The Amen break
Just seen a link and it set me off: that classic 60s funk drum break which has propelled so many drum and bass records over the years, you know the one: well, apparently it adheres to the Golden Ratio... hmmmm.
Which sounds to me like cobblers really (could this work with every breakbeat?).
But anyway. It's actually a pretty simple loop, although played incredibly fast by The Winstons' drummer. For me the point at which the break becomes sublime is in the third bar, after two bars of the same beat, it's built your expectations for a similar third bar, but the drummer drops a kick in just before you expect a snare, which seems to shift your rhythmical point of view, leaving you pleasantly adrift in the fourth bar which acts as a fill.
Being so fast it sounds fabulous pitched down, as in Mantronix's hiphop and rave-influencing anthem "King of the Beats". There's just something about the grain of it, it's so tough, and has so much swagger. There's loads more info and jumping-off points over at Wikipedia.
Oh, and the other thing about the Amen is that the track it's lifted from (The Winstons - "Amen, Brother") is really, really good - it's not on iTunes as far as I can tell, but have a listen over at imeem.
