Broken beat
Encyclopedia
Broken beat is an electronic music
genre
that can be characterized by syncopated rhythm
typically in 4/4 meter
, with staggered or punctuated snare beats and/or hand claps.
It first appeared in the 1990s and was pioneered by IG Culture
, and the release of the 4hero album Two Pages
was influential on the emerging sound and scene. Appearing in the western parts of London
, the genre is also referred to as West London, mainly because Goya Music's offices were in London's Ladbroke Grove
, W11, as were most of the participating artists studios. Regular nights that play this genre of music include Co-op, which was held at Plastic People for a number of years before re-launching at East Village - both in Shoreditch. In 2008 monthly Co-Op sessions were launched at Concrete in Birmingham, UK. Another night worth mentioning is Inspiration Information, previously at Notting Hill Arts Club
but now at East Village in Shoreditch. Elsewhere, DJs from the Kyoto Jazz Massive
regularly play at The Room in Tokyo
. Magazines and sites reviewing the music include Straight No Chaser and Commercial Break. Distribution outlet Goya Music played an influential role in establishing the early UK sound, supporting early labels such as People, Bita Sweet, Mainsqueeze and numerous others.
Artists in this area mostly have a drum and bass
, house, hip hop
, techno or acid jazz
background. As a result of these various influences, broken beat is sometimes considered more sophisticated than regular dance music, on the scale of jazz
, soul
or funk
. Broken beat also has its roots in 70s jazz fusion
and has been influenced by artists such as Lonnie Liston Smith
, The Mizell Brothers (producers for Donald Byrd
, Bobbi Humphrey
and Johnny Hammond in the mid-70s), Herbie Hancock
, George Duke
, and others. One might also hear echos of disco
, 80s contemporary R&B
and funk
(Shalamar
, Prince
), early electronica
(Kraftwerk
), hip hop
(Planet Rock
), 80s new wave
(Depeche Mode
, New Order
), house and techno in broken beat.
IG Culture
is credited with kick-starting the scene with his New Sector Movements releases for People Music. The transition was to a more abstract form of drum and bass. Many artists that started releasing through 4hero's Reinforced label are now considered pioneers of broken beat (a landmark artist for the label being Sonar Circle aka Domu). Meanwhile in Detroit, established techno
artists like Carl Craig
and Stacey Pullen
experimented with the music they were making, trying to add jazz
elements and breaks to their sound. As the music is still based on classic Detroit techno and usually has a harder sound, it is sometimes referred to as broken techno. This eclectic mixture was picked up by the Detroit and jazz affiliated UK techno producers Kirk Degiorgio
or As One
and Ian O'Brien
, who tried to form it into a more soulful variation which further influenced the development of the broken beat genre.
Popular names in the genre are L.A.'s J Davey
, Bugz in the Attic
, Seiji, Kaidi Tatham, Domu, Afronaught, IG Culture
, Stephane and Alex Attias, New Zealand
-born Mark De Clive-Lowe
, 4hero (Dego
and Marc Mac), Manchester's Phuture Lounge collective label boss Maddslinky Zed Bias
, Somatik, and Opolopo. In the U.S.
prominent artists are Detroit based Titonton Duvanté, John Arnold, Jeremy Ellis aka Ayro, and Recloose (now based in New Zealand
), Harlem
based Spymusic, and Philadelphia based King Britt
.
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
that can be characterized by syncopated rhythm
Syncopation
In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
typically in 4/4 meter
Meter (music)
Meter or metre is a term that music has inherited from the rhythmic element of poetry where it means the number of lines in a verse, the number of syllables in each line and the arrangement of those syllables as long or short, accented or unaccented...
, with staggered or punctuated snare beats and/or hand claps.
It first appeared in the 1990s and was pioneered by IG Culture
IG Culture
IG Culture is a London musician and performer best known as a pioneer of the broken beat movement. His production features rhythms and hybrids of several musical styles such as jazz-fusion, funk and soul.-Musical career:...
, and the release of the 4hero album Two Pages
Two Pages
Two Pages is an album by the English band 4hero, which was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize in 1998 . Many cite it as very influential on the broken beat sound emerging around this time....
was influential on the emerging sound and scene. Appearing in the western parts of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the genre is also referred to as West London, mainly because Goya Music's offices were in London's Ladbroke Grove
Ladbroke Grove
Ladbroke Grove is a road in west London, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is also sometimes the name given informally to the immediate area surrounding the road. Running from Notting Hill in the south to Kensal Green in the north, it is located in North Kensington and straddles...
, W11, as were most of the participating artists studios. Regular nights that play this genre of music include Co-op, which was held at Plastic People for a number of years before re-launching at East Village - both in Shoreditch. In 2008 monthly Co-Op sessions were launched at Concrete in Birmingham, UK. Another night worth mentioning is Inspiration Information, previously at Notting Hill Arts Club
Notting Hill Arts Club
The Notting Hill Arts Club is a music and arts venue in Notting Hill, central London, England. The club holds clubnights every night of the week. Its range of events covers everything from interactive crafts to themed Soviet nights, but perhaps most famous is its Death Disco clubnight, which is run...
but now at East Village in Shoreditch. Elsewhere, DJs from the Kyoto Jazz Massive
Kyoto Jazz Massive
Kyoto Jazz Massive is a musical project specialising in broken beat and electronic styles, consisting of the two brothers Okino Shuya and Okino Yoshihiro. The group has also included Hajime Yoshizawa, the pianist producer, on a number of works and albums...
regularly play at The Room in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. Magazines and sites reviewing the music include Straight No Chaser and Commercial Break. Distribution outlet Goya Music played an influential role in establishing the early UK sound, supporting early labels such as People, Bita Sweet, Mainsqueeze and numerous others.
Artists in this area mostly have a drum and bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...
, house, hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, techno or acid jazz
Acid jazz
Acid jazz is a musical genre that combines elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, particularly looped beats. It developed in the UK over the 1980s and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic dance: jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd and Grant Green are...
background. As a result of these various influences, broken beat is sometimes considered more sophisticated than regular dance music, on the scale of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
or funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
. Broken beat also has its roots in 70s jazz fusion
Fusion (music)
A fusion genre is music that combines two or more styles. For example, rock and roll originally developed as a fusion of blues, gospel and country music. The main characteristics of fusion genres are variations in tempo, rhythm, i a sometimes the use of long musical "journeys" that can be divided...
and has been influenced by artists such as Lonnie Liston Smith
Lonnie Liston Smith
Lonnie Liston Smith, Jr. is an American jazz, soul, and funk musician who played with important free jazz artists such as Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis before forming Lonnie Liston Smith And The Cosmic Echoes, recording a number of albums widely regarded as classics in the fusion / Quiet Storm /...
, The Mizell Brothers (producers for Donald Byrd
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
, Bobbi Humphrey
Bobbi Humphrey
Barbara Ann Humphrey is an American jazz flautist and singer who plays fusion, jazz-funk and soul-jazz styles. Bobbi Humphrey has performed for audiences around the world....
and Johnny Hammond in the mid-70s), Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, George Duke
George Duke
George Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...
, and others. One might also hear echos of disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
, 80s contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and funk.Although the abbreviation “R&B” originates from traditional rhythm and blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in...
and funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
(Shalamar
Shalamar
Shalamar was an American music group, primarily of the 1970s and 1980s, that was originally a disco-driven vehicle created by Soul Train booking agent Dick Griffey and show creator Don Cornelius. They went on to be an influential dance trio, masterminded by Soul Train producer Don Cornelius...
, Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
), early electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
(Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
), hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
(Planet Rock
Planet Rock (song)
"Planet Rock" is a 1982 song by Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force. In the background and hooks featured Marvella Murray, Yvette Murray, Melissa Johnson and Sandra Wheeler. Although it was only a minor hit in the US, Canada, and UK, it helped change the foundations of hip-hop and dance music...
), 80s new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
(Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...
, New Order
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...
), house and techno in broken beat.
IG Culture
IG Culture
IG Culture is a London musician and performer best known as a pioneer of the broken beat movement. His production features rhythms and hybrids of several musical styles such as jazz-fusion, funk and soul.-Musical career:...
is credited with kick-starting the scene with his New Sector Movements releases for People Music. The transition was to a more abstract form of drum and bass. Many artists that started releasing through 4hero's Reinforced label are now considered pioneers of broken beat (a landmark artist for the label being Sonar Circle aka Domu). Meanwhile in Detroit, established techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
artists like Carl Craig
Carl Craig
Carl Craig is a Detroit-based producer of techno music, and is considered to be one of the most important names in the Detroit second generation of techno producers and DJs...
and Stacey Pullen
Stacey Pullen
Stacey Pullen is an American techno musician based in Detroit.Pullen was raised in Detroit, where he became interested in electronic music early in his life. He began working on the Detroit techno scene in 1990, studying with Derrick May and working with him on business ventures. He used the...
experimented with the music they were making, trying to add jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
elements and breaks to their sound. As the music is still based on classic Detroit techno and usually has a harder sound, it is sometimes referred to as broken techno. This eclectic mixture was picked up by the Detroit and jazz affiliated UK techno producers Kirk Degiorgio
Kirk Degiorgio
Kirk Degiorgio, better known as As One, is a British techno producer and DJ. Born in the late 60s in Stepney, east London, and raised in Suffolk, he started producing music in the early 90s. He founded the labels A.R.T. Records and Op-Art Records and releases on them as well as B12 Records, R&S...
or As One
As One
As One is a Korean pop duo consisting of Korean Americans Min Young Lee and Crystal Chae. Their first hit was the song "너만은 모르길," released in 1999 on Rock Records Between their fourth and fifth albums, their contract with Rock Records expired and they signed with EMI Korea; a label which also...
and Ian O'Brien
Ian O'Brien
Ian Lovett O'Brien is a former Australian breaststroke swimmer of the 1960s, who won the 200 metre breaststroke at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in world record time...
, who tried to form it into a more soulful variation which further influenced the development of the broken beat genre.
Popular names in the genre are L.A.'s J Davey
J Davey
J*DaVeY is a multi-genre duo from Los Angeles, CA whose sound can be described as a combination of alternative hip hop, alternative rock, soul, electronica, fusion, jazz, punk, funk, new wave and R&B futurists...
, Bugz in the Attic
Bugz in the Attic
Bugz in the Attic is a collective of DJs and producers based in West London, who are prominent in broken beat. The collective includes Orin Walters , Paul Dolby , Kaidi Tatham, Daz-I-Kue, Alex Phountzi , Cliff Scott, Mark Force, Matt Lord, and Mikey Stirton. The group also has a label, BitaSweet...
, Seiji, Kaidi Tatham, Domu, Afronaught, IG Culture
IG Culture
IG Culture is a London musician and performer best known as a pioneer of the broken beat movement. His production features rhythms and hybrids of several musical styles such as jazz-fusion, funk and soul.-Musical career:...
, Stephane and Alex Attias, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
-born Mark De Clive-Lowe
Mark De Clive-Lowe
Mark de Clive-Lowe is a musician and producer originally from New Zealand, and now based in West London. He has been one of the key musicians in the Broken Beat and Nu Jazz movements, blending jazz, ethnic music and urban grooves into a 21st Century sound...
, 4hero (Dego
Dego
Dego is a comune in the Province of Savona in the Italian region Liguria, located about 50 km west of Genoa and about 20 km northwest of Savona....
and Marc Mac), Manchester's Phuture Lounge collective label boss Maddslinky Zed Bias
Zed Bias
Zed Bias is an English electronic musician who operates within the UK garage and broken beat genres, both as a producer and a DJ. Jones has also released material under the pseudonym Maddslinky, and is half of the Phuturistix duo, as well as other side projects.Zed Bias is best known for his...
, Somatik, and Opolopo. In the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
prominent artists are Detroit based Titonton Duvanté, John Arnold, Jeremy Ellis aka Ayro, and Recloose (now based in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
), Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
based Spymusic, and Philadelphia based King Britt
King Britt
King Britt is an American DJ and record producer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.King Britt is his actual legal name.- 1987: Tower Records Years :...
.
See also
- 4hero, influential artist.
- IG CultureIG CultureIG Culture is a London musician and performer best known as a pioneer of the broken beat movement. His production features rhythms and hybrids of several musical styles such as jazz-fusion, funk and soul.-Musical career:...
, influential artist. - Gilles PetersonGilles PetersonGilles Peterson , is a DJ, record collector and record label owner from London, UK. Through his labels Acid Jazz, Talkin' Loud, and latterly Brownswood Recordings, he has been associated with the careers of well-known artists of the 1990s such as Erykah Badu, Roni Size and Jamiroquai...
, influential DJ. - Patrick ForgePatrick ForgePatrick Forge is a British jazz, jazz-dance and soul music DJ who spent much of the late 1980s and early 1990s DJing alongside Gilles Peterson at the famous Dingwalls club in Camden, North London....
, influential DJ.