Breakwater is an American

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

band from

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. The band released two albums: ''Breakwater'' in 1978, and ''

Splashdown Splashdown is the method of landing a spacecraft or launch vehicle in a body of water, usually by parachute. This has been the primary recovery method of American capsules including NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Orion along with th ...

'' in 1980. The latter features the song "Release the Beast", which was sampled on " Robot Rock" by electronic duo

Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. They achieved popularity in the late 1990s as part of the French house movement, combining house music, funk, disco, tech ...

Background

The band, originally from Philadelphia was formed in 1971. The original members of Breakwater consisted of Gene Robinson, James Gee Jones, Lincoln 'Zay' Gilmore, Steve Green, Vince 'Garnel' Dutton, Greg Scott, John 'Dutch' Braddock, and Kae Williams, Jr. They were signed to the Arista label in 1978. Their second album ''Splashdown'', which was released in 1980 has been referred to by Tom Bowker of the ''

Broward Palm Beach New Times ''New Times Broward-Palm Beach'' is a news website that, until 2016, also published a weekly print newspaper; it is part of the Voice Media Group chain. The original paper split off from the ''Miami New Times'' in 1997 under the auspices of t ...

'' as a funk masterpiece.

Releases

In September, 1979, their single "You Know I Love You", written by Greg Scott, and produced by Rick Chertoff was a ''Billboard'' top single pick. For the week ending July 5, 1980, their album ''

'' at its 8th week in the ''Billboard'' charts had moved up from 35 to 34. At its 13th week, it was sitting at 57, the position it was the previous week.

Famous songs

"Release The Beast"

"Release the Beast" is the third song off of their second album

. The song has been sampled by the French-house group

on their song Robot Rock. The song was also used by

Reese's Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (, ) are an American candy by the Hershey Company consisting of a peanut butter filling encased in chocolate. They were created on November 15, 1928, by H. B. Reese, a former dairy farmer and shipping foreman for Milt ...

during their 2023

Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...

advertising campaigns. The song was also sampled on the intro for rapper

Murs Murs may refer to: People * Marc Athanase Parfait Œillet des Murs (1804-1878), French ornithologist * Olly Murs (born 1984), English singer-songwriter * Murs (rapper) (born 1978), American rapper Places * Murs, Indre, France * Murs, Vaucluse, Fr ...

' album '' Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition''

Sound

The sound of Breakwater's music is normally that of slow jams, but they have been known to incorporate

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

and

styles into their songs, much like their song titled "You". "Release the Beast" is best known by non-funk music fans, and the band's sound can be closer compared to that of

Con Funk Shun Con Funk Shun (formerly known as Project Soul) is an American R&B and funk band from Vallejo, California, formed in 1969. They were influenced by funk progenitors James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone. Signed to Mercury Records in 1976, the ...

Earth, Wind & Fire Earth, Wind & Fire (abbreviated as EW&F or EWF) is an American band formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1969. Their music spans multiple genres, including jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, Latin and Afro-pop. They are among the best-selling ba ...

Later years

On October 16, 2014, the eleven-piece band with four man horn section played Warmdaddy's on S Columbus Blvd in Philadelphia. It was announced that the band and fellow seventies act

Pockets A pocket is a bag- or envelope-like receptacle either fastened to or inserted in an article of clothing to hold small items. Pockets are also attached to luggage, backpacks, and similar items. In older usage, a pocket was a separate small bag or ...

, an R&B funk band from Baltimore, would appear at London's Brooklyn Bowl on January 7, 2017.Brooklyn Bowl
Friday, 6 January 2017, Breakwater and The Pockets

Discography

References

External links

*
Breakwater on Facebook
{{DEFAULTSORT:Breakwater American funk musical groups American soul musical groups