Obscure Noise or More? Unpacking the Genre of Breakcore

In May 2003, an album titled Nymphomatriarch was released under the label Hymen records. This album was the result of a collaboration between two artists, Venetian Snares and Hecate. Every track in this album used samples only from recordings of both these artists having sex. This was a music album, publicly released, and belonging to a genre known as ‘breakcore’. How would something like this even be considered music? What is musical about it? The term ‘breakcore’ first emerged in the mid-1990s and has evolved over its existence of over three decades. The status of breakcore as a music genre has been highly debated with views ranging from it being purely a musical style to it being a sub-genre to it just being an off-shot of other similar genres of that time. Through discussions about its creation, stylistic features, consumption, and evolution, this essay will present the genre of breakcore in music and why it qualifies to be one. We’ll first start with a fundamental understanding of genres.

In literature, a genre is a category. Generally, genres have common characteristics shared by texts in that category. These characteristics can range from length of text to content. Examples of popular literary genres include horror and magical realism. Similarly in music, we have genres which categorise different pieces of music on the basis of some shared characteristics. In music, these characteristics range from content (e.g. rhythm, pitch, lyrics) to cultural contexts (e.g. historical background). Popular musical genres include jazz, rock, funk etc.

Breakcore was a music genre which began much before the spread of music streaming services and global internet accessibility. The earliest trace of breakcore was in the underground music scene in London around the 1990s. Underground music scenes fundamentally mean the work is not publicly or popularly available. Particulars about the early state of breakcore are hard to come by since the genre does not hold mainstream popularity. Breakcore’s distinctive sound and style were influenced by genres that thrived in that particular underground scene, notably breakbeat hardcore and jungle (two of its ‘parent’ genres). The particulars of these genres that breakcore took inspiration from or borrowed will be discussed later but the genre picked up recognition in countries like USA, France and Italy soon. The development of the internet and digital technology in music heavily impacted the genre with new online communities, platforms and tools for artists resulting in its evolution from an underground genre to the niche internet genre it is today.

So, what does breakcore sound like? The genre’s cultural context and influences from other genres have informed its sonic characteristics. The genre has expanded widely from its underground roots but three primary features have remained at its core: high tempos, diverse sampling, and energetic breakbeats. Tempo is speed/pacing of music and is calculated in Beats Per Minute (BPM) where a beat fundamentally means the pulse that a song follows. Breakcore songs usually lie between 160 to 250 BPM. Sampling in breakcore ranges from sources like classical music, video games, older rave music etc. Instead of being merely included in new tracks, samples were manipulated, cut, and rearranged to match the rhythm of the breakbeats used. These breakbeats themselves were sampled from earlier recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats are easily the most defining characteristic of breakcore because of the genre’s heavy reliance on it. These rapid drum loops are chopped and rearranged to form complicated and intricate rhythmic patterns. Effects like distortion, reverb, and chorus are added on to these loops as well. These three elements were inspired from its earlier mentioned ‘parent’ genres. The culmination of these features gives breakcore its aggressive and violent texture as well as its experimental sound design.

In 1969, The Winstons, an American soul group, released a track called “Amen Brother”. In this track, drummer Gregory Colemon performed a seven-second drum break which came to be called the ‘Amen’ break. This break became one of the most sampled tracks in history featuring in over a thousand tracks. Breakcore was one of the genres that sampled this one loop heavily. This choice has been made by so many breakcore artists that it alone is a recognizable building block of breakcore today. The Amen break is not exactly a feature of this genre but its extensive usage reflects on an attachment that the genre developed with it. A prime example of this is the track “anybody can find love (except you.)” by hkmori. This track combines the aforementioned break beat with a piano sample from “Sakura Nagashi” by Utada Hikaru. It was released in 2022 to widespread popularity because of its ‘chaotic’ usage of the Amen break and usage as background music on video edits found in social media (mainly TikTok and Instagram). Another example of a breakcore song is “Hajnal” by Venetian Snares. Venetian Snares is popularly considered the godfather of breakcore for his work in innovating and popularising the genre. “Hajnal” was released in 2005 and Hungarian classical music was used as samples in this track along with its rapid and chaotic breakbeats.

Two of the most recognized artists of this genre are Venetian Snares and DJ/rupture. Both artists came up around the same time and were not confined to just breakcore but have contributed significantly to the genre. Venetian Snares worked with breakcore music so much that his signature styles of highly diverse sampling and complex drums have become staple in breakcore. DJ/rupture also released multiple breakcore albums as well as inspired subgenres of breakcore as well as others. These ‘authors’ have shaped the genre and what it has become today but a lot of work in breakcore also goes unnoticed because of the small community which follows it. The genre has evolved continuously over the last three decades and continues to survive with new tracks and artists emerging in recent times. The internet and subsequent introduction of music streaming platforms has given the world a chance to engage with this genre but it still continues to hold a niche status, even among people who listen to electronic music, a larger category that breakcore falls under. In today’s world, breakcore survives mostly in forum sites such as Reddit and has acquired a global status far from its underground origins. Our discussions on this genre’s identity emphasise how it continues to live, shaped by the various artists and audiences that engage with it.

For a deeper look into works of breakcore, visit this link which details multiple songs of the genre with notes on each work: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/fighuass/rym-ultimate-box-set-breakcore/. For an interesting interpretation of the genre, check out this track which takes Indian song samples (not traditionally done in breakcore) for its composition: https://youtu.be/nr2PLu3CqHQ.