breakcore vs the united states

[jefffroz Profile]

what the fuck america.

in as few words, and as polite s i can since i dont feel like sounding like a pretentious whore, ...what...the fuck.....

im pretty new to this electronic shite. i say that because i know people who have been dj'ing jungle / drum and bass even before someone coined the term breakcore.....since 20 years ago.

with around 40 shows under my belt now world wide, from austria, and poland; to quebec, and detroit.....

why does it seem that people don't give a shit about this music scene in the states. i am from new york originally. a good mate of mine and I ssfinished touring around canada / usa days ago....

the gigs were complete shite compared to what we have both played in europe.

no contest. explain this. because i dont feel like sounding like one of those fuckers who blab about lalala EU is soooOoOoooo much better bla bla.

But the proof is in the pudding now? 600+ people. compared to 6, maybe 7 people including the promoter?

EU vs USA

bullshit or not? you be the judge.

i dont even want to get into canada, because toronto vs montreal was almost like baghdad is to switzerland.

high life!, too.... killing youself.

[avisupchurch Profile]

It's true.... I'm the only one who really actually likes this kind of music where I'm from. I've only met one other serious breakcore fan in person since I first discovered it about 3 years ago. Not sure why... just a strange phenomenon. One or two of my friends might play some Venetian Snares or Squarepusher when they get in the right mood (after I forced it down their throats for months first) but that's as far as it goes.

I'm surprised a bit by what you say about Toronto... I've been there quite a few times in the last year and it seems like they'd be much more into breakcore than the fucks that live around here. But then, I might be in about the WORST place in the northeastern US for breakcore (Long Island.) Billy Joel is from Long Island.

[fap* Profile Website]

.

due to the fact that it was not seen as a marketable form of music most of the US music industry totally ignored it.

besides most people in the USA have shit for brains and dont know a friggin thing about music or creativity.

.

[kvkvg Profile]

the us has never been as interested in dance as europians. but america has given us slayer, sonic youth, pixies, the threat of neuclear war, and the whopper. all pretty creative stuff.

the mainstream music scene in europe is just as repugnant as that in the us. if it wasn't we wouldnt have to endure cunts like the kiser chiefs and x-factor, which was an british invention (so fucking proud).

check out brainsodomy recordings, not much breakcore, but good people with a good open minded attitude to music. these people exist and are just as fustrated as we are.

[vank Profile Website]

its goin pretty good on the west coast, crews throwing partys in the bay area, to oregon.

[DJ Dijitol Junkey Profile]

I live in pittsburgh, pa. Home of the Xanopticon, so maybe this is why. But most of my friends like breakcore or at least dnb that's bridging on breakcore. I know at least 10 breakcore DJ/Producers in my general area. There are breakcore parties often enough here. Not as often as raves, but often enough, and the numbers are growing. So I think you're just generalizing because you obviously haven't been here. We've had some big heads have parties here. DuranDuranDuran and Door Mouse are the only two that I've seen. But freakin Merzbow has even been here. You just have to open your eyes and reach out to find out who is into it.

[Thallium Profile]

We've had some big heads have parties here. DuranDuranDuran and Door Mouse are the only two that I've seen.

Yeah but they're rubbish and DDD is from PA anyway.

But freakin Merzbow has even been here.

Merzbow has been everywhere.

So I think you're just generalizing because you obviously haven't been here.

Uh, how do you know he hasn't?

[vank Profile Website]

merzboaconstricter.

[DJ Dijitol Junkey Profile]

We've had some big heads have parties here. DuranDuranDuran and Door Mouse are the only two that I've seen.

Yeah but they're rubbish and DDD is from PA anyway.

But freakin Merzbow has even been here.

Merzbow has been everywhere.

So I think you're just generalizing because you obviously haven't been here.

Uh, how do you know he hasn't?

breakcore is not something that is radio/club friendly. You aren't going to find snares or fucking like fucking drumcorps on the next candy kid party list. It's very demented crowds that are too jaded for plain old dnb. It's something you have to look for.
P.S. DDD is the shit. DM might suck on cat piss in the basement of meat grinding factories, but it's a step in the right direction. Most of the people I know that went to see him had a pretty good time. And everyone loves Xanopticon.

[nukalur Profile]

i live in america. The 'breakcore' scene, and 'scenes' in general have some issues surviving and thriving here. There are a number of issue unique to any given region or specific underground music scene here, yet there are a few common problems.

1. the united states is huge. There are 50 states in this country, 1 of which is seperated from the rest of the continent by canada and another by 1/2 the pacific ocean. The other 48 occupy an absolutely huge landmass, stretching roughly 1500 miles (2500km) from mexico to canada, and an outrageous 3000 miles (4800km) from sea to shining sea.

2. there isn't a really cheap and fast way to travel between most big cities. There is an excellent interstate system, however it is relatively slow (65mph, 100kmh), costly in terms of fuel, and in general not a good way to frequently travel between two distant cities for just a night or weekend. As stated earlier, big cities, cities worth travelling between, are often pretty far from either other. There are some busing options, greyhound and such, and while it may be something more people should consider, its not that popular. There is amtrack, and while it may be used in certain regions where people commute hundreds of miles daily to work in a city like New York, its really nothing compared to european passenger rail systems. Finally there is flying. Now at this point you may be saying 'well it seems like there are ways to travel in america' you have to understand things like amtrack and greyhound and southwest airlines seem to be more geared to indviduals that know where they need to be well in advance, either as a result of a routine (like commuting for work) or a planned vacation. Rates vary quite a bit depending on travel day (weekend or weekday) and especially advanced notice. The point is this, if i find out about a show in detroit 2 days from now, the only real affordable option I have is driving the 166 miles. [otherwise i'd likely have to rent a car when i got off the bus/train/plane see #3](maybe a low-res jam at the gold nugget on cas ave.

3. most US cities have either no viable mass public transit system or limited at best. Few US cities have developed city train or subway systems, certainly only chicago and new york come to mind as places where your shoes can easily get you where the subway or L cant. Lots of US cities have local bus routes. Some of them are pretty good. Great for getting workers to the heart of the city, not so good at getting you back to your nice quite side of town, on the other side of town, at 2am. In this city for example, only one or two routes run with any frequency at night. There maybe one route that runs till the bars close at 2:30am, it makes pretty much a straight shot at a certain time down a single road. I dont think this is a year round or even 7 day a week thing.

4. police in the US are insane, especially post 9-11. Electronic music is equated to drug use and drug trafficking cause of the hype surrounding raves (investigative tv reports and idiot fucked up loudmouth kids). This means that they can do whatever they want, like swoop out of helicopters with automatic weapons and similar paramilitary tactics (probably not a new thing if you are in europe unfortunately), worst case scenerio its homeland security practice, best case scenerio they took money out of the hands of terrorist by snatching a few bags of pot or grams of whatver.


put this all together and you should be able to see while there are people that not only listen to and produce 'breakcore' and other 'underground' genres dont have huge events showcasing said music. However I still got to listen to quite a bit of the stuff pretty early on thanks to the place i happenned to be (thanks ele-mental, especially ed luna). I remember hearing praxis particular pretty early on. I got to see bambule, christoph fringeli, hectate, scud, somatic responses, too many to remember, and this is roughly starting in 1998?

The point is this, we have been listening in the states for quite some time. Its hard to get a lot of people together here on a regular basis unless it involves something more tangible than underground music. When you strip away the lights and drugs and fashion and culture and just want to listen to the music, you start to find yourself alone when you got 3 hours there and 3 hours back in the dead of night at some hole in the wall bar to go checkout that show. I dunno, i'd love to see lots of people going crazy to breakcore, but at the same time i lived through a chunk of the rave scene here, and while i hesistate to speculate, i still have a notion that people are mostly people, and the more people that get together, the less important stuff those people have in common. I guess maybe i'm not missing much?

There was a time when everyone went to raves cause it was cool and it was going on and people were doing drugs and whatever. It resulted in cult followings around mediocre dj performer, relative obscurity for the producers, drugs drugs, kids, drugs, kids, money in all the wrong hands.

I'm glad that fad, the trend, it died, but the music survived. you cant really kill good music i suppose. I cant help suspect that perhaps the spike in popularity in breakcore reflects something other than a genuine interest in the music. Perhaps the timing is right, social unrest, youth seeking a unique identity seperate from their elders, cool people trying to be cool, whatever things cause things to be popular, i fear that has more to do with the current state of music (as always) than the actual music itself.

However, these artists that have been feeding my dreams and nightmares, they deserve some recognition and reward from the masses, without regard to why the masses are there and listening. I'm glad they have an audience and a market.

finally, i just want to be clear, while i'm essentially saying that i suspect people are dumb and this is the ebb and flow of culture and the cult of style, i dont want this essential truth (imo) to overshadow the accomplishments, appeal, talent, and skill some artists have exhibited in making the current state of breakcore, drumnbass, or whatever it is you listen to. i mean as i stated at the beginning, i dont think its unique to one genre or scene, its the way it goes, one decade or so its punkrock and motown, next decade glamrock and synthpop, then its r&b and rap, i dunno, nothing stays new forever, nothing stays fresh. The masses demand new and fresh, the masses have a short attention span.