the genre known as dubstep - search and destroy

I think it's actually partly because I do like individual dubstep tracks so much that it really frustrates me that I don't like more of the genre, and it makes me harsher on it than I should be. Dubstep wears it's "I bring you the FUTURE! THE FUTURE! THE FUTURE!" inclinations on its sleeve, so it's easy for it to feel like it's underperforming. The obvious corrolary is techstep/neurofunk '97, where there's a handful of stuff that is among my favourite music ever, and most of the rest I could probably take or leave.

And in the spirit of forgiveness I should make a gratuitous shout-out to my favourite "mid-period" dubstep track, DJ Abstract's "Touch" - which is thoroughly awesome, but maybe I like it so much because it's almost a "proper" 2-step track. Female vocals! And gorgeously syncopated breakbeats, like a mutant hybrid of The Wideboys "Something's Got Me Started (Dub)" with the Zed Bias remix of 2 Banks of Four's "Hook and a Line". And squiggly keyboards!

Dubstep lovers, this week's Breezeblock was a dubstep special (programme is streamed for a week), with Mala (Digital Mystikz), Skream, Kode 9 and Space Ape, Vex'd, Hatcha, Loefah and Sgt. Pokes, and Distance.

Tracklisting here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/dance/breezeblock/breezeblock_archive.shtml?20060110

vexd.blogspot.com

and their mix from 11th November at Adverse Camber is also worth a listen (but is very quiet)
http://spannered.org/mixes/vexd/vexd_nov11_2005.mp3

Really??? To me says "I am 1978! 1978! 1978!!!!"

and that's bad why? 8)

oh http://www.garagepressure.com/ has some podcasts available. it seems that grime has made it to australia.

i think this really means that the discourse is a self-sustaining thing which doesn't actually need the music input at all.

OK maybe that was hasty, though - i just listen to youngsta's mix and it's a lot more than that. veering dangerously close to tranquility bass at times, however.

pls message me if you'd like to part w/ a copy for a reasonable sum.

who's going to be mixing 3?

what's the dirt over at dissensus about these releases?

Burial on the Breezeblock

In session, Cinematic sounds from Burial a rising producer within the dubstep scene. Burial is a 26 year old from South London. This music is so far out, cool, fresh, haunting, eerie, atmospheric - INNOVATIVE and demands a listen.

Tracklisting info: Radio 1 - Mary Anne Hobbs [Now on Listen Again]

Burial music reminds me of Coil, dub, Omni Trio, Massive Attack, Eno & Byrne, Tricky, artcore drum n bass and the dubby side of early prog house circa 1992 ala Leftfield.

Deep aquatic spacey, eerie, haunting, dreamy, drifting, spatial music.

Leading dubstep music critic/writer: Martin Clark interviews Burial on the blog Blackdown

Plus free MP3 samples

Burial “Burial” is out on Hyperdub in May. Album of the year anyone? asks Martin Clark

Hyperdub: Burial

BURIAL: BURIAL - HDBCD001
OUT MAY 15th 2006

This first album on Kode9’s Hyperdub label comes from the mysterious Burial. On this self-titled CD debut, Burial carves out a sound which sends the dormant slinky syncopations of uk garage, via radio interference, into a padded cell of cushioned, muffled bass, passing through the best of Pole’s Berlin crackle dub.

Burial explores a tangential, parallel dimension of the growing sound of dubstep. Burial’s parallel dimension sounds set in a near future South London underwater. You can never tell if the crackle is the burning static off pirate radio transmissions, or the tropical downpour of the submerged city outside the window. In their sometimes suffocating melancholy, most of these tracks seem to yearn for drowned lovers. The smouldering desire of ‘Distant Lights’ is cooled only by the percussive ice sharp slicing of blades and jets of hot air blowing from the bass. Listen also for a fleeting appearance from Hyperdub’s resident vocalist, the Spaceape unravelling his crypto-biography. In its loud quietness, Burial takes his kitchen crackle aesthetic neither from the digital glitch nor merely a nostalgia for vinyl’s materiality. Instead, as ‘Pirates’ suggests, Burial crackle mutates the tactile surplus value of pirate radio transmissions. Burial’s mix is haunted. Echoed voices breeze in and out, on road to another time. Pirate signal from other frequencies steams in. A tidal wave of noise submerging all but the crispest syncopations. The noise is not violent, but caressing, tickling, exciting the ends of your nerves. Seducing you in.

He's just being upfront about his roots.

And I think the album cover is very appropriate to his sound- the city at night, glistening pools of collected rainwater, its evocative music and this art locks in well to the ethos he/she/they are creating.

And beats-wise its fucking great- proper steppy music with lots of off centre snares and kinetic hi hat action. Its a bit removed from the way most dubstep has evolved tho, not really halfstep and grinding sub bass, more swung beats and distant pulsings... its much more emotional too... and waaay better produced (engineering wise) than almost all other dubstep (notable exception- Pinche's Qawalli- a stonka of a tune) which in the main is a bit plasticy and obviously constructed in a soft-studio environment...

ala matrix

http://www.discogs.com/image/R-5522-001.jpg

http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?what=R&obid=5522

no i haven't but i'm looking forward to it! i actually really enjoyed dubstep vol 1, wasn't so big on the youngsta mix (started out too slow, but it's cool once it warms up about halfway through). vol 03 though ... 30 tracks? AWESOME! loads more digital mystikz / loefah / skream? AWESOME! i think this one's going to be great!

It's quite good. It might be my favorite dubstep thing.

And its a shame the last track Burial -"Prayer" only gets about a minute and a half...

The best Dubstep Mix I've heard so far has to be Mark One's Three Deck Mix, lots of decent tracks, not too boring, plus the extra deck means that half the time there's multiple tracks playing at once...

(I know, I know, I shouldn't judge from tiny clips...I'm sure they're very atmospheric in long form, but the sound was consistent across all of them)

(and I guess since dude's name is Burial, I shouldn't even be questioning this)

In the main dubstep is a synthetic sound built around immense sub bass, often only fuly comprehensible in a club format (ie DMZ). The drums are now usually whats become known as "half-step" 138 bpm (give or take) with aprox one snare per bar rather than 2.. takes the feel of 2 step and removes most of the drums, but still with fast hi hats... Musically it aims for either a dub war-inna-di-babylon vibe or cold futurism... yer basic dubstep might be thought of as say Loefah/Digital Myztiks, if you spice it up a little with dub and lee scratch perry you get Kode 9, or take a more cinematic minimalist twist you get Pinch, more goth and you get Distance, etc etc...

BBC collective present the sound of dubstep

Dubstep! feature includes mp3 samples

Bass in the place. We bring you the lowdown on the UK's newest sound, Dubstep. Plus video feature, images and tracks. [via BBC Collective email]