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Dubstep

Started by alan nagsworth, January 23, 2015, 07:54:22 PM

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alan nagsworth

IT'S SO FUCKING GOOD. SERIOUSLY.

Does anyone here still pay attention to the "good" stuff? The genre obviously went through a really rough patch when half of it went more techno-ish (Loefah and a lot of others started playing shit minimal house music in da club but 2562 and Objekt and that took it in some brilliant directions) and the other half went to fucking shit after the Caspa/Rusko party scene turned into hideous "brostep" from the likes of Flux Pavilion and Borgore and then, ultimately, the sort of thing Skrillex did. Since then, it seems to have gone a bit more back to its roots, only a lot more punchy and willing to experiment in stripped back, more accomplished ways. There's some top quality material coming out from people like Commodo and Gantz in particular - and there's a lot more but I'm still in the process of catching up myself. This recent mix from yer man Commodo is an absolute banger.

I've been a big fan of this music since about 2007 when I bought Skream's first album and the Hatcha/Youngsta 2CD "Dubstep Allstars" mixes (from Tempest Records in Birmingham, RIP). It was so exciting! It was like this sudden strange deviation of grime music without the MC, but where grime was quintessentially music that sounded "from the streets",[nb]white boy comin thru make way[/nb] dubstep was different in that it sounded like the streets. Cold, dark moonlit spaces that felt sort of moody or unsettling, backed by infectious, shifty drum patterns and cheeky bass wobbles. And it's so fun to dance to! Having a lot more room to move about in the spacious 140bpm half steps, it is a thoroughly enjoyable exercise. I daresay it's especially agreeable to do so after a few "honks" on a "jazzy biffter". Oh yes.

Here's a round-up of stuff that has particularly stood out for me over the years:

Science Faction Dubstep (2006)
Mixed by DJ Clever, this is a load of stuff that was coming out of Planet Mu at the time. Stunning mix from start to finish, some absolutely crucial tunes, especially from Pinch, Distance and Scuba.

Caspa & Rusko - Fabriclive:37 (2007)
This was sort of the turning point for the genre, really. When these lads started making stuff a lot more in-your-face with high end squeaky grindy synths and big loud snares and what have you. That said, some of it was excellent, as detailed here before Rusko moved to LA and made music for Britney Spears and Caspa became a parody. This mix is tons of fun, I love it.

Hatcha & Youngsta - Dubstep Allstars 4 (2006)
Mentioned above, this is the one that made me fall in love with the dubsteps. These early "Allstars" mixes are a really solid window to the beginning of the scene, where there were still only a handful of people making it and you'd just have these mixes featuring maybe like six artists, with three or four Benga or Kode9 tracks mixed one after the other. Benga's music used to be ace, as well. This particular mix has five in a row, one of which is the superb Zombie Jig, which my friend twigged as being in the same key/having the same chord progression as Simon Park's Sun High from the original "Dawn of the Dead" soundtrack. "Jig" even contains subtle samples tucked away in the background, and the two songs sound perfect when mixed into one another.

BUT, I digress. I'll finish up by linking a couple of personal favourites:

Mala - Left Leg Out: Without a doubt the absolute tops.

Headhunter - Prototype: Woozy acid stomper.

Benga - Broken Dubstep

Skream - Blue Eyez: Classic! Skream was about 19 and using Fruityloops to make a lot of his music at this point.

Argh fuckin' dubstep man, I love it so much.

monkfromhavana

Never got it with it, apart from Burial (if he can be classed as Dubstep) and the odd tune here and there.

RenegadeScrew

Yeah lots of good stuff to be found, although attaching a name to the thing seemed to make it get stupid louder and more mid-range (wobbly).

I actually got into it through Benga and that Caspa/Rusko FabricLive mix mentioned.  I think the latter is a bit shit in hindsight but some of Benga's stuff (like Crunked Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVKboRPgu0U) still defo stand up for me.

Also good to search out some of the stuff from before, like El-B and the 'roots of El-B' compilation on Tempa.  Or Horsepower.  El-B's buck and bury is lifted straight for Burial's archangel, so anyone who likes Burial should definitely have a listen.

Yes - 2562's album unbalanced is pretty special.  Objekt's singles were good.  Album a bit too sound designy.  Weirdly have seen both of them DJ just pounding techno out at 130+

Personally veered more towards stuff on Hyperdub and stuff like Hessle in the last few years.  I personally like their sort of fuck it attitude to playing/releasing anything.  The Pangaea EP on Hessle from 2010 or something is one of the best things to have ever happened in all of the human arts.
Here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9GzYcjQsBw&list=PL-iw--mMCQ3ID3OKoDwjGIt7yReABkcPv  [nb]Apologies - Will work out how to work the URL tag thing at some point[/nb]

And Ben UFO is the best DJ I've ever seen

Hypodeemic Nerdle

I've got one Shackleton 12". I'm rubbish.

I like a bit of the old dubstep, but being an old feck I don't get exposed to very much of it, so thanks for the recommendations Mr nagsworth.

Here's my favourite mix, from DJ Harmony, Belgian Queen of Dubstep: http://www.mediafire.com/listen/kpjk3lj1j2mskx6/Harmony,_the_queen_of_dubstep_Studio_Brussel.mp3 (35MB) Starts off with a brief bit of happy hardcore, and then the foghorn drops. Lots in there for retro gamers too, plus an excellent bit of football hooligan punk poetry in the middle there. Karma points available for anyone who can tell me who the football hooligan poet is - I've tried googling "let's all fuck off down the road and 'ave it out" and all I get is other people searching for the same thing.

kngen

Quote from: Grass Mud Horse on January 25, 2015, 09:54:47 PM
Karma points available for anyone who can tell me who the football hooligan poet is - I've tried googling "let's all fuck off down the road and 'ave it out" and all I get is other people searching for the same thing.

Haven't had a chance to listen to that mix, but - off the top of my head - Garry Johnson from the Strength Through Oi! comp?

He's at the start of this clip, so you'll at least recognise the voice or not ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qDSGCxLJBI

Quote from: kngenHaven't had a chance to listen to that mix, but - off the top of my head - Garry Johnson from the Strength Through Oi! comp?

Nope, but cheers anyway, have a karma. The DJ Harmony sample uses contemporary vernacular, so I'm guessing it's not more than 10 years old at most.
For some reason the Belgians love a bit of UK underclass culture (The Streets were very popular over there). This might have developed after the football riots in Euro 2000[nb]I was working in Eindhoven in 2000, which hosted half of the matches. There was no rioting from UK fans in The Netherlands because they were just happy to be stoned, but once they got to Charleroi they trashed the place[/nb].

momatt

#7
This might be of interest.

Quote from: Blackdown
Honestly, I think it's the best live dubstep set I've ever heard recorded and it came straight out the mixing desk of Plastic People at the club night that gave birth to and raised dubstep, FWD>>.

Loefah and MalaOEFAH at FWD>> in 2006.
http://blackdownsoundboy.blogspot.be/2014/11/happy-birthday-i-am-10.html


Hypodeemic Nerdle


kngen

Quote from: Grass Mud Horse on January 26, 2015, 09:15:29 AM
Nope, but cheers anyway, have a karma. The DJ Harmony sample uses contemporary vernacular, so I'm guessing it's not more than 10 years old at most.
For some reason the Belgians love a bit of UK underclass culture (The Streets were very popular over there). This might have developed after the football riots in Euro 2000[nb]I was working in Eindhoven in 2000, which hosted half of the matches. There was no rioting from UK fans in The Netherlands because they were just happy to be stoned, but once they got to Charleroi they trashed the place[/nb].

Ah well, intruiguing nonetheless. Will have to give it a listen later.

purlieu

Oh yes, this is a useful thread, been meaning to try more of it out since I went from "oh God this is horrible shit" to listening to Skream's debut album and realising that it obviously can be really fucking good. So will be clicking lots of links, thank you!

Also Burial.

alan nagsworth

Quote from: momatt on January 26, 2015, 11:57:59 AM
This might be of interest.

Loefah and MalaOEFAH at FWD>> in 2006.
http://blackdownsoundboy.blogspot.be/2014/11/happy-birthday-i-am-10.html

Yep, that mix is superb. Apparently it had been sitting on Blackdown's iPod for nearly ten years, never heard outside of the club on that night. A proper relic, and speaking as a massive Mala fan, a massively exciting Xmas treat.

momatt

Quote from: alan nagsworth on January 27, 2015, 11:58:40 AM
Yep, that mix is superb.

Great!  Not heard it yet, but I'm looking forward to it coming around eventually.
Nice story behind it too.

Unfortunately the noisy american style of dubstep is what most associate the genre name with now.  As long as dubstep is dubby, I'll probably like it.

alan nagsworth

Here's another top mix - the soundcloud says 2011 but I know it was earlier than that, I think it must have been about 2009 - from Squincy Jones. I don't know who this Squincy boy is but he's fused a load of old Nintendo soundtracks with some top quality steppaz from Rustie, Kode9, DZ and more. I totally forgot about this until today and haven't listened to it in years. Having some serious FLASHBACK TING in the booth right now lads.

Squincy Jones - NINTENDUB

QuoteMario Ds Screwed Intro
Rogue State - Lions Paw (Metroid - Kraid's Hide Edit)
Babylon System - Dancing Shoes (Draped Out Edit)
Walsh & Kromestarr - Panik Room (3 Kings Edit)
Marlow - Road Kill (Goonies Edit)
Benga - Zombie Jig (Wizards & Warriors Kryptonite Edit)
Rusko - Hornz Cru (Diet Kryptonite Edit)
Loefah - Disko Rekah (Goonies Pop Trunk Edit)
Unsolved Mysteries Theme
Chimpo - Lockoff (Freaky Girl Edit)
Nastee Boi - Bangorz (Knuck if you Buck Edit)
Mike Lennon - When Science Fails (Hektagon Remix) (Shorty Swing Edit)
Babylon System - Loaded
DJ Unk - Beatn Down Yo Block
Woogie - End Dub
Rustie - Response
DZ - Just Rolling
Rustie - Jagz The Smack (Zelda Edit)
Gerard McMann - Cry Little Sister
Kode 9 - 9 Samurai
Kode 9 - 9 Samurai (Quarta 330 Remix)

That last mix from the original to the grubby 8bit reworking of "9 Samurai" is brilliant.

Mark Steels Stockbroker

I got the Objekt album the other day because a young person mentioned it on Twitter. I had no idea it was "dubstep". Although I have heard the term "dubstep" (along with "grime") I do not know what they mean. I have never heard Burial. I did get the CD single "Watchin' My Rolex" by Wiley because it was one of the things I constantly saw on 4Music when I was in hospital[nb]And also "The World Revolves Around Me" by... whoever it was.[/nb], but I have not followed his other works.

alan nagsworth

Nononono, Objekt's album isn't dubstep at all. And Wiley might be the godfather of grime but that "Rolex" single was a pure moneymaker, and likewise is definitely not grime. Wait, are you pulling my leg?

momatt

Quote from: alan nagsworth on January 29, 2015, 12:31:22 PM
Nononono, Objekt's album isn't dubstep at all.

According to his soundcloud, Objekt makes "3-step, bass-core, post windmill, proto-minimal wankstep, gondola, shithouse, acid wonk, ambient gabber, no more, no less".

So that's all cleared up nicely.

glitch

The Squincy Jones mix is brilliant, it's always got a spot on my iPhone. Sadly the rest of his stuff doesn't really match up to it.

alan nagsworth

Quote from: momatt on January 29, 2015, 02:24:35 PM
According to his soundcloud, Objekt makes "3-step, bass-core, post windmill, proto-minimal wankstep, gondola, shithouse, acid wonk, ambient gabber, no more, no less".

So that's all cleared up nicely.

Good for him!

Mark Steels Stockbroker

Quote from: momatt on January 29, 2015, 02:24:35 PM
According to his soundcloud, Objekt makes "3-step, bass-core, post windmill, proto-minimal wankstep, gondola, shithouse, acid wonk, ambient gabber, no more, no less".

Or "jazz", as it's known.