Break Beat/Drum & Bass/Dubstep
Breakbeat
is a broad style of electronic or dance-oriented music which utilizes breaks, often sampled from earlier recordings in funk, jazz and R&B, for the main rhythm. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, hardcore, UK garage (including 2-step, breakstep and dubstep), and even pop and rock.
Drum and bass
(also written as "drum 'n' bass" or "drum & bass"; commonly abbreviated as "D&B", "DnB" or "D'n'B"), is a genre and branch of electronic music which emerged from rave and jungle scenes in Britain during the early 1990s. The style is often characterised by fast breakbeats (typically 160–180 beats per minute with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, sample sources, and synthesizers.
Dubstep
is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the late 1990s. It is generally characterized by sparse, syncopated rhythmic patterns with bass lines that contain prominent sub-bassfrequencies. The style emerged as an offshoot of UK garage, drawing on a lineage of related styles such as 2-step, dub reggae, jungle, broken beat, and grime.
My first introduction to breakbeat was also my first introduction to any kind of music faster then Hip-Hop. It was on a cassette tape made for me by my first real boyfriend in the throws of teenage love. The tape was full of songs like The Clash's "Should I stay or Should I go" and Undercover's "Baker Street", because I had only been in the UK for 2 weeks. Realising that my musical knowledge was very different from his he decided to stick a few surprises on the tape. I remember sitting there for hours trying to understand how anyone's brain to keep up with the speed of the music I was listening to. At this stage of my life, I had never even had a beer, and I had lived a rather sheltered existence in comparison to young people in the UK. I definitely didn't know about raves or parties. There was one song in particular that I just fell in love with over time, and it informed the kind of breaks I liked to listen to. The song was The Prodigy's "Out of Space" and it taught me how to listen to this music. Ever since breaks are very important to me as a musician. I often feel that if the breaks are not as strong and heavy a song is not finished. I spent many years seeking out Break Beat and even spent some time writing with Way out West and Freestylers, both outfits that have produced some of the best breakbeats in the UK.
Living in Bristol since 1992 it seems that it would be impossible for me to have missed the advent of Drum & Bass and Reprazent. Especially as I actually knew members of the band too. I can only attribute it to my serious love of Trip Hop, Dub and Breakbeat/Happy Hardcore at that time. I recall going to clubs when drum and bass first arrived and initially being put off by the switch from sweaty warehouses and people cutting shapes to boys in hoodies and dark venues. There would be the odd song that came into my view but largely I paid it no attention. In 1999 I began working with a DnB Jazz breakbeat band in Bristol who opened up my ears more to drum and bass. At the same time, my Manager began connecting me with Dj/Producers around the genre so in a very short space of time I began to understand their impact on modern music. Though beyond the band Drum and Bass still largely remained in the background to me until 2004 when I happened to be at one of their after show parties and I met their new collaborator, Yuval Gabay, drummer of American band Soul Coughing. Gabay was to come on board as the Musical Director of my live band and co-writer for future songs before we had two beautiful daughters and were married for some time. As Gabay was the drummer for Reprazent and later with Roni Size's own solo work my life became intertwined with the bands. It wasn't long before I began to work with members of Reprazent myself. First touring with Dj Krusts live band, and then featured as the only vocalist on his 2006 album "Hidden Knowledge".
Spending time with my ex-husband and his bandmates meant that I got to see behind the wizard's curtain. It was the first time that I really understood the amount of skill and time that goes into the construction of electronic music. Every single sound is worked on, and not just intuitively plucked from the air. If songs were physical, then their songs would be beautifully handcrafted jade vases. Their music to me is like Frank Gehry or Antoni Gaudí architecture if Gehry and Gaudi built a building in a month that is. These guys write more music in a year then I have ever seen anyone do. I understood that these musicians are lifers. The fact that they make money and have success is simply a by-product of doing what they would spend every single moment of their lives doing anyway. It is a kind of Artistic dedication I have never seen equalled. These guys will go to the studio and live there until they can no longer press another button from exhaustion, and still make better music then most people could imagine making. They just keep going.
Since the first time I heard Peter Gabriel I already had a deep connection with Synthesisers, but being around these guys I discovered a great respect for music programmers and all the many tools and toys they have. I learned about click tracks, loop stations, microphones and they even brought me into the 21st century by helping buy my first Mac Laptop so that I could begin to programme myself.
So it would follow that from the Drum and Bass scene I was introduced to one of my other greatest EDM love. I remember in 2005 everyone in the scene raving about a band called Bugz in the Attic who had begun performing a style of music called Dubstep. In its early days, we would have to travel to London venues to hear this music. Much like my experience with Breakbeat and The Prodigy many years before, my brain wouldn't immediately adjust to the syncopated beats. Fortunately, I shortly began a collaboration with Producer/Dj Tonestepa whose reputation as a Dubstep Producer was growing. One morning he sent me a link to a Skrillex track, that was one of the most satisfying songs I have ever heard. I experienced an almost euphoric like emotion when I heard his first drop coming in and I fell in love with the genre immediately.
All three of these styles of music are firmly embedded within my music.