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'Nu Skool Breakz'... what the fuck has happened?

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I can't find a single single from Botchit & Scarper, Fuel, or Marine Research that's worth a damn anymore. It all sounds really cleaned up and stuck in a rut to me. The only folks I still like have 'moved on' so to speak.. (Si Begg has side-stepped into other genius for the time being... the occasional Tipper single is still alright) Even the latest T-Power had like, two songs, on it's entire triple or 4xLP that was worth a damn. Did Freq Nasty just die in a ditch somewhere? What happened?

Hence the question: Is it just me? Is it just me and maybe a few others here? Or has there really been zero progression amongst the NSBkzers? Has it fallen into the same well as 1989-era Wax Trax! style EBM/dance industrial?

― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 29 January 2004 00:01 (twenty-two years ago)

And here's the puzzling thing. At least in Seattle, this stuff is HUGER than ever before! I guess it's all just a regional thing. ("Breaks" has been a dirty word in L.A. since 1997, for example)

― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 29 January 2004 00:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Forgot to mention TCR (Rennie Pilgrem's label) and Simply Jeff. Again... ????

― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 29 January 2004 00:03 (twenty-two years ago)

i heard a Freq Nasty rework of 'Milkshake' the other day but meh, Drummatic Twins DJ set featuring several acapellas over nu-breaks also - but i thought it was really boring - breaks like that just don't do it for me ALTHOUGH i really enjoyed that Starecase remix of Tok Tok's 'Day Of Mine' and a few tracks off the Plump DJs album last year.

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 29 January 2004 00:26 (twenty-two years ago)

The last great mindblowing Neu Breakz single I heard was from a guy under the name Psilodump(?). And this was half a year ago.

― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 29 January 2004 00:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Well you see it's a simple equation - all the guys making Nu School got old, stopped taking drugs and partying and therefore lost touch with what made good records good. All they want to do is make ploddy, boring, linear music. Which is what you've got now.
If you want to hear a great Nu School mix, check this...

http://www.outlawdjs.com/audio/The_Outlaws_12-2_Mix.mp3

There is a tracklist on the parent website too...

― Debord (Debord), Thursday, 29 January 2004 10:28 (twenty-two years ago)

isn't all that Florida break/DJ Icey stuff huge in the states?

― martin (martin), Thursday, 29 January 2004 11:10 (twenty-two years ago)

It's not just you. There used to be lots of good record in this style until about 2000, the suddenly it all went downhill. Then breakbeat garage happened (Zed Bias, DJ Hype, Zinc) maybe that's got something to do with it...

― JoB (JoB), Thursday, 29 January 2004 11:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I quite liked that Skelf (Howie B) single from last year, although I don't know if you'd call it breaks exactly

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 29 January 2004 11:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't perceive Icey as being that big a deal these days, but I also lived in Orlando for awhile. So maybe I'm seeing it relative to stupid amounts of "ICEY RULZ" sentiment.

― Xii (Xii), Thursday, 29 January 2004 11:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Florida Breaks gets a really bad rep from the rest of the scene too. Probably because it's a bit 'Trancey' and a bit 'Big Beat', two things breakz heads from the UK hate with a passion.
The Plumps kind of blew it with that LP too - they had a chance to blow the scene wide open but made a pretty ploddy LP and failed ot get good collaborations from Louise Rhodes or Gary Numan.

― Debord (Debord), Thursday, 29 January 2004 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Marine Research eh?

― Sarah (starry), Thursday, 29 January 2004 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I just noticed that... nice Frindiean slip

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 29 January 2004 14:33 (twenty-two years ago)

more like what the f*** happened... ever!

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Thursday, 29 January 2004 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Ils and Reza, are the breaks producers i rate...

― martin (martin), Thursday, 29 January 2004 15:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Ils is a bit polite though isn't he? I mean the album was full of so many dance album stereotypes, the downtempo number the guest vocalist etc etc etc.

Not seen him DJ or anything. I kind of think of nu-breaks as an extension of house, and not even a great one at that. Plump DJs are great fun to go and see but it gets boring.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 29 January 2004 17:58 (twenty-two years ago)

that outlaws mix looks good enough to download, possibly because half of it's house!

re: florida breaks - this music, like progressive house, rules if you listen to it the way it's meant to be listened to. which is in your car, at 2:30 am on saturday night, when you don't know the name of the radio station, or the name of a single track, and the djs mixing superfast and won't stop cutting back and forth between the tracks on the crossfade, so it all blends into one long endlessly pulsating, expanding breakdown.

i can't even recommend any tracks or djs though there's one track that uses a bit of dialogue from the first matrix film: "take the red pill / take the blue pill / take the red pill..." so STUPID it's FRESH.

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 29 January 2004 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

and i wouldn't really compare florida breaks to nu skool breaks (even though people like rennie pilgrem claim it as their inspiration). the closest things out of the uk i've heard that really compare to florida breaks are acts like impulsion, people who were probably listening to "higher state of consciousness" and not drum and bass and electro.

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 29 January 2004 18:17 (twenty-two years ago)

haha I think that track is MORPHEUS by Koma and Bones dude. At least if it's not it should be!

Higher State is the blueprint for this stuff yeah, Plump DJs very higher state.

Thing is nu-breaks became SO progressive house there quite a while back, even Perfecto have a nu breaks label now!

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 29 January 2004 18:23 (twenty-two years ago)

this stuff is extra-large here in san francisco too...which is kinda beyond me...
also vahid otm re: the difference.

― heywood jablomi (heywood), Thursday, 29 January 2004 18:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Marine Research eh?

HAHAHAHAHA, oops, I meant Marine Parade, I think... whatever label the guy from Meat Katie runs.

― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:31 (twenty-two years ago)

"take the red pill / take the blue pill / take the red pill..." so STUPID it's FRESH.

Speaking of which, that's a Marine Parade single...
Scratch D vs H Bomb - "The Red Pill"

― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:34 (twenty-two years ago)

really? i could have sworn what i heard was american! though the timing is about right ... hmmm ... well, that's interesting because my impression of nu-skool breaks is basically formed by tipper, ILS, BLIM, metisse, etc. what i heard sounded like a completely different animal ... more like early chemical brothers than that lot. is there more than one wing/movement in NSB?

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, the 10% good movement, and the 90% crap movement. :)

Ok, seriously, I think the Fuel stuff is more akin to the crazy, micro edit, IDM side of things whereas some of the Marine Parade, Kingsize, Finger Lickin' stuff is more "party" oriented.

And your sum-up of the (few) merits of the whole Icey scene is OTFM.

― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I still have a few of those "E.C.B." breaks albums (which are all Icey stuff, I think), and they have dated slightly better than I expected.

The main point of contention in what makes or breaks (ARF ARF PUN INTENDED) a good breaks song is the synth sound and style. If the synth sounds in anyway "uplifting", then it's an immediate turn off for me. I guess i like the more mean spirited or just fucked up sounding stuff. And sadly, you get more of the former these days, even on the more reliable labels like Botchit & Scarper, and TCR.

― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 29 January 2004 21:00 (twenty-two years ago)

the best breaks song ever is Gyromancer by PMT, DOWNLOAD.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 29 January 2004 21:02 (twenty-two years ago)

best nu breaks song ever, if you can get the stanton sessions version with moose rapping on it then do so.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 29 January 2004 21:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha, is that Gyromancer as in the food item or the type of circular movement?

Either way, best restaurant name ever.

― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 29 January 2004 21:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not sure!

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 29 January 2004 21:05 (twenty-two years ago)

both!! they cook it on a ROTATING SPIT!!!

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 29 January 2004 21:06 (twenty-two years ago)

dance music needs more raw meat.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 29 January 2004 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)

from their suits you would think they were assembling microchips
this must be the fussy, technical side of the genre

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 29 January 2004 21:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Ts: Gyro briskets vs. Turntables. Which spins the tastier plates?

― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 29 January 2004 21:09 (twenty-two years ago)

they all like like meat versions of marge simpsons head

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 29 January 2004 21:12 (twenty-two years ago)

dude what if they made hotdogs for children shaped like simpsons characters heads <

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 29 January 2004 21:13 (twenty-two years ago)

disgusting!

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 29 January 2004 21:24 (twenty-two years ago)

One thing that annoyed me about a lot of NSB (which I'm not against per se) is that the bass is never thick enough - you would have thought a genre that was like halfway between house and jungle (in a weird parallel/reverse sense wrt speed garage) would have learnt some of its lessons re bass? But no, it's always either some acid (which can be great, obv - see early Uberzone) or a trancey bassline or a "nasty" thin wiry bassline like a small piece of chicken stuck in your teeth.

Exception to this: Layo & Bushwacka's "Dead Man Walking", esp. Bushwacka's great remix. Of course those two records also benefit from their resemblance to Miami Bass.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 30 January 2004 05:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Surely that "Take the red pill/take the blue pill" NSB track is the Junkie XL tune from the Animatrix soundtrack? That one got played everywhere...

― Siegbran (eofor), Friday, 30 January 2004 10:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Plump DJs have the bass thing locked down I think.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 30 January 2004 18:19 (twenty-two years ago)

"Take the red pill/take the blue pill"

see if we can credit the matrix with anything it's given us an endless source of hot samples!!

no the track i heard sounded like straight florida breaks - just the "funky drummer" at about 110 bpm, one percolating acid line, depth charge bass on the one and two beat, and a massive breakdown where the sample got chopped to bits and eventually got filtered into this insane rushing mentasm ... then he goes "DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE" and the beat comes back like twice as hard.

okay now do we have enough info to ID it?

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 30 January 2004 18:45 (twenty-two years ago)

oh and the OTHER thing about this track (and a thought that i can't quite figure out how to expand to discussions of 100% prole genres like breaks or us hardhouse or happy hardcore) is that i only heard it out twice!! the reason i bring it up is that it's still stuck in my head, more than three years later!

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 30 January 2004 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Is there a Marine Parade website? Google then look under Sratch D or H Bomb and hopefully they might have sound samples...

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 30 January 2004 22:43 (twenty-two years ago)

ten years pass...

this genre is so, so fucking underrated

― y kant max read (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, 6 January 2015 01:33 (eleven years ago)

I mean I think the Soul of Man Essential Mix will forever be one of my top 5 mixes of all time, like up there w/ "As Heard On Radio Soulwax 2" and "How to Kill the DJ Pt. 2"

http://www.mixcloud.com/essentialmixcollection/20070722-essential-mix-soul-of-man/

― y kant max read (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, 6 January 2015 01:37 (eleven years ago)


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