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Breakcore is a style of electronic dance music that emerged from jungle music, hardcore, and drum and bass in the mid-to-late 1990s. It is characterized by very complex and intricate and a wide palette of sampling sources played at high tempos.
In Europe, the breakcore genre was solidified by raves and club events such as Belgium's Breakcore Gives Me Wood, featuring local acts such as UndaCova and Sickboy; Breakcore A Go Go, in the Netherlands, which was run by FFF and Bong-Ra; as well as Anticartel, in Rennes, the seat of PeaceOff, and later, Wasted in Berlin and Bangface in London.
Breakcore has been subject to changing and branching. Many newer breakcore artists (such as Mochipet etc.) focus on melodic progressions and complex drum programming while other artists still focus on distorted hardcore breakbeats and dark-edged musical influences (such as heavy metal and industrial music). The artist Venetian Snares has produced breakcore blended with elements of classical music. "Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett" review, Tiny Mix Tapes Detrimentalist! review, "Soundcheck", The Wire 293, July 2008, p. 60. Other artists such as Shitmat, Sickboy, DJ Scotch Egg, and Drop the LimeVivian Host, "Night Music", XLR8R 123, December 2008, p. 40. take another direction towards mash-up, happy hardcore, and rave to make a lighter, more humorous sound. The rise of Chiptune music has also blended with breakcore with artists such as Tarmvred. The UK free party scene has also expressed a large interest in producing and distributing its own takes on breakcore, with crews and labels such as Life4land, Hekate, Headfuk, and Bad Sekta helping to push the scene and sound forward, as well as bringing over a number of international artists to play at their parties and club nights. Breakcore is steadily gaining in popularity, and aspiring artists are found scattered across the Internet.
Sociologist Andrew Whelan notes that Venetian Snares has become "synonymous with breakcore such that alternative styles are being sidelined." He adds that breakcore is the best example of a music genre whose development is intrinsically linked to online and peer-to-peer distribution.
Melodically, there is nothing that defines breakcore. Classic rave sounds such as acid house bass lines, Hoover sound and Reese bass are common, but breakcore is mostly known for sampling sounds from all over the musical spectrum to accommodate the frantic and fast-paced nature of the rhythm section. Around the turn of the century, more and more breakcore musicians began employing traditional synthesis techniques to compose elaborate melodies and harmonies. There are a growing number of musicians who make use of recorded live instrumentation in their music, such as Istari Lasterfahrer, Hecate, Benn Jordan, Ruby My Dear, Qüatros, Venetian Snares, Drumcorps, and Igorrr.
According to Simon Reynolds of The New York Times, "purveyed by artists like DJ/Rupture and Teamshadetek, the breakcore music combines rumbling bass lines, fidgety beats and grainy ragga vocals to create a home-listening surrogate for the '' vibe of a Jamaican sound system party. Others within the breakcore genre, like Knifehandchop, Kid606 and Soundmurderer, hark back to rave's own early days, their music evoking the rowdy fervor of a time when huge crowds flailed their limbs to a barrage of abstract noise and convulsive rhythm. It's a poignant aural mirage of a time when techno music was made for the popular vanguard rather than a Connoisseur elite, as it is today."
At the same time, Bloody Fist Records based in Newcastle, Australia, released many records of hardcore/gabber, industrial music, and noise. Artists signed to Bloody Fist in its lifetime include Syndicate, Xylocaine, Epsilon and Nasenbluten. Label founder Mark Newlands said, in 1997, "I think that the uncomfortableness also comes from a reaction towards the mainstream and popular culture that's constantly shoved down our throats, that's forced on the people via television, radio, mass media, etc. I think that also fuels the fire and keeps the aggressiveness there and the uncomfortableness."Interview in Datacide Three, October 1997 Newlands described their music as products of "cut'n'paste mentality" and an industrial environment. In her Experimental Music, Gail Priest credits the label as recognized globally for its contributions to the breakcore genre, and for spurring its 1990s development. The Bloody Fist sound became breakcore from what was the noise genre, with added elements of high beats per minute and "extreme", thick, low-fi textures". By way of example, Nasenbluten's 1996 Fuck Anna Wood exemplified this style with controversial public affairs audio samples collaged into dialogue atop early hardcore beats.
Formed in 1994, Digital Hardcore Recordings released music by artists such as Alec Empire, Shizuo, Atari Teenage Riot, EC8OR, and Bomb20, shaping the breakcore sound. This label is also responsible for digital hardcore, a genre developed simultaneously to breakcore. The Alec Empire album The Destroyer is often noted as the first breakcore album.
English producer Shoebill has noted that autism, and especially its interaction with gender identity, has influenced "almost everyone" they know in the breakcore scene.
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