Breakbeat hardcore

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Breakbeat hardcore (also referred to as hardcore rave, oldskool hardcore or simply hardcore) is a music genre that spawned from the UK rave scene during the early 1990s. It combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats usually sampled from hip hop. In addition to the inclusion of breakbeats, the genre also features shuffled drum machine patterns, hoover, and other noises originating from new beat and Belgian techno, sounds from acid house and bleep techno, and often upbeat house piano riffs and vocals. [1]

Contents

History

Early 1990s: origins

Fantazia Summertime rave, May 1992 Fantazia Summertime Rave.jpg
Fantazia Summertime rave, May 1992

The rave scene expanded rapidly in the very early 1990s, both at clubs up and down the country including Labrynth, Shelley's Laserdome, The Eclipse, and Sanctuary Music Arena, and large raves in Warehouses and in the open air attracting 20–50,000 whether put on legally from promoters such as Fantazia and Raindance, or unlicensed by free party sound systems such as Spiral Tribe. Breakbeat hardcore drew its melting pot of sound from a vast array of influences – from new beat and Belgian techno that had for a short period been prominent in the UK rave scene, to house and acid house, and furthermore drawing on hip hop and reggae culture. [2] Amongst the influences from within the rave scene itself upon which this strain of hardcore drew were such acts as Manix, The Hypnotist, CJ Bolland with his "Ravesignal" series, and T99. [3] The huge increase in producers was also driven by the increasing availability of cheap home computer-based studio setups, particularly Cubase for the Atari ST. [4]

Mid-1990s: fragmentation

By late 1992, breakbeat hardcore started to fragment into a number of subsequent genres: darkcore (piano rolls giving way to dark-themed samples and stabs), hardcore jungle (where reggae basslines and samples became prominent), and happy hardcore (retaining piano rolls and more uplifting vocals). [5]

2000s: revival

In the 2000s, the style experienced a revival as part of the nu-rave scene.[ citation needed ]

Hardcore breaks is a style of breakbeat hardcore that appeared in early-to-mid 2000s as part of growing nu-rave scene. The style is inspired by the sound and characteristics of old school breakbeat, while being fused with modern production techniques that distinguish the genre from the classic hardcore breakbeat sound. [6] The music is composed of looped, edited and processed breakbeat samples, intense bassline sounds, melodic piano lines, staccato synthesizer riffs, and various vocal samples (mostly taken from old house records). The speed of this genre typically fell between the range of 145–155 bpm, while the speed may variate on live sets. Originally being produced by a small group of artists with the vision of carrying on where oldskool hardcore left off before the jungle and happy hardcore split using new production techniques and technology, its appeal has now expanded to include artists from the original breakbeat hardcore scene creating new productions. [7] By the late 2000s, hardcore breaks tend to be produced and played at a bit faster tempos, often between 160–180 bpm. Therefore, it is often played at UK hardcore, freeform hardcore and drum and bass events.

Notable releases

Notable releases include: [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drum and bass</span> Type of electronic music

Drum and bass is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast breakbeats with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, samples, and synthesizers. The genre grew out of the UK's jungle scene in the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rave</span> Dance party

A rave is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance music scene when DJs played at illegal events in musical styles dominated by electronic dance music from a wide range of sub-genres, including drum and bass, dubstep, trap, break, happy hardcore, trance, techno, hardcore, house, and alternative dance. Occasionally live musicians have been known to perform at raves, in addition to other types of performance artists such as go-go dancers and fire dancers. The music is amplified with a large, powerful sound reinforcement system, typically with large subwoofers to produce a deep bass sound. The music is often accompanied by laser light shows, projected coloured images, visual effects and fog machines.

Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and UK garage styles.

Jungle is a genre of dance music that developed out of the UK rave scene and sound system culture in the 1990s. Emerging from breakbeat hardcore, the style is characterised by rapid breakbeats, heavily syncopated percussive loops, samples, and synthesised effects, combined with the deep basslines, melodies, and vocal samples found in dub, reggae and dancehall, as well as hip hop and funk. Many producers frequently sampled the "Amen break" or other breakbeats from funk and jazz recordings.Jungle was a direct precursor to the drum and bass genre which emerged in the mid-1990s.

Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or "hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s. The thing that makes happy hardcore stand apart from happy gabba, is that happy hardcore tends to have breakbeats running alongside the 4/4 kick drum.

Breakcore is a style and microgenre of electronic dance music that emerged from jungle, hardcore, and drum and bass in the mid-to-late 1990s. It is characterized by very complex and intricate breakbeats and a wide palette of sampling sources played at high tempos.

Hardcore is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos and a distorted sawtooth kick, the intensity of the kicks and the synthesized bass, the rhythm and the atmosphere of the themes, the usage of saturation and experimentation close to that of industrial dance music. It would spawn subgenres such as gabber.

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4hero are an electronic music group from Dollis Hill, London, comprising producers Mark "Marc Mac" Clair & Denis "Dego" McFarlane. While the band is often cited as 4 Hero or 4-Hero, the name is stylised as 4hero on their albums and website. 4hero are known for being pioneers of breakbeat hardcore, jungle/drum and bass, broken beat and nu jazz music.

Techstep is a dark subgenre of drum and bass that was created in the mid-1990s.

Bouncy techno is a hardcore dance music rave style that developed in the early 1990s from Scotland and Northern England. Described as an accessible gabber-like form, it was popularised by Scottish DJ and music producer Scott Brown under numerous aliases.

Darkcore is a music subgenre of breakbeat hardcore in the UK rave scene, that emerged from late 1992. It is recognised as being one of the direct precursors of the genre now known as drum and bass.

<i>Now Is Early</i> 1992 studio album by Nicolette

Now Is Early is the debut studio album by Scottish singer Nicolette, produced by English electronic duo Shut Up and Dance and released in April 1992 by the duo's label of the same name. It follows a string of popular underground singles in the early 1990s that applied the singer's jazz-styled vocals to Shut Up and Dance's early experiments in breakbeat hardcore, with songs from these singles featuring on the record. Stylistically, the record profiles Shut Up and Dance's spacious, breakbeat-driven sound, contrasted with Nicolette's smooth scat-style singing. For the album, the singer wrote torch songs in a stream of consciousness style and explored universal themes.

Drum and bass is an electronic music genre that originated in the UK rave scene having developed from breakbeat hardcore. The genre would go on to become one of the most popular genres of electronic dance music, becoming international and spawning multiple different derivatives and subgenres.

XL Recordings Chapters was a musical compilation series which showcased tracks from the XL Recordings record label. Also, other notable breakbeat hardcore, house and techno tracks, XL's output at the time, were featured from other labels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don FM</span> Radio station

Don FM was a 1990s London pirate radio station, influential in the development of breakbeat hardcore, jungle and drum and bass music. It was the first jungle pirate station granted a temporary legal license.

The Criminal Minds are a British hip hop group first formed in Milton Keynes, UK in 1985, who would later have success with breakbeat hardcore music during the peak of the early-mid 1990s UK rave scene.

<i>Reggae Owes Me Money</i> 1991 studio album by The Ragga Twins

Reggae Owes Me Money is the debut album by British duo The Ragga Twins, produced by hardcore duo Shut Up and Dance and released on the latter's record label of the same name. After establishing themselves as dancehall artists from the Unity soundsystem in the 1980s, the Ragga Twins switched direction in the early 1990s, combining into a duo after signing to Shut Up & Dance's label. The production duo stirred the Ragga Twins' change in direction, fusing their previous reggae and dancehall style into the Shut Up & Dance rave dance style.

Noise Factory were an English breakbeat hardcore and jungle group active in the early 1990s. The group is credited as being pivotal in the transition between hardcore and jungle music.

Belgian hardcore techno is an early style of hardcore techno that emerged from new beat as EBM and techno influences became more prevalent in this genre. This particular style has been described as an "apocalyptic, almost Wagnerian, bombastic techno", due to its use of dramatic orchestral stabs and menacing synth tones that set it apart from earlier forms of electronic dance music. It flourished in Belgium and influenced the sound of early hardcore from Netherlands, Germany, Italy, UK and North America during the early-1990s, as a part of the rave movement during that period.

References

Citations

  1. Reynolds 2013, p. 96, "1990 also saw the genesis of a distinctively British rave sound, 'hard core', which decisively broke with the mould of Detroit and Chicago, and ended the dependency on American imports. By 1991 this underground sound – actually a confederacy of hybrid genres and regional styles – was assaulting the mainstream pop charts.".
  2. Reynolds 2013, pp. 96–97, "Between 1990 and 1993, hardcore in Britain referred by turns to the Northern bleep-and-bass sound of Warp and Unique 3, to the hip-house and ragga-techno sounds of the Shut Up And Dance label, to the anthemic pop-rave of acts like N-Joi and Shades of Rhythm, to Belgian and German brutalist techno, and, finally to the breakbeat-driven furore of hardcore jungle...Influenced by reggae and hip hop, hardcore producers intensified the sub-bass frequencies, used looped breakbeats to funk up house's four-to-the-floor machine-beat, and embraced sampling with deranged glee. Following the lead of the bombastic Belgians and Germans, UK producers deployed riff-like 'stabs' and bursts of glaring noise.".
  3. Reynolds 2013, p. 120, "On the outskirts of the Top Forty, tracks by Manix, T99, the Hypnotist, Quadrophonia, Ravesignal, A Split Second, Congress and UHF exacerbated the sense of a barbarian horde waiting to overrun the pop citadel. In terms of hit rate, this 'golden age of hardcore' compares with the punk/New Wave period of the late seventies.".
  4. Reynolds 2013, p. 96.
  5. Reynolds 2013, p. 266, "Back in 1993, when hardcore plunged into the 'darkside', a breakaway faction of DJ-producers like Seduction, Vibes and Slipmatt continued to make celebratory, upful tunes based around hectic breakbeats. By the end of 1994, happy hardcore had coalesced into a scene that operated in parallel with its estranged cousin, jungle.".
  6. Hulyer 2016.
  7. Rolt 2018.
  8. Richard X 2012; Middleton & Pritchard 2012; Dummy Mag 2016; If-Only 2017; Greenwood 2018; McCallum 2018; McQuaid 2019; Warwick 2019.

Sources

  • Dummy Mag (2 June 2016). "The 10 best rave tracks, according to 2 Bad Mice". Dummy Mag.
  • Greenwood, Sam (10 May 2018). "The 50 greatest rave anthems of all time". Four Four.
  • Hulyer, Jake (20 July 2016). "Lone Resists the Rave Revivalist Title on "Levitate"". Bandcamp Daily. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  • If-Only (24 May 2017). "Adventurous Transmissions from the 12th Isle". If-Only UK. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021.
  • Larkin, Colin, ed. (1998). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Dance Music (First ed.). Virgin Books. p. 333. ISBN   0-7535-0252-6.
  • McCallum, Rob (24 August 2018). "10 ultimate rave anthems chosen by acid house heroes Altern-8". DJMag.
  • McQuaid, Ian (23 May 2019). "10 great lost rave anthems". RBMA.
  • Middleton, Tom; Pritchard, Mark (March 2012). "Global Communication". Red Bull Music Academy. Fuschl: Red Bull GmbH.
  • Reynolds, Simon (2013). Energy Flash: A Journey through Rave Music and Dance Culture (Rev. ed.). London: Faber and Faber. ISBN   9780571289134.
  • Rolt, Stuart (24 October 2018). "Calling The Hardcore release first compilation". BN1 Magazine. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  • Warwick, Oli (20 August 2019). "Aphex Twin on the Rephlex years". Resident Advisor . London: RA Ltd.
  • Richard X (3 June 2012). "20 best: Hardcore records ever made". FACTmag.

Further reading