A brief history of Breakbeat Garage

George Palladev 20.12.2022

A brief history of Breakbeat Garage

Breakbeat garage is a short-lived and inconspicuous subgenre that appeared at the junction of the nineties and the noughties, being a link between sweet-voiced two-step and gloomy dubstep. Having appeared in the years of the commercial heyday of garage music, breakstep, thanks to jungle musicians, in many ways turned out to be similar to the breakbeat hardcore of the late 1980s: it was equally radio-unfriendly with lots of samples, a fun and a deliberately raw sound, and also no obligations to big labels. Breakstep combined the sped-up funky breaks, familiar thanks to jungle, and the resonant wobbling bass, traditional to garage music (which had been used before in jungle). Having plunged garage into darkness, breakstep faded away, giving way to the new underground movement of the early noughties—dubstep. Here is an example—a 100% Breakstep mix ↓