Breakbeat Hardcore
By 1990, at the height of British rave culture, the Amen break began to appear in an increasing number of breakbeat hardcore productions. Hardcore emphasized a unique, harsh, aggressive sound that drew strongly from hip-hop and early acid house. It added a hip-hop influence with the addition of breakbeats and increased the tempo. A strong reggae and ragga influence emerged in 1991 and 1992, with uplifting piano melody loops or Jamaican reggae 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 in conjunction with low frequency bass lines became the important features of many tracks. This style was initially referred to as Jungle but later, as it progressed and rhythmic elements were refined, the term drum and bass became more common. Around the mid 1990s a number of IDM producers, who had been influenced by the Jungle/DnB sound, began to focus on the style and started exploring it in the context of electronica. 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 of breakcore. The Amen break can still be found in many productions and there has been a renewed interest in the "old-skool" Jungle style in recent years. Luke Vibert, one of the many IDM producers who has explored this break, has released several records under the moniker Amen Andrews, using the Amen on nearly every track, heavily sliced and edited, yet recognizable.
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