Will Hardcore Ever Die? Techno's Resurrection of the Breakbeat

Hardcore will never die – we’ve all heard the old adage. Except over the last ten years, hardcore did kind of die. The breakbeat, once supreme champion of dancefloor percussion, just wasn’t cool anymore. Meanwhile all the genres that worshipped at the altar of these chopped funk breaks: drum’n’bass, jungle and hardcore, began to stagnate, left to the die-hards with their perma-gurns as the school of the new millennium turned to grime, garage and dubstep, or indeed back to the worthy institutions of house and techno. The use of breakbeats within hip hop has a long history and continues to bear fruit, but it’s only recently that the percussive style has seen a re-emergence in the dance sphere.

For years the breakbeat scenes haven’t seen much in the way of progress, the last notable exception being DnB’s Autonomic phase spearheaded by the likes of Instra:Mental and dBridge. Yet listen closely and the winds are changing: there has been a sharp increase in the use of breakbeats in modern dance music in 2013, whether they appear as retro ornaments or something altogether newer: conventional drum loops twisted, distorted and recontextualised into fresh shapes. While others have charted the re-emergence of new forms of drum and bass, this article will explore the practitioners who are recontextualising breakbeats at slower tempos, in techno and beyond. 

Paul Woolford - Mindwash

One of the men at the heart of this revival (and the inspiration for this article) is none other than man of the moment Paul Woolford, who is currently attracting all the right attention with the rugged productions of his Special Request moniker. With a name that references (perhaps even mourns) the pirate radio stations that birthed his sound, Woolford’s Special Request tracks are ferocious club monsters, where familiar breaks are squashed into tough technoid forms, glorifying hollow, compressed kicks and elastic breakbeat loops. Yet Woolford’s compositions are not just throwback. On each of his celebrated white label releases (along with an ace recent EP for Houndstooth), he adds a distinct flavour to the gritty soundcraft, keeping it personal and modern. For example, while the superb Mindwash may give way to a tear-streaked breakdown of breathy vocals and eternal synths in pure 90s style, it has at its core the restless pursuit of a maniacally sinuous melodic line which would only be heard this decade.

Pev – Aztec Chant

As most of the music that heavily used breakbeats hovered around the 160bpm mark, some of the more interesting re-appropriations of the beats have come from artists who have slowed them down. Livity Sound head-honcho Pev (formerly Peverelist) is one of the UK scene’s leading lights at the moment, honing an utterly unique style of techno which incorporates various elements of the UK’s hardcore and dubstep lineage. Hear on this year’s Aztec Chant how the breakbeat is just one of the track’s percussive components, nestled amidst panning melodics and frayed hi-hats, looping like a broken record until it finally takes centre stage for the track’s final two minutes. Yet it is not just scene stalwarts who are reclaiming the breakbeat: A Sagittariun, one of the country’s more intriguing new techno producers, constructs a moody scifi soundfield on his stylish Eye Against Eye, only for a slo-mo breakbeat to steal the scene, a perfect fit for the slick Detroit atmospherics.

DJ Haus – Cold As Ice

It’s not just individual producers who are looking to reclaim the hardcore sound: certain labels seem particularly intent on pushing the 90s revival. Chief among them is DJ Haus’ inimitable Unknown To The Unknown, who topped our list of 2012’s best labels. Besides a hilarious Youtube channel and bizzare cover-art, DJ Haus has used UTTU to resurrect some of dance music’s less popular genres, from electro to bassline garage. Proving that these old styles have life in them yet, some of UTTU’s breakbeat experiments have been pure gold: one need only look as far as Haus’ own Cold As Ice for an achingly cool lesson in hardcore, replete with a tacky synth breakdown which I wouldn’t have any other way. Elsewhere on the label, Lords Of Midnite’s excellent Drown In Ur Love EP took the breakbeat on a scifi odyssey for its epic analog title jam.

Andy Stott – Up The Box

We’ve seen a clear renewal of interest in the noble breakbeat, with a variety of artists co-opting those breakneck rhythms to their own ends. Yet outside of the dancefloor exists another group of hardcore operators, dealing with decay and disintegration, resulting in what is perhaps the most fascinating material that the breakbeat has to offer today. These artists can be loosely grouped around the experimental Modern Love and PAN imprints, the former’s Andy Stott being a perfect example. The formidable Up The Box, from his ace 2012 album Luxury Problems, is a semi-experimental piece which loops a locked breakbeat, jamming like machinery in a slowly building gale of static noise. After three minutes it drops away, and after a few atmospheric shifts returns with a phenomenal compressed kick in toe, an exhilarating fusion of jungle and techno that combines the tough distortion of each without even a moment’s relief. It may also be worth noting the possibility of Stott’s involvement in Modern Love’s ultra-limited Unknown / Hate project, a purist exercise in pitch-black junglism which yielded uncompromisingly destructive club tracks.

Demdike Stare - Collision

Further into the world of experimentation one comes across Demdike Stare’s recent Testpressing series, also out on Modern Love. Drawing on a profound knowledge of jungle, hardcore and noise, Collision saw the pair at their rawest yet, building four minutes of seething, heatsick noise around a bed of jammed, dysfunctional breakbeats. While Demdike turned jungle to noise, PAN’s Lee Gamble used his superb Diversions 1994-1996 to draw out the ambience of these tracks, dissolving breakbeats in the faded ambience of musical recall, turning the raves of the 90s into the incoherent, mesmerising sequences which now exist only in our memories. In a fitting parallel, a similar trick was pulled off by Anthony Naples on his remix of Special Request’s Mindwash, casting the legend of hardcore beneath the gauze of memory, eroded by time, subject to dissolution and fragmentation. These experimental re-appropriations of breakbeats treat the drum pattern as an artefact of its own time, and through recontextualising the familiar drum loop they pose questions about evolving musical trends and the unreliable nature of memory itself.

Tessela – Hackney Parrot

Before this article disintegrates, weighed down by the fragility of its pseudo-philosophical musings, it’s worth drawing attention to how current, how big these modern breakbeat iterations can also sound. On the following playlist you’ll hear a selection of some of the sounds discussed above, but also some genuinely innovative use of the classic drumloop – DJ Rashad’s minor masterpiece, the emotive Let It Go, which dissects breakbeats with the finesse of a surgeon, or Clouds’ ode to the rave thump on the monumental Future 1. Yet at the same time we have Dance’s curious Still, a ghostly slo-jam that leaves the breakbeat wholly intact, or Shed’s nuanced second outing as EQD, which ranks among the producers best work to date. Then there’s Tessela’s phenomenal Hackney Parrot, doubtless one of 2013’s most memorable anthems, guaranteed to get the crowd moving even if the dancers don’t know their breakbeat from their steak frites.

The lasting impression of this survey is the extraordinary versatility of this simple set of drum loops, which twenty years on are still being used and abused in the most fascinating, exhilarating fashions. Not only are artists continuing to insert breakbeats into showstopping underground hits, but the passage of time has permitted an artistic re-appraisal, with producers subjecting the drums to the decay of memory and time in a way which opens entirely new avenues of musical possibility. Will hardcore ever die? It’s up to the artists, but on the strength of the scene’s ability to appropriate and re-integrate artefacts of our musical past in ever-more innovative ways, it looks set to survive for a long while yet.

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Playlist

Tracklist:

DJ Rashad – Let It Go

A Sagittariun – Eye Against Eye

EQD – EQD 002B (04)

Clouds – Future 1
Point G - Braka

Special Request – Broken Dreams
Ramadanman - Don't Change For Me

Pangaea – Razz

Unknown / Hate – Human Resources
Deadboy - Nova

Special Request – Mindwash (Anthony Naples Eternal Mix)
Lowout - LAS

Dance – Still
Simoncino - Happy (DJ Sotofett Slow Jungle Trippin')

If you want more, check out Boomkat's ace series of playlists on 14tracks.

Best Tracks of 2012: 101-76

Year End Coverage

* Best Albums of 2012

* Best EPs of 2012

* Best Labels of 2012

* Best Breakthrough Artists of 2012

* Best Tracks of 2012 - 101-76
* Best Tracks of 2012 - 75-51
* Best Tracks of 2012 - 50-26
* Best Tracks of 2012 - 25-1

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It's been a big year! We'll end the festivities with a countdown of our favourite tracks of the year. All of these are great tunes, and the order is somewhere between deliberate and arbitrary, so bear that in mind. So many that got cruelly cut out of the list, but I reckon this is a solid roundup of what has been a great year for dance music. Enjoy!

 101 – MikeQ – Let It All Out 2012 feat. Jay Karan

Vogue is back.

100 – Pablo Nouvelle – Be True To Me

One of the few non-Dance tracks on here, irresistibly simple. EP Review.

99 – Four Tet – Lion (Four Tet Remix)

Huge vibes and slick atmospherics from The xx’s mastermind.

98 – Pangaea – Majestic 12

Breakneck darkness from a real master.

97 – Jimmy Edgar – Sex Drive

Just one of many brilliant moments of Edgar’s sleaze-fest.

96 – George Fitzgerald – Child

One of the year’s bounciest, most satisfying House tunes.

95 – Ejeca – Horizon

Massive House tune. It really does sound like ‘dinnertime’.

94 – Goodfoot feat Didz & The Organ Grinder

Utterly intoxicating piano House throwback from one part of CRST.

93 – Fantastic Mr Fox – Yesterday’s Fall feat. Alby Daniels

Strange, bassy, neo-pop from the inimitable Mr Fox. EP Review.

92 – Mista Men – Forget U

Muscular Garage workout from one of the UTTU crew’s very best.

91 – Body Double – Be Strong

(This is the audio for the A-side, What You Need)

Some weird House-pop from the 100% Silk camp.

90 – Jeremih - Fuck U All The Time feat. Natasha Mosley

This track was everywhere this year. Sensual, addictive, and filthy.

89 – Trikk – Jointly

One of the finest examples of the intersection between Techno and Bass. Absolutely kills on the dancefloor. Definitely big things to come from this Portuguese native. EP Review.

88 – The xx – Chained

Although Coexist was nowhere near as good as the band’s debut, this song perfectly encapsulated the powerful vibes of The xx at their best. Album Review.

87 – Maddslinky – Compuphonic

Super-stripped club track from Zed Bias, was doing the business in clubs up and down the country since its September release. EP Review.

86 – Alden Tyrell – Touch the Sky feat. Mike Dunn

Powerful Acid from a real legend coming out of the Clone camp. Top vocals.

85 – October – String Theory

Super-chilled House track from one of the scene’s unsung heroes. Totally unique, works great in the mix too. EP Review.

84 – Fracture feat. Dawn Day Night – Get Busy

Terrifyingly strong DnB / Footwork fusion that sets the floor on fire. Check out Dawn Day Night’s debut EP.

83 – TNGHT – Higher Ground

A bit too much? Definitely. Unbelievably large? Without a doubt.

82 – Shadow Child – 23

A late-December entry, this is not your average House tune. Excellent vocal build-up leads to one of the dirtiest drops this side of the New Year. Essential.

81 – 5kinandbone5 – Reset

Don’t you wish there was a button we could reset? Bassline brilliance from the UTTU camp.

80 – Funkineven & Fatima – Phoneline

Unbelievable genre-defying hybrid feat. Fatima’s gorgeous voice and Funkineven’s slick production, all from one of White Noise’s favourite labels, Eglo.

79 – Bwana – Baby Let Me Finish

Sounds like your average sugar-sweet Bass track until the percussive madness following the drop. Blissful addiction.

78 – Koreless – Lost In Tokyo

One of the Bass scene’s brightest stars only issued one release this year. It was 3 minutes long, and it wasn’t really dance music. Still, undeniably gorgeous so who really cares. EP Review.

77 – Bo Saris – She’s On Fire (Maya Jane Coles Remix)

Unexpected brilliance from one of the scene’s most consistent female producers (not nice that we have to say that, eh?) Twinkling midnight Garage, lush piano and moody vocals.

76 – Elsewhere – Trippin’

 

The darkest of the dark creeping out of your speakers from the Mindset camp. Huge, nasty, a real dancefloor killer. EP Review.

20 Best EPs of 2012

Year End Coverage

* Best Albums of 2012

* Best EPs of 2012

* Best Labels of 2012

* Best Breakthrough Artists of 2012

* Best Tracks of 2012 - 101-76
* Best Tracks of 2012 - 75-51
* Best Tracks of 2012 - 50-26
* Best Tracks of 2012 - 25-1

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The majority of artists tally up a great deal more EP releases than albums, yet the extended players are often notably absent from music publications’ year-end lists. Here are White Noise we like to give credit to the artists who stretch the EP format beyond a killer club tracks and a handful of remixes, those who search out a coherent musical experience that’s more than a handful of disjointed tunes. These are the EPs that we’re still listening to a year on, and felt deserving of  an extra recommendation.

A wide range of styles made it to our list, and you can click on the titles to read our original reviews. Huge respect to all the artists here who went one step further this year, and here’s to a 2013 that’s just as exciting.

20 - Machinedrum – SXLND [Lucky Me]

 

SXLND

Travis Stewart’s first release of the year was a real palette-cleanser after last year’s heady (but excellent) album Room(s). Here the footwork fanatic lowered the tempo and brought out brighter textures, offering a stylish and bouncy collection that entered the mainstream through a couple of tracks that ended up as Azealia Banks backing tracks.

19 - George Fitzgerald – Child [Aus]

 

Child

Fitzgerald ruled the dancefloors this year, and nowhere were his House chops more apparent than on the excellent Child EP for Will Saul’s Aus imprint. His distinctive style fuses deadly basslines and thumping beats in a polished package, and the release spawned two tracks, Child and Lights Out , which were impossible to miss in clubs everywhere over the summer. 

18 - Pangaea – Release [Hessle]

Majestic 12

Pangaea put out Hessle’s longest release to date this year with the formidable Release double-EP. Mining elements of Dubstep and Jungle, the Hessle owner never sounded like anyone but himself across the course of these tracks which veered from ambient to breakneck 2step in the blink of an eye. Propulsive, frightening and cerebral, here Pangaea made good on the promise of his excellent early singles.

17 - Midland – Placement [Aus]

What We Know

Midland has always occupied a space slightly outside contemporary trends. With each release he offers detailed and meditative House cuts that amaze through headphones as much as the do on the dancefloor. From the slick vocals and pounding beats of What We Know to the restrained atmospherics of opener Tape Burn, every track on this release was a small marvel.

16 - oOoOO  - Our Loving Is Hurting Us [Tri Angle]

 

Break Yr Heartt

Shadowy American oOoOO continued to mine his utterly unique style this year with a much-anticipated follow-up to his self titled debut. A postmodern collision of Pop, RnB and the grimiest Hip Hop resulted in another excellent collection where razor-sharp beats complimented unsettling atmospherics and the inimitable vocals of collaborator Butterclock.

15 - Moodymann – Why Do U Feel [KDJ]

 

Why Do U Feel

Kenny Dixon Jr hardly became a House legend by accident, but it’s still a pleasant surprise to see him put out something so different after all these years. While the title track here is something very special, one of the year’s most nakedly beautiful dance tracks, the definitive cut of the unstoppably groovy I Got Werk and a surprisingly good Lana Del Ray remix filled out a pretty perfect package from one of the Dance scene’s most impressive stalwarts.

14 - Δkkord – Δkkord001 [Δkkord]

EP Clips

Another shadowy group of producers putting out dark sounds on their own label. Boring right? Not with Δkkord. Their debut release fused intensely atmospheric soundscapes with hard-as-nails beats that ranged from a slamming 4/4 to IDM-style twitches. Every track on this release is phenomenally powerful and impeccably produced, providing a whole range of DJs with the moodiest secret weapons for the clubs.

13 - A Thousand Years – Farmers in Fields of Stars [King Deluxe]

 

Flying High

Newcomer Zeké Africa blew us away with his debut EP, an impressively diverse array of sophisticated House cuts. This release really had it all; Flying High and its partner Have To Tell You were expertly detailed dancefloor numbers, while other tracks focussed on mood (superb opener No Light) and even went as far as Trap in the deeply unsettling Bake Take.

12 - Jets – Jets [Leisure System]

 

Lock Lock Key Key (Clip)

For us at White Noise, Jimmy Edgar and Travis Stewart (Machinedrum) are a match made in heaven. Their two distinctive styles were impressively fused on this debut collaborative EP, where lightning-fast beatscience duelled against warm synth textures, resulting in an relentlessly innovative EP that continued to amaze us months after the release date.

11 - Jacques Greene – Ready [3024]

 

Prism

It was clear that Jacques Greene was going to have to change up his style a bit to keep afloat. After a blisteringly successful 2011, spawning one of the year’s very best tracks, his signature airy style couldn’t compete with the darker sounds coming onto the dancefloors this year. But he did change, and for his debut on Martyn’s impeccable 3024 imprint he came out with one of his best releases to date. Here Greene delved deeper and darker, with Ready’s shuttering beat patterns providing a foil to Prism’s searing synth-work. This EP exuded class, right down to the noteworthy digital exclusive Dakou, where a bridge was drawn between this new, darker style and Greene’s early signature of skipping 2step rhythms.

10 - Beneath – Illusions [Keysound]

 

EP Clips

Beneath is one of the producers who emerged this year with a unique voice right out of the box. His moody soundscapes are home to skeletal UK Funky beat patterns and spare atmospherics that sound right at home on London’s darkest dancefloors. With his first EP for Keysound the fresh producer stepped up his game, with a more complete package that expanded his palette without ever losing the potency of those lethal drum patterns, including a deadly remix of  Ballistiq Beat’s Concrete Jungle.

9 - Fantastic Mr. Fox – San’en [Black Acre]

 

Pascal’s Chorus feat. Alby Daniels

After a long period of silence, San’en wasn’t really the FMF follow up that we were expecting. San’en toyed with live vocals, RnB styles, delicate textures and detailed soundscapes. It all goes to show that sometimes a little surprise is a very good thing indeed. Overlooked by many, here at White Noise we felt San’en was Mr. Fox’s finest hour (along with the brilliant one-sider Power); an impeccably produced collection of diverse tunes that looked out to the future of Bass music. And let’s not forget the gorgeous neo-pop closer Yesterday’s Fall, which was easily one of White Noise’s most played tracks this year.

8 - Duct – Circles [Shades of Grey]

EP Clips

Another slightly overlooked record this year came courtesy of Shades of Grey label-head Duct. Although the Bass music / Post-Dubstep genre may be a little dubious in its vagueness, not since Mount Kimbie’s debut LP or Sepalcure’s early EPs have such lush and delicate sounds found their way into the dance sphere. Each of these tunes is an immaculately detailed landscape of clipped samples and unusual rhythms, showing there’s still life in a genre many critics are doing their best to avoid.

7 - Dawn Day Night – Dawn Day Night [Astrophonica]

 

Alcoholic Dance Flow (Clip)

Dawn Day Night’s first foray into the exciting middle-ground separating DnB and Juke was utter madness from start to finish, and we loved it. Combining deft drum patterns and floor-killing sounds with ghetto sensibilities and a real sense of humour, it was easily one of the year’s most joyous releases.

6 - Cuthead – Brother [Uncanny Valley]

Vibratin’

Dresden’s Cuthead creates House cuts drenched in mood, with great samples sounding so smooth over those punchy beat patterns. It all just works for Cuthead, which is why we were so amazed when he chose to end the EP with two hilarious (and brilliant) slices of instrumental Hip Hop, capping off a great release with impressive diversity. It’s one of those releases where you’ll put on the first tune and sit transfixed, unable to turn it off until the end.

5 - Indigo – Symbol #7 [Auxiliary]

Symbol #7.1

We were a big fan of Indigo’s output this year, and nowhere was he more on form than on this untitled release for Auxiliary. Here was the perfect example of what makes Indigo’s style so unique; amazingly delicate melodies combined fluidly with superb drum programming and a host of atmospheric details. The second and fourth track showed how successful a producer he is outside of conventional beat patterns, pure mood pieces that oozed style and dread.

4 - 2562 – Air Jordan [When In Doubt]

Jerash Hekwerken

A Techno release made entirely out of field samples taken from a trip to Jordan? Could go very, very wrong. But not in the hands of 2562, one of the genre’s most consistently brilliant producers. Dave Huismans managed to keep it all under control, introducing his whiplash rhythms and rattling bass to these organic and exotic sonic textures. The concept reached its apex with the gloriously hypnotic closer Noctural Drummers, which brought a Technoid claustrophobia to textured tribal drum patterns.

3 - Shlohmo – Vacation [Friends of Friends]

Wen uuu

It wouldn’t be far-fetched to call us Shlohmo fanboys here at White Noise, but there’s a reason for that. No one out of the LA beat scene bridges the electronic and the acoustic quite so beautifully. With the follow-up to last years superb Bad Vibes album, Shlohmo let loose a trio of lushly atmospheric beat pieces with a few surprises along the way. Add that to an unusually excellent remix package (featuring a star turn from wonderkid Nicolas Jaar), and the Vacation EP easily made its way into our top three.

2 - Burial – Kindred [Hyperdub]

Ashtray Wasp

What is there left to say about Burial really? White Noise has certainly said more than enough for one year. Everyone knows, he’s just something very, very special. The Kindred EP was the moment where Burial did the impossible, matching (if not bettering) his classic Untrue album. These tracks saw the return of William Bevan’s grit, as well as a new experimentalism in his sonic structure that proved he’s still willing to push just about every boundary going. Almost a decade on, Burial is still peerless in his field. If you’ve never heard the Kindred EP, drop everything you’re doing and check it out right now. If you’ve heard it a hundred times, listen again. It’s still that good.

1 - Romare – Meditations on Afro-Centrism [Black Acre]

 

Down The Line (It Takes A Number)

Music can have profound meaning. Anyone who’s ended up reading this blog will already know that. But it’s not often that a real message can be found in an EP, let alone one that delves into the tropes of Dance music, a genre which more often than not aims purely to get bodies moving. Romare’s fascinating Meditations On Afrocentrism (ironically the only EP on this list we never got round to reviewing) is an electronic tour-de-force, fusing African rhythms and samples with modern dance structures and beat patterns. The tracks explore a range of BPMs, from the Footwork of the brilliant The Blues (It Began In Africa) to the venomous Hip Hop crunch of Down The Line (It Takes A Number). But this is more than simple culture-collage. The 13-minute cut-and-paste spoken word closer that comments on the artist’s own process is a (terribly post-modern) masterstroke, underlining the amount of research and work that went into these pieces. An EP which offers brilliant tunes while making a point is already worthy of our number one spot, but this message: on institutionalised racism in the music industry, on the deep roots of black music in our contemporary musical culture, is so vital that it positively demands to be heard.