1 Mix

Big Beats

Big Beats

Around the Mid 90s UK producers like The Dust Brother (AKA The Chemical Brothers) began to sample the Funk foundation breaks of the early Hip Hop tracks. However, their records were mainly instrumental, so maintain your interest they combined multiple samples from a myriad of sources to create this funky wall of sound, that would later become known as Big Beat by the music press.

When I first started DJing at Gatecrasher in Sheffield, around 1996, I would play Big Beat in the Top Room to get the night going, back then it was huge, as artists like Fat Boy Slim and Propellerheads were a regular feature in the dance charts.

However, the scene soon lost momentum as Funky House from the US swept in like a musical tsunami and became the dominant sound for over a decade.

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