the genre known as dubstep - search and destroy

I do recognise Coki and Loefah broke ground. But from my perspective it's a bit like how Jonny L's "Piper" broke ground in d&b. Like, "wait, this is gonna be the whole genre now???" But, um, yeah, "Stuck" is good, I just forgot to list it above (though "Neverland" is much the better track on that 12). Anyway I'm not trying to downplay Mala who I still like most of all (and you're right, Martin, there are still more Mala classics than Anti-Social classics, though the gap is rapidly narrowing) so much as give thanks for the emergence of heaps of artists in this general vein. The fact that Quest and Silkie are just some more strong producers (worthy of a hat-tip in a this month in dubstep run-down rather than a full-blown hagiography) reflects well on the scene itself. Of course to actually engage with the scene full-on as you do requires wading through the pile of crap as well, which I don't have to luckily.

As for Anti-Social's sound, well, a lot of Anti-Social stuff is on that linear house tip ("The Seafront" etc.) but "Sky's The Limit" and a lot of other Silkie tracks especially either depart from that entirely or fill in the bar with a lot more percussion that reminds me of Bias circa 2001/2002 - stuff like his remix of El-B's "Serious". And it's Zed Bias-y as much in the way it uses urgent quasi-jazzy instrumental refrains (trilling vamps and the like). It's a lot more lush than Mala who generally uses very spare melodic hooks (not a criticism).

Re Hessle Audio, I agree they could be ruder (but then basically the more dubstep is like "Serious (Zed Bias Remix)" the better in my opinion). I think of a lot of this Hessle Audio/3024/etc. stuff as being the equivalent of the kind of drum & bass DJ Clever was pushing five years ago - trying to recapture the sense of possibility of earlier sounds but doing so in a cleaner/more technical/more professional manner.

OTOH I always think "coffee table" is a dangerously fuzzy kind of term, it sort of eats up all sorts of spaces of possibility around it. I've always thought that the idea of New Forms as "coffee table jungle" was such a point-missing exercise (the real problem with that album being that half the tracks on the first disc are weak).

no no no tim, you can't compare loefah to techstep. for a start techstep was part of the jungle/d&b continum, whereas dubstep clearly - sonically, socially, musically - broke away from garage. (seriously the garage crowd didnt give a fuck about FWD>>).

Techstep made d&b more constrained. Loefah took early dubstep and did things that no producer has ever had the balls to do. Reducing it to such few incredible, beautiful elements, stripped it back so far it was breathtakingly daring to play it out and call it "dance" music. i dont mind if it's not feminine enough for you or whether it lacks momentum or if it's too agressive or if it's too cold, but you gotta respect it broke new, wonderful ground in what constitued urban "dance" music.

So who's ready for the Kryptic Minds album on Loefah's new label? ;)

btw, has anyone else noticed how bad New Forms has dated but Timeless (sic) hasnt?

"the real problem with that album being that half the tracks on the first disc are weak"

Sure, but I think the "coffee table" critique hits at why they are weak.

"Techstep made d&b more constrained."

Not initially.

"Techstep made d&b more constrained. Loefah took early dubstep and did things that no producer has ever had the balls to do. Reducing it to such few incredible, beautiful elements, stripped it back so far it was breathtakingly daring to play it out and call it "dance" music. i dont mind if it's not feminine enough for you or whether it lacks momentum or if it's too agressive or if it's too cold, but you gotta respect it broke new, wonderful ground in what constitued urban "dance" music."

You could as easily say "Loefah made dubstep more constrained. Techstep took d&b and did thing that no producer had ever had the balls to do..." And in fact if you replaced "techstep" with "neurofunk" (which is what "Piper" was really) then I've read so many descriptions of that music in exactly the terms you apply to Loefah.

As I said I agree that Loefah broke new ground but I disagree that the ground broken was that amazing. But this argument kinda hits a dead-end at this point.

"Sure, but I think the "coffee table" critique hits at why they are weak."

Well the term equally applies to all the life-changing amazing tracks on disc 2 ("Share The Fall (Instrumental)", "Change My Life", "Trust Me", "Hot Stuff", "Ballet Dance" etc. etc.) - the difference being: better rhythms, better grooves, greater focus on a surround-sound immersion than on vocals...

"btw, has anyone else noticed how bad New Forms has dated but Timeless (sic) hasnt?"

Also this strikes me as wrong but again I think it's just a matter of opinion and we're not gonna see eye to eye here.

I've only listened to the sample but Appleblim's remix of "If Alone" sounds like bliss.

"New Forms has dated"

i dont think it has - played it the other week and some of the 12" remixes and they all sound as good as they used to. and i *was* expecting them to sound dated. the more straight ahead D&B on timeless sounds good - not the rest though. new forms integrated the jazz/live elements a 100 times better than goldie.

I agree 100% with that.

"I agree that Loefah broke new ground but I disagree that the ground broken was that amazing"

well, to be fair, i feel similarly about coki post-"Tortured." Stuff like "Spongebob" might be original, but sonically I cant be dealing with it.

has Darkstar - Aidy's Girl a Computer been released yet?? that tune is wack!

nope. wack as in, poor?

no, wack as in awesome. what's your take on that track?

wrong choice of word, sorry. i'm indonesian.

Top, top marks indeed for the new Mount Kimbie EP.

"Is that Mount Kimbie release available on download anywhere? Sounds great."

It's floating around as a 320 mp3 torrent and will probably make the Rapidshare rounds before long.

worth mentioning on the colourful, actually kinda funky tip is gemmy's 30 min mix for fact, not sure which are which but there's at least four or five fantastic new-ish ones on there. (tracklisting here)

also good is this 2000f mix from december, nothing really tops 'you don't know what love is' but lots of bouncy 'not joyless' gems still. if you can stand 64kbps, joker and nomad's dec 22 rinse show is long enough to play catch up with most of the best recent big tunes from this corner

Feeling in a big way right now:

Untold's stuff on Hemlock: http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=158993
Breakage / Instra:mental on Naked Lunch: http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=157855
Millie, Daphne 02: http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=155823
Anstam, Cree: http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=157871

Not so much "classic" dubstep, more accents of techno, IDM and even industrial. But definitely the strain I'm most interested in at the moment.

random generalisation but i was listening to the distance album last night and much as i like it (prob one of the best dubstep albums), it reminded me that one of the things i dislike about dubstep is how weak it can sometimes be rhythmically.

not sure about this new Horsepower 12".

lead track is over-busy. Crap snare drum and hi-hats. Full of samples of sirens and gun shots, cars screeching and explosions. Also skanking guitar and melodica. Personally I'm a bit sick of cod-reggae touches in dubstep, even though that's a bit hypocritical cause I'm still in to all the old tracks with said touches in them. Really overstays it's welcome, over six minutes and could do with being less than four.

Second track has some cod eastern touches and wobbly bass. Just generally do not want.

Neither track very 2steppy at all.

oh in fact i should mention the second track has Spongebob esque metallic annoying mid-range bass wobbly, not even just regular wobble.

bollocks. i have a total wobble-aversion but Kingstep only has it in touches at the end. mostly it's like Sholay on steroids. sure i'd have loved it to be garage but in its own right it's a great tune.

i wish it was like Sholay on steroids!

dorian concept's new album is sounding pretty solid as of halfway through, lots of nice simmery pitchbent chime sounds. can be listened to here. not dubstep, but in a similar vein to rustie i guess--are there any other threads for this stuff?

someone needs to create a rolling wonky thread.
― p-noid (titchyschneiderMk2), Friday, February 6, 2009 3:18 PM (1 week ago)

^^! if only there were a better name!

On the wonky tip, Kode9’s forthcoming “Black Sun” is ridiculous. Funky beat + all the perverse synth maneuvers of wonky = devastating. I’m sure those of you in London have already heard this out…

new dusk n blackdown show has some goodies. though i usually always skip the opening history lesson and get to the new exclooses.

Anyone heard Skream's remix of La Roux then? I think it's fantastic, although i wish the breakbeat at the end went on a bit longer.

http://twitter.com/snoopdogg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j198/thirdandarmyst/snoop.jpg

and Plastician is saying he's playing some shit tomorrow night on Rinse.

just heard it. its snoop produced by chase n status. its a bit shit tbh. lil waynes dubstep track with pharrell was better.

lol, just posted this on the autogoon thread. it's a bit nine inch nails, weirdly. i like it though

it sounds like corny dubstep and snoops verses are really boring.

actually it makes sense that its corny cos a) its chase n status b) they usually make d&b/breakbeat stuff (far as im aware), not dubstep.

I love the corniness of Chase and Status usually though. It's the best thing about them!

Like they're the Aphrodite of their generation.

haha man, atrocious. d&b bros go die.

still, i dunno, i'm glad it exists.

its not new but the LD remix of do you mind is still so fucking beautiful (they just played it on rinse). no idea why it wasnt on the official re-release. now im gonna have to buy it again.

On what release is the remix? It's not on my Maximum Bass cd single.

Traumatic Times EP on hyperdub is a beaut.

Also, sate my curiousity: why are Dubstep labels so intent on only releasing 2 tracks on a single 12", which ultimately takes up less than half the surface area available. Does it have to do with pressing and sound quality? (I don't know anything about these things) why don't you see more 10"s? or is it just matter of not wanting to flood the world with too many tracks, or even just to boost profits?

cos theyre anal about sound quality. same reason when dubstep albums come out on vinyl certain tracks from the cd are missing.

I thought that was partly because the albums tend to leave out previously released singles.

Interesting Q & A with Kode9 (of Hyperdub Records) on eMusic in early April.

I'm slowly falling deeply in love with 10-20's s/t album. It's so textured, so rich in layers and overflowing with beautiful melodies and strange bubbling beats 'n bass. It's as far away from the dancefloor as you can imagine, and that's precisely why I love it so much. Just like Mount Kimbie's EP. 10-20 is just such blissful, atmospheric dreamlike dubstep, I don't know if I can call it dubstep anymore. But I don't care for that, this is just heavenly great.

His album's ou ton Highpoint Lowlife btw

"out on"

10-20 is sounding like early vladislav delay doing dubstep to me. really nice, thanks for the tip dude.

actually, it just reminds me of vladislav delay. not really dubsteppy.

No problem! There's only a wee bit of dubstep trickling through, yes. Didn't know where else to put it though. The Delay comparison is otm.

yeah, i was listening to it on my wee computer speakers, but on headphones i'm hearing it a little more in the bass and whatnot.

i've been enjoying the mount kimbie EP, too.