- San Francisco's OM records has made quite a name for itself in the house scene giving rise to names such as Kaskade, Mark Farina and Soulstice. They've even represented the underground hip hop scene with Ming & FS, People Under The Stairs and the Deep Concentration series for the turntablists. Now with the rise of the breakbeat sound on a global basis, OM have kept up with the sound with Golden Gate Breaks.
Typical of the OM sound, Golden Gate Breaks maintains a deep and lush texture throughout as can be seen on tunes like Landslide's Don't Give Up Now. Even Soulstice turns his hand into making a little breakbeat on Lockdown - sitting on more of a broken beat tip - with vocals done by long time collaborator Gine Rene. Speaking of broken beats, 2-step/garage don Zed Bias makes an appearance alongside Abstract for the jazzy laidback groove of Wide Load mixing trumpet samples with tight percussive beats. Zed Bias' Phuturistix project with Injekta has recently dropped a new album straying far away from the club oriented, bass heavy productions garage heads were exposed to a couple of years back. If this tune is anything to go by, their new album should be a killer.
Of course not everything on this album is as lush as OM would have you believe, the junkyard kings Ming & FS get remixed by Abstract for a basslining breakstepper on Freak and Invasion by Noel borders between 2-step and breaks and makes good use the of the old "Amen" break.
Breaks at 160 bpm? That's drum'n'bass innit? Indeed it is and Ivry's Avalon speeds things up past the usual breakbeat tempo to finish the album on a funked up Good Looking Records drum'n'bass tip.
Overall, Golden Gate Breaks is OK, it's a good representation of the breakbeat sound, however it gets a little too lush and does induce drowsiness - fans of OM's deep house who are looking to break up the monotony of the 4/4 beat will probably enjoy this. Good for playing in the background but keep it out of your car stereo.