Breaks, Drum and Bass, House: Rave Genres Explained

Breaks is syncopated, chopped-up drums around 125 to 140 BPM, drum and bass is fast rolling breakbeats over sub bass at 170 to 180 BPM, and house is a steady four-on-the-floor kick at 120 to 130 BPM. Flyers in this scene read like a code: breaks, DnB, jungle, UKG, neuro, four on the floor. Here is the decoder, plus which of our residents to catch for each sound. We are called Home of the Broken Beat for a reason.

Breaks / Breakbeat (125 to 140 BPM)

The house sound of Fraktured Phoenix. Instead of a steady four-on-the-floor kick, breaks run on syncopated, chopped-up drum patterns descended from funk breakbeats, with heavy basslines underneath. Funky, dirty and made for dancing. Every one of our residents plays breaks, it's the foundation the whole crew is built on, from Brook B and Zaptek to StrangeEarth, E.C.O. Freq, SK*Boog and FLEX.

Drum and Bass / DnB (170 to 180 BPM)

Fast, rolling breakbeats over deep sub bass. Drum and Bass (DnB) grew out of UK jungle in the 90s and splits into everything from soulful liquid to heavyweight neurofunk. It is the highest-energy room in the scene, and Phoenix has a strong DnB core. Every Fraktured resident drops drum and bass, with Iron Giant, Pac D, XPLCT1, Dirty Mind Tricks, Brook B and Pocket Fullof Sunshine going especially deep, and Shomeister flying the neurofunk flag.

Jungle (160 to 175 BPM)

DnB's rawer parent: chopped Amen breaks, reggae and dancehall DNA, massive low end. XPLCT1's island-influenced jungle sets are the reference point at our parties.

UK Garage (130 to 138 BPM)

Swung, shuffling two-step rhythms and clipped vocal chops. UKG is the bridge between house and the bass world; Pac D and E.C.O. Freq carry it here.

Electro (125 to 135 BPM)

Punchy 808 drum machines, robotic funk and Miami-bass DNA, the electro-funk cousin of breakbeat. Excell and E.C.O. Freq bring it to our floors.

House and bass house (120 to 130 BPM)

The four-on-the-floor foundation everything else argues with. In the underground you will mostly meet its heavier cousins: bass house, garage-leaning house, and Afro/Latin house grooves. Catch E.C.O. Freq, Excell, Zaptek and Brook B working it into their sets.

Hear it live

Genres make sense at 2am in front of a sound system, not in a paragraph. Check the Phoenix rave calendar, or book one of our DJs if you want this sound at your own event.