Dave Haynes

On the end of an era

“I think records were just a little bubble through time and those who made a living from them for a while were lucky. There is no reason why anyone should have made so much money from selling records except that everything was right for this period of time. I always knew it would run out sooner or later. It couldn’t last, and now it’s running out. I don’t particularly care that it is and like the way things are going. The record age was just a blip. It was a bit like if you had a source of whale blubber in the 1840s and it could be used as fuel. Before gas came along, if you traded in whale blubber, you were the richest man on Earth. Then gas came along and you’d be stuck with your whale blubber. Sorry mate – history’s moving along. Recorded music equals whale blubber. Eventually, something else will replace it.”

I’ve posted parts of this quote before. But Tom Robinson just reminded me of it by retweeting a link to the piece in The Guardian. Brian Eno has some smart things to say, you should read the full article.

This doesn’t really warrant a whole 3min 30sec demonstration but it’s cool nonetheless. Thinking it would be more useful if it was wider, magnetic and could replace the white board in a school music room.

Really enjoyed this 20 minute documentary on the Amen break. Touches on copyright and culture issues surrounding sampling & remixing. Argues that this break has now become part of our music/cultural subconcious.

When I first started DJ-ing it was predominantly hip-hop, beats and drum’n'bass so the Amen break became pretty much a staple. Amazing to think about it’s history and how it’s played such an important role in the music I’ve enjoyed for so many years - from NWA to Squarepusher and many shades in between.

I still don’t get tired of it. A very quick search on SoundCloud pulls up quite a few tracks using the Amen break.

Snowcrash  by  Social Engineer