Fancy Mag

Obscured Music
DJ Soul Punk Presents
DENIM, LEATHER & BREAKBEATS

“D.J. Soul Punk Presents Denim, Leather & Breakbeats” is the first in a series of compilations designed to celebrate the breakbeat within specific musical genres including Hard Rock, Glam, Psychedelic & Progressive Rock, Punk, New-Wave and Hardcore.

What is a breakbeat you might ask? The answer is in the name. It is simply the beat of the song; specifically at the "break" in the song when all the other musicians stop playing & let the drummer do his thing. A breakbeat is a solo drum part but not necessarily a drum solo. Drum solos are elaborately improvised passages, whereas a breakbeat is a stripped-down, repeating pattern reflecting the beat of the song. The breakbeat has been the inspiration for countless D.J.'s, who play the breakbeat back to back on two turntables to create the rhythm over which the M.C.'s rap and the B-Boys dance. It is the foundation & backbone of Hip Hop music and is most often sampled from something funky from the 60's or 70's.

Did James Brown invent the breakbeat when he said, “Give the drummer some!”? Probably, or at least most people would think so. Certainly we could trace it back further to at least Max Roach, if not marching bands and African tribal rhythms. Although the term itself must have been coined during the inception of Hip Hop, the breakbeat is as old as the drum.

Nate Harrison explains the importance of the Amen Break.

Do you feel like you’ve read this before? I do, in “Wax Poetics” perhaps, or some other D.J. nerd journal. Anyway, it’s the awesome power of the drum simply playing the beat of the song by itself that really gets ones’ ass shaking & head nodding. And it’s that power that not only propels the hottest, nastiest funk, soul & hip hop tracks, but also these classic rock tunes that you may not have realized you could bump to. So smoke some weed (optional), turn it up loud & dig these groovy sounds.

Denim, Leather & Breakbeats, kicks off with Atomic Rooster, seen on the cover in all their badass, heavy metal hippie glory. They also open the mix with a funky instrumental from their “In Hearing Of…” album from 1971. British band Stray are up next with an anthem for us common folk. No, that is not Joe Walsh on the James Gang track. It’s Bubba Keith, the band’s fourth guitarist. Tiger B. Smith are German, look glam but sound like Black Sabbath or Deep Purple. Titanic are Norwegian. Spooky Tooth feature Gary Wright, of “Dream Weaver” fame, on vocals. Bloodrock had a big AM radio hit with “D.O.A.” in 1971. Captain Beyond feature original Deep Purple singer Rod Evans (voice on “Hush”).

Humble Pie feature Peter Frampton. I, of course, had to include a Rolling Stones cover, which is courtesy of Mountain. Bedlam is a Cozy Powell band produced by Felix Pappalardi of Mountain. Everybody knows the Thin Lizzy classic. Juan De La Cruz could be the Philippino Grand Funk with Wally Gonzalez on guitar. Dust feature Marc Bell before he became a Ramone. Power of Zeus were on Motown subsidiary label Rare Earth. And last, but not least, The Move, with Roy Wood, of Wizard, and Jeff Lynne & Bev Bevan, of E.L.O., appropriately end this mix with the words, “Good night.”

Find this and other DJ Soul Punk comps at Academy Annex and Rockit Scientist Records, 33 St. Marks in the East Village.

Other DJ Soul Punk compilations from the same series dedicated to the breakbeat: