|
Instalment eight of the "FabricLive" series, showcasing the Friday night DJ residents of London's Fabric nightclub, swings over to the backroom for the sounds of breakbeat duo Plump DJs. The breakbeat sound is put quite simply, slowed-down drum & bass. It's an odd musical evolutionary story to say the least. The original
'hardcore' sound that prevailed in British clubs from around 1990 to 1994, which is essentially the exact same sound now called breakbeat, got faster and faster and turned into drum & bass as we know it somewhere around 1994. In America however, this evolution didn't quite take and the 'hardcore' sound stayed put in places like
Orlando in Florida, thrived and via globalisation made its way back across the Atlantic to the UK in the late 1990s. A sort of musical devolution, but a very happy one nonetheless.
Breakbeats, or simply the breaks as they're sometimes called, have thrived over the last few years into a strong dancefloor force, with guys like Plump DJs, Stanton Warriors, Ali B, and DJ Zinc and his Bingo Beats label all pushing the sound. Indeed, DJ Zinc is an example of an original 'hardcore' producer/DJ who helped turn 'hardcore' into drum & bass and is now producing both breaks and drum & bass, although he still refuses to play breaks out when he DJs.
Either way, it's a great sound, boisterous, unpretentious and fun and "FabricLive. 08" is a fantastic example of the genre, with enough bounce across 20 well mixed and paced tracks to keep things rocking at a frenetic pace, but without the hyper-velocity of drum & bass which many people simply can't handle. A great primer for anyone into funky but fierce dancefloor action and one of the best ways to test your car's stereo system. Recommended. |
