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The Winstons - Amen Brother [CLIP]


Phokus

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Break name: Amen

 

Artist: The Winstons

Track name: Amen Brother

Original release: 7", The Winstons - Color Him Father / Amen Brother

Label: Metromedia

Cat number: MM-117

Year: 1969

Drummer: G C Coleman

 

Also available on: The Winstons - Color Him Father (Metromedia, LP); DJ Pogo Presents: Block Party Breaks Vol 2 (Strut)

 

Example: Equinox - Acid Rain (Breakage RMX); Renegade feat Ray Keith - Terrorist

 

Clip: http://www.rolldabeats.com/audio/breaks/the_winstons-amen_brother.mp3

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  • 7 months later...
this might interest you stimps ,I was talking to ed solo the other night and he has the amen brother on seven inch and he says that because it's in stereo that one channel is the bukem amen and the other is the ray keith amen , well thats what he said anyway and he said that he has a copy of it on cd (probably the dj pogo cd) but he says thay made it to be mono in case anyone wants to sample it Edited by blah
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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...
Clip added

 

 

I've got this on vinyl with volume 2 of 'Ultimate Breaks & Beats' Cat - SBR 501

 

When it gets to the break its as if whoever was mastering it decided to press the '33' button on the record deck to provide a slower loop. I can see why they did it, these ultimate breaks and beats albums were aimed at the block parties in the bronx for the early emcees to rap over.

 

I assumed everyone was sampling it from the 'ultimate breaks...' source but after reading here I realised that people are using the NWA clip. Which leads me to think thats why my amen never sounded as nice as on the d&b tracks I'd buy.

 

:)

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Not all are using the NWA break. Its got its own distinctive sound with the "hey - yo!" vocal snippet. Try getting the 12" release I saw floating around a few years back (a US release?)

 

Someone here also suggested that the two stereo channels sound different to each other too. Try using one or the other, rather than mixing down the channels to mono?

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Cool, I've just compared them in a wav editor and it looks like the 'Ultimate Breaks & Beats' version is identical in both channels, well at least on my 2 copies of the vinyl which may well be a repress (bought about 5 years ago from Tempest in Birmingham). I'll have to see if I can find another source.

 

Interesting to note there is a wikipedia article dedicated to this break. Great stuff :)

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I really wanna see some sort of interview with that drummer G.C. Coleman

Is there any out there? What on earth must he think about this unprecidented mass obssesion with 5 tiny seconds of his musical life?

 

Did you watch the Amen documentary, that seems to be about as much as anyone knows about him.

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  • 1 year later...
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  • 4 years later...

Right! Couple of updates I've got here on teh amens (which I didn't think were worthy of own threads)...

 

So, it's been mentioned to me several times now about the 'Dillinja' amen that seems to be in vogue of recent times, and how apparently the true source for it is from LTJ Bukem - A Couple Of Beats. Basically we're talking about the amen texture known most notably from "Jah Know Ya Big", but also some others too I think, such as "Muthafucka" (also Peshay seems to be using it in "The Nocturnal")

 

So, I decided to investigate once and for all. Scouring through "A Couple Of Beats" I managed to do this:

http://www.classifiedlistening.com/tarzanstuff/couple%20of%20beats%20amen.mp3

couple of beats amen.mp3

 

Hmmm. Well, I don't know who came up with this tidbit but quite frankly, it doesn't sound anything like it to me? I know Blah mentioned above about LTJ Bukem taking his amens from one channel of the original 7", which I imagine would cover this instance. As for anything else, well I don't know

 

It's quite interesting though because in the track Bukem starts off sampling and looping other amen derivatives before finally breaking half-way through to a 'clean' amen. I remember always thinking of it at the time as a statement, saying "well, that was hardcore - now it's drum & bass!". Thinking now, and knowing that he got those initial loops from that sample CD, I wonder if it was more in fact a statement to say "lets stop recycling all our breaks and start going to the original true source"?

 

Anyhow, its clear that even if Dillinja did sample from a pre-existing source (which is by the by, really) he's obviously done his own processing and eq-ing to get a distinctive sound on it, so I guess that puts any 'uses' of it as being from "Jah Know Ya Big".

 

- - - - -

 

Ok, for my other update - being Face Records is probably my all time favourite 'small' imprint of the music, it's always been of some intrigue to me that really distinctive amen texture used by Pascal in those early tunes. Its a rather thick, sort of congested sounding loop which always seemed reminiscent of "Dub War" - I always thought, perhaps mistakenly, that he was a part of Dance Conspiracy and that explained it.

 

Anyhow I have since made the discovery listening to the original release on Metamorphosis that its actually clean, and sampleable, from the "The Mix Strikes Back" version on that 12"! Which was something of a revelation to me

http://www.rolldabea...ds_inc/morpho01

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyMV-7nZy0c

 

It kicks in about 1:02 into the tune - think I could listen to that amen loop all day!

 

Well, I'm sure the quest for more amen derivatives will continue, although still somewhat bemused by the cult that seems to surround this break... Definitely a fan of it being used but to me its just another of many

 

Peace!

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