Tramen

The Tramen is a drum loop which is very popular in drum and bass, made by combining several other classic breakbeats.

History

Although also known by various other names (including the firefight, dramen, domen...), Tramen break is easily the most widespread name. The name is a portmanteau of "Trace" (the British electronic music artist who first popularised the break) and "amen" (the component break which is most distinctive and recognisable).

However, while the break is frequently credited to Trace, this is in fact an oft-repeated fallacy. The original creator was Dom and Roland, as Trace explained himself (see full interview):

"It is a beat Dom made, that he hadn't used yet. When I heard it I was like, that's the beat we need to use for Mutant Jazz Revisited. I then used it on Sonar and on Sniper where it was left it clean for 16 bars on the intro - this is where everyone ripped it from. As long as people know that it's a Dom beat. Because I used it on 3 tracks I got associated with it... The Tramen tag is something that Fresh started when he started rinsing it after we made Nitrous."

The Tramen is a combination of the three beats, as Dom and Roland explained himself on Dogs On Acid forum (see full post):

"There was no special trick to making the Tramen. The 3 beats were sampled from these records Flow - model 500 (Alex Reece remix), Samurai-Trace ( Pete Parsons Babylon remix), and most importantly the "amen" with its special snare was taken from."

Artists who are particularly notable for their use of the Tramen include Trace, Dom and Roland, Bad Company, Venetian Snares and many others.