Breaka - We Move

  • Touching on techno, UK funky and kuduro, Breaka's debut LP blends bass science with pop flourishes.
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  • Charlie Baker started turning heads as part of Liam Wachs' Holding Hands crew in the late 2010s. Alongside artists like Adam Pits, Guava, Gallegos and Wachs' own Desert Sound Colony project, this cohort of producers looked like the likely successors to Hessle Audio or Livity Sound as they found new ways to navigate the distance between soundsystem culture and house and techno. Baker stood out among his peers by bringing a background in footwork and jungle to the table. There's an unmatched intensity in some of his productions—check out the unrelenting "Loose Subs," where eerie chimes bleed over a throbbing 160 BPM drum & bass skeleton. Baker hasn't been afraid to nurture a softer side, however, as he demonstrated on a remix for Kelly Lee Owens or this sugary pirate radio anthem. On We Move, his debut LP, far from being a collection of speedy, bass mutations, Baker treads a careful line between songwriting and club weaponry. We Move isn't about to land Baker in the charts, but it definitely leans towards the pop side on tracks like "Look Inside" and "Mass Gathering." For the latter he collaborates with vocalist Carmen Daye (along with a songwriting credit to his mom) to give us the 2022 equivalent of "Innercity Life," balancing bass weight with fraught emotion. "Mass Gathering," on the other hand, is less Goldie and more Bicep. You'd be forgiven for thinking those gated synths and chopped vocals were lifted from a "Glue" jam session, but Baker adds his own twist in the song's second half thanks to some loungey chords and 2-step drumming. The rest of the album is more clearly focused on club tracks (although that earworm chord progression on the title track is begging for a trance remix). UK funky meets samba swing on the hand drum groove of "Descending," and he's onto something intriguing with the minute-long "Honeydrum," when he gives us dubbed-out trance. All of this fusion culminates in the record's best track, "Baile Steppa." It has the energy and acrylic gloss of baile funk and newer strains of kuduro, with its watery chords and trembling horn line, but also the meaty bass pulses that Baker has perfected. Imagine Hudson Mohawke on Príncipe. Baker is the third Holding Hands signee to release a full-length, coming in behind Adam Pits' A Recurring Nature, released last year, and Harry Wills' Luxury Bedtime. While the Wills record is great in its own right, comparing Pits and Baker is hard to avoid. Above and beyond their shared lineage, there are major aesthetic similarities between the two, especially their fondness for crystalline drums, plenty of empty stereo space, and a helping of low-end funk. Their albums feel like a bit of a yin-and-yang. On A Recurring Nature, Pits moved further into the underground with touches of trance and downtempo. Baker's album, on the other hand, is as accessible as it is experimental. We Move is a panoramic picture of a producer who very well may find himself soundtracking the next BMW advert.
  • Tracklist
      01. Look Inside 02. We Move 03. Descending 04. Honeydrum 05. Baile Steppa 06. Mass Gathering 07. In Ur Dreams 08. Solaria 09. Admit Ignorance
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