The World of Breakcore
Written by Mrigank Singh; Edited by Sohaib Durrani
If I were to claim that Herbie Hancock had produced a drum & bass track, I might be met with skepticism, if not outright laughter. But Panepha says otherwise, it’s a track Herbie did with Method of Defiance on their Experimental Electronic album Inamorata.
The LP has a raw intensity. It is chaotic and aggressive, with smooth musical interplay between its production and performative elements. There is fluidity not just in its musical call and response but also the transitions between the different tracks within the album which feature revered artists across various different styles and genres. Karsh Kale on Aether meshing Tabla with drum breaks and Buckedhead on Babylon Decoder and Humanoid to name a few
This goes to show the potential in DnB and Breakbeat and its versatility, to be able to blend and break genre boundaries to say the least. A common thread throughout the article will be decoding the artist’s intent looking at the synergy between the production, composition and performative work to discover that very potential.
Breakcore however takes things even further, being abbreviated from Breakbeat Hardcore. Andrew Whelan puts it the best,
“Breakcore is a post-rave hybrid musical style privileging percussive intensity and complexity, which draws, among other things, on 8bit or chip tune music, drum & bass, gabber techno, heavy metal, hip-hop, IDM, industrial and jungle”
(Whelan)
Producers can take on varying aesthetics with the genre.
Let’s start off with Christoph de Babalon’s haunting dark ambient soundscape in My Confession, the song starts off with introducing us to the recurring atmospheric theme that sets the tone, followed by constant and intricate drum breaks, with what feels like a secondary motif with the choked hats that catch the listeners attention. Christoph successfully conveys dread and horror, as he set out to do.
“Everybody was raving a little bit back then I guess, but I hated this ‘positive’ bullsh*it at the time. I wanted to express darkness and terror.”
(“Introversion And Terror: Christoph De Babalon Talks – Ransom Note”)
Venetian Snares’ Hajnal seamlessly blends orchestral works with frenetic breakbeats, creating an aesthetic dissonance quite reminiscent of Igor Stravinsky’s work, something that seems to be intended with the choice of sampling, ‘Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet’ (Stravinsky), perhaps used as pastiche. His work on Rossz Csillag Alatt Született highlights the highly sample based nature of breakcore, not just for the drum breaks but for orchestral, harmonic and melodic elements as well, opening up the conversation about the perception of electronic music and musicians by the industry and its stakeholders. This tension mirrors the larger debate about composition in electronic music—how much of it is ‘arranged’ versus ‘produced’?
“producer has rather distant and anonymous qualities: one does not generally speak of ‘bedroom musicians’ or ‘bedroom composers’ ”
(Whelan)
Whelan speaks of how electronic music is considered to be “produced” rather than “arranged” or “composed”, even though all three operate in tandem, especially in today’s day and age. Hopefully this perception shall get blurrier moving forward as genre boundaries get thinner and musicians develop more skills, collaborate and experiment.
This becomes apparent when looking at Igorrr, an artist that fuses breakcore with heavy metal and baroque music. His song Tout petit moineau, is a great example of artist collaboration with other performers to compose new material rather than just sample, as he collaborates with Benjamin Violet and Laure Le Prunenec for strings and guitars respectively. Their operatic vocals and subtle strings add to the song’s aesthetic and texture in an organic fashion, demonstrating how their approach further challenges the traditional distinction between a ‘composer’ and a ‘producer’. However it is important to note that even then, Igorrr doesn’t shy away from sampling completely as the main piano melody is taken from Beethoven’s Piano Trio in E-flat major, Op. 1 No. 1.
A still from ‘Downgrade Desert’ by Igorrr; Image Copyright: Svarta Photography
Sampling as a practice is engrained in Breakcore and DnB’s DNA, and shying away from it would be antithetical to the sound itself which is bolstered by the fact that sampling led to the conception of these genres as we know them. All of the songs in the article have the Amen Break (The Winstons), in fact it is safe to say that it is the signature sound of the genre itself.
Drum Transcription of the Amen Break
“these artists gravitated toward the short drum solo on ‘Amen, Brother,’ a 1969 B-side by a Washington D.C. soul outfit called The Winstons. So essential that it’s almost impossible to conceive of jungle or drum & bass without it, the Amen Break is the percussive backbone of countless tracks and the source of many of the genre’s idiosyncrasies.”
(Rihn)
Finally, there’s a new wave of modern breakcore that’s made the genre more synonymous with hyperpop and glitchcore, in many ways differing notably in spirit from what’s come before, in the same way that phonk is now synonymous with dance music rather than trap (Ward et al.). Artists like Goreshit and Sewerslvt take a more textural, lo-fi approach, often incorporating elements of shoegaze and vaporwave into their sound.
This is the sound that may very well be associated with Breakcore by future audiences. It’s a thought that I personally found somewhat disconcerting—not because this new sound is lacking in quality, but because I had hoped for the legacy of older Breakcore and its defining sonic characteristics to be expanded upon and refined, rather than undergoing a fundamental shift. However, I later came to realize that this perspective was both misguided and somewhat immature. I found solace in the understanding that the music I love and admire will always be there for me to revisit, and that resistance to change is a natural human tendency—one that shouldn’t dictate the evolution of musical genres.
This transformation of Breakcore—its evolution from underground experimentalism to new mainstream influences, can be understood through the concept of Genre Synecdoche and Genre Drift. Just as DnB and jungle borrowed from jazz and reggae, modern Breakcore borrows from pop, classical, and internet culture, redefining itself with each generation.
The question of whether electronic musicians are “producers” or “composers” will likely persist, but as genre boundaries blur, so too will these definitions.
Works Cited:
Defiance, Method Of. Panepha. 1 Oct. 2007, https://audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com/itunes-assets/AudioPreview125/v4/4b/ee/8f/4bee8fba-c25f-f57a-c4f3-46bb3a4718c3/mzaf_9192422114100256487.plus.aac.p.m4a.
“Introversion And Terror: Christoph De Babalon Talks – Ransom Note.” Ransom Note, https://www.facebook.com/theransomnote, 19 Aug. 2021, https://www.theransomnote.com/music/interviews/introversion-and-terror-christoph-de-babalon-talks/.
Snares, Venetian. Hajnal. 14 Mar. 2005, https://audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com/itunes-assets/AudioPreview115/v4/17/9c/a7/179ca7cf-91f1-d7ac-c928-2c89c12092c7/mzaf_3794742425809494626.plus.aac.p.m4a.
Stravinsky, Mats Lofving &. Igor. 3 Pieces for Solo Clarinet. 1 Jan. 1989, https://audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com/itunes-assets/AudioPreview211/v4/77/1b/0b/771b0b58-0588-6b6b-28cc-f8235c746e9c/mzaf_10902709133015283480.plus.aac.p.m4a.
Whelan, Andrew. Breakcore. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009.
Tagg, Philip. “Towards a Sign Typology of Music.” (2015).
Ward, Andy, et al. “How a Global Crisis, Drift Racing and Memphis Hip-Hop Gave Us Phonk – the Music of the TikTok Generation | UniSC | University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.” UniSC | University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, https://www.usc.edu.au/about/unisc-news/news-archive/2024/april/how-a-global-crisis-drift-racing-and-memphis-hip-hop-gave-us-phonk-the-music-of-the-tiktok-generation? Accessed 10 Mar. 2025.
Defiance, Method Of. Aether. 1 Oct. 2007, https://audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com/itunes-assets/AudioPreview118/v4/b6/b4/1c/b6b41ce2-3751-5e46-56db-ae80360a1db0/mzaf_4705716815127854381.plus.aac.p.m4a.
—. Babylon Decoder. 1 Oct. 2007, https://audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com/itunes-assets/AudioPreview128/v4/7c/5b/c1/7c5bc116-dbd5-707a-c0bd-6822c052b42b/mzaf_1756535191421159033.plus.aac.p.m4a.
—. Humanoid. 1 Oct. 2007, https://audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com/itunes-assets/AudioPreview125/v4/40/fb/2b/40fb2b5d-bea9-42f2-54a5-65633945e8c8/mzaf_9510449364640363637.plus.aac.p.m4a.
The Winstons. Amen, Brother. 15 Dec. 1969, https://audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com/itunes-assets/AudioPreview125/v4/56/71/6f/56716f11-75a4-8f81-7903-ee9e5a7cfae3/mzaf_7127082136266884505.plus.aac.p.m4a.
Rihn, Joe. “Beatport’s Definitive History of Drum & Bass.” A Platform for and by Music Creators | Beatportal, https://www.beatportal.com/articles/4445-beatports-definitive-history-of-drum-bass. Accessed 29 Mar. 2025.
Goreshit. Fine Night. 1 Nov. 2011, https://audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com/itunes-assets/AudioPreview125/v4/5b/18/b3/5b18b337-d5d7-909c-5caf-36c7c34eb5b5/mzaf_4055129869456060747.plus.aac.p.m4a.