Breaks In Unlikely Places

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This week expert leftfield selector Johan Soh buries himself in a vault with a stack full of tunes from celebrity DJs and Duran Duran sampling Yanks, all in the name of uncovering those tunes you would otherwise miss...

Tim Sheridan

Once in a while a track comes along that makes you think: "hmmm, now that doesn’t sound like anything else". Often it's a tune that sticks out to the point of being hard to fit into even the most carefully prepared mix. Bionic Language by cult producer Tim Sheridan (as pictured, above) is one of those tracks. It's like you get it just to be able to play it again and again just to try and figure it out. Then when you think you have worked it out, you play it to a mate and end up starting the discussion all over again. It's funky, I'll give it that, but not in a conventional way. Listen and make up your own mind. This is out now on the aptly named Verywrongindeed label, run by Tim himself from his Ibiza hideaway.

Hailing from Leeds, Grum seem to be heading for chart topping success with their Heartbeats single. While this is a sample-heavy slice of indie dance debauchery and far too commercial to hold any lasting appeal (at least for me), something that will stay clear of the charts is the Weird Tapes rerub of the track, which goes off in every direction. This one has elements of electronica, breaks and indie dance, and comprises a melange of beats, bleeps, disco strings, weird tempo changes, skips and harmony surprises, yet manages to hold it all together nicely. I'm not really read up on the Weird Tapes, but apparently they are something to do with a band called Memory Tapes. If anyone wants to shed some light on this, feel free - it's a great track nonetheless. New Jersey is where the Magnetic Tapes are from so it's quite possible that is where we would find the Weird Tapes too... In any case, it's nice to see a US act building on a musical heritage that actually sounds distinctly American. Well done.

If you're a fan of vocal progressive breaks you would have to be legally retarded to miss out on the new Cosmic Gate treat, Under Your Spell, out now on Black Hole records. For those familiar with popular DJ culture, these German trancers will be nothing new, as they made it to no. 19 in the last DJ Mag popularity pageant. Softly spoken vocals from US pop singer Aruna sit sweetly over solid production. It's all very Hybrid, but that's not a bad thing. That said I think their pal Tiesto's latest breaks offering, alongside Bloc Party vocalist Kele Okereke, is something that should be avoided (it's also just been released). There is a thin thin line between classy and cheesy and Tiesto just overstepped it by a mile. But hey, what else is new?

Finally a little tip for those dancefloor moments that might require you to turn the oddity dial up to about seven and make ready with your own edit. Hello Duran Duran sampling cheekyness courtesy of New York's Ali Kay and his new tune, Notorious. The repetitive nature of this track means you can only take a couple of minutes of it at a time, but it's great fun for shock value. Kay's MySpace is full of tunes with a whole different credibility compass to that of most sane people. Check at your own peril!

And that’s all from the breakbeat borderlands this week ...

This article appeared first on thisisbreaks.com, the website for all your breakbeat needs...