View Full Version : nu jazz/broken beat
in the words of blake baxter, what happened? you used to be so good!
is it just me or is broken beat really uninspiring these days? a couple of years ago when the whole bugz in the attic crew were at their peak i would have put money on the genre to cross over and become a real force in dance music. instead the good releases just slowed down, it didn't really go anywhere from there and it's just kind of trailed off.
now maybe i just haven't been listening to the right stuff. can anyone point me in the direction of some new broken beat releases i should be listening to? not sure if this thread really belongs in this forum but i figured i'd get a better response in here than anywhere else.
mr siano
01-Jul-07, 10:15pm
4hero - Playing with the changes.
Great album.
Spitchen
02-Jul-07, 11:20am
IMO a lot of nu-jazz/broken beat stuff these days gets ruined by bland, stock-standard vocalizing.
Phil Collins
02-Jul-07, 02:13pm
hmmm i must admit i've about never heard a nu-jazz broken beat thing i've liked. Yeh it all sounds very tame and elevator and weak and noodly to my ears.
can ppl maybe suggest some of the kick-ass tunes of the past, so i can get past this....?
mr siano
02-Jul-07, 03:13pm
Check out :
Reel People - Second guess.
Get the Defected re-issue.
My fave album of this decade.
julienlove
02-Jul-07, 03:38pm
hmmm i must admit i've about never heard a nu-jazz broken beat thing i've liked. Yeh it all sounds very tame and elevator and weak and noodly to my ears.
can ppl maybe suggest some of the kick-ass tunes of the past, so i can get past this....?
kaidi tatham
sk radicals
wikkaman
new sector movements
ig culture
phil asher
nathan haines
yeh some is noodles.
some is cool
Stealthy
02-Jul-07, 04:06pm
Broken beat is alive and well Shunji
a couple of releases that come to mind lately...
Check headspin / throwdown by MARC MAC
he put together Scattered Snares Volume 2 as well... - a pretty fresh CD collection of Broken Beat...
+
Lanu - Disinformation is a great (local) broken beat record
NEW SECTOR MOVEMENTS The Hype EP 1 + Ep # 2 comming out soon. - Both on Jazzy Sport
All the Coop releases. Co-operation III Sampler 2 comming out on 20th July...
Check any releases by Daz-I-Kue, Domu, IG Culture, Afronaught, Mark Clive De Lowe, Mark Force,......
Seriously... there is HEAPS going on.. Was at a Co-op party in London for NYE, with Marc Mac, Phil Asher, IG Culture on DJ duties with Bugz playing a live set and I have to say, the music (and vibe) was best I have witnessed in a long long long time.... super tight grooves.... Most stuff probably off CDR that is probably comming up for release nowish...
As for New Jazz / Nu Jazz, what do you define as "New Jazz"? Do you mean artists like Nicola Conte, Gerardo Frisina, Big bang, etc - that whole Italian movement...and labels like schema? ie natural instrumentation or the more techie / electronic end of the Nu Jazz spectrum? There is so much great stuff of the former comming out - it's hard to keep up.
Stealthy
02-Jul-07, 04:26pm
hmmm i must admit i've about never heard a nu-jazz broken beat thing i've liked. Yeh it all sounds very tame and elevator and weak and noodly to my ears.
can ppl maybe suggest some of the kick-ass tunes of the past, so i can get past this....?
4hero - hold it down. Def a classic + Lanu - Disinformation for something recent - both with vocals.. there's plenty on a more fierce, electronic and tracky tip as well - nothing comming to mind right now. This is usually really well produced music and is best on big juicy and clean sound systems. I love it!
4hero - Playing with the changes.
Great album.
i thought that was a perfect example of how patchy 4 hero is. they do one amazing amazing record and then turn around and release this mor lp. they've been doing it for years.
i'm with shunji on this one, but in my opinion it's systematic. the nu jazz/broken beat producers tend to be older, perfectionist, and obsessed with making 'classic' and 'timeless' records. which is great, they sound lovely, the beats are fascinating, the voices just right. but they lack heart.
the best stuff is wild and thrilling, but more often than not it's well-made and cold.
well i love the sound but just noticed a lack of quality in the tunes. although having said that i did purchase the the zed bias mix of soil & pimp on brownswood recently. and i found this great bootleg of a seiji dub with a soulful cover of tv on the radio - 'staring at the sun' which was pretty dope. i just remember a couple of years ago i was buying so much more and people were putting out some really cool and diverse stuff.
i'll definitely check out some of your suggestions stealthy. i love all those co-op guys and would love to check out one of their parties some day. are future classic still doing things in sydney? i know they were putting on some broken beat parties earlier in the year.
oh and as for my nu jazz thing, i don't know why i really put it up there when i'm really just talking about broken beat. i just tagged it on there just incase some people were going to suggest some breaks records in here.
Stealthy
02-Jul-07, 05:37pm
they lack heart.
Have disagree with this sweeping generalisation. It's just not true - well not from where I am anyway.
marksound
03-Jul-07, 05:28pm
I'm on Stealthy's side. All those artists you listed is pretty much my style of broken beat.
Check out some of the live mixes from Co-Op, and the futureboogie podcasts.
I miss Co-Op :(
in the words of blake baxter, what happened? you used to be so good!
is it just me or is broken beat really uninspiring these days? a couple of years ago when the whole bugz in the attic crew were at their peak i would have put money on the genre to cross over and become a real force in dance music. instead the good releases just slowed down, it didn't really go anywhere from there and it's just kind of trailed off.
now maybe i just haven't been listening to the right stuff. can anyone point me in the direction of some new broken beat releases i should be listening to? not sure if this thread really belongs in this forum but i figured i'd get a better response in here than anywhere else.
May be your just ready to listen to the good shit live.... http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/WhatsOn/html/custom/2234-event-details.asp?EventID=25477
Have disagree with this sweeping generalisation. It's just not true - well not from where I am anyway.
of course, it's a sweeping generalisation. the wild thrilling stuff is amazing. but every genre of music has its problems, and for broken beat it tends to be the proximity to being mundane and middle of the road.
I get Calico's criticism and think its evident but it also applies to pretty much every sub-genre.
A sub-genre, by definition, is a fairly 'fixed parameter' piece of music. Generally the pieces that are influenced by a certain sound but manage to break some of the 'rules' are what stand out.
Stealthy
06-Jul-07, 11:32am
I get Calico's criticism and think its evident but it also applies to pretty much every sub-genre.
A sub-genre, by definition, is a fairly 'fixed parameter' piece of music. Generally the pieces that are influenced by a certain sound but manage to break some of the 'rules' are what stand out.
Havik, broken beat isn't a sub genre. Takes influence from Drum and Bass, house, techno, Hiphop, Jazz, funk, etc, but def not a sub genre. It is what it is and I know most people in the forum don't really care what it's called or where it came from, only whether it excites them and sounds good or not. Like anything, some people feel it, others don't really get it.
There's heaps of dope broken beat music out there.. nuff said.
djbrevil
06-Jul-07, 12:23pm
some of my fav's include
Earth series ( good looking records )
dzihan & kamien's 2x12 on couch cr2009 ( 1000 made )
[re:jazz] style Dublex inc instrumental dub (infracom )
Dublex inc Queek Paul Jey rmx Pulver
Richter stuff on Couch
actually there's to many to mention
seek and you shall find
Surely the fact that you can mark a bin in a store 'broken beat' and toss (intentionally) records into it marks the fact that it's sub-genre...
...let's, to be simple, define a sub-genre as a collection of tunes that share enough commonality they can be categorised into a group.
Stealthy
09-Jul-07, 09:52am
Surely the fact that you can mark a bin in a store 'broken beat' and toss (intentionally) records into it marks the fact that it's sub-genre...
Havik,
Wouldn't "sub" as a prefix of "Genre" denote that is an offshoot or secondary category of some higher genre? (eg: "Deep house" or might be a subgenre of "house" or "detriot" and "minimal" might be subgenres of techno, etc.) What is it a subgenre of? The "good music" genre maybe
...let's, to be simple, define a sub-genre as a collection of tunes that share enough commonality they can be categorised into a group
We have "genre" to define that. Where it's a branch of a higher level genre, we use "subgenre".
Anyway, who cares?
Apparently I do. :lol:
Hmmm. I suppose from a etymological point of view, you've got me.
I was really thinking conceptually of a sub-genre - i.e. a genre that is not commonly known or referred to is esoteric conversations.
Yes you do care and I was just bored (and maybe I cared a bit).
I get Calico's criticism and think its evident but it also applies to pretty much every sub-genre.
i actually think it's particular to specific sounds.
the nu jazz/broken beat producers tend to be older, perfectionist, and obsessed with making 'classic' and 'timeless' records.
warning: more sweeping generalisations imminent.
first example: punk and grime come from a diy tradition. use whatever equipment's at hand, learn as you go, creativity virtually explodes out of the artists, often despite the lack of skills. if they fail it tends to be poor song writing, bad production and musicianship.
second example: jazz and funk, and even experimental sound art, usually comes from a virtuoso tradition: killer technical skills that have to be harnessed to make music. that also means they know the rules, so if the spark's missing the music can feel like it's on autopilot.
deep house and broken beat are (sweeping generalisation again) somewhere in between, but likely to be much closer to the latter. it means things are dotted that need dotting and crossed when they need crossing, resulting in acceptable genre pieces, but transcendently creative music isn't as easy to find. people like ig, domu, sa ra, zed bias/phuturistix, 2 banks of 4 and so on are usually good, but it's rare to find a bruk/broken producer that's faultless. at least i haven't.
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