Breakbeat
Breaks · 1988 · 120 to 140 BPM · also known as Break Beat, Breaks
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 few seconds of drumming recorded in 1969 and 1970, became, twenty years later, the DNA of hardcore, jungle and everything syncopated that England would go on to build. This node documents that raw material itself, the handful of breaks that British producers looped, sliced and pitched into an entirely new lineage of dance music, long before the genres that carry the breakbeat name today had even taken shape.
8 reference tracks
- The Winstons: Amen Brother (1969)
- James Brown: Funky Drummer (1970)
- Coldcut: Beats and Pieces (1987)
- The Prodigy: Out of Space (1992)
- The Prodigy: Voodoo People (1994)
- The Prodigy: No Good (Start the Dance) (1994)
- The Prodigy: Firestarter (1996)
- The Chemical Brothers: Block Rockin' Beats (1997)
At a glance
- Tempo: 120 to 140 BPM
- First appeared: 1988
- Machines: Akai S950, Akai S1000
- The sound: Amen break, Funky Drummer, Akai S950 et S1000, Time-stretching, Découpe de breaks au sampler
- Labels: Street Sounds, Music of Life, XL Recordings
- Key artists: The Winstons (à leur insu), Clyde Stubblefield, Coldcut, Bomb the Bass
Producing Breakbeat
Breakbeat has no fixed tempo of its own, only the tempo of whatever break you sample, Funky Drummer around 100 BPM, Amen Brother around 136, late 1980s British producers settling around 110 to 130 before The Prodigy pushed toward 140. The feel comes from the original drummer, not your grid: hats never land exactly on the sixteenth, the snare drags, keep that blur rather than quantizing it away. Load a break into a sampler in slice mode, then replay it: kick on beat one and the and of two, snare on two and four, ghost notes kept low, doubled with a short 909. Bass is a single sine or a Moog sub on root notes with passing tones, lightly sidechained to the kick. Downsample or grain warp for old grain, and layer a few horn, piano and vocal samples.
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 Breakbeat?
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 few seconds of drumming recorded in 1969 and 1970, became, twenty years later, the DNA of hardcore, jungle and everything syncopated that…
What tempo is Breakbeat played at?
Between 120 and 140 BPM.
Who are the key Breakbeat artists?
The Winstons (à leur insu), Clyde Stubblefield, Coldcut, Bomb the Bass.
