Corporeal Face, Ritual Poison commandante and all-round rave champ, served up a platter of breaky, bleepy goodness to get juices flowing before Saturday's Hooverian Blur EP Launch party. We generally recommend 4-5 tunes to be shared amongst friends for a full meal.
Warlock, aka Hooverian Blur, once sent me (Corporeal Face, hi) a demo track called 'Break Bleep V2'. Did he coin the term? Google's doubtful. There's an Austrian comp called 'Rave Breakbeat Techno' with a track 'Breakbeep' from the mysteriously named The Drake/Verhoeven Battle, a website for the seemingly defunct Break Bleep Records and a James Zabiela scratch record from 2005 with the section 'Filtered, Triggered Break-Bleep'.
Whatever the term's murky origins, we're using it again to describe Hooverian Blur's 'Phantom Space EP', out now on Ritual Poison, whose launch party happens at Rye Wax this Saturday. Welding together the influence of vintage breakbeats, bleeps and bass into modern minimalist forms, here are five break-bleep classics, old and new, to justify this flimsy conceit... (Careers have been forged on much less.)
check RP004 out here:
Phuture Assasins – 'I Like Techno' (1990)
Don't be fooled by the title. So called because the main bleep riff is copied from the bassline for Rhythim Is Rhythim's 1988 'It Is What It Is', Phuture Assasins (or Phuture Assassins as they became when they realised the spelling mistake) import the industrial sound of Sheffield to Essex, pulling the dancefloor between a jaunty top-line and a moodier bass sound. B-side 'Phuture Assasins Theme' also ticks the break-bleep boxes, coaxing Kraftwerk into a b-boy stance. Check Phuture Assasins' subsequent Suburban Bass releases for more breaky bleepiness.
Fozbee & Cooz - 'Free Your Mind' (1991)
Recently acquired for £5 thanks to eBay's saved search function (TIP!), Fozbee & Cooz's 'Free Your Mind' is deeper and more layered than your average break-bleeper, packing an emotional punch thanks to its succession of melancholic melodies. The opening has reached classic status thanks to being sampled, most notably by Future Sound of London's piano-rocking remix of Unity's 'Unity' and Shut Up & Dance's nu-school bumper 'Alcoholic Beans'.
The Ragga Twins – 'Shine Eye' (1992)
Speaking of Shut Up & Dance, Hackney's finest produced this '92 classic for long term partners The Ragga Twins. Apparently a favourite of Slimzee from back in the day, the Junior Reid (of 'One Blood' fame) featuring break-bleeper's influence also stretched across the Atlantic to New York's infamous 90s Storm Raves (you can hear it at 5:22 in this vintage footage). Discogs reckons there's even a techno edit from sample-king and Storm Rave founder Frankie Bones, which also sounds worth seeking out.
Dawl – 'Brutal Science' (2017)
Dawl, joint head (alongside Sween) of wicked UK label Tone Dropout, is the modern day master of dark bleeps and breakbeats, with a healthy dose of electro packed into his sound too. Just a couple of years ago he was still flying under the radar and this record seemed to have only been released in very small quantities in Italy. One listen to the EP's title track was enough to risk the Italian post (I once ordered a record from Italy in July and it arrived in December, true story), but it's since been repressed by popular demand.
Oolon - 'Double Vision' (2017)
It doesn't strictly have a breakbeat, but Oolon's 'Double Vision' packs a punch of clonky vibes and a heap of heavily broken groove, channeling UK bleep through the template of swinging German tech-house. The OFFFM comp it's on features another break-bleep candidate in the shape of Sir Benni Steil's surly 'Jesus hat Zeit'.
So there you have it, come to Hooverian Blur's 'Phantom Space' EP launch at Rye Wax on Saturday 30th, where you can hear Hooverian Blur, DJ Keyhole, A Boy From Outer Space, Local Group and label bosses BufoBufo & Corporeal Face, then demand some break-bleep from your local record store - hopefully also Rye Wax.