Broken Beat for DnB heads?

From: Aaron Shinn (ashinn@artic.edu)
Date: Thu Sep 27 2001 - 21:24:21 CEST

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    I should preface this by saying that I love DnB, please no offence
    here folks, but I've got to vent on the subject:

    <rant>

    I have mulled over the same question and I have to credit the high
    turnover rate in the DnB scene as part of the reason why the crowd
    stays so intolerant and bullheaded musically. Most of the producers
    in DnB have been in the game forever and don't have much incentive to
    develop stylistically. It seems to take about two years for a new
    initiate to get fed up with the "same old shit" phenomenon of DnB
    before leaving the scene entirely.

    As far as the Chicago scene goes, most of the people who go to listen
    to DnB in clubs don't listen to it at home. They're in it to be
    assaulted once weekly and generally not to be played something they
    don't recognize as DnB. Going to hear DnB in a club isn't a listening
    experience, it's a matter of lifestyle.

    If DnB had never gone "step" style, and had kept the chopped beats
    element intact (the changeover started circa '95, alex reece was the
    hot new thing, remember?) perhaps the connection would be more
    visible to the crowds. Perhaps there might be some innovation going
    on... who knows?

    If you consider how many of the bygone great DnB producers have gone
    broken beat, it's hard to ignore the history, but nonetheless, the
    crowd doesn't remember DnB before '96-'97.

    Dego + Marc of 4Hero, Dom(u) of Sonar Circle, Colin of Alpha Omega,
    Hidden Agenda, Paul Seiji (Opaque), Mark G-Force, London Elektricty
    posse, Total Science even! Hell, Gilb'r of Chateau Flight used to
    mess around with DnB.
    I know I'm forgetting several peeps :)

    </rant>

    Anyhow, most of the people who still remember the good ole days of
    DnB are gone, and those who are still around either regard the past
    with suspicion or are doing something else musically. Broken Beat
    *definitely* has the old spirit, but no followers :)

    Still, good to hear that some peeps are feeling it out west!
    Flustered,
    .aaron shinn

    At 2:26 AM -0700 9/27/01, leterel wrote:
    >I've wondered how receptive the drum n bass audience
    >would be to some of this broken beat material.
    >Obviously, a lot of drum n bass producers (especially
    >in the Reinforced camp) have gone on to make broken
    >beat.
    >
    >Tuesday night I went to Substance @ The Knitting
    >Factory, LA to see Red Devil spin. Most of the night
    >the djs were spinning drum n bass, and Red Devil ended
    >the night with a really nice broken beat set. I was a
    >little surprised that one of the guest djs started to
    >get an attitude in the first 5 seconds of Red Devil's
    >set, simply because he wasn't playing dnb. They
    >didn't even wait for the beats to kick in before they
    >went to their friends complaining it was house. That
    >first tune was by Domu and when the beats dropped that
    >very same dj proclaimed "oh my god I love these
    >beats". She probably felt like an idiot, because even
    >her friends seemed to loved what RD was playing. The
    >crowd gave a pretty mixed reaction. Obviously some of
    >the kiddies left because they wanted hard dark dnb,
    >but a lot of people stuck around and really dug it.
    >It was good to see all the positive reactions from the
    >crowd, and the applauds.
    >
    >Well sorry to bore you all...
    >
    >Cheers,
    >
    >-Will
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
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