My personal history into electronic music from the casual to the more serious (some might say obsessive) starts with breakbeats; from drum ‘n’ bass and jungle to 135/140 bpm breaks and breakstep.

Baobinga (himself a member of the breaks/breakstep scene from its early manifestations) put together this 34 minute fast cut and somewhat essential sound lineup covering some of the core tracks of ‘breakstep’ spilling over into some dark garage and grime inspired plates.

Some have debated (internet and back room chin stroking mostly) and discussed the sonic makeup of the genre, where it started and so on. Some believe it to be a recent thing that followed the rise of dubstep, others know it existed before and was if you excuse the pun, instrumental in the early dubstep dubs.

To be honest it doesn’t really matter as much as some balding 30 something blokes might have you believe. What does matter, in the context of me writing this piece, is Baobinga, Sam Simpson to his mum, knows how to pick a deep dark rolling selection laying down many classics of the genre. From Mark One, Darqwan’s huge Said The Spider, Plastician when he was still Plasticman (which confused me as the first 12″ of his I bought I bought blind thinking it was the work of Richie Hawtin’s Plastikman). To Zinc’s alias Jammin’, Search and Destroy, the mighty Vex’d, the much applauded and still sought after Freeze instrumental from Grime kingpin Wiley; Geeneus, early Skream and finally ending up Loefah’s Twisup VIP with a remix lick from Youngsta and Task.

So there we go. Put together for the good folk over at Crazylegs.
“Although it never really got the props it deserved, the music loosely known as breakstep is one of the defining influences on what I do. Chopped up drums with a slight jungle / dnb edge (without being referential to the point of parody), plenty of bass, but with the mid-range held back enough to imply darkness rather than pile the rage on with a spade, and a bit of swing and bounce to the beats to link it with the emerging dark garage and dubstep scenes. J Da Flex’s much-missed show on 1Xtra was the place for the weekly update on these bits, and one of my career highlights is the fact that J played one of my bits on his mix for John Peel’s show way back when.

Anyway, all these tunes kind of came out as garage was dying, grime was starting to move away from hype instrumentals into more MC-dominated territory, and as dubstep was still figuring out what it was supposed to sound like – ie. a time of massive musical flux. Which is sort of where we’re at right now – in a bit of a state of flux, not entirely sure where things are going to go next… So this mix is a bit of tribute to the last time things felt like this. All done on vinyl, and for some random reason on a rotary mixer, which is categorically NOT the right kind of mixer for this kind of stuff!”

Baobinga’s Breakstep Brukout
Listen

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Mos Def, Nate Dogg, Pharoah Monche – Oh No (DJ Hype remix)
Darqwan – Cold Symptoms
SLT Mob – Stopper
Chase & Status – Wise Up
Mark One – Rain Dance
Shimano – Blues
Darqwan – Said The Spider
Bogeyman vs DJ Lombardo – Through The Keyhole
Wiley – Flat Derik
Plasticman – Anger
Darqwan – Taiwan Ink
Shimano – Roll The Drums
Jammin – Hold On
Search & Destroy – Mark Of The Beast
Wiley – Freez Instrumental
Vex’d – Lion
Geeneus – The Journey (Shimano remix)
Fyrus – Jaws
Daluq – Supafine
Skream – Who R Those Guys
Loefah – Twisup VIP (Youngsta & Task remix)