breakbeat era - late morning

long after 4hero, goldie (and associates), ltj bukem/good looking records, roni size eventually figured out that you could sell a truckload of records if you just confine a bit to the rules of mainstream music. the steps is talking about how intelligent this music is and try to use the word "jazz" in association of it but also get hold of a singer from maybe an r&b background or the likes. roni size and his full cycle crew did this twice as the first time was roni size/reprazent and it worked phenomenally.

the second time around was less jazz-inflicted but more proper sung vocal as prior collaborist leonie laws became a stature in the full cycle crew for a while. breakbeat era as a project stems from a track with the same name that roni size & dj die recorded as scorpio for one of the full cycle compilations. as roni size / reprazent had run it's course the first time around i think size was interested in taking into a full album project.

i remember the first time i came across the breakbeat era project because size, die and laws was doing some promotion for it on swedish ztv. they were talking about how some recordstores really didn't know where to categorise their album or something like that. then i heard "ultra-obscene" or "bullitproof" but i wasn't into it at all and i would have to wait until picking up a compilation and hearing the former. this time i did get it and something had to do with me liking kosheen's first album and they are relevant in this situation as they took the formula for breakbeat era and ran with it and did much better in sales i believe. i put them both on the same level but i prefer sian evans voice much more than leonie laws.

none the less this track is one of the instrumentals of the album but features a guest perfomer with adrian utley of portishead on guitar. his strums open the track and it sounds like it's been recorded outside of a studio environment and sets the mood as the hiss and atmosphere is resonating throughout the track. after a couple looped runs the track kicks off in full force with a mauling deep bassline and gentle guitar parts, pads and a heavy two-step drum that is very dj die.

when the guitar licks again the drums change into a run of some krusty "funky mule" that appears again along with the rest of the track. i don't think it works completely with the regular drumbreak as the patterns clash and it's a state of dissonace in a wrong way. producers often employ conflicting elements, wether it's musical or rhythmical for tensionbuilding effect and it's what size & die was going for but i think they didn't pull it off completely.

i do like this track alot though and the whole album for that matter. well recommended

buy here (junodownload)