave promotions now include hardcore breaks on the line up and it is recognised as its own entity. Hardcore Breaks together with Rave Breaks and J-tek is considered to be part of the Nu-Rave scene.

Jungle

Presently the difference between jungle (or oldschool jungle) and Drum and Bass is a common debate within the "junglist" community. There is no universally accepted semantic distinction between the terms "jungle" and "Drum and Bass". Some associate "jungle" with older black sounding material from the first half of the 1990s (sometimes referred to as "jungle techno"), and see Drum and Bass as essentially succeeding Jungle. Others use Jungle as a shorthand for ragga jungle, a specific sub-genre within the broader realm of Drum and Bass. In the U.S., the combined term "jungle drum and bass" (JDB or JDNB) has some popularity, but is not widespread elsewhere.

Proponents of a distinction between jungle and drum and bass usually argue that:

* Drum and Bass has an integrated percussion and bass structure while jungle has a distinct bass line separated from the percussion.
* The relatively simple drum break beats of modern Drum and Bass (generally a two-step beat) are less complex than the 'chopped' 'Amen' breakbeats of jungle
* The usage of ragga and reggae vocals differentiates Drum and Bass from Jungle, but then again not all jungle has ragga/reggae vocals, some have other samples and some have no vocals.

The truth is more complicated than this, however. An often mistaken view of the difference between jungle and drum and bass, is that of making a distinction between two-step beat drum and bass and amen breakbeat drum and bass. This is really a distinction between tech-step drum and bass and the new style of drum & bass which occurred especially late-1994 and 1995. Drum and Bass really first referred to the increased attention to breakbeat editing. Perhaps the first track to explicitly use the term "drum and bass" to refer to itself as a different style was released in 1993.The producer The Invisible Man described it:

"A well edited Amen Break alongside an 808 sub kick and some simple atmospherics just sounded so amazing all on its own, thus the speech sample "strictly drum and bass". A whole new world of possibilities was opening up for the drum programming... It wasn't long before the amen break was being used by practically every producer within the scene, and as time progressed the Belgian style techno stabs and noises disappeared (thankfully!) and the edits and studio trickery got more and more complex. People were at last beginning to call the music Drum and Bass instead of hardcore. This Amen formula certainly helped cement the sound for many of the tracks I went on to produce for Gwange, Q-Project and Spinback on Legend Records. After a while, tracks using the Amen break virtually had a genre all of their own. Foul Play, Peshay, Bukem and DJ Crystal among others were all solid amen addicts back then too."

Since the term jungle was so closely related to the reggae influenced sound, DJs and producers who did not incorporate reggae elements began to adopt the term "drum and bass" to differentiate themselves and their musical styles. This reflected a change in the musical style which incorporated increased drum break editing. Sometimes this was referred to as "intelligence", though this later came to refer to the more relaxed style of drum and bass associated with producers such as LTJ Bukem.

Nu Skool breaks

Nu skool breaks (often abbreviated to nuskool) is a term used to describe a sub-genre of breakbeat. The sub-genre is usually characterized by its darker and heavier bass lines that are normally dominant throughout the track, and tear-out style synths with frenetic energy. Typically, tracks range between 125 to 140 bpm.
The term is widely attributed to Rennie Pilgrem and Adam Freeland, who used it to describe the sound at their night Friction, which was launched at Bar Rumba in 1996, with promoter Ian Williams. In 1998, the label was used on two compilations, Nu Skool Breaks, Volume 1 and 2, compiled with Danny McMillan and released through UK based Kickin Records. The first volume of these was recorded live at th e aforementioned London club night Friction
Recognised nu skool producers include Plump DJs, NAPT, Überzone, Freq Nasty, Ils, and Stanton Warriors. The major producers have remixed and/or produced tracks for acts such as Orbital, Fatboy Slim, 'N Sync, Kelis and New Order.
In the UK the scene has been dominated by acts such as Stanton Warriors, Plump DJs, Evil Nine, Adam Freeland and more recently NAPT, The Rogue Element, The Breakfastaz, The Wrongstar Society, CNTRL-Z, Storm Troopaz, and Far Too Loud. In the USA, known for its more acid-based breaks sound, the sound has gained popularity, especially on the West Coast. North American artists include Pillform, and Überzone. Australia also has a burgeoning scene with popular artists including Kid Kenobi and Dopamine.

Progressive breaks

Progressive breaks essentially grew out of nu skool breaks and progressive house. Due to its origins in those genres, progressive breakbeat typically features atmospheric pads and melodies, lush soundscapes and an unhurried, evolving progressive structure. Most artists working in this genre also work in other closely related genres such as breakbeats and progressive house. Hybrid is one of the most popular artists in this genre. Other popular breaks artists include Digital Witchcraft, Luke Chable, Momu, Nubreed, Plastic Shell, and Way Out West.

Trip Hop

Trip hop is a music genre consisting of downtempo electronic music. It began in the mid-1990s, growing out of England's hip hop and house scenes, including that of the Bristol underground. It has been described as "Europe's alternative choice in the second half of the '90s", and a fusion "of Hip-Hop and Electronica until neither genre is recognizable.
Trip hop originated in the mid-1980s in Bristol, England, during a time when American hip hop started to gain increasing popularity there along with the then exploding popularity of the house music and dance scene. The originators of hip hop music in the 1970s had been Jamaican-born New Yorkers, but new US regional forms of MCing and DJing arose, and the genre's rise to mainstream success quickly severed it from direct Caribbean antecedents. The UK hip hop scene tended to sample more deeply from Jamaican influences, due to the larger Caribbean ancestry of the British black population, and the existing mass British popularity of reggae, dancehall and dub in the 1980s. Under the influence of American hip hop from the 1980s, both black and white British youth became consumers of hip hop. Hip hop in the UK, unlike the US, was immediately fused with black soul (R&B) and elements of dancehall.
In Bristol, once one of the most important ports in the Atlantic slave trade and now among Britain's most racially diverse cities, hip hop began to seep into the consciousness of a subculture already well-schooled in Jamaican forms of music. DJs, MCs, b-boys and graffiti artists grouped together into informal soundsystems. Like the pioneering Bronx crews of DJs Kool Herc, Afrika Bambataa and Grandmaster Flash, the soundsystems provided party music for public spaces, often in the economically deprived council estates from which some of their members originated. Bristol's soundsystem DJs, drawing heavily on Jamaican dub music, typically used a laid-back, slow and heavy drum beat ("down tempo").

In the 90s, Massive Attack pretty much brought Trip Hop to the Mainstream.
Massive Attack's first album Blue Lines was released in 1991 to huge success in the UK. Blue Lines was seen widely as the first major manifestation of a uniquely British hip hop movement, but the album's hit single "Unfinished Sympathy" and several other tracks, while their rhythms were largely sample-based, were not seen as hip hop songs in any conventional sense. Shara Nelson, an R&B singer, featured on the orchestral "Unfinished," and Jamaican dancehall star Horace Andy provided vocals on several other tracks, as he would throughout Massive Attack's career. Massive Attack released their second album entitled Protection in 1994. Although Tricky stayed on in a lesser role, and Hooper again produced, the fertile dance music scene of the early '90s had informed the record, and it was seen as an even more significant shift away from the Wild Bunch era.

Examples: Massive Attack, Howie B, Naked Funk, Red Snapper, Portishead,Tricky


Post-Trip Hop

After the success of Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky albums in 1994 and 1995, a new generation of trip hop artists emerged with a more standardized sound. Notable "post-trip-hop" artists include Morcheeba, Sneaker Pimps, Alpha, Mudville and Cibo Matto. They integrated trip hop with other genres - including ambient, R&B, breakbeat, drum 'n' bass, acid jazz, and new age. The first printed record for the use of the term "post-trip hop" was as late as October 2002 when British newspaper The Independent used it to describe Second Person and their hybrid sound. Trip hop developed into a diversified genre that is no longer limited to the "deep, dark style" of the early years, eliminating the original impression of trip hop as "dark and gloomy".

Trip hop has influenced artists outside the genre, including Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Travis, Beth Orton, Bitter:Sweet, Deftones as well as Icelandic singer Björk, who utilized the genre throughout her 1993 album Debut and her 1995 album Post. Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue's 1997 album Impossible Princess featured strong trip hop styles on several tracks, as well as also mixing in sounds of rock and jazz

Editing help from Freebase Dali

Last edited by djchameleon; 02-16-2011 at 02:14 PM.
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