Broken Beat

Broken beat, also called bruk, is dance music whose drum patterns skip and turn around the beat instead of marking every pulse in the same way. Bass lines hold the groove together while keyboards, samples and voices add the rich harmonies and phrasing of jazz, funk and soul. The result can feel loose and swinging even when the rhythm is carefully programmed.

It grew through a West London network of producers and players with roots in jungle, house and hip-hop. Some tracks are largely built in the studio; others foreground singers and instrumentalists. Follow the repeating pulse first, then notice how the drum accents and bass answer one another around it. That tension between a dependable groove and surprising placement is a useful way into the music.

Broken beat coalesced in West London in the late 1990s among overlapping production partnerships. Dego established 2000 BLACK in 1998, giving part of this network a continuing label home. New Sector Movements, 4hero and Bugz in the Attic linked producers and players who also worked under several aliases. CoOp began at the Velvet Rooms in spring 2000 and moved to Plastic People in 2002, making the dance floor a meeting point for the music. Its wider reach included contributors from New Zealand, Japan and continental Europe.

A later chapter gathered around Selectors Assemble and CoOp Presents, retaining the collective approach while inviting new producers. The 2020 Z Records anthology documents a broad earlier repertoire, while Tatham’s 2023 album shows the sound continuing to cross jazz, funk and other forms.