The Amen Break
The most important drum-break thus far.
This six-second sample from 1969 alone is responsible for the entire musical genre - ‘jungle’, and arguably stakes a place as about as important to hip-hop as James Brown’s ‘Funky Drummer’ break.
Visually stark (boring), this informative video traces the use of the break and its incredible importance in terms of recent musical history (from NWA through jungle, to Squarepusher and investigating copyright implications - even sighting a company providing commercially available sample CDs aimed at advertisement industry, and hence, claiming the sample as its own property) and implications of its recontextualisation in cultural and commercial terms.
Six-seconds of one b-side, responsible for an entire cultural movement, The Amen Break:
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Yay, Lara Croft in Ireland!
Feshti's back and this time he's counting down the top 10 movie opening scenes of all time.
Is American opinion and culture crowding out all others?
Saw this before. Quite good and definitely worth a watch if you like drum and bass or any kind of breakbeat driven music.
Comment by Anima — January 31, 2007 @ 12:27 am
i can guarantee you without the amen break, it all would have happened anyway. i cannot prove this (right now), but i certainly believe it. the amen break is overated. brilliant documentary though. well informed. i could get a billion examples of ‘the amen break’ in music well b4 ‘the amen break’. in bach, african drumming, sitar music, perhaps even in bird song, in nature. it transferred itself to an inevitable drum beat. u could argue that this transferance first occured with the ‘amen break’….therefore it is special. hmm.
Comment by krynn — January 31, 2007 @ 1:32 pm
Not sure about the point there krynn, and not sure when exactly you could prove it ‘would have happened anyway’.
…not to start an argument - obviously the break itself was one catalyst and major player in a cultural movement that may have been destined with or without its direct influence…
But what’s significant is that a mere six seconds of recorded sound, ripped from original context, can be central to all of that and much more besides.
Comment by PeterR — February 1, 2007 @ 12:04 am
i could prove it if i had nothing better to do. its not central to all of it. i dont say the perfect cadence (which arguebly) sums up the entire harmonic basis of western music came from a single source. it goes back thousands of years for many reasons. and so does the particular rhythm in question, which has been tagged by a minority to have originated as the amen break! no way. its been around for ages.
Comment by krynn — February 2, 2007 @ 1:37 pm