In EDM, especially Trance, The Breakdown is the hype moment. This writer has a different part of the tune that steals the show.
The Breakdown
We all know how it goes. You’re at a club, the music is banging, it’s classic Trance music playing; the music starts to build and then The Breakdown hits. The bass stops, a long and high melodic chord plays and maybe some female vocal kicks-in singing about how much she loves you. In response the lights go up, people put their hands in the air, and you spend the next minute or two standing around waiting for the beat to return.
After that, the music builds, the beat kicks in, all the elements of the tune are going off, and you’re living your best life again as you dance for the next few minutes until the next breakdown. It’s the part of the tune when you’re supposed to dance the hardest, and the tune is at it’s fullest. The problems is this cycle repeats about every 4 minutes. This became the way trance music, and EDM as a whole played-out in the late 90’s. The likes of Above & Beyond made it a signature of their music, and by the very early 2000’s it was mandatory in most EDM tunes to this day!
Breakdowns Beaten to Death
A long-time clubber and DJ such as yours truly remembers being very excited to see DJ god, Paul Van Dyk at Renaissance. For those who don’t know, Renaissance was a club founded by DJ legends John Digweed and Sasha; so expectations were high. Within about 25 minutes of Paul Van Dyk opening his set, I left. Every single tune had a mandatory breakdown, so I spent almost half the time standing around looking at the ceiling. I came here to dance, so inspect the decaying quality of the warehouse beams!
Let’s Breakup
It’s fair to say that this writer is not a fan of The Breakdown. I’m here for what I call The Breakup. It’s that part of the tune, after the breakdown and after the “all things firing” part that follows, and just the core elements of the tune are playing. You are in the zone, flowing and dancing.
Not with me? Have a listen to the savage Street Tab by Captain Tinrib and RR Fierce. All the elements are there, the buildup, the breakdown, the firing-on-all-cylinders that follows, but at 04:00 the breakup happens. Sweet hoovers on cruise control, not overdrive, the bass is flowing, the percussion is tapping and you can get down to some serious grooving.
Or how about the haunting, yet beautiful Dreams by Quench. At 3:10, the bass-pounding ‘breakdown’ passes, followed by an electric flow of some of the best synth trance ever committed to vinyl.
Maybe you’d like to try the EDMBible favourite, The Orange theme. At 4:58 The breakdown has passed, the crescendo is over, and the tune races to the finish, with jumping synths and energetic acid stabs with the percussion riding you home.
One last example, DEA vs Grinstretcher’s Spiritualized emotional epic, best heard on Renaissance Presents…Ian Ossia. It creates an explosive and tear-jerking Breakup at 06:16 after it’s SECOND breakdown. Adding emotive synthesised female vocals over the punching bassline and fizzing harmonies.
A Healthy Breakup
In conclusion, these are only a handful of hundreds of tunes with top-quality Breakups that exist in the wild (and the only tunes that came to my mind this late at night). So by all means, put your hands in the air for the Breakdown, I will stand there looking to the skies with you, but I’ll be waiting for the Breakup to enjoy my night.
Skye Stewart
