conceptual inertia

Breakbeat originated from the sampling of old funk and jazz records. The music breaks down to make room for the beat – and with the advent of sampling technology – provides a window of opportunity for capturing clean drum samples. The rhythmic structure of drumming lays the foundation for most musical genres. It’s no surprise then, that breakbeat samples have spawned several new genres of music, most notably: hip hop, jungle, and drum ‘n bass.

Jungle and drum ‘n bass are littered with two famous samples:

• Amen
• Funky Drummer

The Amen break is from the B-side of a single called ”Color me father” by a Soul/RnB group called The Winstons. The Funky Drummer break was originally played by Clyde Stubblefield from a James Brown record.

I implore anyone reading this, never to use these samples. I believe one of the precepts of a genre like drum ‘n bass is to explore new and interesting drum patterns; not to fatigue the user by recycling the same break with a myriad of slight alterations. The saturation point for these two breaks (and many others) was hit a long time ago. Reuse in this context, has limits.