Monday, 6 June 2011

A Rough Guide To... The Amen Break

If you're a drum and bass, hip hop or breakcore fan then you've probably heard the Amen break 100's of times, Even if you're not a fan of those genres you've probably heard it on TV, The Futurama theme tune contains a sample of the Amen break. Even Oasis & Amy Winehouse have sampled this classic 60's break.
It's from a track called 'Amen Brother' by The Winstons and is probably the most sampled track in the world, although if anything comes close then it's from James Brown.

The Winstons however have never made any profits from the sampling of their tracks 6 second drum solo and in what is a sad fact, the drummer died in the '90s homeless and broke.
I'm not saying that all these artists should retroactively pay royalties to the artist, as sampling is a huge part of the dance scene and the scene is so insular a lot of the tracks barely turn a profit. However when the big boys of the music industry start stealing, maybe they should put something back. The diy ethos of Jungle/Rave & hip hop thrived on creating music from other genres and fashioning it into something new and unique and if it hadn't been the Amen break, another sample would have been found.

This playlist contains 40 tracks from all genres of music that have felt the need to use this drum loop, some have chopped it up, some have sped it up, others have left it pretty much untouched. Shitmat of course takes the sample to it's logical conclusion on what was typically an album reflecting on how you could make an entire album from just a handful of samples, the Amen break being the main offender.

A Rough Guide To... The Amen Break << complete playlist
Word Iz... – Amen Break (History Of)
Amy Winehouse – You Know I'm No Good
David Bowie – Little Wonder (Edit)
Linkin Park – Faint
Mantronix – King Of The Beats (Instrumental)
Eric B. & Rakim – Casualties Of War
2 LIVE CREW – Feel Alright Yall
N.W.a – Straight Outta Compton (2002 Digital Remaster) ()
Nas – Hip Hop Is Dead
Lupe Fiasco – Streets On Fire - Explicit Album Version
Melanie C – Ga Ga
Skunk Anansie – Charlie Big Potato
EMF – Unbelievable
Lennie De Ice – We Are I.E. - Original Extended Edit
Prodigy – Breathe
Orbital – Satan [Industry Standard]
The Crystal Method – The Name of the Game
Moby – Feeling So Real
The Future Sound of London – Papua New Guinea
Chase & Status – Time - Radio Edit
Lords Of Acid – Crablouse
Hrvatski – Carrot (Hrvatski's Nightvision)
Ray Keith – Dark Soldier
The Ganja Kru – New Frontiers
J Majik – Your Sound
Seba – Forever
Noisia – The Tide
Celldweller – Switchback
Slipknot – Eyeless [Explicit]
Atari Teenage Riot – Deutschland (Has Gotta Die)
La Roux – In For The Kill - Skream's Let's Get Ravey remix
Squarepusher – Hello Meow
Remarc – Bad Bwoy
Bay B Kane – Amen
Breakage – Staggered Dub
U-Ziq – Carpet Muncher
Clint Mansell – PiR2
Amon Tobin – Nightlife
Venetian Snares – Második Galamb
Shitmat – Amen Babylon

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