Broken Beat Starting Points

I need educatin’.
Is there a canonical mix I should listen to?
Is it a London thing, strictly speaking.
Was it embraced by you lot, in general?
I think I like it.

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I’m not an expert or a Londoner but this felt like a good introduction:

Bugz In The Attic - FabricLive. 12

Url: https://www.discogs.com/release/208428-Bugz-In-The-Attic-FabricLive-12

Shared from the Discogs App

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thanks very much Plemont. Will explore. :smiling_face:

I was listening to hip hop, dnb, nu skool breaks and UKG at the time, broken beat popped up adjacent to and apart of all that. This tune would work its way into broken beat and more diverse sets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZzN2p2KoQg&t=233s

Bugz were huge and had a serious international moment. Funnily enough by the time those Bugz comps 03/04 came out the whole thing had kind of faded and people moved on.

All the Afronaught stuff is great and pretty musical, there was a lot of jazz in it, eg Kaidi Tatham who’s always dope.

Always had a soft spot for this rmx: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZyjsNt-7LM

I wasn’t there for Coop in London tho; Listening Guide: Early Broken Beat   - Roland Articles

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This was a big one for me back in the day

Thanks @dreambeam and @AJE
I think it’s the apparent musicality that appeals to me.
It’s a nice counterpoint to all 4x4 I listen to.

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This is great

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Definitely a London thing, and more specifically a West London thing, and even more specifically from one distribution company in West London, Goya.

All the early People stuff and IG Culture, Bougie Soliterre, Bah Samba, Afronaught, Modaji, Phil Asher and all the different nom de plumes everyone went under was killer. A really exciting time and a lot of boundaries pushed. I was lucky to be a very small part of it and be close to what was going on and it was mind blowing how much amazing music and creativity all the main players were producing. Great times.

This is a great little film which lays down the history of the genre and those times

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Thanks @Barry !
I had it pegged as a Ladbroke Grove 'ting.
An idea that I warmed to, having spent time in that neighbourhood in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Will watch the movie and explore those producers.

Inspiration Information, the night run by Phlash amd Patrick Forge at NHAC was always good fun. Katie Barber really came through that scene. Was never really my bag, tbh, but it was a good social event.

Stuff like this which straddled the broken beat/house divide

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This is a great comp - Afronaught Transcend me and the Bugz mix of 4 Hero are both brilliant tracks

This still sounds fresh

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Always had a soft spot for modaji, and the place where broken beat became a bit detroity -

Kirk degiorgio too.

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the anthem…

boogie…?

the dons…

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That album is just great from start to finish

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No Idea if broken beat, but New Sector Movements - Futuristic Dancer is from that stage and is ace, one of the few tracks you want to play in it’s entirely.

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Broken Beat was very much a thing amongst the expats in Taipei in 2001 to 2003. All the big clubs had DJs in the backrooms playing it and those rooms were very much one in/one out at points of the night. Music by IG Culture, Dego, Kaidi Tatham, Daz-I-Kue and Domu ruled the roost. Recloose was also thrown in with them and it was quite fresh because you could play the broken beat stuff and thrown in some things in Planet E, Atavisme, etc. Being halfway around the world meant you didn’t need to be too specialized.

Records I’d recommend are things like Domu “The Boss”, his album “Up + Down”, “Got Me Puzzled” by Dego & Kaidi Tatham, Afronaught “Transcend Me”, the Daz-I-Kue remix of Delano Smith, etc.

The scene I think ate itself as soon as Booty La-La came out. It took the sound out of the backrooms and peoole just wanted more Booty La-La’s. Dubstep wasn’t too far behind it and that killed it off.

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I’m reminded of this piano led thing from the era:

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Still sounds pretty fresh

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I was listening to this stuff on a discman on public transport, was getting promo cds so I was across the all the 4Hero stuff and things that came after that, but had no idea about the club 12"s that were playing at Coop. But long jazzy jams like that Jazztronik record sounded incredible.

This as well:

This is a good chat, Dego says basically that the dnb scene was too militant about tempo and style for him and he just wanted to be able to be creative with breaks and had Herbie Hancock and Donald Byrd in mind, so yeah, that’s pretty much broken beat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61XLld_G5lQ

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