Breakstep
Bass · 2000 · 135 to 145 BPM · also known as Break Step
Breakstep is the 2000 to 2002 link between garage and dubstep: 2 step that borrows breaks, jungle basslines and a darker tone, before halfstep would go on to impose its slowness. Zinc with 138 Trek, Zed Bias and early Plastician marked out the territory. It was short lived and transitional, yet indispensable to the genealogy of British bass music, a brief window in which garage's swing collided with jungle's syncopation and dubstep's weight before any of those later genres had fully crystallized into the forms that would come to define the next decade of UK bass.
7 reference tracks
- DJ Zinc: 138 Trek (2000)
- Zed Bias: Neighbourhood (2000)
- Steve Gurley: Hotboys (2000)
- Menta: Sounds of Da Future (2001)
- El B: Buck and Bury (2001)
- Horsepower Productions: Gorgon Sound (2002)
- Hamdi: Skanka (2022)
At a glance
- Tempo: 135 to 145 BPM
- First appeared: around 2000
- Machines: Ableton Live, Akai S950, Native Instruments Massive
- The sound: Breaks garage durcis, Basses jungle, Sub 140, Production pirate radio
- Labels: Bingo Beats, Road, Sidestepper
- Key artists: DJ Zinc, Zed Bias, Oris Jay, Plastician (débuts)
Producing Breakstep
Breakstep sits between 135 and 140 BPM, keeping 2 step's heavier swing, 58 to 62 percent, but pushing the tone dark: a chopped breakbeat runs fast on top while kick and bass stay slow underneath. The skeleton is 2 step, kick on beat one and the offbeat 2.5, a heavy snare on two and four, but a funk break sliced into sixteenths, high pass filtered to stay clear of the kick, adds jungle syncopation, run through crunchy, downsampled processing for a grainy texture. The bass pairs a deep sub with a jungle Reese, two detuned sawtooths through a slow low pass filter, alternating with the kick, arriving on the offbeat and holding until 2.5, with just two or three notes. Dark synth stabs, dub sirens, sampled MC shouts and tape delayed percussion complete a grey sound for a sound system.
The full production course, in French: tempo, drums, bass, sounds, arrangement, mix, plugins and machines, and a step by step start.
Frequently asked
What is Breakstep?
Breakstep is the 2000 to 2002 link between garage and dubstep: 2 step that borrows breaks, jungle basslines and a darker tone, before halfstep would go on to impose its slowness. Zinc with 138 Trek, Zed Bias and early Plastician marked out the territory. It was short lived and transitional, yet…
What tempo is Breakstep played at?
Between 135 and 145 BPM.
Who are the key Breakstep artists?
DJ Zinc, Zed Bias, Oris Jay, Plastician (débuts).
