the genre known as dubstep - search and destroy

Xpost. What! RA I love you.

I wish dubstep sounded more like "Armani Versace vs. Mercedes Bentley".

B I N G O B E A T S

Woah, fuckin' A! have to listen to that Appleblim later. I caved and bought Steppas' Delight. Listening to it now, it's very nice and very diverse indeed.

Can we talk about how good the Ital Tek - Cyclical album is? There's a lot of stuff going on here. Not getting enough love, sez me.

it's on my TODO list but i haven't heard it yet.

they had a release on netlab a while ago now, freebie download:

http://inspirebox.com/netlab/audio/nl21-ital-tek-snippets/

Good lord, 08 is Appleblim's year, is it not. That RA podcast was great.

Another interesting note, If Martyn's "All I Have is Memories" is not a good enough track on it's own, try speeding it up by, say 24% or so (without pitch correction) to enter ravey early-jungle mode a la Omni Trio or whoever.

Errrm, maybe on a second listen not as much so as I initially thought.

Agreed on the RA mix, and Dubstep Allstars 6which has had repeated plays for me. Great stuff.

HOW good is this 2562 aerial album? ok im super late i know but my cd took years to arrive. dubstep seems much harder to follow these days then when i first made this post. so many diff little pockets of activity it seems. i didnt like that last dubstep all stars comp much at all.

Can we talk about how good the Ital Tek - Cyclical album is? There's a lot of stuff going on here. Not getting enough love, sez me.

I missed this post the other day but would back this and also suggest that all the ILM dudes who go all cuddlestein whenever there's talk about Orbital check this out, as it's the first example I've seen of someone putting their influence into dubstep structures

Recently checked this out, and Lifted is FUCKING FATNESS.

Old news I'm sure, but I always lag behind scenes a little.

Woah Ramadanman's "Blimey"! Percussive biz. Check http://www.juno.co.uk/products/313302-01.htm"> http://www.juno.co.uk/products/313302-01.htm.

For the billionth time I must wonder why dubstep spent so many years actively avoiding making tracks like these.

Also been enjoying Quest & Silkie's late June Rinse FM show.

i love blimey. the first time i heard it was in fabric in march at 11am or some ungodly hour, pitched down to -6 or whatever by villalobos. the looks on people's faces were priceless.

the old MAH Dubstep Wars show from early 2006 got a repeat last night and is listenagainable:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/maryannehobbs/

ahead of next week when they do it again with people chosen by the people who played the first one.

I'm actually tired of dubstep now. Too many white kids.

oh fuck off

I'm actually tired of dubstep now. Too many white kids.

Should be followed by btw, I'm white.

No okay, maybe the last comment was a little...but there are far too many middle class kids who have 'suddenly discovered this fresh new genre' and they tend to be white. I'm also tired of dubstep because my partner is a mainly dubstep musician and its all he plays. GRRR.

should be followed by btw, I'm middle class

Dom is a dubstep musician? Wow

HAHAHAHA

I must say 'Blimey' is really doing it for me lately, I thank Tim for the recommendation. BTW I'm white and middle class.

yeah 'blimey' is pretty cool. ramadanman is like one of the best producer names ever though right? it's like those muslim dj names my (muslim) friend sara was making everyone think up (u know, eg quran quran, niqabaret voltaire, jihaddaway, halal cool j &c) except actually real.

i'm not white btw!

I tend to think dubstep is at its best and worst ever in 2008. Producers like Quest, Silkie, Ramadanman, Martyn, 2562, Peverelist, Forsaken, Shackleton and Untold are all making quality tunes. It's just they're surrounded by a larger glut of crap wobble than before.

Still, this strikes me as a better situation than c. 2005 where I'd like maybe 5 dubstep tunes tops (hmm - let's see: "Midnite Request Line", "Neverland", "Qawwali", "Broken Home"... I can't even think of a 5th track off the top of my head!). Yes, this is mostly due to the fact that there were just less producers around back then, but it's still hard for me to understand the tendency for dubstep fans to pine nostalgically for this era of privation and scarcity.

Also possible they just like Digital Mystikz a lot.

I really don't understand how anyone could possibly need more than about 3 Loefah or Coki tracks in their lives.

Personally, I get bored after 16 bars.

Indeed all attempts at getting into dubstep prior to may 07 (i.e. seeing Kode 9 live) failed on account of just being exposed to Digital Mystiks / Benga type blocky zzzzzzz music. . . Still don't find anything remotely interesting about it and I could give a shit about people who want to keep things one big wobble-fest, but when I listen to say, Appleblim's recent mixes etc. I find it genuinely exciting.

zomby ftw

the more i hear of dubstep that sounds like it's made by huge Basic Channel fans, the more i like it.

not that this is BC influenced, but i really love this track by http://www.myspace.com/subeena, "Minor", i heard on some Mary Anne Hobbs show. not even sure if it's dubstep, but i want to hear more stuff like this. her other tracks are pretty nice, too.

i hope it's not frowned on to link myspace pages here...

just realized i used the i tag instead of url. i'm just fuckin up left and right. Subeena is the artist, if that isn't apparent.

Add me to the huddled mass mumbling that I didn't initially get the whole early detour things seem to have taken in the 2005 era, although I've recently gotten more into things. I think I had a token few I liked, but kind of remained ignorant of the scene at large. Now I've been trying to go back and read through the Martin Clark dubstep articles on pfm and read old blog entries.

Anyone have any opinions on the Dusk + Blackdown album? I listened to some of it after seeing the video <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/1467214";>here</a> and am kind of intrigued. Like the blackdown mixes off his blog.

..and I just completely failed to hit the "simple html to bbcode" button, sorry about that

"I really don't understand how anyone could possibly need more than about 3 Loefah or Coki tracks in their lives."

Me neither, but I don't think we represent a majority of dubstep fans.

No that's right, but nor do the people moaning about how dubstep has fallen off either. Being obsessed with Loefah but resenting Caspa strikes me as major case of narcissism of small differences.

Kinda like saying: "Jonny L's "Piper" and Ed Rush & Optical's Wormhole - THAT was the golden age of drum & bass. It all went to shit when Bad Company came along."

Of course, I do read interviews with d&b producers where they say exactly that, and talk about bringing back the "spirit of '98".

mmm, pangaea's 'router' is just gorgeous: http://www.myspace.com/journeytopangaea

Shackleton's new stuff is amazing.

New Headhunter mining that techno-dubstep crossover territory and producing some diamonds.

Must listen to some of the new Headhunter stuff.

New Shackleton EP is indeed a doozy. Very nice stuff.

RSD - Speeka Box: Makes use of one of the prettiest/catchiest loops I've heard in a day or two, sounds really nice. And normally I hate wobble bass, but I really want to hear this played live and revel in the hugeness of this track.

Destroy: Everything I heard yesterday that was linked from a page I was looking at.

Apparently there are a few Burial-derivatives now that jack the way he fades vocal samples with melancholy loops. The other great one was refixes of classic dub where they just add a really generic bass wobble loop through the whole thing!

New Quest and Silkie singles on Deep Medi = ace ace ace. Especially Silkie's "Sky's The Limit", which reminds me of Zed Bias circa 2001 at his best. I do like how these guys are managing to plot course which avoids simply drifting towards dub-techno or just bringing back (even very good) 2-step percussion, but rather magically turns Benga/Loefah/Coki style beats into something actually good, interesting and energising.

Speaking (even disparagingly so) of Loefah, it's been forever since he had a record out.

I'm liking the Finnish stuff (Clouds, Tes La Rok) quite a bit ("Elders" in particular is awesome.) Haven't heard the new Deep Medi stuff, but I generally like both Quest and Silkie. New Hyperdub things, I wasn't spun on the Dabrye/Flying Lotus remixes of King Midas Sound, but I'm excited for the new album none-the-less. Ikonika seems to be more of the same.

Has anyone head the Zomby-back to 92 rave thing?

RSD has also been on fire lately.

Rob Smith is the bomb. That being said, the stuff on his MySpace really just sounds pretty much like his old dub & D&B stuff, doesn't it?

is that zomby thing like old hardcore or something?

hes got a old school hardcore album coming on werk in november and a 7 tracker of bleepy stuff on hyperdub

The new Shackleton stuff is astonishing.

But it ain't Dubstep.

Okay, my favourite dubstep trackz this year (in no particular order):

Peverelist - Infinity Is Now
Silkie - Sky's The Limit
Quest - Deep Inside
Sully - Give Me Up
Digitial Mystikz - Shake Out Your Demons
Pangaea - Router
Ramadanman - Blimey
Martyn - Velvet
Geiom - Reminiscin' (Dubplate Version)
Patti Blingh - Brother: The Point (2562 Remix)

Good stuff!

Allowing more than one track by any artist, I'd add Pangea's "You and I", Martyn's "All I Have Is Memories", Silkie's "I Sed" and Quest's "The Seafront". I'm kinda mentally discounting Shackleton but "Death Is Not Final" and his remix of Villalobos were both ace.