i hate dubstep

[franz bieberkopf]

back up.

definitely predominant in my listening habits the last week or so. here's what i'm finding, just now:

shackleton has really risen to the top for me as one of the most interesting producers. his work dabbles in atmosphere and place (and here i mean to emphasize a particular interest in rhythm samples and patterns from non-western musics) in a fashion that definitely has been setting him apart for me. Death is Not Final and Blood on My Hands being the two shining examples for me thusfar. something in the ambience here reminds me a bit of what i used to see in early-ish arovane or autechre. he tends to dark, but it strikes me as 'dark' in a fashion mostly his own, and a way from what many others of that stripe seem to have been up to.

to belabour it, martyn is another absolute favourite at the moment. most everything i've gotten ahold of, remixes included, has been well crafted, infectious, and colourful. the recent Natural Selection/Vancouver is beautiful, slinky lounge tech-dub. as i've explored other stuff, it's become increasingly obvious that stuff like this is--or at least 'was'--pretty peripheral to what is (again, or 'was') generally considered dubstep. it has more than just subtle traces of house, techno, garage, dnb and probably other breakbeat steezo that i just don't know much about. i'm sure for everyone who champions this feller's sound, there's someone bemoaning this direction. as a pop fan at heart, i guess i mostly just find it exciting, but i can understand the dissenting opinion. check out Everything About You, Suburbia, JW On a Good Night... i could go on.

along similar lines, Ramadanman and his Hessle Audio label definitely have my attention for this listening session. His more recent 12"s boast several interesting tracks that show a fairly wide breadth of territory. Blimey operates in Shackleton territory, and boasts a pretty neat (in context) Monos-esque processed field recording breakdown at the end. Kablammo Eleven of the flipside of Carla boasting minimal driving base-chops on a more explicitly danceable tip. Pangaea's fairly recent "You & I/Router" (more Hessle Audio) has an awesome reverb-drenched ambience that recalls old acid and atmospheric drum'n'bass big time. the vocals on the both sides are gorgeous, moody shades--wispy, slowed down soul wheezes that are diffuse enough to come across as spectral.

yeah, i'm enjoying this some. hopefully someone else can chime in with more about the more hard-edged traditional non-sissy stuff that i'm totally neglecting here.

what else kids?

[mudd]

it's probably not the area you're looking for, but lodubs put out a label mix/comp called "analog clash" a while back that was pretty cool. i haven't pulled it out in a few months, though, so i can't comment more precisely.

i have to say i find it more and more difficult to identify what is or is not dubstep anymore. the bug, burial, and shackleton have as much common ground with each other as they might dancehall, d'n'b, and dub respectively. it's confusing.

maybe i haven't spent enough time with any of those all-star mixes.

m

[franz bieberkopf]

i don't know that it would really clear things up very much. you might be able to trace a family resemblance from one end of the spectrum to the other... there's something about the backbeat...

[(<oo>)]

caspa & rusko: dubstep meets rave -> http://www.boomkat.com/jukebox/jbFramed ... type=music
a recent one i very much enjoy: f - phase one -> http://www.boomkat.com/jukebox/jbFramed ... type=music

[joe]

really I listen to more grime then dubstep, but these are my two cents:

burial esque bedroom full album dubstep:

distance - my demons
scuba - a mutual antipathy

dancehall infused dubstep albums:
bug - london zoo (also grime infused, really all over the place and awesome, favorite album of the year I think)
pinch - underwater dancehall (though I think the vocals aren't that great)

other stuff:

grevious angel's - dubstep sufrah mixes (three so far) are my favorite mixes, he has an album of beats out that I haven't listened to enough to judge
dubstep all-star collections are a good intro
I second the rec for the darkstar - need you/squeeze my lime

oh yeah both benga albums (newstep and diary of an afro warrior) are both top notch, especially the later.

I would guess that skream's "midnight request line" is the most well-known dubstep single

[joe]

cotti ft doctor - calm down 12" (i hear this track in sooo many dj sets...still good though)
.

the remixes on that 12" suck, but the single is fantastic. wish there was a full length of shit like this

edit: I was thinking of a different record when dissing the remixes. they aren't as good as the original, but they aren't bad

[Gaendaal]

El Kano's Submerged Mix has some spot on dubstep. His webpage has a lot of good stuff on it, actually. Some new mixes up now that I have to DL.

I also like to listen to DJ Rupture's podcast on WFMU. Not exclusively dubstep by any means but he gets some good tracks in there, pushing the limits of what is considered dubstep.

(The bold bits are links...the forum colour scheme doesn't exactly make them stand out!)

[the_mission]

i know nothing about dubstep, and i'm not really a dancehall/dub/reggae kinda person.

but i really like Kode 9's track "9 samurai"... is there anything more in that direction i should check out ?

[(<oo>)]

"9 samurai", dubstep never has been that good again...
check the rest of kode9's output.
shackleton has a similar vibe. i don't like his excessive use of cheap percussion samples, though.

[the_mission]

i checked out some random kode9 tracks, but was disappointing after that track.
i'm gonna give it a second chance then

[scumtron]

First off, this thread is awesome. There are literally hundreds of dubstep releases coming out each month now, and finding the quality ones has always been difficult.

The new Skream 12", Heddbanger, is definitely more dancefloor-oriented than most dubstep I've heard, especially the b-side, Precression, which I can actually envision myself dancing to.

[lrally]

I just got back from London where I checked for a lot of dubstep 12"s. Best thing I bought is the "Headstrung" 12" by Distance on Chestplate Records. A good source is Mary Anne Hobbs who does a radio show on bbc radio 1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/maryannehobbs/ , most recent one is archived each week (speaking of Distance). Also the old Breakbeat Science shop in NYC covers a lot of dubstep ground for a US shop and you can order online.

[thenationalacrobat]

the new headhunter album "nomad" on tempa is real good... mix up between tech styles of trg, t++ and peverelist but with more of a nod to the dancefloor, a couple wibble wobbles here and there but not enough to aggravate. check out the track "in motion" if you only check one... raster-noton influence abounding.

for me peverelist is the man... on first hearing "roll with the punches / die brucke" i knew there was something a little more special in his arrangements but "infinity is now" and "circling" with appleblim just blew everything away. all the depth and space of basic channel / rhythm and sound productions but with big nods to drexciya and arpeggiated single-fingerers worldwide. night time!

[dave quam]

http://sharebee.com/aa818e6f


Lil Wayne and Pharell do dubstep

[franz bieberkopf]

hard to say exactly how he fits into the sound, but Zomby has rightfully gained heaps of buzz in the last six months or so. i guess most of his 12"s do have a fairly speedy skanking back bone (which, is so far the best i can come up with to reconcile the many currents of dubstep, and why calling it "dub"-step makes sense to begin with...), but while there is no shortage of interesting bass-fuckery, it seems a great deal more mid-centric. for those that don't know, it's predominantly an 8-bit fascinated sound that has come to be called "wonky", with a parallel sister movement more rooted in hip hop (flying lotus, samiyam, mike slott) stateside. a lot of people ring hands about the name, but i think it's generally a waste of time, because it's fairly recognizable.

producers like Joker and Rustie are definitely taking the sound in interesting directions, and i think it's to the community's credit that while a lot of stuff being pumped out these days seems stale as fuck, a lot of these frontier-oriented producers are receiving plenty of attention.

all the same, Zomby stands out for me as the most iconoclastic of the bunch. he recently dropped a full length tribute to early 90s hardcore rave music called "Where Were U in 92". here and on the recent s/t hyperdub ep, he is ripping through tracks and ideas very quickly--sometimes 2 minutes or less. for the most part he's very difficult to place--while the album, for example, clearly has an art (or techno) historical bent, it doesn't really feel derivative... his cuts are littered with ridiculous, childish, surreal vocal samples and instrumentation, teetering some kind of line between sensuality and humour--this is a totally flippant comparison, but the feeling reminds me of someone like Tom Ze (maybe RDJ album era-Aphex would be another analog?). there's just something really bizarre and carnivalesque (and a mite melancholic, under it all!) going on here. his popularity is simultaneously deserved and very surprising to me.

in the 'wonky' universe his palette seems the most liberated--while with other producers the key trait seems to be a mid-synth fetishism, within Zomby's work, this element seems to be one among many being treated with a similarly sour-twisted mindset. at the risk of sounding over analytical, i'd say his music sounds "ideologically" wonky while a lot of other stuff is only superficially so.

check out The Lie, check out the Spliff Dub remixes (he's bringing out the best in Rustie, Sukh Knight, and Starkey... all three versions are great), Strange Fruit, the aforementioned LP and the EP... i wouldn't say i enjoy this stuff the "most", but it has def. has my attention in a way that other stuff doesn't and probably couldn't.

[dave quam]

i will 2nd zomby hes great. Spliff is pretty much my fav dubstep joint, or atleast the one I have listened to the most.

[joe]

I'm pro-zomby. liquid dancehall is intense and awesome rave tune without being agro dnb BASS DROP WOBBLE WOBBLE

[joe]

i checked out some random kode9 tracks, but was disappointing after that track.
i'm gonna give it a second chance then

kode9 is great, I just don't dig most of his stuff with spaceape. the spaceape clone who works with shackleton is much worse though.

He is very London so his sound goes all over the place, his hyperdub record this year with L.V. was funky house flavored.

he never really tops 9 samurai, but that's a pretty high bar to clear.

[vegetable mind]

zomby, unfortunately, was a no show for a party in new york last night. luckily i learned this before heading over there, but i was very much looking forward to him doing a dj set.

[Joda]

i will 2nd zomby hes great. Spliff is pretty much my fav dubstep joint, or atleast the one I have listened to the most.

That's a good one, for sure. I think I like the tracks that sample actual dub or reggae. The original cut that he samples, One Spliff a Day by Billy Boyo (produced by Junjo, my favourite dancehall producer) is superb, especially the extended mix.

As for as songs about smoking, Check this one, http://www.sendspace.com/file/taonz4

I can't find any record on the internet of this tune on wax, but it's by Coki, who is part of the Digital Mystikz duo.