September 29th, 2009
For those interested in the burgeoning Bristol Purple scene, Richard Carnes’ Resident Adviser piece provides the most in-depth look at Joker, Guido, and Gemmy yet. I wish that the crew didn’t have names that read straight out of a never-aired “Batman Goes to Italy” episode (60s camp-edition), but I’ll manage. The piece confirms that a Joker full-length is on its way, one which portends to build on the strength of the instant-classic “Digidesign” and “Do It” singles.
The article also has a quote from Kode 9 that is the best description of Liam McLean’s music that I’ve heard: “Wiley stuck in an elevator with…Cameo. You hear his whiney pitch-bent synths on a dance floor, it’s like some kind of group electrocution taking place. Those synths sound like a big laser frying everyone’s brains.” If you’re anything like me and looking for a stop-gap until Joker becomes the next UK dance phenomenon that fails to cross-over in the U.S. (a.k.a. The Aphex Twin Memorial Award), you’ll become obsessed with these tracks from the Kapsize EP, his 2007 debut that established his reputation as one of the scene’s leading lights and easily the best Joker since Jack Nick.
Download:
MP3: Joker-”The Bop”
MP3: Joker-”Stuck in the System”
Posted in Joker, Dubstep | No Comments »
September 23rd, 2009
Back before Timbaland abandoned the pursuit of futuristic 33rd Century R&B for tepid Buck Rogers-lite, ray-gun rap (or as normal people refer to it, America’s most popular album two weeks running), he laced Missy protege/possible paramour/self-love advocate Tweet with one of the best beats he never slid towards Aaliyah. Hudson Mohawke–who you might remember from earlier this month–released a white label only remix of “Oops” earlier this year, re-working Timbaland’s twerked funk into a wobbly dubstep behemoth. On the B-Side, he flipped Ashanti’s “Still On It,” thus reclaiming her from past sins inflicted from Ja Rule collabos. Both tracks offer a unique vision for R&B, far removed from the majority of the sub T-Pain rhythm and bullshit that passes for soul these days. And by this, I mean not having to see that topless wastrel Ray J on everything from the New Boyz to the new Warren G jaunt.
MP3: Hudson Mohawke-”Oops”
MP3: Hudson Mohawke-”Still On It”
Posted in Dubstep | 3 Comments »
September 10th, 2009
The line between Dubstep, Purple, Wonky, and today’s token dance designation du jour is growing increasingly nebulous. The title is mainly a poorly veiled excuse for me to link to this old Sunny D commercial and pose existential questions about what sort of mother would allow their children to drink “purple stuff,”why rollerblading was ever considered cool, and how Sunny D’s foul fructose swill was somehow seen as a healthy alternative. Ah, the late 80s, a time of unbridled optimism and can-do spirit.
So Hudson Mohawke–23 years old, Glasgow-raised, Primo and DITC-obsessed, born to an American DJ dad who ostensibly preferred his first-born with a brogue than as a “bro.” I only discovered Hudson a few weeks ago thanks to Mary Anne Hobbs’ Wild Angels comp, but according to reader/rapper Nick Sweepah, he headlines massive block parties in Australia when he isn’t busy producing tracks for Magr and crafting the Polyfolk Dance EP, his excellent Warp debut released earlier this spring. Last night, I watched him absolutely incinerate the Low End Theory with beats so springy and spongy that the dance floor felt like a diving board.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Dubstep | 6 Comments »
September 6th, 2009
Never trust a title. This has no chalk lines, gravitational constraints, or arbitrary municipal boundaries. London’s Silkie does dub-step via telescope, expanding the perimeters way out into frigid aether. Somewhere on the 23 year-old’s debut is a song called “Purple Love”- essentially an amalgam of “that purple,” + atavistic Atari instincts, + that cold-blooded cosmic slop considered dance music circa 2009. Would girls dance to this, I could conceivably contemplate reversing previous proscriptions and upgrade to more expensive drugs. Nate Patrin connects the dots in his Pitchfork review, but in short, this is ultra-violet sound, caught between visible light and x-rays, both benevolent and baleful, boasting a gorgeous lingering radiance–even if it will never get people down like the other Silk.
Buy: Silkie-City Limits Volume 1
Download:
MP3: Silkie-”Purple Love”
MP3: Silkie-”Head Butt Da Deck”
Posted in Dubstep | No Comments »
September 3rd, 2009
No slang is sillier or more superannuated than labeling someone a “tastemaker.” You might as well reference “brand-building,” “paradigm shifting” or refer to your latest project as an “artistic exploration.” But Mary Anne Hobbs, the British BBC 1 radio personality might be the one of the only people imaginable for whom the sobriquet is actually appropriate. In 06, she dropped the seminal Warrior Dubz compilation which helped break Dubstep torchbearers Burial, Kode9 and Skream. More recently, she championed Low End Theory staples like Flying Lotus, Gaslamp Killer, and Nosaj Thing, before local media hopped on the bandwagon (read: me).
Slated for release next Tuesday on Planet Mu, her latest compilation, Wild Angels, is essential listening for both Dubstep die-hards and neophytes. Gathering a litany of mostly unfamiliar names (save for Nosaj Thing, Starkey, and Mark Pritchard), Hobbs impeccably curates a collection of imagistic and interstellar flights. Headphones on, tendrils of smoke splitting the air…weightless, lightless float music. Or as Derek Miller aptly opined, “it’s bound by its own gasolined, star-blind narrative–it illustrates just how fleecy and artful dubstep can be under current, fly-by-night parameters before it peaks.”
Buy: Mary Ann Hobbs-Wild Angels
Download:
MP3: Architeq-”Sleeping Bear Lament (Take Remix)”
MP3: Hyetal-”We Should Light a Fire”
Posted in Dubstep | 7 Comments »
August 24th, 2009
The Bug, the British dubstep-dancehall deity behind last year’s hit that never was, “Poison Dart,” drops a coal-colored cloud over Two Fingers and Cecile’s original ragga work-out. Perhaps not as indelible as some of his work from London Zoo, but a typically claustrophobic and haunted interpretation of “Bad Girl.” I suspect Kevin Martin has smoked his fair share of that De La Soul ghost weed.
Download:
MP3: Two Fingers-”Bad Girl (The Bug Remix)
Posted in Dubstep | 2 Comments »
July 1st, 2009
Let’s be clear: any and all disdain for that tepid Major Lazer album was not derived from stereotypical self-loathing engendered when lily-white hipster icons attempt to do dance hall. Case in point: “Portal,” off Kode9 & Space Ape’s 2006 Memories of the Future–a track that Hyperdub is giving away to promote the duo’s first ever American tour–one that shuffles with a gloomy crippled funk and effectively obviates the argument.
This is the difference between re-appropriating versus re-contextualizing. Fair use versus facsimile. Of course, this is more dubstep than dancehall, but the point’s the same: melanin matters less than forward motion, ideas far more than irony. This is the sort of spooky skronk that zombies really would dance to (yes Colin Bluntstone).
Download:
MP3: Kode9 & Spaceape-”Portal”
Posted in Dubstep | 4 Comments »
