dubstep

re: the nice and comforting thing, this has its place of course, and you can look at it as a negative or positive, but its not like even guys like loefah or mala would argue against, theyve all said as much thats what they were going for with their raves. which i mean is nice really, who wants aggro in a club, but the music seemed very self aware of that, to get rid of anything that might inspire a 'bad vibe'.

The first Dubstep Allstars mix is dull but that's not because there's no good early dubstep. First Horsepower Productions album, DJ Abstract's "Touch", the El-B singles on Ghost, stuff like Zed Bias's remix of "Hook & A Line" if it counts.... In general I agree with the argument that the "roots of dubstep" etc are overrated, and of course I prefer 2-step per se but EDB's comp is supposed to be about dubstep not 2-step.

Dubstep bored me silly until I saw Kode9 DJ in 2007, which showed me what it could all be. I agree that it seems the value placed on early stuff seems more of a longing for the past, at least given how much much more interesting I think stuff became as the decade moved on.

Ultimately, though, after some looking around I ended up putting in DJ Abstract's Touch and Horsepower's Classic Deluxe, which do sound pretty 2-steppy, I guess, which is fine by me. I personally had to bite my tongue a few times about certain inclusions; even midnight request line, which is at the beginning of the cd, I feel is there to sort of get it over with. But I'm a latecomer to the genre, and a casual fan at best, so take that as you will.

saying all that though, hatchas practise hours 2005 mix is worth seeking out.

If we're including people like Zed Bias and early El B, I must say I prefer Steve Gurley:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB4dSRuDjQU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdccX4BJCqc

Well, if you're taking recommendations I'd flag that not everyone agrees with the statements above, especially since they're coming from several of the most dubstep-sceptic contributors to ILX lol ("the beginning was not as good as garage, the middle is dull and the end is only funny because it winds up people who liked the beginning and middle, now want to hear my advice on the best bits? oh hang on...")

As a counterweight I'd say: it's not an 'or' decision between UK garage and early dubstep, that both had a variety of highlights, that Dubstep Allstars 1 remains an amazing CD - quite the opposite of the reviews above and if you like it also look for [disclaimer alert] the Roots of El-B and Roots of Dubstep compilations, the Horsepower and two Zed Bias LPs (Maddslinky (about to be re-issued) and Phuturistix - that Hook and a Line remix was an irrelevant afterthought), some of Hatcha's free promo CDs like this one http://blackdownsoundboy.blogspot.com/2009/11/happy-birthday-i-am-5.html, that the Bingo Beats 3 CD was mostly early instrumental grime and breakstep, that rather than being "classic" that Caspa/Rusko's Fabric CD was just as generic as all the wobble clones that followed it and that of the mid era I'd recommend DMZ releases 1 to about 12.

but how could it have been generic if they were basically bringing something pretty fresh to dubstep? its not like that sound had already saturated itself and become pointlessly formulaic by that point had it? if you dont like it, fine, but to say it was generic at that early stage of wobble/mid range, is a bit premature.

there was tons of that stuff around at the time, it was generic already: perhaps it was just the first time you'd heard it but it'd been rampant in N Type sets etc for at least a year before. it's probably a function of the fact that it has one general pattern (halfstep drums - drop - large dynamic range change then LFO mid-range bassline) so there wasnt a lot of room to play with...

i dunno, the fabric album is still a great mix. i know people were tired of jump up dubstep stuff pretty early on, but generic is an odd criticism to level at dubstep imo, just cos a lot of the mid period stuff which was basically 'eerie fx intro, heavy bass entrance, moody synth layering, back to heavy bass entrance' could be pretty generic itself. i know what youre saying about being more limited/shallow, but genericism is only a weak point if you hate that stuff to begin with.

i liked the idea of dubstep from the beginning, but didn't actually start loving & connecting to actual tracks until a year or two ago (when to my ears it started embracing hip-hop/r&b sounds, different moods, songiness, etc.). if that makes me a dilettante then i'm totally cool w that.

Early stuff... I've really really really been digging the Skream track 'Afeks' on Southside Dubstars: http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/servlet/Info?Track=SSDUB007 from way back, but it just got a repress... its got such a killer bump to it. Just bassline, the odd fruity loops bleep, voice sample and an insane bumpy beat that just gets under your skin and makes you move like any good dance music does... I guess it fits insaide that strange area that Martin chats about and links to with the Hatcha mix cd where garage is twisting into dubstep, so the beats have a flex to them and they channel it thru that dark spaced out energy still. So much of my fave dubstep/wot-u-call-it? new and old has that rhythmic flex to it that trys to ballance that bumpy dance floor energy with something a little bit more spaced out.

Forthcoming Skream album is basically a "dubstep...the story so far". there's a bit of everything in there, which is nice because i guess he was its first superstar exponent.

i don't know if i can even bring myself to listen to it. skream is like the personification of the musical peripeteia a lot of mainstream dubstep has undergone. Seeing him in a sparsely attended show in a cramped cellar in 2006 was my road to Damascus moment with dubstep, and seeing him play a set of shit d'n'b, quasi-gabba, & la roux remixes to a stowed club last year was a real nadir for me.

like not even a nadir of dubstep. just awful.

well, this will happen with acts who make it big unfortunately.

did people read the mixmag dubstep special? i found it a bit... lacking somewhat. for all of dubstep's innovation and splintering over the last few years, i'm itching for someone to come along and REALLY stir stuff up.

jim - judging by what i've read of your opinions on dubstep, you won't like the new skream. it's very assorted, kinda commercial, not for ass purists AT ALL.

(ummm... that was supposed to say "bass purists", apologies)

I know, I mean I've not heard it but Skream has been really hit and miss for ages for me. Hearing him pull up his Le Roux remix at a DMZ in Leeds about 4 times was so bad it was unture, but then he releases stuff like Minimalistix or the old bits that recently came on Keysound and its alright. I dig lots of early Skream but now I know one in every ten Skream tunes are gonna be worth a listen now. Its kind of a shame but he's still doing his thing and dropping stuff for the heads every now and again, I'd rather it was him doing it and going 'mainstream' than some shite like Doorly or Jackwob. Even Rusko really falls short, Skream is way ahead on his own let alone with the Magnetic Man project with Benga and Artwork, which is signed to some kind of major and has some sort of poppy/dance single in the works by the sounds of things.

Mala's album is out right now btw haha

i know nothing about mala - what's the score there?

apparently rusko is going to be doing stuff with big name pop acts soon - can't remember who it was, but the idea is o_O

the mala thing is all old stuff but apart from one track - the last one i think, its all really top quality. no city cycle unfortunately, but from the samples, i dont think theres a low point on there.

"did people read the mixmag dubstep special? i found it a bit... lacking somewhat. for all of dubstep's innovation and splintering over the last few years, i'm itching for someone to come along and REALLY stir stuff up."

yeah but that piece is just another cheerleading piece on dubstep.
for all the new stuffs interesting-ness, not much of it feels that essential really. its like some new eclecticism movement.

Skream is way ahead on his own let alone with the Magnetic Man project with Benga and Artwork, which is signed to some kind of major and has some sort of poppy/dance single in the works by the sounds of things.

It's out in a few weeks and is the fucking worst

Rusko's album already has like Gucci Mane on and the Dirty Projectors girl doing cute r'n'b-ish vox - it's not a classic by any stretch but I didn't hate it either and I think he'd potentially turn his hand to legit pop tunes a lot more successfully than that Magnetic Man garbage

isn't it Britney Spears he's working with?

Kindly guide me to more filthy acidic dubstep like Trolley Snatcha:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arWouqZf0kk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMX-mNe80vQ

i dont really have much of a clue about dubstep at the mo. all the wobble mid range stuff sounds fine to me but totally generic. no idea whos doing what. tempted to get that caspa mix cd he put out a while back (if you like trolley snatcha youd prob like that) and maybe the jakes one but thats about it. that first trolleysnatcha track would be better without the ska bits in between.

You're right titchy. You have no idea.

still though, more than you.

lol

"all the wobble mid range stuff sounds fine to me but totally generic. no idea whos doing what. tempted to get that caspa mix"

i rest my case.

you numpty. i mean i dont have all the tracklists, hence i dont know whose behind every single track i hear.

haha
no, it was the
"tempted to get that caspa mix"
that gave the game away

Glad to see that dance music noobians are being kept in check by people like Jon B. I mean, where are they all flocking from?

Guessing Jon B is a new account for that twat who got permabanned for making lynching jokes on the n-word thread, if any mods care enough to keep an eye on that

Nah he's been around for ages, he's not a new or old troll or anything just a bit of a knob. He's doing a good job of making me want to side with Titchy though.

caspa = CLASSIC

FTR, the Caspa mix that came out not long ago is actually a good laugh and not as obviously generic as one might expect. It's still square-rave and hard beats, but I was surprised to hear Hyph Mngo on it.

caspa is actually kinda underrated in a weird (internet) way. though yeah the inclusion of hyph just seems odd. almost apologetic.

haven't listened to this new skream disc yet, but i love andy battaglia's emusic review:

As it continues to refract and evolve, the dance-music style known as dubstep has wandered onto a number of intriguing byways. Some artists, like Actress, have stopped worrying over genre and engaged a newly mesmerizing array of timeless, boundless "bass music" sounds. Others, like Zomby, have switched on to the imagined transmissions of zoned-out video-game fiends. Still others, like James Blake and Mount Kimbie, have softened up and set out to make a supremely emotional kind of post-human soul.

Skream never seemed a likely candidate for the latter, but he wasn't exactly a sure thing for any of the others either. It makes a strange kind of sense, then, that he would basically go ahead and do all three — plus a little more on the sides. Not that Outside the Box makes a lot of sense: Indeed, as an album, it's a fractious, fragile and highly fraught mess. But what is dubstep circa 2010 if not a laboratory for various styles and sounds to go wrong — and sound all the more right for their failure?

Skream hails from Croydon, a district within dubstep's formative home city of London. From there, he's helped goose the genre along from its early '00s days as a backdrop for grime to its latter days — pretty much now and counting — as a new form all its own. Starting with his breakout single "Midnight Request Line" in 2005, his records for the timely label Tempa have ranked as important briefings from dubstep's frontline, enough that he's collaborated or shared vinyl space with some of the scene's biggest names (Benga, Shackleton, Loefah) and earned the right to put out a five-volume series of EPs self-importantly titled Skreamizm.

Outside the Box takes bits of Skream's past activity and crams them into one swelling statement of purpose. The style changes drastically, such that a more or less ordinary mid-tempo rap track ("8 Bit Baby," with oddly lifeless vocals by) can shift meaningfully into the haunted and haunting robot sulk of "CPU," which sounds like Kraftwerk coming apart and limping across a desert in the mid-day sun. The latter plays way more to Skream's main strength, which is all the more apparent when he slows things down and gives his spacious atmospheres and evocative rhythms room to breathe. To that end, it's easy to imagine some sort of oddball hit status for "Where You Should Be," a plaintive ballad that matches missing-you vocals to rainbow-colored synth oscillations, melancholic sub-bass, and a beat that thwacks with a short-story's worth of exposition and mood.

Not all of Skream's best moments are slow. "How Real" jumps and jags through a hyper mix of chopped-up vocals, while tracks like "Listenin' to the Records on My Wall" play teeth-gnashing tribute to the early '90s heyday of jungle and hardcore rave. Nor are all his moments even close to best: "Finally," a collaboration with La Roux, wanders too far toward overwrought trance treacle, and the quasi-ambient interlude "Metamorphosis" doesn't do much more than "quasi-ambient interlude" might suggest.

But even the album's missteps, such as they are, show Skream as an ambitious and big-minded producer trying to make the most of where dubstep stands to go. There's a geeky sense of excitement and curiosity in both his reaching and his over-reaching, and his ears are clearly open and attuned.

dubstep is late fall/winter music, anyway.

Really liking the LHF 12 inch on Blackdown's label. Chimes in well with my personal Metalheadz revival this past month.

d00ds, I heard ABAGA Records was permasonned by ILX moderators in a spamming beef O_O

Loving this Ramadanman tune at the mo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNF8zLFvkvo

i'm really hit and miss with him but 'pitter' is amazing

LHF "EP2:The Line Path" [Keysound Recordings]

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXoRe2SQBtk

Pinch's album is currently £3.49 on iTunes. Haven't heard it, but seems like a bargain to me. DLing now.

way late to the party but what does retina think of oneman's rinse mix CD.

er ... that should be "everyone" ... stupid iphone spellcheck!!

I always have time for Oneman and his Rinse entry is solid stuff. Could probably have done without the ubiquitous Hyph Mngo and the vocals on The Detatchments track near the beginning are jarring to say the least.

I miss his epic 2-step / dubstep blends from a couple of years back but I guess he had to move on from there (the transition from Zomby's 'Rumours & Revolutions' into Efdemin on this mix is sublime).

He promised us a new Autumn mix on his twitter feed a few weeks back haven't seen anything yet.

Oney in the mix for XLR8R. My year is now complete.

http://www.xlr8r.com/podcast/2010/12/oneman

01 Bad Autopsy "Callback" (Ramp)
02 Instra:mental "Talkin' Mono" (NonPlus+)
03 Joy Orbison "GR Etiquette"
04 SBTRKT "2020" (Brainmath)
05 Unknown "Sicko Cell"
06 Boddika "When I Dip" (NonPlus+)
07 El-B & Juiceman "Buck & Bury" (Ghost)
08 Unknown "Mellotroid"
09 FaltyDL "Doo Wop"
10 Pearson Sound "Blanked" (Hessle Audio)
11 Girl Unit "IRL" (Night Slugs)
12 Amerie "One Thing" (French Fries Remix)"
13 Ill Blu "Pull It (Instrumental)" (It's Funky)
14 The Touch "Bodies Waiting (French Fries Remix)"
15 Redlight "MDMA" (Polydor)
16 SX vs. Ramadanman "Woooo Glut"
17 Desto & Jimi Tenor "Doorlock Riddim"
18 Shortstuff & Mickey Pearce "Tripped Up (Ramadanman Re-edit)" (Ramp)
19 Jay Weed "The Naos" (502)
20 Benga "Skank" (Big Apple)
21 Toasty "Skinny" (Destructive)
22 Mala "City Cycle" (Tectonic)

this track has been on repeat for a while... dunno if it is technically dubstep (it is Skream)... feel like this is where the genre should be leaning tho... fuck that wobble insanity.. shit hurts my ears...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwPby5j8fpQ

this tune by Objekt is pretty amazing -- mournful arps, huge jet engine bass drops and subtle amen flourishes

http://soundcloud.com/keinobjekt/objekt001b-tinderbox-m