Just sort of an opinion poll. I wondered what people’s perspectives on this was:
When I got started making breaks-based music, I was listening primarily to guys like Amon Tobin, who uses the classic dnb breaks (amen, think, funky drummer) occasionally but also uses lots of breaks that seem to be “found” outside the regular canon.
Since that’s the case I’ve spent lots of time crate digging, sampling breaks that seem novel to me. (Novel meaning: Maybe others have sampled them in the past, but not that I have heard.) Then I cut them up using the techniques that people typically use for cutting up Tramen breaks, etc.
But in my listening lately, it seems like it’s less common for people to do that than it is for people to reuse the same breaks over and over. The amen seems more popular than ever, for example.
So my question to you is: what’s your opinion, aesthetically, on the practice of using the same breaks that other artists use? How is it justified? Is it because of a long, proud tradition? Is it because you don’t have the raw materials to find your own? Is it because you want to demonstrate that you can cut up a classic break in a way that is comparable or superior to the existing body of music that uses that break? Or do you go the other route, digging through old records and/or rolling your own break some other way? Why go to the trouble?
Explain yourselves.
P.S. BONUS QUESTION: Does the Squarepusher song “Tetra-Sync” end with 2 minutes of drum noodling because Tom Jenkinson wants people to sample it?
Good topic, I’m questionning myself a lot about that in this time.
Will this side of the electronic music go ahead if we always use the same breaks ?
I think that the best way to do is to consider every sound you want to put in your songs, and to ask yourself for each of them : what do I want to “tell” with that particular sound ? What must I use (sampling, a break, recording a sound, synthetize it) ?
Actually this process has to be unconscious, but sometimes it’s important to remember it.
Anyway this is the way I work, so my answer is : I use or create a synth when I want to have a certain type of sound, and so on for the sampling.
BONUS QUESTION : I don’t really know why did he put those two “drums minutes”, but what I can say is that this song is (one of ?) my favorites from Squarepusher. By the way, do you think that he’s playing on the drums himself ?
Other linked thought : i’ve always wondered how much is the proportion between the sounds he samples from other artists and the sounds he records/synthetizes.
Sorry can’t vote for just one. If I have to I guess I’d say sequenced/synthesized beats because that’s what I use the most but I do all of those things. [except recording drums live as I don’t have the space or gear for that]