Review
Genre and Mood
DJ Disse and Will Buhrkall take Break On Through, the song that opened the Doors’ first album, and slide it into Balearic downtempo and dub. It is groovy and relaxed where the original is urgent, a rock anthem moved from the club stage to the lounge.
Song Summary
The Doors released Break On Through as their first single on 1 January 1967; it peaked at only 126 in the United States. DJ Disse’s version appeared on his album When I’m Bored I Change Colour, released on the Danish label Music for Dreams. The label’s notes say that he takes inspiration from classic rock, naming Lou Reed and the Doors, and twists it with dub and bossa beats. The credit names DJ Disse featuring Will Buhrkall rather than the Doors, which points to a new recording rather than a remix; no source we found says who sings or plays what.
Musical Breakdown
No source describes this recording section by section. These notes follow the label and the original.
Intro
The Doors’ original opens on a bossa nova drum groove, with a clave pattern played as a rim click. Listen for what DJ Disse’s opening does with that rhythm.
Main Section
The label describes the album as electronic sounds, loops and samples, with reggae beats, Balkan melodies and Arabic rhythms. Listen for which of these colours this track uses.
Breakdown
At over six minutes, more than twice the original’s length, the track has room for the space and repetition of dub. Listen for where the arrangement thins out and returns.
Concepts in Focus
A cover version usually moves a song somewhere new. This one partly moves it home: John Densmore built the original on bossa nova and Ray Manzarek’s keyboard bass followed a bossa pattern, so a cover with bossa beats picks up a thread that was there from the start.
dub is the other thread. Born in Jamaican reggae, it treats a song as material: parts dropped out, echoes, long repetitions. Compare the dub depth of Lulu Rouge – Sweeter Than Sweet (feat. Alice Carreri), from the same label.
The <a href=“https://korczis.github.io/sonic-playground/concept/featured-artist/” class=“concept-link font-medium text-primary-700 underline decoration-dotted underline-offset-4 hover:decoration-solid dark:text-primary-400” data-concept=“featured-artist” title=“A guest performer credited on another artist’s track, usually as “feat.”: a rapper’s verse, a singer’s hook or a second voice. Features bring together different styles and audiences and are central to hip-hop, R&B and dance music.“>featured artist credit names Will Buhrkall beside DJ Disse, but the sources say nothing more about his part.
Artistic Context
The label introduces DJ Disse as a DJ by night and producer by day who hunts flea markets for strange vinyl. A friendship with DJ Kjeld Tolstrup led him to label head Kenneth Bager, and his first release, the eleven-minute Egyptian Disco, came out on Music for Dreams. He produced the album in his home studio with guests including Buda of Banzai Republic, Ben Horn, Jazz Box and Kenneth Bager. MusicBrainz dates the album to 2007, with Break On Through as its fifth track; the deluxe edition the yearbook lists followed digitally in October 2015.
Impact and Reception
The track travelled through compilations rather than charts: MusicBrainz finds DJ Disse’s Break On Through, in this and shorter edits, on Buddha-Bar X, Saint-Germain-des-Prés Café, Pacha’s Global Chilling and Luftkastellet 5 in 2007 and 2008, the circuit Laidback – Beautiful Day also took. Play the Doors’ 1967 single first, then hear what a lounge does with it.
