Today I learnt about the Amen Break via the medium of knitting. The optimum route to knowledge. Here is how it occurred: The Amen Break is a 5.20sec four-bar break, taken from The Winstons' 1969 track Amen Brother:
G. C. Coleman's drum solo constitutes this most re-used and re-abused of breaks. Gradually, it made its way into musical consciousness, especially in the late 80s when sampled music entered the mainstream. Swept into British consciousness through tracks such as Hijack's Style Wars, & America's N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton the amen break was soon a staple sample, forming the backbone for a huge number of tracks. It made this journey via, of course, legends such as James Brown & Parliament Funkadelic, where would we be without Parliament? We now find it all over the shop. Where the amen break really made its mark, however, was in the transition between house and breakbeat; the breakbeat side of things morphing into jungle & drum&bass, of which the amen became absolute staple. According to our 1XRA's Crissy Criss this beauty was one of the first jungle tracks:
Yum yum. You can hear our old friend, the amen pinning up this badboi too:
The mathematician and author of A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe Micheal S. Schneider, has discussed the mathematical attributes of the amen break. For him, the attraction of the amen break lies in its proportional reflection of the Golden Ratio: that 'a whole line may be divided in such a way that the length of the whole relates to its large part in the same way that the large part relates to the small part. In other words, the same relationship appears on different scales, comprehending a mathematically balanced whole.' This 'same relationship' he relates back to the human body, with the peaks in the visual soundwave of the amen break corresponding to the ideal harmonious proportions of the body. (There are some GREAT pictures that you should probably check out). I really like this idea, and in a 1XTRA mini-lecture the euphoric effects of the amen break were discussed at length with many from the DnB DJ community, though I'm not sure that it's anything beyond a wonderful and beautiful coincidence. 'Amen' is an interesting word, from Latin, Greek and Hebrew roots it means 'certainly', 'truth'.
ANYWAY. The breadcrumbs I followed to end up HERE were the delicious detrital morsels of Andrew Salomone, kindly thrown down by the Guardian. LOOK AT THIS!
Oh, this is brilliant.
Mmm-hmm. But wait! There's more:
This kindly artistic chap designed a jumper with tattoos anatomically corresponding to those on Amy Winehouse's body so that she could stay warm, yet maintain her 'publicly recognizable' image. What a lovely human. It makes me quite sad that she never got to wear it, I feel quite certain it would have cheered her, I know it would me.
This is he:
Do take a look at his blog --andrewsalomone.com-- I thoroughly enjoyed discovering an artist, who wonderfully, and quite poignantly I think, manages to negotiate the interaction between digital and craft, mass and artisan.
Here are some things to sing you out, just because I think you might like to hear them.
Oh, and if there's anything at all incorrect or objectionable present please do say something. [Samb, I know you'd be turning in your grave (if you were dead, and if you were reading this; two, thankfully, unlikely things) at my butchery]. I'm by no means an expert on all this, and I think I've established I LIKE LEARNING.
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