Granted botb. I see your point. Regardless, i’d still use expanded patterns with tempo shift effects where needed. I guess you need it all the time 
As for the vsnares love-in, i feel so far removed from it i’m not in a position to even discuss it. I will say though that i appreciated his old stuff better than the new, and his quieter more emotional stuff (his entire Winter in the belly of a snake album. I dunno how he can outdo that one) utterly demolishes his more straight up breakcoreish aggro things. I wouldn’t call Winter… a breakcore album as much as it is an album of electronic music, which is honestly what everyone should strive to make rather than scope out a genre for themselves and sit there happy.
I will say though that as far as i can read, botb says the fundamentals of breakcore are not more “difficult” than other genres, but demand more of your patience.
I totally agree. I was basically banned out of the #renoise irc channel once for saying this stuff, so i assume there’s a lot of breakcore fans in the renoise game. Anyway, here goes again.
I’ll say right off the bat that i’m not impressed with breakcore as a genre. There are standout acts (and what standouts!), but as a whole, the level of artistry is severely outdone by the level of showmanship. Which is great i guess. It’s a circus of a genre in terms of entertainment value, but it’s sorely lacking sounds that stick with you, and worse, will be remembered.
If you want to talk about difficult music, go listen to Gorecki, or Arvo Pärt. Go listen to some classical music, or what pop used to be (pre 80s in particular). If i can ever come close to an inch of what Gorecki accomplished with a few strings, a piano and a singer, i can die happy.
The core argument is that talent will still utterly obliterate patience in producing that core of humanity a piece of music needs to be special.
Breakcore, and by extension idm, are genres subject to that worst of all things you can come across as an artist; relativity. You can wail away on your technical skills all you want, but all you end up with is something that sounds equally good on the radio as it does in a club. Later, someone will outdo you technically, and everything you worked so hard for is gone. Fact of life, you will be outdone. There’s always someone with more weed, more time, more will. If the energy you put into your sound is melancholy; there’s always a bigger melancholic. If you’re angry; there’s always someone angrier.
Music is more complex than this, and by pandering to one particular element (manic technicality) you’re setting yourself up for basically nothing.
Why do we have stars in the breakcore scene? puts on asbestos suit
They do other stuff than breakcore, or they’re good DJs.
I don’t think snares would enjoy anywhere near the same following if all he did was cut shit up real good. His best work stands out not because of the programming, but from the fundamentals of the song. If you can strip away the drums and still have something memorable, signs are good.
Drop the lime is a spectacular live act that isn’t afraid to play with expectations. He is technically proficient, has an infectious sense of humor and a respect for, wtf, POP music that works extremely well to his advantage.
Lesson? Breakcore is just a word signifying cut up breaks/drums with a harder edge. If you want to actually get recognized, you need to be more than a breakcore artist. You need to be an artist. This goes for all scenes/genres.
maxhodges:
Yup, breakcore is easy to make. Nope, it’s not easy to do it well. I don’t see how this is a complicated concept to understand.
