#nu breaks

Tracklist:

S・E・G・A • SEGABBA (STILL SEGA JUNKY) • Puyo Puyo Fever • UFO CATCH • Master Drive • Flying Battery Zone • Ravebreak Sino*B • Space_Squilla • GG古代編(NBBB MIX) • Lucia's song (Advanced Busterhawk Mix) • D.T.USB • Brain Catcher • HARD TO PLAY • purple stalactite (green stalagmite mix) • Speed Sonic • Have goddess on your wings. • Errbody ☆HOP☆ Around

Submitter's Note: A note of context; whilst in America/Europe, Nerdcore is a term associated with Rap/Hip Hop with lyrics that reference "nerdy" interests, within Japanese indie/doujin music, it refers to a broad movement of independent music of varying electronica genres that often sampled, bootlegged, remixed, or was otherwise associated with some form of media. The term also predates its American/European use, dating back to at least the 90s. Some of the musicians featured on this compilation are veterans of the scene/movement, and have been producing songs since its rough inception.

Today’s mix:

Tectonics by Adam Freeland 1999 Breaks / Nu-Breaks / Electro / Florida Breaks

This is one of those mixes that makes you realize the infinite potential that breaks has as a dance genre and the Pangaea album cover is a clever expression of that sentiment. See, the tracks on here are so wide-ranging and different, but the glue that holds them all together is the fact that they’re all breaks (except for one house tune). Adam Freeland’s daunting mix here represents the continents being smushed together; he delivers a set of wildly different tracks that contain unpredictable twists and turns of their own, all on one mix, and yet there’s still one thing that seems to unify them all and that is breaks.

Listen to the full mix here.

Highlights:

Tracklist:

Ðragon bladΣ • Imaginary Tokyo • Nu Future Style • Atrantis • Invaders from the Underground • Get It • Kung-fu Man • Groove Saves the Earth

Tracklist:

Oyster Beat • Mememania Super DX • Diamond Wrist • Addicted • Machine Puppy • For Elevation • Utopia • All Night

Tracklist:

RUSH • OUTSIDE • CHOOSE YOUR MACHINE (90s House Mix) • NOSTALGIC DAYS • BE THE WIND • NEW GENERATION • RIGHT IN TIME • SUNSET • WHY ARE U • DISTANT DAY • PUBLIC ROAD

Submitter's Note: This album is the "soundtrack" to a hypothetical Ridge Racer game, composed by one of the musicians who worked on several games in the series- Kohta Takahashi, aka SOLIDSTATE.

Tracklist:

Arcadia • Pell-mell Duel • You Wanna Fight • Turbo • Luv • killing dead • Bad With It • Don Funk • Duxelles Champignon

Rennie Pilgrem & The Thursday Club - “Some Place Funky (Back to the Future mix)” Electric Kingdom: Episode One 1999 Breaks / Nu Breaks / Techno / Drum n Bass

Rennie Pilgrem was one of the premier artists from Britain’s nu breaks scene, a subgenre of electronic music that combined elements of techno and drum n bass to form a new kind of dance music. Music critic John Bush describes Pilgrem’s career:

Stretching from the rave explosion of the early '90s to the development of nu breaks around the end of the millennium, producer/remixer/DJ Rennie Pilgrem has led the way for tough techno. He started out in Rhythm Section, authors of the early breakbeat hit "Feel the Rhythm (Comin on Strong)," and kept producing during the mid-'90s with tracks such as "Thursday Club" for Aura Surround Sounds and R&S. Pilgrem also set up his own Friction label with fellow nu breaks pioneer Adam Freeland, and furthered the sound with a pair of Nu School Breakz compilations.

I don’t know if it’s the compilation’s cover, but when hearing the first few bars of this song, a car racing video game immediately comes to mind. Something about the combination of those reverbed jazzy synths and acidic stabs just makes me imagine that this would be the song that plays from the game’s intro screens to the start menu. Unsurprisingly then, this is a phenomenally good song for driving. 

After the jazzy and acidic synth combo, Pilgrem drops a breakbeat that sounds lifted from a drum n bass track. Then he drops all of it to introduce a filtered sampled loop replete with horn stabs and vocals (”We’re going to some place funky!”). He then goes on to combine this sample with what he had previously built before going on a totally unpredictable detour through the 80s with the help of his Roland TR-808 and a jingling drum break with muffled, rumbling bass. 

Lots of different sounds and ideas at work here. A fantastic dance track. Add to any high-powered party mix.