Rhythm
10 tracks.
A drum pattern taken from the instrumental break of a funk or soul record, or written in its style: kick and snare are syncopated rather than evenly spaced. Breakbeats drive hip-hop, big beat, jungle and drum and bass.
Read more on WikipediaPlaying the turntable as an instrument: scratching, cutting and juggling records by hand to make new rhythms and phrases rather than simply playing songs in sequence. It grew out of hip-hop DJing and has its own competitions, such as the DMC World DJ Championships.
Taking a fragment of an existing recording and reusing it in a new one, as a loop, a chop or a texture. Sampling is central to hip-hop and dance music and raises questions of credit and copyright.
A feel in which the backbeat (the snare) comes half as often, so the music seems to move at half the speed while the tempo stays the same. Trap and dubstep use it to make a drop feel heavy.
Accents placed where the listener does not expect them: between the beats or on the weak ones. Syncopation creates tension against the steady pulse and is much of what makes a rhythm feel funky.
Queen, The Miami Project
A Skillz chops John Deacon's immortal bassline into a strutting breakbeat workout, keeping Freddie Mercury's swagger front and centre while the drums hit like a b-boy battle.
John Newman, Kove
Kove drives John Newman's northern-soul plea for a second chance into rolling drum and bass, the raw voice riding fast breaks and big, bright chords.
DJ Patife
Fernanda Porto's breezy bossa melody rides a rolling São Paulo drum and bass break, sunlit samba swing meeting rattling breakbeats and deep sub-bass.
Adam Freeland
Melodic synths crash into live drums and a snarling rock vocal: Do You opens Freeland's Cope with a breakbeat-punk jolt that sounds like a band and a DJ at war.
Freeland
The lead single of Freeland's Cope swaps the guitar riff for a roaring synth and puts Kurt Baumann's deadpan vocal over breakbeat-bred drums: electronic rock with a raw, defiant edge.
Asian Dub Foundation
The synth-heavy opener of Asian Dub Foundation's Tank: churning drum and bass, a dub-friendly chorus and the band's political urgency, at the start of an album written in the shadow of the Iraq War.
Fernanda Porto
Fernanda Porto's own Sambassim: the São Paulo composer's song that fused samba and bossa nova melody with electronic beats and helped name a style, drum 'n' bossa.
Timo Maas
Timo Maas's 'Shifter', featuring MC Chickaboo, is a driving 2002 single from his debut album Loud: German club production at the meeting point of house and breakbeat, with an MC riding the groove; a UK top 40 hit.
Paul Oakenfold feat. Pharrell Williams
Paul Oakenfold's breakbeat and hip-house collision with Pharrell Williams: a pulsing, provocative 2006 single about the pull of desire and money, with an animated video that ends in a warning.
Chris Lorenzo & The Streets
Birmingham bass producer Chris Lorenzo and The Streets' Mike Skinner meet on a fast, ferocious slice of drum and bass: tight drums, tearing bass synths and Skinner's dry, conversational vocal.
