On Wednesday, July 02, 1997 2:57 PM, Lazlo Nibble [SMTP:lazlo@swcp.com] wrote:
quoted 2 lines Probably called a "breakbeat" because the break is the easiest place in a> Probably called a "breakbeat" because the break is the easiest place in a
> song to got a clean, loopable sample from . . .
This makes a lot of sense. Although I think defining a breakbeat as a type of
sample is pretty narrow. One can make a breakbeat on a drum machine or on a
synth - it would be called a breakbeat still because it *sounds like* the kind
of beat used in a break in a live song.
Breakbeat - 1) a beat used in the break of a traditional instrumental song,
often a drum solo. 2) a type of music constructed of beats sampled from the
breaks of traditional instrumental songs 3) A type of music electronically
constructed of beat patterns which are structured similarly to the drum
patterns in the breaks of traditional instrumental songs.
I really appreciate everyone's introducing me to the famous "amen" break. And
thanks for all the URL's! It is intensely familiar and I'm sure it will haunt
me every time I hear it used in some jungle song. Although, to be honest, many
of the times people say (usually derisively) that it is used as a sample in a
certain song I don't think it really is. The amen break, although pretty
impressive, is something almost any decent drummer or drum-machine programmer
could do in their sleep. It's just a funky beat, not something incredibly
unique. In the case of squarepusher for example, his beats are so complex and
with so little repetiotion that it seems impossible that his beats are samples.
Claiming that d&b music is based on the amen break is like saying that hip hop
is based on James Brown's Funky Drummer. It's obviously a very common, perhaps
the most common sample, but it is not the foundation of all of it.
-CF