Breakbeat (1988): Breakbeat is the root term: building music on a sampled drum break rather than a programmed grid. The Winstons' Amen break and James Brown's Funky Drummer, a…
Breakbeat Hardcore (1991): England's raves of 1990 to 1992: speeded-up house collides with hip-hop breaks, Belgian rave stabs, and reggae basslines. Euphoric pianos, pitched-up vocals,…
Darkcore (1990): The winter of 1992 to 1993 in English hardcore: the euphoria fades, pianos disappear, and breaks get wrapped in anxious pads and horror samples. Mr Kirk's…
Jungle (1994): Jungle emerged in London between 1993 and 1995: breakbeats cut apart with surgical precision, sped up toward 160 beats per minute, over soundsystem bass and…
Drum and Bass (1994): Jungle stylized and technicalized from 1995 onward: cleaner breaks, synthetic basses, jeweler's precision at 170 beats per minute. Goldie and Metalheadz turn…
Techstep (1995): Techstep is the cold turn drum and bass took between 1996 and 1998: industrial two step breaks, twisting basslines and dystopian science fiction imagery.…
Neurofunk (1997): Neurofunk is the systematic refinement of techstep from 1998 onward: constantly modulating basslines, surgically precise mixing and a cold, functional groove.…
Darkstep (1997): Darkstep is the darkest, fastest side of drum and bass: breaks fired in bursts, hostile basslines, apocalyptic imagery, right at the border with breakcore.…
Liquid Drum and Bass (1996): Liquid drum and bass is the side of the genre that breathes: soul chords, sung vocals and round basslines, reviving Bukem's legacy in the early 2000s when…
Jump-Up (1993): Jump up is Saturday night drum and bass: a trampoline bassline that does all the work, simple breaks, and DJ friendly hooks. It was born in the mid 1990s…
Drumfunk (1995): The cult of the breakbeat taken to its furthest extreme: entire drum patterns recomposed hit by hit, living polyrhythms built from scratch, and a permanent…
Drumstep (2010): The 2010s hybrid: the tempo of drum and bass with half time drops inherited from American dubstep. Built for EDM festival stages and video games, where the…
Ragga Jungle (1991): Ragga jungle is jungle with the microphone up front: dancehall and reggae vocals, soundsystem bass, and the Jamaican culture of London asserted front and…
Drill and Bass (1996): The auteur hijacking of jungle in the mid 1990s: Squarepusher and Aphex Twin, around Rephlex and Warp, push break editing into absurd, virtuosic overdrive,…
Breakcore (1994): Breakcore is the punk escalation of the breakbeat: the Amen break saturated to the point of fusion, wild collages mixing ragga, metal and gabber in the same…
Crossbreed (2010): Crossbreed is the formalized pact between hard drum and bass and industrial hardcore, struck around 2010: gabber kicks driving underneath neurofunk-style…
Big Beat (1996): Big beat took England's breakbeat scene and turned it into stadium rock between 1995 and 1999: huge, compressed breaks, sampled riffs, chorus hooks built like…
Ghetto Funk (2003): The 2010s label for a festive breakbeat sound blending sampled funk, light dubstep bass and scratching, built for fanfare festivals and afterparties. The…
Nu Skool Breaks (2000): Nu skool breaks is breakbeat taken back in hand at the end of the 1990s: house tempo, tense electro basslines, precise production, with neither rave nostalgia…
Progressive Breaks (1996): The long, rising trajectories of progressive house laid over breakbeats instead of a four-on-the-floor kick: swelling pads, round basslines, and an…
Psybreaks (2008): Psybreaks applies the sound design of psytrance to breakbeats: precise, shifting basslines and psychedelic textures running around 135 to 140 beats per…
Florida Breaks (1987): 1990s Florida: Miami electro crossed with rave culture, funky breaks around 130 to 140, round 808 basses, beach town euphoria. Orlando and Tampa turned it…
Broken Beat (2001): Broken beat is the jazz and soul answer to quantized dance music, born in west London around the year 2000. Its rhythms sway in ways almost impossible to…
