All you 2-step bastards leave our planet..........

Love the title of the track by Paradox but i actually like some
2-step grooves. Anyone else feel this way?

[Statto]

Klute: Ahhh, the fave drum and bass argument - 2 step. I say bollocks to all those 2 step complainers out there. Explain to me exactly what 2 step is??? The way I see things is that there has always been a lot of artistry in drum and bass/jungle beat work... whether it was seriously churned up Amens and Helicopters or a finely tuned minimal machine like kick snare hat arrangement... there are good and bad examples of both. To say one is more drum and bass than the other is ridiculous... back in the days of rock you had John Bonham and Keith Moon... both totally different styles of drummer, both unique in their own rites, one stylish and minimal, the other wacked out and crazy. I think if producers wanted to make crazy breakwork then they would, I don't think it's stagnated... it's just come to mean something else. If you want to hear the old style of breakwork then there are plenty of good old records out there still to listen to... or you could check out my man Paradox... who is doing is own thing and in my eyes is the leading breakworker these days.

[subvert]

yeah, surely i would say paradox would also feel this way.......????

from my perception the title is aimed at the producers who make nothing but 2 step grooves.....as opposed to the monkeys who listen to it - they need to be left on earth to educate them...

i dunno, thats just the interpretation i arrived at when i first saw that track title...

[subvert]

or you could check out my man Paradox... who is doing is own thing and in my eyes is the leading breakworker these days.

Thats a Klute quote right statster?

whos your leading breakworker these days?

i'd disagree with klute, and ideally would love to see a collaboration between paradox and my idea of the leading breakworker.....which i dont think can be that far away now....

Tom is a good guy man and i agree totally with what hes said........

the thing about "all you 2 step bastards............" is that i dont presonally like the track and was well dissapointed because i love the title.........

[Statto]

Thats a Klute quote right statster?

sure thing. from The Upsetter talks to Klute

whos your leading breakworker these days?

as always... Danny Breaks
Paradox is a drum programmer rather than a breakworker.

The problem is not thet there can't be good twostep beats, but anything that doesn't conform to this pattern or the rinsed out amen has virtually no chance on the market.

[Statto]

The problem is not thet there can't be good twostep beats, but anything that doesn't conform to this pattern or the rinsed out amen has virtually no chance on the market.

With a two-step track the beats aren't the point. There's something else going on that makes it interesting (or there should be!)

I think in the right circumstances and using good sounds, 2-step breaks can be very effective. Prime example: Usual suspects remix of a Genotype tune that was on the 3 the hardway EP: On the final breakdown it kicks in with this 2-step break but it sounds wicked!!

The intro tune on in the mode is fat as well.

Its like anything really, just gotta know when to use it

[Statto]

i'd .... ideally would love to see a collaboration between paradox and my idea of the leading breakworker.....

so who's that then?

[subvert]

probably gonna sound a bit weird to most people who havent really heard what the man can really do with breaks - most of the tracks are unreleased (get him to send you a cd stat), but blue

probably gonna sound a bit weird to most people who havent really heard what the man can really do with breaks - most of the tracks are unreleased (get him to send you a cd stat), but blue

is it

[Statto]

probably gonna sound a bit weird to most people who havent really heard what the man can really do with breaks - most of the tracks are unreleased (get him to send you a cd stat), but blue

send me a cd, blue!

probably gonna sound a bit weird to most people who havent really heard what the man can really do with breaks - most of the tracks are unreleased (get him to send you a cd stat), but blue

send me a cd, blue!

is it

[Statto]

IS IT

enough!

IS IT

enough!

(whispers) is it?

probably gonna sound a bit weird to most people who havent really heard what the man can really do with breaks - most of the tracks are unreleased (get him to send you a cd stat), but blue

is it

dont sound so surprised pedro
i heard some of your breaks at a rave in jeruselum

[Statto]

(whispers) is it?

(whispers) is it?

well i may send you a cd or i may not.

[Statto]

well i may send you a cd or i may not.

pretty please!

:johnb

[subvert]

may it?

If Klute needs someone to explain to him exactly what 2-step is, then I shall:

2-step is a rhythm track defined by (and indeed bound by) its rigid placement of a snare on the 2nd beat of every bar.

There - that wasn't too hard was it?

Simple reasons why the rhythms in drum n bass have become embarrassingly conservative since 1997:

(1) The faster the music got, the less room there was to keep the frills and rolls in between the primary beats in drum n bass - hence they soon got pushed out of the way to make things 'cleaner' and 'neater'. Its the end result of anal studio logic.

(2) It's a piece of piss to mix and as producers took to the decks they found that they couldn't mix half the stuff they'd been making in the studio - hence the decision to dumb down when they returned to the studio after touring.

(3) Cut-up rhythms were too open-ended - they didn't provide the security of house or techno rhythms - in fact, they actively challenged that sense of security by keeping you on your toes. Hence many producers and DJs who'd been thru hardcore and then Jungle and were getting older while working 9 2 5 in the industry welcomed the acceptance of this new dumbed-down rhythm structure as the industry standard, cos it meant that everything became easier as it became less challenging

Of course there have been good 2-step records made. But in essence, drum n bass has lost its vocabulary - the most innovative, most unique and most defining aspect of its maturation period from 92 to 96. Thus the situation we have today - producers constantly scrambling for some other style to rip off lock stock & barrel (i.e. disco in 2002) - there's nowhere left to go IN the music itself because its native elements have been abandoned.

[subvert]

hoooooorah for naphta

so given theres nowhere to go, does that imply that d&b will:

a) die

b) carry on stagnating in its current form

c) start returning to its roots

answers on a postcard please....

so given theres nowhere to go, does that imply that d&b will:

a) die

b) carry on stagnating in its current form

c) start returning to its roots

d) Like every other underground music I know of, some will continue to think forward, some will stay in the past and a lot will become stale and stereotypical. DnB is dead, long live DnB!

It depends on the commitment of those involved in challenging the stagnancy...

It may of course, necessitate a further splinter as 175+bpm house/techno/trance dnb turns into... I dunno, whatever the fuck it turns into - hopefully something far away from me!!! Stadium dance-pop or something?

As for those of us who aren't interested in that road, looking in my crystal ball, I also foresee the necessity of reining in the BPMs in order to make sense of cut-up breaks for any nu-generation Virus kids who are tired of the latest mashing by Mampi Swift and want to get off the amphetamine conveyor belt.