broken beat anyone?

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  • DubiousDubious 1,865 Posts
    Hey Dubious: put together an italo mix or i'll ban you.

    fuck this really reminds me to get some work done.

    now working on italo / quebec / toronto / hi nrg / scarborough house jams mix.

    gimme a couple hours.

    im out bitches!!!


  • don't make me ban you...

    just saying...

  • AserAser 2,351 Posts
    hey danno, listen to that oscar sulley.........worst that could happen, you might even like it.

    it's on some AMCW steez.....at least the original of the track.

  • hey danno, listen to that oscar sulley.........worst that could happen, you might even like it.

    it's on some AMCW steez.....at least the original of the track.

    It was OK. I prefer some of Will's other work a lot more. Also, I'm quite certain you won't here AMCW play a track like that; there's a fairly massive difference between the OG and the reworking.

  • AserAser 2,351 Posts
    oh yes but I had to sweet talk you into listening to it somehow

  • HA! The jokes on you. I'd listened to it when it was first posted. So there.

  • AserAser 2,351 Posts
    , I still think you're swell danno

    I do want to end this off on a final note.......I see a lot of us judging music on a lot of factors beside musical quality. The image it conjures and the crowds it draws will often affect our way of thinking. Whether it be hipsters w/ indie rock and baile funk or nag champas w/ kufi slaps, we all do it to a certain extent. I'm not saying people here are writing off a genre based soley on that, but I certainly detect some resentment in that regard. Hell, I'm guilty of it too at certain times (bows throw, maw/blaze house), we all are.

  • I don't really get broken beat, but I was pretending when i made this track.

    Artist's Lament

    Was I anywhere close? L.A. is a long way from the U.K.

  • "broken beat anyone?"



    Somebdy page Quinton?



    Broken beat rules. I spin broken beat, and love doing so.



    "Lets just clarify..........BB kinda exists on its own plane. Right. Kinda.

    Hip hop is much more multi-faceted than BB. Dont get it twisted."



    Absolute nonsense.



    This is not really worth arguing, tho, because all the heavy hitters in broken beat fuck with Hip-Hop, and the scene is basically an extension of the same principles as Hip-Hop. Broken beat cats aren't trying to compete with Hip-Hop. They're just trying to do their own thing. And that should be that.



    The fact is, neither music is restricted to any one thing.



    "If you slow down/or speed up BrokenBeat's BPM is it still BrokenBeat?"



    Yes. Broken beat has nothing to do with tempo.



    "if a broken beat Dj plays your track does that make it broken beat???"



    Sure. But that depends really on whether the DJ cares enough to want to make that distinction. My bet is that most real broken beat DJs don't give a shit what genre the record their playing is, as long as it sounds good.



    There are a couple of takes on broken beat.



    There's the one that gets shitted on here on the Strut that considers broken beat to be a "genre" limited to certain styles and sounds. I don't know anyone into broken beat who looks at the music this way.



    There is another, more popular in the scene, that says broken beat is more an approach to production/spinning where folks fuck with whatever style of beats they feel like fucking with, and they just try and do something different with it. And to be honest, the folks from that second approach generally seem to hate the term "broken beat" altogether, because they don't want to be confined to making/mixing one style of music, and they don't want to be pigeonholed into a genre.



    "I think broken beat has serious potential but the whole nu-jazz slant on it has just fucked things up. All these 'jazzy' broken beat records sound the same and it's come to the point where it's like the whole scene has melded with 'nu-jazz' or just 'jazzy house'. I like the rhythm patterns in broken beat but please just someone lay something other than rhodes/bass/cheese vocals over the top."



    It's weird to me that people still judge broken beat based on this "nu-jazz slant," which is not a term really embraced by the scene much anymore, if ever. I think folks in the scene were talking about nu-jazz like 5 years ago, because at the time, a lot of the productions were experimenting more with jazz-influenced sounds. But nobody who really follows the scene fucks with the term "nu-jazz" much anynmore. To tell you the truth, I think that's more a magazine/record store construct than a product of the scene. I know some of these "jazzy" productions still get made, but it's not what the scene is about, it's just a part of it, and I'd say the majority of the stuff that comes out now from the heavy hitters of the scene (not the followers just trying their hand at it) sounds nothing like this. This is clearly a perception problem, and one that has little to do with the overall scope of the music.



    "i've heard Domu spin many times.. and he hardly sticks with broken.. played a pretty diverse set of disco / house / hard funk from what i heard.. mixed in with a bit of the london sound."



    See, I think you're not seeing the forest for the trees. On the cool, THIS is EXACTLY what broken beat is about. If you see Domu or Dego or Marc Mac or Bugz or IG or Somatik or any of the other pioneers of broken beat spin, you'll witness the exact same thing. Why? Because broken beat to them is not a genre. It's not one sound. It's not one style. And none of them cats want those kinds of restrictions. You'll be hard-pressed to find any of the big name broken cats that spin or produce ONE sound. The scene is all about fucking with everything, and NOT about sticking to one thing. That's what makes it an impossible music to describe, and that's why most folks get the wrong idea about it, because no two people can agree on what broken beat is, because it isn't any one thing, and those dudes LIKE it that way. If you talk to broken beat fans and they don't understand this, then they're missing the point of the music altogether. And if you doubt that, then take it to the folks who birthed all this broken shit, and they'll set you straight. Promise.



    Honestly, just don't get so hung up on it either way. I love the fuck out of some broken beat, but I also understand how difficult it is for people to really understand what it's about, and I'm not mad at them. But I'ma keep fucking with it anyway, 'cause I just like that shit.



    Unlike a lot of the folks who make the music I love so much, I really like the term "broken beat," if anything just because I like distinguishing my shit from some of the other folks I run with. Besides, I like it that most people think they know what broken beat is, and then I get to surprise them with other shit. Sometimes, anyway.



    But, of course, when I say broken beat, it could mean anything. In my sets, you'll hear everything from Soca (just one C in soca, folks), dancehall, latin shit, salsa, afrobeat, house, hip-hop, broken shit, funk, grime, ukg, and so on. Whatever I feel like spinning, I spin. It challenges me, because it keeps me constantly trying to find ways to hit people with diverse mixes, without losing them. It doesn't always (often?) work, but fuck it, I love trying.



    An example of two of my sets that try to spread it around (these mixes were recorded live, so please excuse the sound quality and some minor blemishes here and there):



    DJ Lil Tiger :: live at Get Broke :: May 12, 2004

    (please forgive the drunk dude wailing in the middle of "Bailalo." He's a good dude, and he was hella faded. His night, tho, what can you do?)



    DJ Lil Tiger :: live on Soular Grooves Radio :: January 22, 2005



    I know that might not be everybody's cup of tea, but if you don't like a song, skip ahead and try one of the others in the mix. There might be something in there you'd like. Might not. Can't hurt either way.



    For the record, I call these "broken beat" mixes, regardless that a number of the records in the mixes weren't made to be a part of anything called "broken beat." But to me, the beat is broken, and that's what I'm into.



    As for the snobbery shit that some of y'all were mentioning before, I think that's not at all what the scene is about, and those folks don't represent the purveyors of the scene very well. I don't really cut for that type of shit either. I don't believe in a superiority complex about styles of music, and as a bit of background, I come from a Hip-Hop and dancehall background, and I fuck with everything from soca to commercial rap to down south shit to free jazz to whatever. I just like whatever sounds good, whether it's Missy or Tego or Albert Ayler. S'all good.

  • Oh, and I'll post some mp3s of non-jazzy/noodling type broken beat and see how y'all feel about them. I'm at work right now, so I don't have access to my music files or my records. You might have to give me a day or two, tho, since I'm in the process of moving across the country, so all my stuff is in disarray.


  • See, I think you're not seeing the forest for the trees. On the cool, THIS is EXACTLY what broken beat is about. If you see Domu or Dego or Marc Mac or Bugz or IG or Somatik or any of the other pioneers of broken beat spin, you'll witness the exact same thing. Why? Because broken beat to them is not a genre. It's not one sound. It's not one style. And none of them cats want those kinds of restrictions. You'll be hard-pressed to find any of the big name broken cats that spin or produce ONE sound. The scene is all about fucking with everything, and NOT about sticking to one thing. That's what makes it an impossible music to describe, and that's why most folks get the wrong idea about it, because no two people can agree on what broken beat is, because it isn't any one thing, and those dudes LIKE it that way. If you talk to broken beat fans and they don't understand this, then they're missing the point of the music altogether. And if you doubt that, then take it to the folks who birthed all this broken shit, and they'll set you straight. Promise.


    this is pure bullshit and you know it. now, i admit i haven't been following this scene .. at all .. for a long time now. but i was up on it basically when it started, and i know that it's pretty much a small, incestuous circle of producers making the same arrhythmic, amelodic tripe that gets attention because gilles plays it (as an acetate, just to make it seem cooler) on radio1. i'll never forget when king britt proclaimed that the new sector movement album was going to, and i quote, 'change the face of black music.' fuck dude, i'm not even going to speak on that. but that sort of says a lot, if you know what i mean.

    to me, 'broken beat' signifies a type of music that's an extension of a crowd that assumes itself to be more progressive and creative than pretty much everyone else. now i know that's simplifying it quite a bit, but like i'm saying - it all used to be part of my vocabulary, so i know that 'fucking with everything,' as you say, is more or less dropping the same cultish jazz tracks that the bigger name dj's approved on their radio shows. then the super cool producers come and do a shitty remix of it. it's not at all an 'impossible music to describe,' dude. it represents a canon of music that's actually pretty easy to navigate. it's not some kind of vast expanse of musical territory that's blowing anybody's mind.

    cool that you were at get broke though. tell that boy m*****k i said what's up. i talk shit but those nights were a lot of fun, and that dude is a really good dj and a cool motherfucker to boot. trust me, i sound a lot saltier than i really am, because i'm more or less the type to have a fun time when i'm out instead of bitching about the music like i'm on some other shit, but what i wrote above is pretty much my frustration with the 'broken beat' crowd and their holier-than-thou attitude. and the term 'nu-jazz' is like the gayest shit ever.

  • this is pure bullshit and you know it.

    No, it's not bullshit, and you would have to be dumb to really think I feel differently than what I wrote. Calm it the fuck down, bub.

    now, i admit i haven't been following this scene .. at all .. for a long time now.

    Well there you go. You're still mad about some old shit. Let it go. Was it you I was arguing about this with before on the Strut? I'm bad about remembering names, but I feel like we've been down this road before.

    i'll never forget when king britt proclaimed ...

    Good for him, I guess. I don't consider King Britt representative of much going on in broken beat today. I always took King Britt to be a little ... self important, anyway, but I could be wrong on that. Either way, it doesn't matter, because he's not the face of the scene, and everybody I know that fucks with broken beat (and I'm talking these days, not some shit from five years ago) knows that it's smaller than that. Folks get into shit, and they like it, and they get excited about it. That's natural. Try not to hold a grudge.

    to me, 'broken beat' signifies a type of music that's an extension of a crowd that assumes itself to be more progressive and creative than pretty much everyone else.

    Nonsense. You must have been fucking with the wrong folks.

    Man, if you think broken beat is "arrhythmic, amelodic," then I know you have no idea what you're talking about, regardless whether or not you were there when the scene started.

    it all used to be[/b] part of my vocabulary, so i know ...

    I know you have some history with it, but that doesn't really mean anything anymore.

    it's not at all an 'impossible music to describe,' dude. it represents a canon of music that's actually pretty easy to navigate. it's not some kind of vast expanse of musical territory that's blowing anybody's mind.

    Seriously, what the fuck are you talking about? I never said it was blowing anybody's mind. Eye check, homie. I say it's an "impossible music to describe" simply because it's vague and it doesn't have one definition. I'm using the word "impossible" pretty loosely, man. Like, it's just hard to describe, because there are a lot of variations of it. That's not supposed to mean it's better or more vast than anything else, it just means that it can be a lot of things, so it's difficult to explain what it is. Especially with folks that want a succint answer.

    I think you're reading way too much into all this, and you're taking this way too seriously. Don't twist my words up.

    i talk shit but those nights were a lot of fun

    Exactly. So what's the problem? You're shit's real contradictory, man.

    You ever think that maybe you provoke defensive attitudes from "broken beat" fans by how super-salty you get whenever someone brings it up? (And honestly, that's not just meant for you, that's most folks. Maybe it's just the Strut, but I sense a really bitter, knee-jerk reaction from a lot of folks when this topic comes up, and I've yet to understand why people choose to go beyond disliking the music, and get straight up surly about it. It's like folks feel threatened by that shit. Bizarre). I mean, really, I think your view is aggressively skewed against the music for reasons that seem almost a little personal. So I can understand why folks might give you some attitude about it.

    You've made up your mind about the music from your experiences a while back. Cool. I don't need you to like that shit, and I don't expect your opinion to change. But just fall back a bit, man. 'Cause you're making reactionary statements with little substance, and it really just ain't that serious.

    And yeah, M*****k is dude, and he'd be first in line to tell you your arguments against broken beat are hogwash. And Get Broke is fun as fuck. Down to earth folks having a good time. You rail against the "hollier-than-thou" attitude of the people in broken beat, but then you talk about one of the few broken beat nights in the country, and you say it's fun, and you praise the DJs that put it on. I know I'm not the only one that sees that as odd.

  • Danno3000Danno3000 2,850 Posts

    this is pure bullshit and you know it. now, i admit i haven't been following this scene .. at all .. for a long time now. but i was up on it basically when it started, and i know that it's pretty much a small, incestuous circle of producers making the same arrhythmic, amelodic tripe that gets attention because gilles plays it (as an acetate, just to make it seem cooler) on radio1. i'll never forget when king britt proclaimed that the new sector movement album was going to, and i quote, 'change the face of black music.' fuck dude, i'm not even going to speak on that. but that sort of says a lot, if you know what i mean.

    to me, 'broken beat' signifies a type of music that's an extension of a crowd that assumes itself to be more progressive and creative than pretty much everyone else. now i know that's simplifying it quite a bit, but like i'm saying - it all used to be part of my vocabulary, so i know that 'fucking with everything,' as you say, is more or less dropping the same cultish jazz tracks that the bigger name dj's approved on their radio shows. then the super cool producers come and do a shitty remix of it. it's not at all an 'impossible music to describe,' dude. it represents a canon of music that's actually pretty easy to navigate. it's not some kind of vast expanse of musical territory that's blowing anybody's mind.

    cool that you were at get broke though. tell that boy m*****k i said what's up. i talk shit but those nights were a lot of fun, and that dude is a really good dj and a cool motherfucker to boot. trust me, i sound a lot saltier than i really am, because i'm more or less the type to have a fun time when i'm out instead of bitching about the music like i'm on some other shit, but what i wrote above is pretty much my frustration with the 'broken beat' crowd and their holier-than-thou attitude. and the term 'nu-jazz' is like the gayest shit ever.

    Yeah, that was more or less my experience with the genre, minus a couple notable exceptions.

  • DubiousDubious 1,865 Posts
    yo

    that mix should be on my server in about 15 minutes...


  • mcdeemcdee 871 Posts
    yo



    that mix should be on my server in about 15 minutes...






    dope! thanks for the recommendations you gave me in the thread somewhere.. same goes out to you spc. much appretiated.





    will you provide a tracklist for us little dudes?

  • DubiousDubious 1,865 Posts
    mix is up.

    ill leave the hi res on for awhile then switch it to lower to save on me bandwidth.

    www.prizerecords.com/audio/IndianSummerMix.mp3

  • This is crazy, dissing an entire genre of music with such venom & vitriol & without even a skerrick of wanting to understand. People seem to think it's like the modern day Weather report or Spiro Gyra on here... I may not like 'crunk' music, so i just leave it at that, but seems to me the impression here is that 'broken beat' (nu-jazz was pretty much coined by journalists in the same way that they used the shitty 'trip-hop' to name vocaless hip hop beats) is for highly educated glass tower living snobs. How can people front on the talent behind Bugz, Marc Mac, Dego, Seiji, Kadi, Phil Asher, Troubleman, Orin Walters, John Arnold, Domu even a fair amount of Will Hollands stuff is B.B. oriented.

    Shit, anyone been listening to Fela Kuti's drummer Tony Allen's output lately? Oh but what, he's not making 'broken beat'... Or is that 'Afrobeat', hell the whole genre is as others have said, incredibly difficult to pigeonhole. Some of it is on some crazy latin shit as well. But I must admit there is a lot of stuff that is way too noodly which must be what people are hearing to come to these conclusions.


    Besides, House & R & B seem to be the most dominating genres of 'dance muisc' so it's good to hear something different. My crew, who are all hip hop/funk heads also delve into some of the music because of the hard as fuck drums on some tracks. It's not a very commercial sound either. You are hardly likely to find it hook-laden with catchy melodies. It's defintely a wierd genre though. Hard to box, but sometimes uniquely interesting.

    Is Baille Funk & Reggaeton cool because they come from 'third world' countries & BB isn't because it came from West London? Just trying to understand...


    I think the Canadian trio Sol Azul's track 'Palaixo' is fucken awesome.
    http://www.nicesmooth.com/samples/paixao_mini.mp3



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