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Breakcore is a style and
microgenre A microgenre is a specialized or niche genre. The term has been used since at least the 1970s to describe highly specific subgenres of music, literature, film, and art. In music, examples include the myriad sub-subgenres of heavy metal and electr ...
of electronic dance music that emerged from
jungle A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅ ...
,
hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...
, and
drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...
in the mid-to-late 1990s. It is characterized by very complex and intricate
breakbeat 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 ...
s and a wide palette of sampling sources played at high tempos.


History

As the early days of "
hardcore techno Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno or hardcore house) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos and a distorte ...
" or just "hardcore" began to settle in Europe, breakcore as a genre began to take more concrete forms in other parts of the world. Inspired by new labels such as Addict, from Milwaukee, US; Peace Off from Rennes, France; Sonic Belligeranza from Bologna, Italy; and
Planet Mu Planet Mu is an eclectic English electronic music record label created and run by Mike Paradinas. The label started out as a subsidiary of Virgin Records then Paradinas set up the label independent of Virgin. After releasing intelligent dance m ...
, from London, it began to take a new shape, adding in more elements of mashup and IDM to the hardcore sounds. Each of these labels began to draw in aspects of their own social and aesthetic scenes into their music, allowing for an even broader definition of what was possible in the music. In Europe, the breakcore genre was solidified by raves and club events such as Belgium's Breakcore Gives Me Wood, featuring local acts such as
UndaCova Jan Robbe (born 14 June 1980 in Ghent, Belgium), otherwise known by his music project aliases Atomhead, Erratic, UndaCova and Diagnostic, is an electronic music artist. He founded the experimental netlabel Entity in 2003 with friend Nico de Gols ...
and Sickboy; Breakcore A Go Go, in the Netherlands, which was run by FFF and Bong-Ra; as well as Anticartel, in
Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...
, the seat of PeaceOff, and later,
Wasted Wasted may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature *'' Wasted: Tales of a GenX Drunk'', a 1997 memoir by Mark Judge *'' Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia'', a 1998 autobiography by Marya Hornbacher *'' Wasted: A Childhood Sto ...
, in Berlin and Bangface in London. Breakcore has been subject to changing and branching. Many newer breakcore artists (such as Mochipet etc.) focus on melodic progressions and complex drum programming while other artists still focus on distorted hardcore breakbeats and dark-edged musical influences (such as heavy metal and
industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...
). The artist
Venetian Snares Aaron Funk (born January 11, 1975), known as Venetian Snares, is a Canadian electronic musician based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is widely known for innovating and popularising the breakcore genre, and is one of the most recognisable artists to b ...
has produced breakcore blended with elements of
classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
. Other artists such as
Shitmat Shitmat is an English breakcore artist and mashup producer, one of several monikers used by Henry Collins. Shitmat became known in the early 2000s for releases on the Ad Noiseam and Planet Mu labels. He also set up his own label, Wrong Music ...
, Sickboy,
DJ Scotch Egg Shigeru Ishihara, better known by the stage name DJ Scotch Egg, is a Japanese producer of chiptune/ gabba music based in Berlin, Germany. He has released music on the Wrong Music label and Adaadat, and was signed to Load Records after Lightning ...
, and
Drop the Lime Drop the Lime (born Luca Venezia in New York City) is an electronic producer and DJ and founder of dance label Trouble & Bass. Drop the Lime's new material and DJ sets also feature live vocals on original compositions. With roots in breakcore mu ...
Vivian Host, "Night Music", XLR8R 123, December 2008, p. 40. take another direction towards mash-up,
happy hardcore 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. H ...
, and
rave A rave (from the verb: '' to 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 mus ...
to make a lighter, more humorous sound. The rise of
Chiptune Chiptune, also known as chip music or 8-bit music, is a style of synthesized electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The t ...
music has also blended with breakcore with artists such as
Tarmvred Tarmvred (Swedish for ''ileus'') is an electronic musical project from Gothenburg, Sweden that is the brainchild of Jonas Johansson. History Johansson got his start musically by making his own remixes of tracks by Skinny Puppy and posting ...
. The UK
free party A free party is a party "free" from the restrictions of the legal club scene, similar to the free festival movement. It typically involves a sound system playing electronic dance music from late at night until the time when the organisers de ...
scene has also expressed a large interest in producing and distributing its own takes on breakcore, with crews and labels such as Life4land, Hekate, Headfuk, and Bad Sekta helping to push the scene and sound forward, as well as bringing over a number of international artists to play at their parties and club nights. Breakcore is steadily gaining in popularity, and aspiring artists are found scattered across the Internet. In ''Breakcore: Identity and Interaction on Peer-to-Peer'', sociologist Andrew Whelan notes that
Venetian Snares Aaron Funk (born January 11, 1975), known as Venetian Snares, is a Canadian electronic musician based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is widely known for innovating and popularising the breakcore genre, and is one of the most recognisable artists to b ...
has become "synonymous with breakcore such that alternative styles are being sidelined." He adds that breakcore is the best example of a music genre whose development is intrinsically linked to online and peer-to-peer distribution.


2020s death of breakcore

In the 2020s breakcore underwent a death, bringing with it a noticeably different sound than the music produced in the 1990s and 2000s. According to ''
Bandcamp Daily Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...
'' writer James Gui, 2020s breakcore is nostalgic, atmospheric, and sentimental, and grew out of the
digital hardcore Digital hardcore is a fusion genre that combines hardcore punk with electronic dance music genres such as breakbeat, techno, and drum and bass while also drawing on heavy metal and noise music. It typically features fast tempos and aggressive ...
scene of the 2010s. It is accompanied by an aesthetic that draws from video games,
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
(particularly ''
Serial Experiments Lain ''Serial Experiments Lain'' (stylized as ''serial experiments lain'') is a Japanese anime television series created and co-produced by Yasuyuki Ueda, written by Chiaki J. Konaka and directed by Ryūtarō Nakamura. Animated by Triangle Staff ...
''), and
internet culture Internet culture is a culture based on the many way people have used computer networks and their use for communication, entertainment, business, and recreation. Some features of Internet culture include online communities, gaming, and social media ...
.


Characteristics

The most defining characteristic of breakcore is the drum work, which is often based on the manipulation of the
Amen break The Amen break is a drum break that has been widely sampled in popular music. It comes from the 1969 track "Amen, Brother" by the soul group the Winstons, released as the B-side of the 1969 single "Color Him Father". The drum break lasts about se ...
and other classic jungle and hip-hop breaks, at high BPM. The techniques applied to achieve this differs from musician to musician, some preferring to cut up and rearrange the breaks, while others merely distort and loop breaks or apply various effects such as delay and chorus to alter the break's timbre. Melodically, there is nothing that defines breakcore. Classic rave sounds such as
acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...
bass lines, Hoovers and Reese bass are common, but breakcore is mostly known for sampling sounds from all over the musical spectrum to accommodate the frantic and fast-paced nature of the rhythm section. Around the turn of the century, more and more breakcore musicians began employing traditional synthesis techniques to compose elaborate melodies and harmonies. There are a growing number of musicians who make use of recorded live instrumentation in their music, such as Istari Lasterfahrer,
Hecate Hecate or Hekate, , ; grc-dor, Ἑκάτᾱ, Hekátā, ; la, Hecatē or . is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches, a key, snakes, or accompanied by dogs, and in later periods depicte ...
,
Benn Jordan Benn Lee Jordan (born October 28, 1979) is an American musician operating under many pseudonyms. Since 1999, his most widely distributed electronic music has been released under the name of The Flashbulb. Other names Jordan has released as are ...
, Ruby My Dear, Qüatros,
Venetian Snares Aaron Funk (born January 11, 1975), known as Venetian Snares, is a Canadian electronic musician based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is widely known for innovating and popularising the breakcore genre, and is one of the most recognisable artists to b ...
,
Drumcorps Drumcorps is the metal/breakcore musical project of American musician Aaron Spectre. He is currently based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Spectre was born and raised in rural Massachusetts. He began Drumcorps after moving to Berlin to branch out crea ...
, and Igorrr. According to
Simon Reynolds Simon Reynolds (born 19 June 1963) is an English music journalist and author who began his professional career on the staff of ''Melody Maker'' in the mid-1980s. He has since gone on to freelance and publish a number of full-length books on music ...
of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', "purveyed by artists like DJ/Rupture and Teamshadetek, the reakcoremusic combines rumbling bass lines, fidgety beats and grainy
ragga Raggamuffin music, usually abbreviated as ragga, is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music. Similar to hip hop, sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music. Wayne Sm ...
vocals to create a home-listening surrogate for the ' bashment' vibe of a Jamaican sound system party. Others within the breakcore genre, like Knifehandchop,
Kid606 Miguel Trost De Pedro (born July 27, 1979), better known by his stage name Kid606, is an electronic musician who was raised in San Diego and later moved to San Francisco. He is most closely associated with the glitch, IDM, hardcore techno and b ...
and Soundmurderer, hark back to rave's own early days, their music evoking the rowdy fervor of a time when huge crowds flailed their limbs to a barrage of abstract noise and convulsive rhythm. It's a poignant aural mirage of a time when techno music was made for the popular vanguard rather than a connoisseurial elite, as it is today."


Raggacore

Raggacore is a style of music derived from
ragga jungle 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 ...
that somewhat predates breakcore, characterized by
ragga Raggamuffin music, usually abbreviated as ragga, is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music. Similar to hip hop, sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music. Wayne Sm ...
and
dancehall Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) "The Rou ...
rhythms and vocals. Its roots can arguably be traced back to
jungle A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅ ...
producer Remarc, who was one of the first producers to mix ragga and dancehall vocals with chaotic and intricately rearranged break beats. While only a few producers primarily work in the style, it still has a sizable following among breakcore fans. Notable examples of this style include Aaron Spectre, Bong-Ra, Cardopusher, Enduser, FFF, LFO Demon, Emma Essex (under the alias Renard), Lemon Drizlay Crew, Ruby my Dear, Istari Lasterfahrer,
Shitmat Shitmat is an English breakcore artist and mashup producer, one of several monikers used by Henry Collins. Shitmat became known in the early 2000s for releases on the Ad Noiseam and Planet Mu labels. He also set up his own label, Wrong Music ...
,
Venetian Snares Aaron Funk (born January 11, 1975), known as Venetian Snares, is a Canadian electronic musician based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is widely known for innovating and popularising the breakcore genre, and is one of the most recognisable artists to b ...
, and Stivs from the Life4Land crew.


Influences

In London, DJ Scud co-founded Ambush Records in 1997 with fellow producer Aphasic to focus on more extreme noise-oriented hardcore
drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...
. Some artists released on Ambush are Christoph Fringeli, Slepcy,
The Panacea Mathis Mootz is a prolific German electronic musician and DJ. Mootz is best known as The Panacea (until 2005, simply as Panacea), his drum and bass stage name and main musical project, and as m2 (pronounced "Squaremeter"), his dark ambient s ...
, and Noize Creator. "Scud and Nomex tracks like 'Total Destruction' helped create the blueprint for much of breakcore's sound, a high-bpm mash-up of hyperkinetic, post-jungle breaks, feedback, noise, and Jamaican elements paired with a devil-may-care attitude towards sampling that pulls from the broadest musical spectrum of styles (hip-hop, rock, industrial, pop, and beyond)."Matt Earp
"Breakcore: Live Fast"
XLR8R, July 20, 2006. Access date: August 8, 2008.
At the same time, Bloody Fist Records based in
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
, Australia, released many records of
hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...
/
gabber Gabber (; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of hardcore techno, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as Hardcore, which is characterised by fast beats, distorted & heavier kickdrums, ...
,
industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...
, and
noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference arise ...
. Artists signed to Bloody Fist in its lifetime include Syndicate, Xylocaine, Epsilon and
Nasenbluten Nasenbluten were an Australian electronic music group, formed in Newcastle in 1992. The group was made up of Aaron Lubinski, David Melo, and Mark Newlands, and released six studio albums before disbanding in 2001. They have been described as a s ...
. Label founder Mark Newlands said, in 1997, "I think that the uncomfortableness also comes from a reaction towards the mainstream and popular culture that's constantly shoved down our throats, that's forced on the people via television, radio, mass media, etc. I think that also fuels the fire and keeps the aggressiveness there and the uncomfortableness."Interview in ''Datacide Three'', October 1997 Newlands described their music as products of " cut'n'paste mentality" and an industrial environment. In her ''Experimental Music'', Gail Priest credits the label as recognized globally for its contributions to the breakcore genre, and for spurring its 1990s development. The Bloody Fist sound became breakcore from what was the noise genre, with added elements of high
beats per minute Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ( ...
and "extreme, thick, low-fi textures". By way of example,
Nasenbluten Nasenbluten were an Australian electronic music group, formed in Newcastle in 1992. The group was made up of Aaron Lubinski, David Melo, and Mark Newlands, and released six studio albums before disbanding in 2001. They have been described as a s ...
's 1996 ''Fuck Anna Wood'' exemplified this style with controversial public affairs
audio samples In sound and music, sampling is the reuse of a portion (or sample) of a sound recording in another recording. Samples may comprise elements such as rhythm, melody, speech, sounds or entire bars of music, and may be layered, equalized, sped up or ...
collaged into dialogue atop
early hardcore Gabber (; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of hardcore techno, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as Hardcore, which is characterised by fast beats, distorted & heavier kickdrums, ...
beats. Formed in 1994,
Digital Hardcore Recordings Digital Hardcore Recordings (DHR) is a record label set up in 1994 by Alec Empire, Joel Amaretto and Pete Lawton. Most of the music is recorded in Berlin, though the label is based in London where the records are mastered and manufactured. The ...
released music by artists such as
Alec Empire Alec or Aleck is a Scottish form of the given name Alex. It may be a diminutive of the name Alexander or a given name in its own right. Notable people with the name include: People * Alec Aalto (1942–2018), Finnish diplomat *Alec Acton (1938 ...
,
Shizuo Shizuo (written: , , , or ) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese immunologist *, Japanese sumo wrestler *, Japanese writer *, Japanese printmaker *, Japanese aikidoka *, Japanese-born American math ...
,
Atari Teenage Riot Atari Teenage Riot (ATR) is a German band formed in Berlin in 1992. Highly political, they fuse left-wing, anarchist and anti-fascist views with punk vocals and a techno sound called digital hardcore, which is a term band member Alec Empire use ...
, EC8OR, and Bomb20, shaping the breakcore sound. This label is also responsible for
digital hardcore Digital hardcore is a fusion genre that combines hardcore punk with electronic dance music genres such as breakbeat, techno, and drum and bass while also drawing on heavy metal and noise music. It typically features fast tempos and aggressive ...
, a genre developed simultaneously to breakcore. The Alec Empire album '' The Destroyer'' is often noted as the first breakcore album.


Distribution

Because of the fragmentation, the breakcore scene is not centered in any one geographical location, but is rather scattered into disparate groups. Perhaps the one place where breakcore's "voice" can be heard is virtually, through the internet and various online forums, such as those at C8 and Widerstand (Eiterherd's website, now defunct). Since the genre, as a whole, is still developing and growing rapidly, the music itself is largely downloaded via
peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer n ...
networks, and discussed on
internet forum An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...
s. Whereas the early days of breakcore were based in select urban cities, the genre now has no geographical center. The music itself tends to reflect this multiplicity of media diffusion itself by incorporating many different musical styles and influences hybridized together. It remains a relatively small genre, but compared to its size prior to the 1990s web boom, it continues to grow substantially.


Reception

''
Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...
'' magazine compared the genre to the types of music used during Guantanamo Bay interrogations.


See also

*
Digital hardcore Digital hardcore is a fusion genre that combines hardcore punk with electronic dance music genres such as breakbeat, techno, and drum and bass while also drawing on heavy metal and noise music. It typically features fast tempos and aggressive ...


References

Sources * * * {{Electronica Hardcore music genres Musical subcultures