Breakbeats played a large part in the birth of dubstep, what with the whole breakbeat garage thing, but they’ve fallen by the way-side as producers have come to favour more sinuous, minimal rhythms. Everything sounds so bloody crisp and sleek these days, there’s an international shortage of grit. It was a wonderful surprise, then, to hear the “king of swing”, Sully – a producer much-lauded for the gamine garage skip he brings to his tracks – delivering a properly rough, funky-drummer breakdown on his recent single, ‘In Some Pattern’. This off-hand flourish from the Norwich producer showed the malleability and versatility of the hardcore-style break, and its power if used judiciously.

‘In Some Pattern’ reminded me of the not massively well-known Groove Chronicles track ‘Blakjack’ – featured in this recent Deadboy mix – in its elegant, show-and-tell affirmation of garage’s hardcore lineage. Delving further into the past, Punch Drunk’s Unearthed reissue imprint has already re-pressed some all-time breakbeat classics that feel particularly pertinent to now; both, inevitably, have Rob Smith at the helm. One is Smith’s solo track ‘Living In Unity’, a thunderous roots-rave track for which the overused phrase “Bristol soundsystem classic” is made, and especially Smith & Mighty’s ‘Bass Is Maternal’ and ‘U Dub’ -  thunderous hardcore breaks fed through the skunk-sticky dub grinder.

I don’t want to write yet another of my love-letters to T++, but no discussion of the contemporary breakbeat would be complete without some mention of his intimidatingly impressive work. Along with Robert Henke, whose Monolake project he’s a floating participant in, Torsten Pröfrock has been exploring the inner-workings of post-jungle rhythm for many years. His tracks balance extraordinarily brittle, rimshot-oriented top-end with canyon-deep bass; if you haven’t already, be sure to check out the B-side to his 2009 Apple Pips release, ‘Audio1995#8_2′ – a masterful slice of 140bpm drumfunk, it’s his most explicitly breakbeat-derived work. Meanwhile the more recent ‘Test#10Seed_Bit’, from Monolake’s ‘Atlas’ remix 12″, betrays a debt to the classic d’n'b minimalism of Krust’s Genetic Manipulation. Look out for his forthcoming EP for Honest Jon’s, another bold step forward for a producer who’s never looked back.

Manchester’s Modern Love crew have been doing more than their fair share to revive the breakbeat – way back in 2005, prior to their more streamlined dub-techno tackle, Pendle Coven were on a definite jungle-techno tip with the brilliant ‘R.E.S.P.E.C.T.’. Lately Pendle’s Miles Whittaker has been teaming up with Andy Stott for the Millie & Andrea / Daphne releases, which occasionally venture into breakbeat territory – see ‘Temper Tantrum’/'Vigilance’ and particularly the recent ‘Ever Since You Came Down’ which teams tough, cut-up hardcore drums with helium vocal clips, but adds a textural depth and definition we’ve come to associate more with dubstep. Then, of course, there’s the HATE series – founded especially to showcase hardcore and early jungle sounds, and appearing  to take 2 Bad Mice’s ‘Waremouse’ as their gospel and starting-point. They’re all brilliant, if sometimes a little too intense and claustrophobic for their own good; pay special heed to 001, ‘Darkcore’/'Injustice’, and 004, ‘Triple Bypass’/'Submariner’.

There’s definitely an appetite for breakbeats on 2010′s forward-thinking dancefloors, i.e. away from zones of d’n'b populism and solipsism  – listen to any Jackmaster DJ set, for example, and you’ll hear ‘em all over the shop, albeit usually cuts from B-more and UK rave’s yesteryear rather than the modern-day. The number of contemporary producers making innovative breakbeat-based tracks is, alas, still small, but I suspect that number will increase. Whether from the “fashionable” Euro-techno axis – Mike Dehnert, TVO, Ben Klock and Horizontal Ground all hint at breakbeats on their recent productions – or the more fluid and open-minded domain of post-dubstep Britain, a change is definitely going to come. It’s time to renovate and radicalise the breakbeat once more. Don’t fear the funky drummer, but for god’s sake be sure to employ him wisely.

DON’T FEAR THE BREAKBEAT: 10 PERSIES FROM DAYS GONE BY

1. Rufige Cru – Believe (Reinforced, 1992)
Piano chords jacked from ‘Strings of Life’, chipmunk vocals and the best swung beat-drop ever, and it’s on the flipside of the mighty ‘Darkrider’. Had something to do with that bloke off Maestro.

2. La Funk Mob – Motorbass Gets Phunked Up (Richie Hawtin Electrofunk Remix)
(from Casse Les Frontieres, Four Les Tetes En L’Air EP, Mo’Wax, 1994)
Remember when Richie Hawtin was a god?

3. Krust -  Genetic Manipulation EP (Full Cycle, 1997)
Epic Full Cycle rollage from (relatively) late in the day. A Peverelist favourite.

4. Source Direct – The Crane (Source Direct, 1996)
Intense Amen-based outing from the days when d’n'b was future-facing.

5. 2 Bad Mice – Waremouse (Moving Shadow, 1991)
Ultra-minimal, bad-ass junglist hardcore – unbeatable.

6. Smith & Mighty – Bass Is Maternal (More Rockers, 1995)
And the gear in Bristol is very strong.

7. 69 – Desire (Planet, 1995)
The greatest techno track of all time? Breakbeat romanticism writ large.

8. A Guy Called Gerald – 28 Gun Bad Boy (Columbia, 1991)
Similar drum sounds to ‘Waremouse’, but with a Manc ragga vibe all its own. Arguably less essential than Black Secret Technology, but more front.

9. Liquid – Sweet Harmony (XL, 1992)
Bright pink rave bubblegum – if you don’t like this, you’re not human.

10. The Black Dog – Vir2L (Black Dog Productions, 1989)
Classic from the very early days, when reflective, mellow breakbeat techno seemed totally fresh and totally sustainable. Then someone breathed the words: ‘Eye. Dee. Em.’.

Kiran Sande

Thanks to Benedict Bull, Serge and Chris Farrell

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