Saturday, April 28, 2007

What the Fuck Is Breakcore?

If you tell people you like breakcore, "what the fuck is it?" is a strong inevitable first reaction. Jason Forrest nicely puts it in the freshly released Notes on Breakcore documentary. "I have the computer, I have some break beats - I can speed them up and make music from them. It's three chords and the truth type stuff." Society Suckers describe it as "music too fucked up for neo-Nazis." That entertains me.

I'd come across the trailer for the documentary last year some time, and the site had promised a torrent release some time back in February - it never emerged. No harm, the thing has been leaked onto the net now and is available on Google video. Watching it seriously makes me realize I haven't been to a good and proper raggle tag night of vicious amen-ism in quite some time now, it also reminded me of the sweat drenched excitement of first going to some of the gigs. Toronto better sort itself out.

As a documentary its an interesting survey of the variations in how breakcore as a cultural movement has been putting down roots through word of mouth and the internet and the artists attempts to resist genre categorization. In a review in Vice magazine, some of the usual digs are thrown in, with one of their commentariat calling it "music for people who hate ears." Make up your own mind.

The DuranDuranDuran photo above was taken way back when at !Kaboogie in the Ice Bar last year.

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Comments:
Nice link! Reminds me of why I hate most of this music! ;)

Havent watched it all yet, but it does seem to miss out on the more ragga influenced strains of breakcore and the legions of 'throw an amen over that acapella' artists.
 
Comment approval eh? You been having trouble with spam/trolls?
 
Nah not really, but a while back I was getting this real silly amount of penis extension spam, all this mad sales shite - the usual really. It was sneaking in on me.

Comments were being dropped on ancient posts and I'd never notice they were spam, I'd accidentally discover them. Now at least I get notifaction of all the comments and can just ignore the spam and approve the normal ones.

Do you get much over at Wearie?

Enduser who really sort of does that ragga tinged aspect of breakcore was very much missing from that documentary alright. I guess steeped as you are in old skool jungle, seeing vocal samples you are full of familiarity with being fucked to bits in some breakcore song that probably sounds like a real desperate imitation of a once fresh sound ten years ago can be off putting.

But as someone with out that familiarity, it's only because of the recycling that I'd ever probably have come across the likes of Captleton, Sizzla or Bounty Killer.
 
I dont really get any spam since i turned on 'word verification', and I get notified by email everytime theres a new comment as well - so I dont miss out on comments on old posts - its the best of both worlds! ;)

I guess exposure to reggae/dancehall from any angle is a good one, but I cant shake the feeling that so much breakcore is just disposable 'play once' party music - partly due to the generally abominable production values, and partly due to the macho 'my beats are harder/faster than yours' type posturing that seems to go on - reminds me superficially of punk, or even metal... dont get me started on mindless appropriation of reggae - I doubt half the producers out there even understand what theyre sampling.

I was really into 'proto'- breakcore in the mid 90s: DJ producer, early Squarepusher, post 'I care'... AFX, Amon Tobin etc (the stuff that is generally disowned as being influential these days), but it was usually the contrast between melody and extreme beats that attracted me to the stuff - these days thats almost all gone, there seems to be far too much irony and not enough soul. Its music that I can appreciate in brief spurts on a dancefloor or on headphones, but without some kind of contrast, be it from melody or from 'straight' beats, the extreme stuff just loses its impact IMO.

To me, probably the most interesting thing about breakcore today is the methods some of the performers use to play live - theres some seriously innovative techniques to be learned from there.

BTW - You know about 'Flashcore'? Nathan Barley to bits...

http://urban-decay.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=955
 
i think you guys don't know what breakcore is. duran duran duran, jason forrest and similar cock rock usa crap is nothing als but "music" for aserbaidschan-soft-porn-productions.

check out the old ambush stuff, old dhr old kool pop, then you might get an idea what breakcore is about, nowadays there is just 80-90% totally bullshit around that could be played on local village-discos.

check out brutal stuff by zfe,noize punishment and similar man, that is nowadays breakcore.

this "gabberish-breakcore" bullshit is just for trendy wankers and people without a taste of music.
 
Nice peice.

Theres an extremely to the point and exact explanation of what Breakcore is in a paragrahph of 20 words(?) at the btm of our blog.
So please, allow me to take you by the HEAD or entrails down Breakcore lane...

drop in (or pushed) to http://aural-virus.blogspot.com

Where if you actually FIND an 'aural-virus' please tell me and i'll remove it asap.

Peace

© Tµrk ©

who is not turkish...
 
my gosh west germany is an angry fellow...

Breakcore is a 'tag' to encompass the ethos against the stagnation that IDM unfortunately has fallen into over certain periods of its evolvment,
Punk, Jazz, Amen driven anti IDM with IDM roots. Its a contradiction and knows it.

Breakcore takes anything and everything from whatever genre and some how creates more chaos from what is essentially a chaotic starting point yet still creating... as long as there's an Amen loop in there.. somewhere..

oh and btw not what you decide. a mouse is a mouse no matter how much you want it to be something else.

And come on Noise Punishment.. he is great but at the far end of the spectrum as Bong Ra, D.D.D. etc are the other end.
I don't like all but my dislike for some is not important, its what I like that is. My broken glass is half full if it weren't broke.. yeah..

braap braap

and on that note

the Ragga/Jungle influence to (when needed) Dubstep..

all tie in thourgh many a Dubsteppa will proly not have heard a Breakcore record Breakcore fans (or myself) consider Dubstep the 'ambient' alternative. All most the night time music that unfortunately means i have to switch my sub woofer off (at least until i have my communal electric switch moved into my flat that is :) then it's going on - if i catch the bleep who has switched it off over 20 times and nearly wiped 3 harddrives and 5 mac's i'll.. i'll fit the electric box in my flat and realy enjoy myself :)

I digress... whatever, dub, amen loop, ragacore, jungle, love it all.

i've lost my train of thought (electric being switched off.. :) ) so yep n stuff

its late, i should have just watched the clip you have found.

Turk

from

Aural-Virus
(1 of not many breakcore blogs)

http://aural-virus.blogspot.com

Breakcore, Raggacore, Darkside Drum 'n' Bas, D'n'B, I.D.M., Dubstep and stuff i've left out...
 
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