- Amen break
The "Amen break" (usually pronEng|ɑːˈmɛnFact|date=May 2008) was a drum solo performed by Gregory Sylvester "G.C." Coleman.
The "Amen Break", "Amen", or imitations thereof, are frequently used as sampled
drum loops in hip hop, jungle,breakcore anddrum and bass music. It is 5.20 seconds long and consists of 4 bars of the drum-solo sampled from the song "Amen, Brother" as performed by the 1960sfunk and soul outfitThe Winstons . The song is an up-tempo instrumental rendition of an oldergospel music classic. The Winstons' version was released as a B-side of the 45 RPM 7-inch vinyl single "Color Him Father " in 1969 on Metromedia (MMS-117), and is currently available on several compilations and on a 12-inch vinyl re-release together with other songs byThe Winstons .The Amen Break was used extensively in early hiphop and sample-based music, and became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music--"a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures" [ [http://www.garagespin.com/archives/the-amen-break-a-6second-drum-loop-continues-to-make-music-history.html The Amen break's impact on history] ]
Royalties
As with many samples, neither the performer, drummer G.C. Coleman, nor the
copyright owner Richard L. Spencer, the Grammy-award winning composer and performer of the hit "Color Him Father ", has ever received any royalties for the pirated sampling. Fact|date=August 2008.Early fame
The song itself achieved fame within the hip hop and subsequent
electronic music communities when former Downstairs Records' employee known as Breakbeat Lenny compiled it onto his 1986 "Ultimate Breaks and Beats " bootleg series for DJs. Lenny hired Louis Flores to edit four bars of the drum break at much slower speed than the remainder of the song. Although it created a jarring difference in tempo in the center of the song, it allowed Hip-Hop DJ's to extend the beat by switching between two copies of the record on two separate turntables at a danceable tempo while ignoring the rest of the song (this technique was created byKool Herc in 1974 and became a trend at large in 1977 with the efforts ofGrandmaster Flash ) . By 1987,E-mu released theSP1200 sampler , altering Hip-Hop production techniques from drum machines to sampled loops. Most producers began to mine their loops initially from "Ultimate Breaks and Beats " series, causing the Amen break to gain a massive amount of fame in the late 80s hip-hop community, crossing over to the U.K. and European dance music scenes shortly afterwards. Eventually, the song was reissued in its original form at a higher quality sound, and since most contemporary electronic music producers were speeding up the sample, the bootlegged slower edited version fell out of favor.Breakbeat hardcore
By 1990, at the height of British
rave culture, the Amen began to appear in an increasing number of so calledbreakbeat hardcore productions. Hardcore emphasized a unique, harsh, aggressive sound that drew strongly from hip-hop and earlyacid house . It added a hip-hop influence with the addition ofbreakbeat s and increased thetempo . A strongreggae andragga influence emerged in 1991/92, with uplifting piano melody loops or Jamaicanreggae samples used at normal speed layered on top of frenetic 150 to 170 BPM breakbeats. This sound quickly evolved to a point where sliced and diced drum breaks (featuring whacky time stretched snare rolls), in conjunction with low frequency bass lines (sub bass), became the important features of many tracks; a style that was initially referred to as Jungle but then later, as the style progressed, and the rhythmic elements were refined, the termdrum and bass was used to sum up the sound (which is quite literally what it was). Around the mid 1990s a number of so called IDM producers, who had been influenced by the Jungle/DnB sound, began to focus on the style and started exploring it in the context ofelectronica (making "danceable" club oriented tracks was not a prerequisite, in fact the more outlandish and obscure the manipulations, the more aesthetically pleasing the records were to aficionados - a trend that continues to this day in the form ofbreakcore ). The amen break can still be found in many productions and there has in recent years been a renewed interest in the "old-skool" Jungle style.Luke Vibert , one of the many IDM producers who has explored this break (other examples includeSquarepusher ), has released several records under the monikerAmen Andrews , using the Amen on every track, heavily sliced and edited (yet recognizable).Hip hop
It is also used by some cross genre artists such as
DJ Axera andGomanda and in manyhip-hop tunes, such asN.W.A 's "Straight Outta Compton ". The first Hip-Hop producer to dismember the drum sounds of the Amen break and reprogram them into a new pattern was Mr. Mixx of2 Live Crew on their 1987 song "Feel Alright Y'all" from the "Move Somethin"' album, followed by theMantronix sample-heavy track "King of the Beats" in 1988. The Amen break has also been used by rock music acts includingPerry Farrell Fact|date=January 2008,Nine Inch Nails Fact|date=January 2008 and quite frequently byThe Mad Capsule Markets . It can even be heard in the background of car commercials and television shows such as "The Amazing Race ", "Futurama ", and "The Powerpuff Girls "Fact|date=January 2008. Beginning drummers are often taught it as a first exercise. Fact|date=January 2008Other popular breaks
The Amen break's popularity probably lies in both the rough, funky, compressed style that the drums are recorded in as well as the "swing" and "groove" of the drummer who originally played the solo. The original song is also quite fast, making it more suitable for up-tempo music genres such as jungle and drum-and-bass. Additionally, it is easy to slice or rearrange with a sampler, thanks to the drummer's regularity. A few other popular drum and bass breaks are sampled from
Lyn Collins ' "Think (About It) ",Bobby Byrd 's "Hot Pants - I'm Coming, Coming, I'm Coming (Bonus Beats)",James Brown 's "Funky Drummer ",The Honey Drippers ' "Impeach the President", andThe Incredible Bongo Band 's "Apache", which were all 1970s Bronx breaks rekindled by theUltimate Breaks & Beats series of compilations in the 1980s. Other popular breaks which did not come out of the 1970s Bronx scene are: The 'Horizons' break which is mainly formed out of cymbals and splashes and the 'FireFight' break.Drumming tabs and notation
The first bar of the break goes:
K : KickR-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-----S--S-S--S--SK-K-------KK----
R : Ride cymbal
S : Snare drumReferences
External links
* [http://www.joejahnigen.com/grooves.htm Original recording and personal version on the beat]
* [http://www.rhythm-lab.com/huge-amen-breaks-collection 60 variations of Amen break in high quality]
* [http://free-loops.com/free-loops-find.php?term=Amen Amen Loop Samples]
* [http://www.knowledgemag.co.uk/features.asp?SectionID=1031&uid=&MagID=1062&ReviewID=1684&PageNumber=1 "Forever and Ever Amen" by Joe Madden, Knowledge Magazine]
* [http://nkhstudio.com/pages/popup_amen.html Video of an audio installation about the Amen break's history by Nate Harrison] ( [http://www.archive.org/details/NateHarrisonCanIGetAnAmen archive.org mirror] , [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac Youtube mirror] )
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