My dubstep - or dubbysteppy as my flatmate likes to call it - round up from Metro newspaper last Friday. This is the full fat, unedited version. Pinch is the man, definitely grab a copy of his LP, and of course Burial's. Both are next level electronic music bizniss.
MUSIC EXTRA
2007 was another year of staggering growth for dubstep with regular nights becoming established in the UK’s major cities, as well as North America and Europe. Benga & Coki’s tumbling anthem Night infiltrated house, garage, techno, electro, grime and niche dancefloors, and was crowned single of 2007 at Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards this month. Producers continue to rewire dubstep’s DNA, delivering as vital music for dancefloors as artist albums – such as Burial - for home/iPOD/car.
Pinch’s 2006 single Qawwali is a genre cornerstone and its update – adding MC Duakali’s fierce patois to its bewitching sub bass, warped harmonium and off-kilter tablas - opens the Bristol-based producer/DJ’s debut LP, Underwater Dancehall (Tectonic). Underwater Dancehall (UD) refracts modern Bristol’s music - Massive Attack’s mystery, Smith & Mighty’s bass-philia, and Krust and Roni Size’s rhythms - through the prism of dubstep, while reflecting today’s troubled world: One Blood…’s sweet, electronic reggae celebrating humankind’s commonality (rather than differences) and Gangsterz lambasts gunman posturing. Discomfiting yet comforting, UD’s a double CD containing vocal and instrumental versions but it’s the first disc that triumphs as a cohesive, meaningful album that opens up infinite possibilities for song-based dubstep.
Dubstep prodigy Skream’s weekly Internet radio show on Rinse FM is entitled the Stella Sessions, giving you an idea of his take on the sound. Rinse02 mixed by Skream (Rinse) is also a showcase for the 21-year-old Croydonite with 13 of the 24 tracks either his tracks or remixes. No one comes close to matching the intensity, depth and explosiveness of Skream’s sets or productions but what really stands out is the diversity of sounds he glides through - reggae, rock, ragga, garage, jungle, techno, glitch, jazz, dark indie (Black Ghosts) and new rave (Klaxons) - on this winding dubstep journey. Skream buffets you with suffocating sub bass, vocals tease and crank up the tension, before detonating the crushing pressure with rewind inducing, jump up dubstep.
Caspa & Rusko’s FabricLive37 represents the lairy end of dubstep. Initially it’s mellow allying Eastern strings and reggae chords to wobbly blines, but soon picks up with a remix of Matty G’s chest-rattling 50 000 Watts. The ‘wobbler’ assault is combined with a cacophony of sirens and bleeps, samples including ‘Stop Hammertime’, retro computer games, and Catchphrase’s ‘boing’. The mix tumultuously inches towards a thrilling finale featuring Rusko’s Cockney Thug (East End gangster sample, sirens, a jaunty horn and merciless wah-wah bassline). This is a high impact, devastating mix that doesn’t allow a pause for breath until its drifting rootsy outro.
Boxcutter’s sophomore LP Glyphic (Planet Mu), floats between dubstep and electronica (or intelligent dance music) and is an ambient, experimental delight. Boxcutter’s sparse productions allow incongruous elements to breath whether fluttering horns, choppy percussion, distant melodies and the inevitable bassline. Glyphic starts out taut with disorientating dub effects (echoes, reverb), glitches, and static arranged into beguiling dissonance, but evolves into warmer, multi-paced fidgety dubtronica, with notable highlights including glitchy twostep, and a bright and breezy polyrhythmic trip that evokes LTJ Bukem’s cosmic jazz.
