{
  "slug": "breakbeat-hardcore",
  "name": "Breakbeat Hardcore",
  "aliases": [
    "hardcore",
    "rave",
    "ardkore",
    "oldskool"
  ],
  "description": "Britain's rave music between acid house and jungle: sampled funk breaks sped to breaking point, piano riffs, cartoon samples and a sub-bass borrowed from Kingston. Two frantic years that produced two whole genres.",
  "origin": {
    "place": "United Kingdom",
    "year": 1990
  },
  "lineage": [
    {
      "genre": "acid-house",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/acid-house/",
      "inherited": "The audience and the venues. Hardcore is what the acid house crowd wanted once four-to-the-floor stopped being enough — the same warehouses, the same night, a chopped funk break in place of the straight kick."
    },
    {
      "genre": "detroit-techno",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/detroit-techno/",
      "inherited": "The imported records. Britain's rave DJs were playing Transmat and Underground Resistance twelve-inches alongside their own, and the riffs and stabs that define hardcore are Detroit's, sped up and made cruder on purpose."
    },
    {
      "genre": "dancehall",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/dancehall/",
      "inherited": "The bass and the voice. Sound-system culture supplied the sub-bass weight, the ragga vocal sample and the MC on the microphone, which is what separates a British rave record from a European one."
    },
    {
      "genre": "bleep-techno",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/bleep-techno/",
      "inherited": "The bass and the British-ness. Bleep put Jamaican sub-weight under Detroit melody two years early, and hardcore inherited that combination wholesale before speeding it up and adding the break."
    }
  ],
  "bpm": {
    "min": 125,
    "max": 155
  },
  "updated": "2026-08-29",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/breakbeat-hardcore/",
  "trackCount": 9,
  "curatedBy": [],
  "playlists": {},
  "tracks": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "trackKey": "lennie-de-ice--we-are-i-e",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/lennie-de-ice--we-are-i-e/",
      "title": "We Are I.E.",
      "artist": "Lennie De Ice",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/lennie-de-ice/",
      "year": 1991,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Routinely named as the first jungle record, made two years before anyone used the word. A reggae bassline under a hardcore break, and the entire future of British bass music in four minutes.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-160",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — 160",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-160/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Lennie%20De%20Ice%20We%20Are%20I.E.",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=_gx7Uv3sl5A",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "trackKey": "the-prodigy--charly",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/the-prodigy--charly/",
      "title": "Charly",
      "artist": "The Prodigy",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-prodigy/",
      "year": 1991,
      "label": "XL",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A public information cat sampled over a hardcore breakbeat, and a top three hit that the scene never forgave for the wave of novelty records it licensed.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/The%20Prodigy%20Charly",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=cSTBFZ-To2E",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "trackKey": "2-bad-mice--bombscare",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/2-bad-mice--bombscare/",
      "title": "Bombscare",
      "artist": "2 Bad Mice",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/2-bad-mice/",
      "year": 1991,
      "label": "Moving Shadow",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Moving Shadow's calling card and hardcore at its most musical — a genuinely lovely chord progression fighting a breakbeat that keeps trying to fall over.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/2%20Bad%20Mice%20Bombscare",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=iQVv40_9NSo",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "trackKey": "metalheads--terminator",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/metalheads--terminator/",
      "title": "Terminator",
      "artist": "Metalheads",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/metalheads/",
      "year": 1992,
      "label": "Synthetic",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Goldie and Mark Rutherford discover time-stretching and use it to make a break sound like it is being pulled apart. The technical leap that turned hardcore into jungle.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-160",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — 160",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-160/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Metalheads%20Terminator",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Knu-7A7BLtQ",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "trackKey": "sl2--on-a-ragga-tip",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/sl2--on-a-ragga-tip/",
      "title": "On a Ragga Tip",
      "artist": "SL2",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/sl2/",
      "year": 1992,
      "label": "XL",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Number two in the national charts with a record built on a Jamaican vocal sample and a hoover bass. British pop has rarely been this directly a report from a field somewhere off the M25.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/SL2%20On%20a%20Ragga%20Tip",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=M6vgWFsKpdw",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 6,
      "trackKey": "t99--anasthasia",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/t99--anasthasia/",
      "title": "Anasthasia",
      "artist": "T99",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/t99/",
      "year": 1991,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Belgian, orchestral, and completely deranged. The stab sound on this record became a standard component of British rave within about six weeks of its release.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/T99%20Anasthasia",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=1v2oLxr2EZ8",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 7,
      "trackKey": "human-resource--dominator",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/human-resource--dominator/",
      "title": "Dominator",
      "artist": "Human Resource",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/human-resource/",
      "year": 1991,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Dutch hardcore, and the origin of the hoover — a synth patch so recognisable that it functions as a genre marker thirty years later.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Human%20Resource%20Dominator",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx_Fp5NdHcA",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 8,
      "trackKey": "origin-unknown--valley-of-the-shadows",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/origin-unknown--valley-of-the-shadows/",
      "title": "Valley of the Shadows",
      "artist": "Origin Unknown",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/origin-unknown/",
      "year": 1993,
      "label": "RAM",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Two spoken words about a long dark tunnel, an Amen break and a sub-bass. The point at which hardcore has clearly become jungle and everybody involved knows it.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-160",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — 160",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-160/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Origin%20Unknown%20Valley%20of%20the%20Shadows",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=B3FPYOou_Mg",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 9,
      "trackKey": "shades-of-rhythm--the-sound-of-eden",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/shades-of-rhythm--the-sound-of-eden/",
      "title": "The Sound of Eden",
      "artist": "Shades of Rhythm",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/shades-of-rhythm/",
      "year": 1991,
      "label": "ZTT",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The euphoric end of the spectrum: piano, a diva sample and no cynicism whatsoever. Hardcore is remembered as chaotic, and half of it sounded like this.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Shades%20of%20Rhythm%20The%20Sound%20of%20Eden",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=1gnotG0jcf8",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}