Well, we are still waiting to hear from Philip what breakbeat tracks
he doesn't find boring and crap. I for one would be very interested to
hear where he thinks it's "at".
> Yes, let us look back in time. When I have heard the first jungle tracks,
> they have kicked my ass real hard. There were those old funk grooves at
> double speed and those evil deep basses. I loved it from the beginning.
I can name a bunch of tracks with really deep funky grooves the bust
my ass every time I hear them, double speed, basslines and all:
DJ Red "Enta the Dragon"
D'Cruze "The Funk"
EPS 2 Vibe "Hype the Funk"
Da Demolition "??"
Scorpio "Li Li"
U.F.O "planet plan" dj die rmx
B-JAM "funkula 97" remix
Nu Yorican Soul "It's Alright" Roni Size Rmx
yadda yadda yadda
You don't like these tracks? Played out they are the shit. As are
a million other tracks out right now. I can't understand where you
are coming from. Is New Forms all you have listened to??
> Then came the time where the producers began to suspend all funky
> elements. The grooves became simple and boring. The funkiness and
> freshness was lost. That was approx. the time, when Goldie and Alex Reece
> are getting popular.
When was that? early 96? You're saying that breakbeat has been in the
same place for nearly 2 years? I'd say that the past two years is when
the breaks sound has really been explored by artists like photek, the
v crew, the formation crew etc etc. I would go further to say that
the sound is one of the most vibrant in modern music today. In the
past 6 months my most valued tracks have, for the most part, been
breaks tracks. One of the reasons for me not posting my best of
97 is that I can't honestly name too many top-notch "acid-jazz" releases
in the past 6 months _unless_ I look toward the Jaz Klash effort
for help, for example. The weight of top notch new releases and sounds
in breaks kicks ass.
> I think today everybody just repeats, what is written in the hip
> magazines. The magazines say Roni Size is revolutionary and jazzy.
> Suddenly everybody says: "Oh, I like the Roni Size stuff very much because
> it is so revolutionary and jazzy".
So everybody likes Roni Size for that reason huh? You're one of the
last free thinkers out there ... how patronising.
> For me, jazz has something to do with
> improvisation and freedom of structure. But the tracks on the Represenz
> album are not full of improvisation and devoid of structure. I mostly hear
> simple and repeating beats.
Maybe you should listen harder and more closely. In a lot of tracks
there is a dense interplay of rhythms and sounds. Moreover the
strength of drum and bass comes from MIXING the tracks together to create
a SET which is where things come together. This is a DJ medium.
Tracks are released almost exclusively on vinyl to be mixed. To ignore
that is to miss the point.
Drum and bass is a genuinely NEW FORM that is being explored and invented
at a fast, quarterly, pace. If you don't like it fine. But to suggest
that it is boring and repetitive is just a sign of lack of interest,
not some deep statement about the state of the scene.
bijan