Son Raw reviewed another Dubstep track.
I have no idea who Enter Shikari are because I’m not a mopey 15 year old British white boy who hides skunk from his -MOM WHY DON’T YOU KNOCK?! But I digress. The point is, don’t even bother with the original track off their “Arguing with Thermometers” EP unless you want to experience a London A&R vomiting a mix of metal and lad-rock into year ears. Of far greater interest are the three remixes they’ve commissioned which do a good job of surveying the Dubstep landscape for 2012.
Calvertron delivers a massive Brostep interpretation – all shiny textures, epileptic bass drops and drug functionality. This overblown hardcore rave music still carries the shock of the new and I wouldn’t hate it nearly as much if the crowd associated with it wasn’t composed of drug-addled undergrads shocked off the quad by their first MDMA experiences. I guess England went through this 20 years ago while we were all enjoying 90s Hip-Hop and now North-America finally has to come to terms with rave as a leisure activity. Too bad the world has Youtube now. A more balanced remix comes courtesy of Glasgow geezer Taz Buckfaster who balances his wobbling bass with galloping drums and dark atmospheres more in-tuned with the first generation of jump-up Dubstep from 07-08. On one hand, this feels like a cop out, too physical for the crowd that’s since moved onto house but not quite intense enough for the Ultra2012 crowd, but to give him credit it’s perfectly functional and unlike Calvertron’s mix, I wouldn’t be embarrassed to play it out myself.
Of course, Goth-Trad’s brilliant mix eclipses all of the above, infusing the proceedings with true dread and darkness, ironically enough by doing away with the shiny electronic flourishes. Smothering the track in low end, chopping the original guitar line into industrial stabs and parring everything down into grinding, grey, half-step metal – the Japanese master cements his spot as 2012’s best Dubstep producer not named Burial. It’s a potent reminder that no matter how many layers of synths you throw on a track for the MDMA casualties, nothing has the impact of a piece of music that’s just as freaky…off drugs.
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