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Broken beat (sometimes referred to as "bruk") is an electronic dance music genre characterized by syncopated beats and tense rhythms, including staggered or punctuated snare beats and/or hand claps. It has been heavily influenced by styles such as
jazz-funk Jazz-funk is a subgenre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat ( groove), electrified sounds, and an early prevalence of analog synthesizers. The integration of funk, soul, and R&B music and styles into jazz resulted in the creat ...
and R&B. Artists in this area typically emerged from drum and bass, house, hip hop,
techno Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...
or acid jazz scenes.


History

Broken beat first appeared in the 1990s and was pioneered by
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 (Afronaught), Paul Dolby (Seiji), Kaidi Tatham, Daz-I-Kue, Alex Phountzi (Neon Phusion), Cliff S ...
, IG Culture, and the release of the
4hero 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 ...
album, ''
Two Pages ''Two Pages'' is the third studio album by English electronic music group 4hero, released via Talkin' Loud on 13 July 1998. It peaked at number 38 on the UK Albums Chart. The album was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize The Mercury Pri ...
,'' was influential on the emerging sound and scene. John Bush from All Music called it "about as fusion-soaked as it gets." Appearing in the western parts of
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, the genre is also referred to as ''West London'', mainly because Goya Music's offices were in London's
Ladbroke Grove Ladbroke Grove () is an area and a road in West London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue. It is also a name given ...
, W11, as were most of the participating artists' studios.
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 (Afronaught), Paul Dolby (Seiji), Kaidi Tatham, Daz-I-Kue, Alex Phountzi (Neon Phusion), Cliff S ...
's Neon phusion, Afronaught & IG Culture are credited with kick-starting the scene with numerous releases under various monikers, and the New Sector Movements releases for People Music. The sound created combined a variety of music styles including funk, soul, and hip-hop. The transition was to a more abstract form of drum and bass. Many artists that started releasing through
4hero 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 ...
's Reinforced label are now considered pioneers of broken beat. Simultaneously, established
techno Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...
artists like
Carl Craig Carl Craig (born May 22, 1969) is an American electronic music producer, DJ, and founder of the record label Planet E Communications. He is known as a leading figure and pioneer in the second wave of Detroit techno artists during the late 1980s ...
and Stacey Pullen experimented with the music they were making, trying to add
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
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, better known as As One, is a British techno producer and DJ. Born in the late 1960s in Stepney, East London, and raised in Suffolk, he started producing music in the early 1990s. He founded the labels A.R.T. Records and Op-Art ...
or As One and
Ian O'Brien Ian Lovett O'Brien (born 3 March 1947) is an Australian breaststroke swimmer of the 1960s who won the 200 metre breaststroke at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in world record time. He won five Commonwealth Games gold medals and claime ...
, who tried to form it into a more soulful variation which further influenced the development of the broken beat genre.


Influences

Broken beat draws from 1970s
jazz-funk Jazz-funk is a subgenre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat ( groove), electrified sounds, and an early prevalence of analog synthesizers. The integration of funk, soul, and R&B music and styles into jazz resulted in the creat ...
and has been influenced by artists such as
Lonnie Liston Smith Lonnie Liston Smith Jr. (born December 28, 1940) is an American jazz, soul, and funk musician who played with such jazz artists as Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis before forming Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes, recording a number of ...
, The Mizell Brothers (producers for Donald Byrd,
Bobbi Humphrey Barbara Ann "Bobbi" Humphrey (born April 25, 1950) is an American jazz flautist and singer who plays jazz fusion, funk, and soul-jazz. She has recorded twelve albums and founded the jazz label Paradise Sounds Records. In 1971, she was the first ...
and Johnny Hammond in the mid-1970s), Herbie Hancock, George Duke, and others. One might also hear echos of disco, 1980s
contemporary R&B Contemporary R&B (or simply R&B) is a popular music genre that combines rhythm and blues with elements of pop, soul, funk, hip hop, and electronic music. The genre features a distinctive record production style, drum machine-backed rhy ...
and funk (
Shalamar Shalamar () is an American R&B and soul music vocal group active since the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. Shalamar's classic line-up on the SOLAR label consisted of Howard Hewett, Jody Watley, and Jeffrey Daniel, together with dancer ...
,
Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...
), early electronica ( Kraftwerk), hip hop (" Planet Rock"), 1980s new wave ( Depeche Mode, New Order), house and techno in broken beat.


Scene

Regular nights that play this genre of music include
Co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
, the brainchild of
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 (Afronaught), Paul Dolby (Seiji), Kaidi Tatham, Daz-I-Kue, Alex Phountzi (Neon Phusion), Cliff S ...
's Mark Force, held at Velvet Room, and then a few years later moving on to
Plastic People "Plastic People" is the first track of the Mothers of Invention album '' Absolutely Free''. It also was featured on the ''You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore (Volume 1)'' compilation as Track 1 on disc 2, along with a "Louie, Louie/Plastic People"- ...
, a famous club located in London, for a number of years before re-launching at East Village - both in Shoreditch. In 2008 Afronaut and Bruce Q (Liquid Fusion) teamed up for a monthly Co-Op sessions which was launched at Concrete in Birmingham, UK. Liquid Fusion ran every Sunday at The living Room (2000-2002) first then onto Zinc (2002-2008). It had a following of several Hundred weekly. Another night is Inspiration Information, previously at Notting Hill Arts Club but now at East Village in Shoreditch.


See also

* Breakbeat


References

{{Breakbeat-footer 20th-century music genres 21st-century music genres Breakbeat genres English styles of music Electronic dance music genres