|
Can we talk about breakdowns?
|
View this Thread in Original format
| SYSTEM-J |
Is it just me, or are big breakdowns back?
During the trance era it was a common moan (especially by Ishkur) that trance sets were just a parade of super-long, momentum destroying breakdowns. Then in the minimal era, the frustrating "anti-breakdown" seemed more common, where tracks would completely reset the energy as they came out of the breakdown, usually with a wash of carefully quantized white noise over the top.
Increasingly when I've been going out, I've noticed that DJs playing lots of breakdowns. Not just big breakdowns, but long sequences where almost every track has a monstrous breakdown. I've noticed serious techno DJs do it, prog DJs do and more trendy tech house DJs do it. Even Four Tet, the poster-boy of the wonky house hispterati, plonked a seven minute breakdown in his remix of Opus a year or two back.
Have we reached the point where the breakdown has lost its stigma, and is being used (and abused) by DJs as a way of drumming up big crowd reactions in their sets? Or am I just talking nonsense again? |
|
|
| Tangil |
| No idea to be honest. Last DJ I went to was Petre Inspirescu and it felt like I'd been teleported back to 2008. Pretty bloody boring. |
|
|
| Woony |
I've noticed more big breakdowns but there's no way you can get away with more than 1-2 big breakdowns per her hour at something like peaktime Berghain for example. Every time there's a big breakdown all the speed fiends will start nervously start flailing their arms around like 'when can I ing start raving again' :stongue: I can definitely imagine that DJs are more open towards playing a lot of big breakdowns in the UK, which has such a big anthem trance history.
A trend i've noticed is dark, grime-y techno tracks that have a relatively short breakdown with big 'emotional' pads and then they do the anti-breakdown and the track gets dark and grime-y again for the rest of the track. I ing loathe it, it's such a ing cheap way to get a crowd reaction. |
|
|
| Lews |
Is that Four Tet remix even playable?
I actually took note of the frequent breakdowns at Garnier earlier this year. Done very effectively with lights and good timing with the smoke machines and all that jazz... It did make me very introspective, however. |
|
|
| Sykonee |
It's still abused in the obnoxious side of hard dance, but that's no surprise.
Haven't noticed it much myself, though I can see 'tech-haus are serious music' sorts warming up to it if the breakdown features some sort of jazzy, technical solo to show off how cultured these records now are, not just disposable club fodder. |
|
|
| Tangil |
| that four tet remix was so |
|
|
| SYSTEM-J |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lews
Is that Four Tet remix even playable?
I actually took note of the frequent breakdowns at Garnier earlier this year. Done very effectively with lights and good timing with the smoke machines and all that jazz... It did make me very introspective, however. |
I've heard Henry Saiz play it. It doesn't have a drop that remotely justifies such a long wait. However, I should distinguish between the two main types of big breakdown. There's the big bliss-out melodic breakdown, which I imagine is more the kind of thing that Garnier would throw in. I welcome a big lush breakdown filled with actual music so you can PLUR out at the right moment in a set.
I suppose what I'm noticing more and more is the second kind of breakdown: the big, wind-it-up build that it designed to make the crowd jump around when it drops. Very often no new sounds are introduced in the break or in the drop, it's nothing more than a big manipulative build. Again, at the right moment this can drive the crowd wild. However, I seem to be hearing sets where DJs are doing it almost every tune, and it becomes boring and manipulative. |
|
|
| JonDC |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
However, I should distinguish between the two main types of big breakdown. There's the big bliss-out melodic breakdown, which I imagine is more the kind of thing that Garnier would throw in. I welcome a big lush breakdown filled with actual music so you can PLUR out at the right moment in a set.
|
That's a fair description of the kind of breakdown Garnier was using that night. He played a 4 hour set and I distinctly remember thinking in the last 90 mins or so thay almost every track had a fairly substantial breakdown. This didn't kill the flow for me at all - it was just that we was taking the set in that blissful / euphoric direction with a lot of memorable tracks to close the night out nicely. It also wasn't like the mid to late naughties trance era where every track had two of them and not a lot else
Back to your original post, I probably haven't seen enough other trendy DJs outside the scene I play in (which isn't really that representative of current trends), but I would say I have seen a healthy use of breakdowns when I have gone out. Certainly Sven Vath is another name I've seen use them well
I personally think breakdowns are an essential ingredient of a decent set, and any DJ that I've seen avoid them has bored me to tears (Ben Klock for example). I think producers of all genres probably have stopped shying away from them, which is a good thing. That's not to say they aren't still being used badly as well of course, by producers and DJs |
|
|
| rubez |
| trance is definitely coming back... you heard it here first. the breakdowns lay the ground work, and i have been hearing many super trancy house and techno tracks. i sense a prog trance 2.0 wave about to hit. people are tired of this hipster nonsense that has been doing the rounds for so long now, producers are rediscovering melody. |
|
|
| rubez |
i was being facetious of course. but now i've said it, watch it come to pass :happy2:
pretty sure joof said something to this effect on here once and you rubbished him.
can you imagine, ferry corsten etc turned back to being credible again? not impossible, as the casual EDM crowd will latch onto the next big thing when it comes, and that may not even be dance music.
the gap is already being bridged from the techno/progressive end. |
|
|
| SYSTEM-J |
J00F's trance isn't coming back. He was banging that drum about an imminent resurgence of underground trance back in 2012, and five years on nothing has changed. The actual trance scene is a lost cause.
What's really happening is techno and house are becoming very trancey again. The sound is being reinvented at 123bpm. |
|
|
|
|
