Monday, February 25, 2008

Where are the breaks? Krafty Kuts Forget Who are the breaks?

When I think about the breaks I think about “the number one rapper in Queens” Kurtis Blow's 1980 release "The Breaks" a massive Gold status single and voted the best single of 1980 in the Village Voice's influential Pazz & Jop music critics' poll,

1. Kurtis Blow: "The Breaks" (Mercury)
2. Joy Division: "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (Factory import)
3. Blondie: "Call Me" (Chrysalis)
4. The Clash: "Train in Vain"/"London Calling" (Epic)
Pretenders: "Brass in Pocket" (Sire)
6. Stevie Wonder: "Master Blaster (Jammin')" (Tamla)
7. John Lennon/Yoko Ono: "Just Like Starting Over"/"Kiss Kiss Kiss" (Geffen)
8. The Vapors: "Turning Japanese" (United Artists)
10. Diana Ross: "Upside Down" (Motown)

An amazing result for a hip hop track at that time, and also beat 3 of my all time favourite tracks in Stevie Wonder, Blondie and Diana Ross.

But second to Kurtis I think about Krafty Kuts. The pioneer of what some call new school breaks, and one of the few remaining popular breakbeat DJs (Stanton Warriors and Plump DJs are two that come to mind) has come under some scrutiny after his recent run of DJ sets over the last 12 months have lacked the breaks, conforming to the state of mainstream and popular dance music today.



I love this sign which was spotted at a Krafty Kuts DJ set in Wollongong in 2008

2 of my first dance albums were breaks, Krafty Kuts and Plump DJs.

KRAFTY KUTS, BRING BACK THE BREAKS

Brakes on a bus brakes on a car
Breaks to make you a superstar
Breaks to win and breaks to lose
But these here breaks will rock your shoes
And these are the breaks
Break it up break it up break it up!


Kurtis Blow Doin' tha Breaks

Kurtis Blow- The Breaks


And Krafty Kuts doin' the breaks

A.Skillz and Krafty Kuts - Gimme the Breaks


Buy both at AMAZON.COM

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