Since 2016, DJ and producer Breaka has shaped the new sound of UK breaks, bass, and techno. Born in London, Charlie Baker grew up playing drums and listening to jazz and funk, which explains his love for percussion and his experimental production style. Breaka got a taste for DJing while living in Leeds, where he experimented with blends of footwork, juke, dub and jungle at local clubs and radio stations. Breaka’s production break-through came in 2018 with the release of his Rory’s Theme / Puffer Jackets EP on Holding Hands Records, a 130BPM break and percussion-filled combo that set a precedent for what’s to come. 

In 2018 Breaka and friends formalised their sound with Stretchy Dance Supply, a club night that championed cutting edge club music with a mandatory (non-negotiable) collective stretch routine around the 2am mark. Then came the launch of Breaka Recordings in 2019, which gives the artist free reign to release on his terms. With this label, Breaka can explore the full spectrum of his sound and taste, from kuduro to techno to trance. Every release is connected by the same unmistakable threads of percussive rhythms, euphoric builds and heavy drops. From 2020, break-through releases included a remix of Interplanetary Criminal’s “Sensational,” dance floor anthems “The Startup” and “The Loudest Woiioii Ever,” and a remix of Kelly Lee Owens’ “Re-wild.”

Breaka started his Reprezent radio residency in 2020, and started touring outside the UK in 2021, first in Europe, then North America, India, East Asia and onto Australasia. By 2022 his productions had permeated just about every dance floor on the planet, which laid ample ground for his debut full-length project, We Move. Produced in the depths of lockdown, the album demonstrates Breaka’s vast array of inspirations, with a versatility and depth that combined the anatomy of club culture with the essence of chart music, from the hopeful euphoria of “Mass Gathering” to the emotive introspection of “Look Inside.” In 2023 Breaka released his Like Water EP, a two-track project that blended the new-wave of trippy techno with UK bass sounds. His Falling EP followed in 2024, with the title track combining breaks, 4:4, UK Funky and dembow, alongside “Time To Be Real” which embraced industrial techno alongside hard-hitting percussion.

Breaka holds down a popular monthly Rinse residency, and regularly plays all-night sets across the UK, sometimes alongside his brother Bakey. Today, Breaka’s come to embody the versatility, range and vibrancy of the UK underground, and grown into an artist unafraid to explore, experiment and push boundaries – and have a very good time while he does it.