New beat emerged in Belgium and flourished in Western Europe in the late 1980s (1987-1989), just before techno from Detroit. This Belgian electronic dance music genre, close to acid house, was a fusion of various genres, mainly new wave and artists like Front 242, The Neon Judgement, Gary Numan, Anne Clark,...
New Beat is essentially made of minimalist rhythms and samples, generally from movies or the news. The most remarkable example is "Qui...?" by Brussels Sound Revolution, sampling parts of a press conference speech by former Belgian Prime Minister Paul Vanden Boeynants after he was kidnapped.
The genre was "accidentally invented" when DJ's started to play 45 rpm records at 33 rpm with the pitch control set to +8. "Flesh" by A Split Second and "Bryllyant" by Boytronic are the most famous examples.
Big clubs such as Boccaccio massively popularize this genre and played a crucial role in the apogee of this musical genre.
Come with me for a 80 minutes journey into this fascinating genre, precursor of House Music, and (re)discover the 40 biggest New Beat hits!!!
