Category: Broken beat

  • …mixing album review – various artists (4hero)

    …mixing album review – various artists (4hero)

    The aim of this compilation is to “investigate the musical influences” of 4hero (aka Marc Mac and Dego) through an expansive selection of songs that spans J Dilla’s hip-hop breaks, the P-funk of Bootsy Collins, not to mention a smattering of retro electro and a dab of dub. For completist or new fans unfamiliar with […]

  • Broadcite Acetate album review – various artists

    Broadcite Acetate album review – various artists

    The Broadcite crew is a resourceful bunch that isn’t afraid to take risks. Years ago, when the collective set out to attract clubbers to its new broken-beat gigs, it didn’t hand out cheap flyers. Instead, it gambled by giving away pricier CDs that contained recordings of the fledgling night’s music. Likewise, when the gang launched […]

  • R.U.E.D.Y. album review – Flowriders

    R.U.E.D.Y. album review – Flowriders

    Vincent Helbers, the Dutch dude behind the Flowriders, appears intent on sabotaging his career. Take, for instance, his moniker. Flowriders sounds more like a lavatory cleaner than a cutting-edge band — it’s hardly memorable. R.U.E.D.Y.‘s opening interlude, The Story Part I, doesn’t help his cause, either. It’s a dated slice of Acid Jazz that’s followed […]

  • The Politik album review – Bêmbè Sêguè & Mark de Clive-Lowe

    The Politik album review – Bêmbè Sêguè & Mark de Clive-Lowe

    You might not have heard any debates or seen any rallies, but you’ll no doubt be already familiar with The Politik. For years, keyboardist Mark de Clive-Lowe and songstress Bêmbè Sêguè have elected to campaign on a soulful broken-beat ticket. With this in mind, you’d expect their musical manifesto to be awash with choppy, skewed […]

  • One Sweet Life album review – Brotherly

    One Sweet Life album review – Brotherly

    Even if you’re steeped in the hip environs of the leftfield music scene, you may not know of Robin Mullarkey and Anna Stubbs, aka Brotherly. Their anonymity will not doubt continue if, as Commercial Break’s been told, this CD remains misleadingly plonked in the R&B section of some stores. True, this is a vocal album, […]

  • Play With The Changes album review – 4hero

    Play With The Changes album review – 4hero

    Since 1998’s Twin Pages, Dego and Marc Mac (the producers behind 4hero) have been known for their refined blend of beats and strings, a mix that earned the pair a Mercury Prize nomination that same year. Since then, little has changed. The duo follow the if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it school of music — as evident on this album’s […]

  • Back In The Dog House album review – Bugz In The Attic

    Back In The Dog House album review – Bugz In The Attic

    Bugz in the Attic’s début album has been creating a huge buzz among those urban trendsetters who tune into jazz-dance shows such as Radio 1’s Worldwide. The west London producers are leading exponents of broken beat, an achingly hip niche that’s noted for its irregular rhythms which, as one DJ remarked, resemble ”the sound of […]

  • Return Of The Rogue album review – Domu

    Return Of The Rogue album review – Domu

    Not only is broken beat, musically speaking, a jazzed-up cousin of urban bad boy drum ‘n’ bass, but the scenes share further similarities. Both, for instance, spawn a sprinkling of decent singles, but only a few artists are entrusted to make an entire album. Luckily for Domu, he falls into that elite camp — and […]