Following on from the last post, here's Loefah DJing last night for the Boiler Room to promote Standard Place @ the Alibi this Saturday. Rest of the sets can be watched here: http://www.readplatform.com/boiler-room-13-wone-man-loefah-jon-rust/

ANOTHER UPDATE!!! Click HERE for a set Loefah did with Sgt. Pokes in Barcelona very recently...

Loefah Mix On Rinse FM

THIS [rightclickandsave]Instra:mental show off Rinse features a great mix from Loefah. Starts at about 41 minutes into the show. Tracklist =

footcrab vip - addison groove (dub)
tc - kryptic minds (dub)
tired light - instra:mental (darkestral)
beacon - ramadanman (dub)
claptrap - joe (hessle)
level crossing - joe (hessle)
tweaked - shortstuff - (dub)
IRL - girl unit -(night slugs)
work doc - addison groove (dub)
work it - addison groove (swamp 81)
hot raw sex - jimmy edger/instra:mental rmx (?)
battle scene - addison groove (dub)
sexual - addison groove (swamp 81)
woo vs glut - sx x ramadanman (dub)
work them - ramadanman (swamp 81)
glut - ramadanman (hemlock)
fall short - ramadanman (swamp 81)
tempest - ramadanman (hemlock)
Because You - faltyDL (panet mu)
night hunter - fis t (serial 502)

Got to take your hat off to Loefah, Swamp 81 is a great label both in terms of its music and look:



I would like to see Loe DJing again after hearing this mix, can imagine the drums absolutely pounding and the little samples triggering crowd ''RAYYYYY''s like nobody's business. Stand outs for me so far: Girl Unit ''Irl'' (those evil sounding synths), Addison Groove ''Sexual'' (little rhodes line that reminds me of super mario or sonic or something - SOMETHING sexual, anyway) and ''Work Them'' vs. ''Woo''. You can see the connection between Woo riddim and what Loefah used to do very easily. Most of the music on this mix is nothing like the half-step Loefah has always been so associated with (on account of making the best half step tunes around for a couple of years), and has quite a different feel to doomy mooded classics like ''Mud'' and ''Ruffage''. But actually, again, the links are clear - minimalist bass and beats with a sprinkling of vocal samples (from US hip-hop) makes up a large part of the mix. Almost like mid-late 80's style boom-bap beats have given way to the spiralling madness of electro/hip-house and all that stuff that led to bleep-n-bass/hardcore/jungle. Not making a direct comparison but... Anyway, good stuff. Big ups to Hessle Audio, Night Slugs and Hemlock putting out this kind of stuff. It's pretty ''tracky'' stuff I suppose, can imagine it being used for mixing in a similar way to jacking house/techno.

Apparently Loefah dropped this tune at DMZ, which makes me want to see him even more:

Beyonce - Video Phone [Extended Remix] ft Lady GaGa - Music Video Online

Yeah I know - Beyonce and Lady Gaga. But honestly, it won't make you want to wank with a cheese grater (the video will make you want to do something nasty to some swiss cheese though). The beat is by Bangladesh, who also produced ''A Milli''. I'll have a look at some of his other tunes and post up anything decent on here maybe.

P.S.

Optimum has alerted me to Bangladesh being behind this certified club banger



So I had to post it up.

GOODIES

Hello Hello Hi. It's been a while so I thought I'd post up a trio of mixes that have been giving me brain erections over the last few weeks. Every time I listen to them in the office where I'm ''working'' I have to cross my ears over my skull just to hide the bulge. Failing that I just concentrate very hard on data entry and my brain begins to shrink to a manageable size - say, that of a tennis ball.

The mix I've been listening to the longest is Ben UFO's Fabric Promo Mix (right click and save). It's intesting that the kind of 'dubstep' Ben's playing nowadays is so percussively led that there isn't a very obvious point where he moves from stuff like Omar S and Karizma to Peverelist and Mala. It's all mixed up, and it BANGS the whole way through (not the way a porn-star bangs, more like the way Seal probably bangs if he's pissed). Worth a special mention are the tunes by James Blake and Joy Orbison - both fucking bootiful and full of happyweird vibes.

Greena - Maracay (Forthcoming Applepips)
Omar S - Busaru Beats (Sound Signature)
Aphrodisiax - Unfinished Business (Jus House)
Karizma - 33rd Street Anthem (Defected)
Unknown - Unknown (Unreleased)
Altered Natives - Rass Out (Fresh Minute)
Pearson Sound - Wad (Unreleased)
L-Vis 1990 - Hey! (Unreleased)
Brackles and Shortstuff - Sutorito Faita (Forthcoming Planet Mu)
Deep Cover Inc. - Deepin' Side [NYC dub mix] (FX)
Ramadanman - No Swing (Unreleased)
STP - The Fall [T++ remix] (Subsolo)
Peverelist - Teachings (Unreleased)
Shortstuff and Mickey Pearce - Tripped Up (Unreleased)
Untold - I Can't Stop This Feeling [Pangaea remix] (Unreleased)
Bump and Flex - Promises [Hardstep dub] (Urban Heat)
Untold vs. Tempz - Nextaconda (Unreleased)
Youngstar - Bongcat Riddem (White)
James Blake - Air and Lack Thereof (Unreleased)
Untold - Flexible (Unreleased) Ikonika - Unknown (Unreleased)
Mala - Hunter (DMZ)
Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo (Unreleased

Next up is a mix by Alex Bok Bok for Lucky Me (right click save) which is, barring the most tasteful (but good) thing I've ever heard from Doneao, approx. an hour of veiny sausage meat riddims.

01 - REFUGE - U Best Believe

02 - DONAEO - Love To Happen

03 - MOSCA - Square One

04 - DRE SKULL - I Want You (BOK BOK remix dub)

05 - ALISON HINDS ft MACHEL MONTANO

06 - DJ CLEO - East Rand Funk

07 - R1 RYDERS - Rubberband

08 - DORIAN CONCEPT - Trilingual Dance Sexperience

09 - SHORTSTUFF & MICKEY PEARCE - Tripped Up

10 - ZOMBY - With Lasers

11 - ELECTRIK RED - Drink In My Cup

12 - JOKER & GINZ - Purple City

13 - TERROR DANJAH - Sidechain

14 - BOK BOK - Crew dub

15 - DJ ASSAULT - Vandalism

16 - MR DE - Time Space Scrilla

17 - BASUTBUDET - Take Them Out To Eat (BOK BOK's sundown edit)

The tunes on this mix are nuts, I don't even know what genre a lot of them belong to - but it's in the area of funky/garage/dubstep/grime/soca/rave... Remember this post? All the mixes in this post wot I'm doing here mix up different genres, but there are also quite a few tunes in each mix which are spanning genres on their own - margin tunes which are forming a new and turbulent centre in this kind of mix.



Last but by no-fucking-means least is Untold's mix for Fact Magazine (Link HERE). In Blackdown's recent interview with him, Untold talks about how he is interested in combining cliches from various genres to see what will happen to them - 'mongrel' beats. You'll see what he means as soon as you hear this mix. His tunes feature recognisable synth/bass sounds from Grime/8-Bar, jungle, hardcore etc. placed together in rough harmony - and whether or not the combination always works, you can't deny the energy and excitement that such a scattergun approach provokes (to both the listener/dancer and the budding producer/DJ).

These tunes are mixed down perfectly well, and will no doubt devastate a dancefloor, but they don't sound at all slick or tasteful: you can see the joins. In this respect, they do justice to the references they make to early 90's hardcore music in using certain sounds in exhibiting a similar sort of 'chuck it in if it works' quality. I don't want to go overboard on the chin strokery analysis which the use of 'nuum' samples invites, because really the achievment of this music is to make you twitch around in your chair like a human hamburger leaving death row.

Stereotyp - Uepa (feat.Joyce Muniz) - Man Recordings

Untold - Just for You (Roska remix) - forthcoming Hotflush

Hot City - No More - forthcoming Infrasonics

Untold - Never went away - unreleased

Untold - I can't stop this feeling (Pangaea remix) - forthcoming Hemlock

Untold - No one likes a smartarse - unreleased

Untold - Gonna work out fine - unreleased

Untold - You didn't win the holiday - unreleased

Untold - Stop what you're doing - unreleased

DJ C - Jump Up and Bounce (ft. Ms. Thing) (LV remix) - unreleased

Littlefoot - Sell my soul - unreleased

Mount Kimbie - Esasub - unreleased

TRG - Siberian poker - unreleased

Ramadanman - Bleeper - unreleased

Ramadanman - No swing - unreleased

Joe - Perculate - unreleased

Untold - Flexible - unreleased

Shortstuff & Mickey Pearce - Tripped up - unreleased

LV - Crossfire - unreleased

Generally speaking, this is raw and 'shallow' music. There's not much depth (there's no room for it - it's surface orientated, sounds jostling for position... it's too ADD also - warping, pitch-eluding synths, rhythm evading drums and almost childish: ecstactic, restless, joyful... emotions as unambiguous as in rave music...)... but who cares? It's rave music. Dance music. It's fun music, not po-faced: but not a joke either. Being taken away from genre, from specific places, is a double edged sword - certain things are lost but the focus becomes more about the sounds: how they're used, how they can be clashed and mashed together etc. And the lack of deference to generic rules results in things you haven't heard a hundred times before (if you're me, at least).

I've clearly got too much thought on my brain.

That Roska RMX is raw, and his remix of Neighbourhood (see HERE) sounds even better.

Brackles - LHC (Planet Mu) / Blackdown and Dusk - Bullet Ah Go Fly RMX (Keysound)

Go HERE for audio of me-old-mucker's forthcoming release on Mu. Personally I think LHC is the best Brackles tune released so far, a perfect balance between robust low end and hyperactive synth displays. The Street-Fighter sampling b-side, made with me-other-old-mucker, is also on some Ritalin-scarcity steezity and is also rinsin'.

Also getting a release soon is this effing monster courtesy of Keysound...

At the moment I'm inclining towards giving up on buying dubstep on vinyl and switching to house and garage, so it's annoying but encouraging to see releases that insist on dragging me back in.

Brackles On Rinse FM

Right click and save HERE for Thursday night's cover show from the one like youknow. I haven't listened to it yet but there's about 0.001% probability of it not being shit-hot.

Do the right thing.

Now with tracklist:

Martin Kemp - Bowzer
Kode 9 - Black Sun
N.B Funky - Riddim Box
Mickey Pearce - Innami
Fingaprint - The Print (Roska Remix)
Martin Kemp - ???
Princess - Frontline
Martin Kemp - No Charisma
Pearson Sound - Wad
Greena - Actual Pain
Mickey Pearce - Trippin
Roska - Elevated Levels
Joe - Rut
Geiom - No More Tears
Brackles - Rawkus
Royal T - 1UP
Brackles - Getajob
Zomby - Rumours and Revelations
Untold - Anaconda
Desto - Disappearing Reappearing Ink
Joker - Digidesign
Ikonika - Sahara Michael
Zomby vs Dizzee - Stand up Aquafresh
Joker and Ginz - Purple City
Dem 2 - Baby You're So Sexy
Deetah - Relax (Bump n Flex remix)
Hakan Lidbo - Walk Away (Todd Edwards Remix)
El-B - Express
M Dubs - For Real
United Grooves Collective Feat Shelly - Glad u Came to me (Steve Gurley
remix)

ALL MJ COLE SESSION

Angel Lee - What's your name (MJ Cole Remix)
MJ Cole - Flavour Fever
Maxee - When I look into your eyes (MJ Cole Remix)
Jill Scott - Gettin in the way (MJ Cole Remix)
Dub Syndicate - I Need Your Love (MJ Cole Remix)
Box Clever feat Elizabeth Troy - Treat Me Right
Nitin Sawhney - Sunset (MJ Cole Remix)

As expected, absolutely nutso selection. Special mentions to Pearson Sound, Greena and Martin Kemp tunes all absolutely thetitsontoast material...

Weekend Run/Come-Down

Life is the lesson that keeps on teaching, ain't it just? For example, this weekend I learnt that I love drinking the above two drinks, but when combined with that stuff wot is ruining dubstep first and foremost but also my tenuous grip on a concrete notion of my personal identity it makes you/ME think you've/I'VE shat your/MY pants. Actually, I might also have my boxer shorts to blame for this, as I am unable to wear them without the waist-band being sucked into my arse-crack like a taut gull into a musty jet-engine.

On the journey to and from Bristol I listened to most of Blackdown and Dusk's latest show on Rinse. There's enough good stuff on there to make a perpetually moaning phantom-rectal-sick suffering corpsealike feel like a spare prick at a fat-lady skewering, including a dirty Terror Danjah tune with Badness making the words 'Ipod Shuffle' sound like 'I'm going to tear your balls off' and a tune by ''VVV'' which is (press release)like Burial - ON SLOW-RELEASING MDMA!(/pressrelease)... The highlight for me has to be an untitled tune by Peverelist - it's got that tight-lassoo of a groove, slightly off-kilter + sub bombardment thing that 'The Bluez' has, it's almost like a reversioning of it - except when it starts developing a few minutes into it and these quietly fucking EPIC strings start coming in.... wowzers.

Speaking of Pev, I went into Rooted records on Sunday and picked up a couple of tunes. It's a great shop - a selection of second hand garage/jungle, plentiful listening posts and staff who don't make you feel like your tongue must be hanging over your bottom lip and your crotch must be stained yellow to even CONSIDER buying THAT. (which reminds me). I bought a couple of dubstep bits (D1- Missing on Tempa is so grimey it splits some sort of mental heymy), the surprise killer is this one:

Wobble - check. Reverbed SFX- check. General repetition of same idea - check. But still, how can you argue with it? It drops like a pissed up carpet bomb. I also picked up this:

but didn't pick up this (which I'm kicking myself for now)

While I was waiting for the train from Bristol to Bath on Saturday, freezing my hands off and wishing I was lying in bed with a pillow as far up my nose as my boxer shorts were up my guts, I listened to THIS Karizma mix I got off someone on Dissensus. It's about three hours long and the first hour that I've listened to is supoib - a nice healthy mixture of soulful MAW style US garage stuff and stripped back percussive tribal-y stuff, with a touch of psychadelic synths etc. You can hear the touchstones of inspiration for a lot of UK funky in this stuff.

Brackles smashed up Crazy Legs, shouts also to Cooly G (who I could just about able to hear over the MC), Thinking, who played some nice garage/broken/funky to warm things up and Mak 10, who played when I was at my optimum pissitude level - it was all hard as fuck drum lashings, as far as I recall.

ASE on Kiss

Click HERE for the best non-technofied dubstep mix I've downloaded in a hot sweaty minute. Listening to this reminds me of the good times - whiskey and coke, spliff, Crazy D, skanking out, 8 pound burger outside Mass at 6 in the morning etc... DMZ Summer Blazedown might have to be done, can Silkie/Quest/Heny/Jay5ive all get booked, please?

Lost - Iron Hide - Dub

Skream - Rolling - Dub

Silkie - Headbutt The Deck! - Deep Meddi Music

Kromestar - Live In Experience - Higher Level Records

Quest - Untitled - Dub

Mala - 5 Minutes Later - Dub

Zed Bias - Untitled - Dub

Benga - Desending - Dub

Silkie - Test - Deep Meddi Music

Jay 5ive & Kromestar - Bass 96 - Dub

Silkie - 80's Baby - Dub

Harry Craze - Wa.6 - Dub

L.D - Do U Mind Remix - Dub

Benga - Buzzin - Dub

Kromestar - Grey Thought - Higher Level Records

Jay 5ive & Kromestar - Hands In Da Hair - Dub

Silkie - Concrete Jungle - Deep Meddi Music

Quest - The Unknow - Deep Meddi Music

? - No Warning - Dub

Kutz - Untitled - Dub

Truth - The Fatman (Out Now!) - Deep Meddi Music

Silkie - Mucky - Dub

Futureproving difficult to make a pun out of

but fuck it. I heard this tune getting dropped at a squat-after-party after Futureproof this Saturday just gone. Even through the haze of utter wonk I could tell a tune that wasn't made for a brain-damaged, sweat-festooned puny toon, and oh how I danced. Someone also dropped this:

At the night itself, this brought the lights up:
<

I have to admit when I was dancing to this I wasn't really from the endz, but I just pretended and I don't think anyone noticed. Lil Silva absolutely merked it - when I came in he was rolling out Now That's What I Call Funky the selection, and that was absolutely fine and jilldandy, given that this isn't anywhere near as bad a prospect as a Now That's What I Call Coldplay selection or Now That's What I Call Music T-Pain Isn't Inspired By selection. It means Gabryelle RMX, Do You Mind, Sirens and that Crazy Cousinz tune with the Xylophone which sounded fucking unbelievable on the FP system.

The system was ridiculously big (I think Silva said he'd never heard Funky on such a huge rig) and interestingly it reminded me of how much better suited dubstep is to that sort of system than garage, which needs to be a little more light in my opinion. Funky came through perfectly, though, it's amazing how simple but solid a lot of those tunes are (I mean that Roska tune 'Gone to a Better Place' is essentially the same thing over and over again, but all these little details keep the momentum up). Funky makes people MOVE too - I hate that cliche of dubstep being all people shuffling around farting buds down their trouser legs and tongueing each others nostrils but there IS something more doneo-may-care about dancing to Funky. I don't know if people in Funky say things like ''This tune makes me want to rape Bono...'' yet because it doesn't seem like aggressive music, by and large. Even the grimey tunes Lil Silva makes are still quite fun and bouncy - it's that balance of aggression and party energy that a lot of 'jump up' music doesn't seem to nail to me.

On the dubstep tip I have to big up Ben UFO for playing Almighty Father RMX and also Shattered by Coki, which I realised is a bad bad tune - Coki's drums are underrated, at least on those oldish tunes. The whole night was fucking great as usual. Hold very tight and close your eyes @ Tom, Rachel, Lewis, Geiom, Dawntreader, Brackles and Mart etc.

While I'm here I may as well plug a few mixes that have been doing it for me in recent weeks. For deep house fans HERE's a Move D mix (right click and save). You should also check out the following:

(right click and save on picture - original mix HERE). This mix is basically techno, some interesting tunes in there though.

Mount Kimbie – William – Hotflush

Soulphiction – What's Your Name - Musik Krause

Moodymann - Freeki Mutha F cker - KDJ

NSI - Hassel - Cadenza

Lowtec - I Remember - Playhouse

Syncom Data - Beyond The Stars (Speedy J Remix) - SD

Ben Klock - OK - Ostgut Ton

Modi and Fegiz - El Solitaire - Vinylclub

The Missing Link - 911 - Wagon Repair

Lazy Fat People - Low Profile - Perspectiv Records

AntonZap - Pm Please - Underground Quality

Fail Forever - When Saints Go Machine (dOP Remix) - EMI

Lowtec - Workshop 006 - Workshop

Animal Collective - My Girls - Domino Recording Company

(click on pic for sendspace link. Original link HERE). This is straight techno of a very high quality.

1. Function - Variance (Regis Edit) [Sandwell District]
2. Liquid Sky - The Darkness [Filtered Vision]
3. Shed - The Lower Upside Down (Surgeon Remix) [Ostgut Ton]
4. Norman Nodge - Man Made [MDR]
5. Bandalu - Episode 07 [Foundation Sound Works]
6. The Mole - Ain't The Way It's Supposed To Be [Wagon Repair]
7. Surgeon - Prowler [Counterbalance]
8. Omar-S - Busaru Beats [Sound Signature]
9. Ben Klock - Grip [Ostgut Ton]
10. Levon Vincent - Six Figures [Novel Sound]
11. Steffan Linzatti - See [Stockholm LTD]
12. Steve Stoll - Run in It B1 [Proper]
13. Norman Nodge - Rush [MDR]
14. Ben Klock - Before One [Ostgut Ton]
15. Booka Shade - Sweet Lies (Radio Slave Remix) [Get Physical]
16. Marcel Dettmann - Untitled [Unreleased]
17. Kink - Blue Print [Rush Hour]
18. Roman Lindau - Simplicity [Fachwork]

Peverelist @ Phonica 5th Birthday

DOWNLOAD HERE

1. Turbulence - Notorious

2. Scuba - Twitch (Jamie Vex'd RMX)

3. Gemmy - Bass Transmiter

4. Roni Size - Don't Hold Back (Joker RMX) Instrumental

5. Joker - Untitled.rsn

6. RSD - Over It

7. 2nd II None - Waterfalls (Peverelist RMX)

8. Peverelist - Dub

9. Peverelist - The Blues (or bluez)

10. STP aka. Shed - The Fall (Peverelist RMX)

11. Peverelist - Esperanto (dub)

12. Pinch - Midnight Oil

13. Peverelist - On & On

14. " - " " "

15. Shackleton - You Bring Me Down (peverelist remix) (~scape)

16. Peverelist - Infinity Is Now

17. 2562 - Dub

18. Mala - City Cycle

19. Henry & Louie - Rise Up (RSD RMX)

20. Martyn - Vancouver (2562 RMX)

21. 2562 - Kontrol

22. Pinch vs Peverelist - Revival (dub)

23. Pinch - Joyride (tectonic)

24. Guido - Orchestral Lab

This set is quite the tits, big up lemon78 for the upload. I listened to this set quite recently, lying in complete darkness while off my tits, and on my headphones it was a revelation. It distracted me so much that I forgot to be sick all over myself. For that alone, big up Peverelist.

A lot of basslines on this mix are really low, almost subliminal, anchored in the kick drum - sort of a jungle sounding 808 style bass but often pounding in a Miami Bass/techno sort of way. Pay special attention to ''The Bluez'' to catch some of this gulp-of-barry-white-bass; if you're listening on some proper speakers/headphones, you won't even need to be told that. This chest-pounding intensity in the kicks reminds me of Mala tunes like 'Bury the Boy', 'Neverland' and (the included) 'City Cycle'. It's a powerful, eyes-down and tribal sort of sound, inducing the same sort of mesmeric trance that techno can while remaining rhythmically dynamic and restless.

The synths on top (as in 'Midnight Oil' by Pinch) are altogether more icy and otherworldly than on Mala's warmer, more poignantly mournful tunes, I think.* I suppose these filtered saws/squares are the sort you find in a lot of Detroit techno, but also in some of the jungle/DNB that Pev says he is influenced by in THIS interview with Resident Advisor. Any excuse to post up one of the best DNB tunes ever made, eh?

''If you listen to a Krust or Die or Bill Riley record from the mid-90's—and they're some of my biggest influences—they're just long drum & bass grooves, or "rollers" as they came to be known. They just go on forever and mutate, and that's more where the Peverelist sound comes from rather than it being dubstep plus techno equals Peverelist.'' (RA interview)

This set has the magic 'trance out + spaz out' combination that a merging of techno and dubstep at its best should have IN MY OPINION (see: THIS post on Detmann/Shed et al from January). Of course, Pev himself probably just sees this apparent techno/dubstep fusion in his music as a continuation of the 'roller' aesthetic in jungle. And you can see the widsom in this (leaving aside the truth in it for a brief pseudo point) - keeping the rudeness and reggae soundsystem elements in dubstep and not abandoning the faith in meditational/hypnotic states, minimalism, subtlety etc. (also in resisting turning dubstep into a monolithic pound in the process of escaping from it becoming a monotonous kick-fill revved drop contest).

This was one of the keys to the power of pre-wobble dubstep - a stripped down and tough groove hooking you in, subtleties of rhythm/texture unfolding over the top of it. Somebody please get rid of the smoking ban so we can all start drooling against the speakers again with our hands in our pockets. Ketamine won't cut it, it makes you too interested in how everybody's staring at you, you just know they are. For now, stoned on headphones is the best that can be done for me.

blah blah blah... Annnyway all pontification aside it's a banging mix that will make you screwface a lot. So download it, you wasteposthuman.

* interestingly just remembered how Pev talks about 'taking the human qualities' out of his music in the RA interview. Could be a bit presumptuous of me to say so but I reckon Mala's approach could be quite the opposite!

Funkle Fuck

Christmas is traditionally a time of both giving and committing suicide, and today I feel like putting my metaphorical hand in my pocket and my figurative head in the symbolic oven simultaneously by bigging up a producer who has had to contend over the past year with having the same name as that guy off Eastenders who did this tune, which I'm sure you'll remember:

Now - is there any other tune which so instantly evokes sitting barely conscious by the bar at Christmas as everybody else whispers sweet Rohypnols in each others ears, staring with limp dead-eyed despair at your beer saturated lap, as wet and unloved as a stone at the bottom of the Irish sea? Wishing that a miniscule fanatic would run screaming into the pub and straight up your bottom, into your lower intestine and detonate a half pound of C4?

Plus - look at his son! I've seen dribbles of sperm embedded in my pubic wig that were less deserving of being screwed up in a ball of tissue and flushed into a sewer. This is precisely why everyone fucking hates Martin Kemp and wants to see him and his coiffured-turd of a son hung by their necks until they look like two bottles of HP Sauce that somebody is squeezing too hard in the middle.

But ^ THIS ^ Martin Kemp deserves none of your hatred (yet). His tunes (listen to some clips HERE) are, a bit like his brother Brackles', weird and wonky with a lot of shuffle in the beats and manage to be deep without losing the jump-n-twist factor.

I'd describe them as 'Deep Funky', if the very thought of such a genre emerging, in a thousand colours of the vinyl rainbow, didn't make my fingers atrophy with horror. But like funky tunes, these tunes have the warm and/or energetic pulse of house music coupled with the swing and sub-bass of two-step. But there's an atmosphere created by the synths and arrangement which you don't really find in the (amazing) UK Funky tunes by producers like Roska and H-H-Banton, which have similarly interesting and bodymovin rhythms to them. I guess you can hear this mixture emerging in tunes like this:

Elements of the dubstep and funky communities/scenes are definitely engaging in dialogue at the moment - Kode 9, whose latest set at FWD was (to the chagrin of some) about 50% funky/percussive house, seems to be leading the way as usual in this respect (and of course FWD itself). And apparently Marcus has been playing some bits by Kode and Ramadanman.

It seems to me that there's a great deal of dubstep (not all of it - see Silkie/Quest/TRG etc.) now which has less in common with UK garage than with DNB/techno/hip-hop, which is fine, but that garage-connection seems strong in Funky, and perhaps some sort of Funky/dubstep hybrid will emerge in 2009 that will help strengthen dubstep's ties to its musical roots in two-step and latterly 'tribal' percussion. [L.D has also just remixed 'Do You Mind' and you can't forget D1, whose 'Oingy Boingy' bridges the gap nicely]

I've recently ranted about the merits of mixing things up on here, and I'd love to see either some slightly slower dubstep or slightly faster funky coming out in 2009 so that its easier to mix them together. When mixing house/techno/garage/funky together I find that dubstep is the only genre that is slightly harder to fit in, unless you pitch the funky up or dubstep down. But some DJs are already managing to do it effectively (see HERE jimmy for a great little Jackmaster mix)

Anyway- Mart's tunes are bleedingly obviously marvellous, and will wipe forever from your mind the image of Martin punching that old dear Dot Cotton in the boat outside the Old Vic for nicking a hanky from his bloomin pockets. That was the original point of this post until I put my pontificating cap on.

Pick N Mix

Lately it seems that all the best mixes I've been hearing have been mixing different styles up like sperm in the guts of a gangbang record breaker. There's Ben UFO's latest show, wot I just posted about yesterday, the boy Bizmarc's excellent funky/techno colliding Gorillacopter mix, Spyro and Maximum cross-breeding grime, garage and funky on Rinse a while ago, and many more examples which I can't be fucked to link right about now.

4 Line Haiku off Dissensus wrote this the other day:

"The growing amount of released funky seems to be leading to a lot of house/techno -> funky -> 2step -> dubstep type DJ sets, which is nothing but good news in my book.

I know for a fact that every single mix I'm doing at the moment goes something like that. Most of Ben UFO's recent radio shows are another (probably better) example.

Obviously this sort of thing has always been perfectly doable, but the combination of sped up funky and slightly pitched down 2step covers that slightly awkward BPM gap so perfectly, it would be rude not to do it"

and it reminded me of what Blackdown wrote in THIS post about Funky almost a year ago. Writing about how DJs in Napa in 2007 were mixing funky with bassline and grime and all-sorts of other things, he remarkled:

"(2000) was a halcyon era, where a tempo plateau around 138bpm saw multiple genres and scenes mixing and interacting, with the old school UK garage guard meeting the upstarts of raw proto-grime, dark 4x4 beats like DJ Narrows being mixed with Zinc-inspired breakbeat garage rollers, housey Todd Edwards-style 4beat mixed into proto-dubstep like El-B, Horsepower and Zed Bias.

Since then the various factions have either diverged or fragmented, occasionally interacting but seldom truly engaging in sustained dialog. Until summer 2007. Seven years on, suddenly it felt like there was another tempo plateau appearing again.."

Having recently been extremely excited to hear this kind of DJing style in practice on various aformentioned radio shows, and having rejuvinated my own interest in mixing somewhat by mixing 'Woman Trouble' with UR's 'Timeline' (and discovering an uncanny fit in the process) and stuff like that, I would have to agree that if this style of DJing came into vogue in clubs as well as the bedrooms of GEEKS (lol) it would really be the kick in the pants that plenty of underground scenes are begging for.

Another DJ who has recently been doing this (in fact who has probably been doing it for fucking ages) is Night Slugs' honcho Alex Bok Bok. He talks about the ethos behind the Night Slugs night in THIS Fact Magazine interview, which also includes a mix which perfectly illustrates the sort of informed eclecticism I'm drooling about. You also need to check out his latest Sub FM show in which he went back to back with Dress 2 Sweat's head honcho (there's a lot of honchos sticking their oars in) Jackmaster. It is fucking superb. The link is HERE and the tracklist is as follows...

01 - ROSKA -
02 - D MALICE - monopoly
03 - ILL BLU - frontline instrumental
04 - APPLE - seigalizer
05 - KERIZMA - broken beats
06 - ROD LEE - let me see what u workin with
07 - DJ ROB 3 - the chase
08 -
09 - CRAZY COUSINZ - Infiltration
10 - FINGERPRINTS - just leave remix
11 - LIL SILVA - funky flex
12 -
13 - D1 - ongie bongie
14 - WIZZBIT - jamhot (DAVINCHE remix)
15 - DAVINCHE -
16 - WILEY -
17 - PALEFACE - Do You Mind (TERROR DANJAH remix ft KYLA & BADNESS)
18 - TUBBY - t-mac
19 - ROSKA - our father
20 - ZOMBY - rumours
21 - GEMMY - back to the future
22 - CRIME MOB - stilettos (pumps)
23 - IKONIKA - please
24 - RUSTIE - bad science
25 - ZOMBY - aquafre5h
26 - D1 - bg
27 - LIL SILVA - seasons
28 - GEENEUS - into the future
29 - IRONSOUL - you liar
30 - DOK - big bang
21 - LAVA UNIT - not interested
22 - RUDE KID - sing for me instrumental
22 - NASTEE BOI - bangorz
23 - L-VIS & BOK BOK - bongo ram refix
24 - MALA - hunter
25 - WITTYBOY - attention
26 - DS1 -
27 - DROP THE LIME - hear me (4x4 mosh dub)
28 - PANTHA - damn thing
29 - MYSTIC MATT - igloo 2008 remix
30 - unknown - ENDZ vs ICE RINK 4x4
31 - KODE9 vs LD - bad
32 - L-VIS 1990 - zahonda
33 - STARKEY - gutter music
34 - MOVES!!! - playaz
35 - ILLMANA - shut yr mout rudeboi
36 - FUZZY LOGIC - twiss
37 - PIDDY PY - giggle riddim
38 - L-VIS 1990 - playing with knives refix
39 - KENTPHONIK - sunday showers

There's obviously still a lot to be said for working within a single genre as a DJ - it allows you to go in deep in a way that playing across the board arguably doesn't. But personally I find that the idea of mixing like this actually makes me feel much more excited and pant-wettingly enthusiastic about being a DJ. For starters, it's obviously a lot more fun mixing together different styles of beats and discovering things that (often against all odds) work together in the blend. But it also seems to me that it makes selection a much more individualistic thing.

If you're a strictly dubstep DJ its hard to bring a selection that isn't going to be pretty much exactly the same as the next guy. With this style of DJing you have so much stuff to choose from that you might very well end up playing a completely distinct set from anyone else... And if that sounds like its coming too much from a DJs perspective, maybe it is. But I reckon a lot of people on dancefloors across the country would be relieved to hear a wider range of styles on a night out (I've got to mention Notts based nights Wigflex and Futureproof here, as both are pushing this kind of eclecticism) and it keeps things interesting/NOT BORING when you never really know what's coming next.

Oh, and here's the flyer for the next Night Slugs at which about four different absolute dons are spinning


Other things I recommend mixing up in 2009: Ketamine/Pills, Mars Bars/Apples, Indie Groups.

Scuba XLR8R8ER Podcast

Go HERE to download a pissing marvellous mix by Scuba of some next-level depthness. To me this qualifies as genuinely 'deep' music insofar as half the time I don't really know what the fuck's going on (BUT I LIKES IT). I suppose some of this stuff is actually techno rather than dubstep, the borders are extremely blurry at points though.

Special mention must go to Mount Kimbie with the goODDness (see what I did thereness?) of 'Maybes' which is all clicky-beats, vocoder-esque vocals and mournfully sweet chords which sound somehow like a fairy's limp carcass being tossed down a lift shaft. Press release quote: ''IT'S A BIT LIKE WATCHING THE TELETUBBIES ON KETAMINE!!!!!>!">"!>''

01. Shackleton - The Rope Tightens (Badawi remix) (Skull Disco) 00:00
02. Scuba - From Within (Marcel Dettmann remix) (Hotflush) 03:28
03. Mount Kimbie - Maybes (forthcoming Hotflush) 07:34
04. Scuba - Bleach (forthcoming Scape) 10:51
05. Sigha - Expressions (forthcoming Hotflush) 14:58
06. Pangaea - Bear Witness (forthcoming Hotflush) 17:15
07. STP - The Fall (T++ remix) (Sub Solo) 21:21
08. Untold - Sweat (forthcoming Hotflush) 23:52
09. Scuba - Tense (forthcoming HOTSHORE002) 25:54
10. Scuba - Ruptured (Surgeon remix) (Hotflush) 29:33
11. Sigha - Bruised (forthcoming Hotflush) 32:44
12. Baby Ford + Eon - Dead Eye (Plus 8 ) 35:55
13. F - The Untitled Dub (forthcoming 7even) 38:12
14. Scuba - The Upside (Martyn's down mix) (Hotflush) 41:23
15. Toasty - The Knowledge (Untold remix) (forthcoming Hotflush) 44:47
16. Mount Kimbie - William (forthcoming Hotflush) 47:02

Somewhat relatedly, here's a flyer for the latest Berghain dubstep event which I'm going to end up missing because I've spent all my money on Roska tunes and strongbow. Don't make the same mistake I do every Friday though.

God Taunting Me Again # 4

This is even more blatant than that time he sent me the wrong way to a mate's house and I ended up stuck in a generic cul-de-sac.

Thank Fuck For Internet Radio Vol. 23

Firstly, new Blackdown/Dusk on Rinse

We've been through all this before, but special mention must go to A: Now That's What I Call Ragga-Grime anthem featuring Badness, Flowdan, Killa P AND Riko (I think it's about guns or something) B: Skream's 2005 style dubstep tune, which just goes to show that I'm happy to swallow any number of formulaic tunes, so long as I LIKE the formula C: Pinch's tune, which is just fucking great D: The tune that follows Pinch's tune, which makes me want to bounce like I was auditioning for the front cover of NUTS magazine and E: Shortstuff getting a tune played, and it being, like, totally excellent...

Click HERE, dummy.

Dusk + Blackdown on Rinse Oct 08

Wookie "Far East" (Manchu)
Ms Dynamite "Boo" (FFRR/Social Circles)
Sunship "Cheque One-Two" (Filter)
El-B and Nude "Reality" (Shelflife)
Hotboys "Hotboys (vocal)" (Hotboys)

Zomby "Helter Skelter" (unreleased)
Asher D "MO pt2 ft Durrty Goodz and Sway" (unreleased)
Gemmy "Johnny 5 0" (unreleased)
Joker "Do it" (unreleased)
Zomby "Notes From the Underground" (unreleased)
Starkey "Gutter Music VIP (demo)" (unreleased)

Scratcha DVA "Bullet A Go Fly ft Badness, Riko, Flowdan and Killa P" (unreleased)
Joker "Solid State" (unreleased)
Guido "Beautiful Complication remix" (unreleased)
Blackdown "deFocused" (dubplate)
Shortstuff "Regression" (unreleased)
Jtreole "The Loot [Sully rmx]" (unreleased)
Sully "Reminder" (unreleased)
Ramadanman "Dayride" (Soul Jazz unreleased)
Skream "Memories of 3rd Base (Eyes Down)" (unreleased)

Pinch "Midnight Oil" (unreleased)
Unknown "unknown" (unreleased)
Grevious Angel "Move Down Low (funky remix)" (unreleased)
Wiley v Heatwave "Wearing my Rolex refix" (unreleased)
Kontext "Plumes (Ramadanman remix)" (unreleased)
Dot Rotten "Talking the Hardest" (unreleased)
Geeneus "Knife and Gun ft Riko, Wiley and Breeze (Blackdown remix)" (Keysound dubplate)

Secondly

This is Alex Bok Bok (of Lower End Spasm) b2b Ben UFO (has nice hair) on Sub FM. Right click and save and then bask in the glory of every genre around the 130-140bpm mark getting flung together like flaps in an orgy.

1. STEVE GURLEY - Hotboys dub
2. DONAEO - Devil In A Blue Dress instrumental
3. DJ NAUGHTY - Quicktime
4. ROSKA - Pyramids
5. A MADE UP SOUND - Next
6. CASSY - Poem
7. SMD - Hustler (SHACKLETON remix)
8. DJ MYSTERY - Changes
9. THOMAS MELCHIOR - Choir
10. SUTEKH & ALVA NOTO - Deuterotype
11. MARTIN LANDSKY - Man High
12. JAZMINE SULLIVAN - Need U Bad (CRAZY COUZINS remix)
13. JOEY BELTRAM - Instant
14. MADIE MYLES - I've Been Waiting (DEM 2 mix)
15. PAUL JOHNSON - She Got Me On (TODD EDWARDS Club mix)
16. HARD HOUSE BANTON - Sirens
17. ZED BIAS - In Your Mind
18. FUZZY LOGIK - Twiss
19. OCTO PUSH - Laika Likes It
20. DOT ROTTEN - What remix
21. GHOST - Shorty (Conga mix)
22. SlLAUGHTER MOB - Thriller Funk
23. DUBCHILD - New Era
24. EGYPTRIXX - Use Magic To Kill Death
25. BIG E-D - Grimey remix
26. PRESSURE - Money Honey feat. Warrior Queen
27. D1 - I Believe
28. MATT SHADETEK - Craziest Riddim remix
29. ORIS JAY - Confused?
30. TOASTY - One Life
31. SKEPTA - Tingles
32. SCREAMA - Taurus refix
33. PATTY BLINGH - Brother
34. GRIEVOUS ANGEL - What We Had
35. STARKEY - Escape
36. BASSBOY - Bass Power
37. TERROR DANJAH - Sneak Attack
38. GRAIN - Untitled
39. D MALICE - Gabryelle Refix
40. BOY 8 BIT - Suspense Is Killing Me (DROP THE LIME remix)
41. SKREAM - Affeks
42. 2 AS 1 - We Got Luv (El-B dub)
43. TINIE TEMPAH - Tears ft Cleo Soul (BURGABOY remix)
44. DOT ROTTEN - Oxygen
45. PANGEA - Router (Forthcoming Hessle Audio)
46. MALA - Learn
47. SLAUGHTER MOB - Amore
48. GEENEUS - Thunder
49. 2ND II NONE - Bulldozer
50. DRU HILL - How Deep Is Your Love (GROOVE CHRONICLES remix)
51. TRC - Hush Baby
52. BOK BOK - No Need To Front '08
53. DARKSTAR - Need You
54. MAXIM - Scheming (ZED BIAS relick)

bobs and bits

First thing is, with tragic predictability, first - you should go to Luke Envoy's myspace page and listen to ''So'', which is forthcoming on Tempa. It makes me want to bubble and flex, whatever that means. Longvoy's latest actual release ''M.U.G.E.N.'' is bloody good too, a real swaggering badboy and the flip is a militant head-banger cooked up with the help of Headhunter.

''Trapdoor'' could well be one of the last tunes Headhunter makes in that ''being smashed over the head repeatedly with a length of iron piping'' style, if clips from his forthcoming album are anything to go by. His latest bits, first previewed on Mary Anne Hobbes' show earlier this year, seem much less compacted and brittle, both sonically and rhythmically.

While I was writing this the album became available (on CD) here... And listening to clips I think I was quite premature/entirely wrong in announcing the death of the fist-pumping Headhunter style. Nevertheless, it all sounds immense, particularly ''Lifeform'' and ''You Say''.


Well, fuck me sideways if second thing isn't second! Download this mix by the man like the myth like the Braiden if you know what's good for you. This is the kind of mix that will quickly turn you into one of those people who hate what's good for them... I suppose bands like Snow Patrol are quite good for you, just like vegetables, a gym membership and not smoking 56 fags a day.

Give me Ruff Sqwuad, microwave spag bol and lung cancer any day of the week.

NB: I'm sure Braiden's actually quite a healthy and well adjusted chap. But I'm not.

Go HERE for the download

“My first studio mix for a couple of years, covering a range of styles and tempos. Painstakingly thought out, lots of mixing detail, some 3 deck action as well. Recorded with technics 1210s and pioneer CDJ200 with a pioneer DJM500 mixer. A few teases in the tracklist. Listen to find out! Don't forget catch my RinseFM show and Podcast (new time slot being arranged) and check the myspace at http://www.myspace.com/676549. Peace and Enjoy..”

Burial - Forgive
Darkstar - Squeeze The Lime
Mihalis Safras - Doo Doo
Claude Von Stroke - Who's Afraid Of Detroit?
Mihalis Safras - Colpo Grosso
Dexter - Midnight Cruiser
TRG - Less Music
Headhunter - Come Down
Ruff Sqwad - RSMD
Shut Up And Dance - Epileptic (martyn rmx)
Headhunter - Physics Impulse
Joker - Gullybrook Lane
Darkstar - Thugged Out 9
TRG - Missed Calls
Groove Chronicles - Stone Cold
The Tuss - Rushup i Bank 12
Dub Child - Take Me (boxcutter remix)
Paul Kalkbrenner - Atzepeng


Also floating my penis abreast a wave of sound currently is a mix of jazz tunes compiled by Woebot. It's part 48 of the amahhhzing Blogariddims series, and should be downloaded by you right about tomorrow or sometime this week. In his own words:

''Shunted off the stage and smoking in the alley. For a while Jazz had something like an Embassy but then its proponents drifted on to Reggae and Brazilian music. Now no-one (apart from you dear listener) gives a shit about it..."

Link HERE

1. Yuseef Lateef: Plum Blossom
2. Andrew Hill: Illusion
3. Gil Evans: The Barbara Song
4. Marion Brown: Bismillah Raxmani Rahim
5. Don Cherry: Brown Rice
6. Mahavishnu Orchestra: You Know You Know
7. Roy Ayers: We Live In Brooklyn
8. William Fischer: Circles
9. Weather Report: Non-Stop Home
10. Billy Cobham: Stratus

The tune about 12:16 in is totally tubular.


Finally, a mix from DNAudio head honchman Break from Tuesday's MAH show. I don't really keep up with DNB anymore but everytime I've seen Break DJ in the past I've been blown away... basically he can be a bit one-trick pony sometimes but it's a pretty effective trick : it's like if David Blaine could only chop his own penis off and make it appear inside the Vatican. Maybe not that good, but you get the idea... Anyway, this mix is pretty interesting, there's a few downtempo bits which might supposed to be dubstep. The good thing about that is, if they ARE supposed to be dubstep, they're not really obvious about it i.e. it isn't wobble central...

Right Click and Save HERE

Break (Feat Kyo) - 'Last Chance' (Symmetry Recordings)
Break - 'Lost n Found' (Symmetry Recordings)
Break - 'Reach Out' (Symmetry Recordings)
Break & Silent Witness - Abtn (Dub)
(Tease - Nico/Fierce/Break - Draw - Quarantine)
Break - 'Hooked Up' (Symmetry Recordings)
Shy Fx - 'Bambaata' Break Remix
Break - 'Thin Ice' (Symmetry Recordings)
Noisia - 'Peacock Strut' (Dub)
Break - 'It's Coming' (Symmetry Recordings)
Break - 'Is This What You Want?' (Symmetry Recordings)
Portishead - 'Machine Gun' Silent Witness Remix
Break - 'Symmetrics' (Symmetry Recordings)
Break feat. SP - 'Too Hot To Hold' (Symmetry Recordings)

... Phew... Now I'm going to wait ten minutes before I post Spyro and Maximum on Rinse last night...

CORPSEY PRESENTS THE TOP 11 THOUGHTS THAT GO THROUGH MY HEAD AGAIN AND AGAIN AT DUBSTEP NIGHTS

1. ''What's this tune? Should I like this tune?''

2. ''Do I like this tune?''

3. ''It's not loud enough. I can't hear every single sound with pristine accuracy. What a shit-hole this place is. I wish I was at Plastic People with my head jammed in the speaker.''

4. ''OMG OMG look at her! She's the girl of my dreams. She's like a glittering diamond hanging in the void. I can't believe that she's both good looking AND dancing to that tune that's forthcoming on Apple Pips on the 24th of October! I bet she thinks jokes about ''Why did Crazy D cross the road?'' are well hilarious, too... Right. Come on, Corpsey... Time for action... I'm going to move away from her in case she sees me existing.''

5. ''When is this set going to turn to shit? I want a fag... Come onnnnnnnnnnn play Mr Chips, you arsehole.''

6. ''It's going to go in my mouth in a minute, I swear. I wish I could cut off his dreadlocks and knit him a shit sweater, but he'd probably wear it.''

7. ''Isn't that thingy off the forum? Perhaps I should go over and introduce myself, and then proceed to tell them my theory as to why dubstep isn't as good as it was for six minutes on July 23rd 2005''

8. ''I think on the forum tomorrow I'll pretend I wasn't being sick in the urinal at this point and go on about how this set expressed the dichotomy at work in 2008 bass culture instead...''

9. ''Malaaaa... look at meeeee... I'm sending you my thouuuuughts... look at meeeee...''

10. ''Where's my lighter? Nobody else is doing it and so I will look like I'm special if I do... Yeah, that guy in the New Era definitely knows how real I am now...''

11. ''Shit, she's seen me... Quick! Pretend you're meditating on bass weight!''

Orange You Glad You Didn't Say Banana?

I was just about to link someone to Appleblim's Resident Advisor Podcast (which should be HERE) and apparently it's been archived alongside Hitler's brain and the Ark of the Covenant so you can't get it from there anymore. Not to worry though, I've uploaded it HERE for all you Johnny-come-lately's.

This podcast has been giving people in both Hard Wax and DMZ 8th Birthday t-shirts a stiffy for a hot minute now, and that's because it's serious. Don't be put off by the fact that the first tune is one of the peak dubstep moments of the whole year as far as I'm concerned (with the sort of absolutely killer vocal I haven't heard a dubstep tune accompany before) - the rest of it is pretty unbelievable too.

01. Appleblim - Within Dub (Excerpt) - Unreleased
02. Henry & Louis - Rise Up (Pinch Rmx) - 2 Kings
03. Geiom & Appleblim - Shreds - Unreleased
04. Ramadanman - Humber - Apple Pips
05. 2nd To None - Waterfalls (Peverelist Rmx) - ARMY
06. DLX - Matter of Facts (Breakage Rmx) - Smog
07. White Boi - Tide - Unreleased
08. Martyn - Vancouver - 3024
09. Appleblim - Within Dub (Excerpt) - Unreleased
10. Geiom - Reminissin (Shackleton Rmx) - Berkane Sol
11. Adam Marshall - Chordtracking (Mike Shannon Rmx) - Kuji
12. Jim Rivers - Mirage (Tobias Rmx) - Simple
13. Ican Productions - Orquestra de Ican (Martyn Remix) - Unreleased
14. Radio Slave - Tantakatan (Shed Remix) - Rekids
15. Made Up Sound - D1 - Unreleased
16. Appleblim - Within Dub (Excerpt) – Unreleased

I think I'm right in saying that Blim will be playing at Bestival weekend after next (where I'll be trying to force my brain into accepting that the 8 foot tall duck walking around in front of me is just pretending to speak English and drink beer), and so will Oneman, who says:

''ive been added to the bestival line up

i'll be playing in the Vice Magazine tent on Friday 5th @ 1-2AM

BE THERE''

with his fingers, but says

''i'll be sending some Does It Offend You, Yeah? gash Corpsey's way on Friday 5th @ 2-9am

CHUNG CHUNG CHUNG''

with his eyes.

Generation Space/Generation Bass/Blogstation Gush

WARNING: The following post contains extensive ranting and the sustained use of pretentious and nonsensical metaphor. It hasn't been proof-read either.



Has anyone else been to the cinema recently and been subjected to that awful fucking advert for Radio 1 where all their DJs are stood around on the set of Tron talking about how much they love DNB and Indie? The best bit about it is when they're all saying their names in placid, don't-mind-me voices and Westwood holds his big money-grabbing arms out and screams ''WESTWOOOOOOOOOD!'' They should replace the THX sound tone with a clip of Westwood screaming his own surname. They should also replace the projection screen with the cold lifeless eyes of Jo Whiley.

Radio 1 does occasionally come good though, usually on the brief weekly occasion when Mary Anne Hobbes show is on and we don't have to listen to The Hoosiers and Duffy for two hours. Last night, as anyone reading this blog (i.e. ME) is bound to know already, Dubstep Warz part 2: ''Generation Bass'' was something to make you feel your license fee is going into something even greater than making Graham Norton rich, or helping Jeremy Clarkson to launch a Ford Escort into the mouth of an active volcano.

DOWNLOAD HERE (right click and 'Save As')

Like a lot of other people I didn't really know much about dubstep before I heard the first Dubstep Warz. I used to enjoy pushing dubstep heads around - giving them wedgies, posting them outside Breakin Science, that sort of thing. If I saw a dubstep DJ on the beach, sharing time with their sexy girlfriend, I'd sidle over, kick sand in their face and then steal and step on their spectacles. However, that all changed after my cutting-edge instincts led me, via a friend of mine telling me repeatedly again and again to download and listen to it instead of the DJ Friction @ Da Best of British 2006 with MCs Scrappy Doo and Clegnatty set I was planning on downloading that day, to downloading and listening to the seminal two hour showcase of the UK's freshest sound.

Two years later and the freshness seems to have disappeared. Listening to dubstep every day, going to loads of dubstep nights, hearing every single permutation of wobble known to man has made me see dubstep as about as changeable as the back of my own hand. And, like the back of my own hand, I've often thought: ''There must be music funkier, more soca-y, more centered around the vocal appreciation of playing Bongos, than THIS''. The raw, minimal, dread-infused sounds of Dubstep Warz has become in the process something to look back on with a combination of melancholic yearning and smug, sod-off-Grandad superiority. The aesthetic that drew me in back then - one based around empty, echo filled spaces ripe for face/wall-at-FWD huggers to hide or slip into a waking coma in, razor-sharp drums, a skunky swagger/shudder, has given way to a new aesthetic more akin to a grenade going off at a Linkin Park concert (a pleasing mental image but not intended to be particularly complimentary), or to the sound of Prog House farting vigorously in a plastic chair.

[Yes, everytime I was complaining about dubstep not being like it was in 2005 Youngsta sets, what I actually meant to complain about was dubstep not being like it was in 2006 on Radio 1. But you see, if I'd said Radio 1 they'd have chucked me out of FWD with a yellowing picture of David Pearce stapled to my shoulder.]

Last night's show was a bit of an eye/ear opener for me in a funny way. Despite listening to this music constantly for those intervening years, I don't think I've really been aware of how rapidly and surreally it's been moving along. There definitely IS a new aesthetic dominating things now, and its one that has at least some foundation in the very ultra-wobbly mid-range-slobbily RJD2-gangbang-beats that I've found myself intensely bored with ever since Spongebob came out. Spongebob itself, while by no means my ''Favouritist Bassline House And Garage Tune In the World 2007'' (compilation out soon on Ministry), is undeniably a dubstep club classic. People love it. In fact, they love it so much that either they a) go off and make their own versions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of it b) play other peoples' versions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of it or c) demand that the DJ plays versions 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of it or else they'll go somewhere where their demand for constant spaz-out music is more catered for - say, a 24 hour Gabba marathon in a squat, or at a Hospital Records night.

But the dominance of printer-jam synths in last night's show what I am talking about is almost definitely as much a product of the cluster of ''my synth sounds more like a rapist breathing than yours'' experiments as it is of more tasteful or credible sources such as Sa-Ra, Grime, Bassline etc.** Of course it's more complicated than that in origin, and quite frankly since I usually blog about what my testicles taste like if they're dipped in pickle and wrapped in Honey Roast Ham I'm not going to get into it. The important thing is that a style of dubstep which I've had little time for over the past year has helped to usher in a BRAND NEW (or at least, it would appear that way if you hadn't listened to anything between 2006 and 2008) aesthetic of wonky shock-therapy insanity*... and it's GOOD.

Dubstep used to be about holding back a bit - nowadays there's a whole side of it which is about holding NOTHING back. Even the most violent and abrasive beats on Dubstep Warz (Vex'd, Distance) had a feel of tension and stealth to them. Distance himself, in his introduction to a Cyrus set that showcased Distance tunes as headbangingly (adjective from the dictionary of Ned Flanders, there) upfront and relentless as ''V'', talked about how Cyrus was preserving a style of dubstep - not made purely for the dancefloor and with space to mentally manouevre in - that has largely disappeared. I didn't really hear that in some of the (and this is the only word really) gnarlier tunes Cyrus played, but in other tunes (''Space Cadet'' by the man himself in particular) I could. I suppose a 15 minute long set is as short as a 15 minute wank is long, and given the competition the urge for a DJ is probably towards absolutely smashing it.

Besides which he was following a whole bunch of insanely energetic sets - Quest and Silkie started things off on a rhythmic high and there wasn't really a drop off in intensity after that (though Kulture and Chef both played some nice deep tunes - Martyn's RMX of Fly Lo's Roberta Flack stands out in memory). That's the thing with this new, bursting-at-the-gills style - the beats are often full-on or fucked up too. Married to a workaday half-step, wonky basslines - no matter how fucked up - are just boring, like watching a lunatic eat their own plops in a rubber room. Given a suitably lively rhythmic accompianment, though, and it becomes something far more animated and life-affirming, like watching a lunatic throw their plops at the windscreens of passing cars.


Nowhere was this more obvious than in the set by the ^ genius-like Joker's ^ barn-storming, brain-rodeoing, grin-muscle-tautening set. Throwing down stuff by himself, Gemmy and Rustie amongst others, Joker conclusively proved that there's life in the old dub yet - if you can even call tunes like his insane year 3000 RNB remix of 2000F and JKamata's ''You Don't Know What Love Is'' dubstep anymore (and who cares if you can't?). Joker, Rustie and 'em don't make music that's just superficially twisted - their beats are FUCKED to the core. There's a looseness and sense of things just about holding together which makes their music genuinely exciting and puts me in mind of a huge robot-eyed engine shuddering while someone in a hardhat and overall screams ''Look out! It's about to blowwwww!'' Not only that, but there's some unashamedly melodius and sickly-sweet hooks being pumped out of this malfunctioning Bertha that give a feel of RNB being filtered through a new and alien template - which is the same sort of thing I got from Dubstep Warz back in 2006, when each producer seemed to be using the dubstep sound in order to recontextualise, fuse and appropriate their own influences.

Blah blah blah - basically, Joker made me wish I could stretch my arm both across to London and back in time to wheel up pretty much everything he dropped. Which was nice. Philadelphia bad-man Starkey was on a similar redoinktheclownulously mangled tip, and also killed it.

After those two it was quite a relief when Chef decided to drop some deepness, and it was also noteworthy that the (by 2006 standards) completely fucked up Coki tune 'Robotnik' that Chefal finished with sounded almost pedestrian in comparison. Coki is of course a don, and he led where a lot of others have followed, but just as when other producers copied his style after 'Haunted' and 'Tortured', his tunes have suffered to my ears because of the size of their influence.

But that influence has been as good for the music as bad for it in some ways, and although after the Maida Vaile orgy of synth-sirens and bass-nukes had finished I was kinda longing for a bit of ''Ruffage'' style minimalism (international face of Foot Locker and Marks + Spencers DJ Oneman - who also smashed it, kicking off with an itchy wonkywookie tune by Brackles - played ''Midnight'' but was also playing quite a lot of 2008 niceness), I could also see clearly the benefits that moving away from 2006's sound has had on the music and on the music that it bleeds and feeds into.

So now when I'm grumbling like a GRANDdad to young post-Mercury music awards whippersnappers about how things aren't as good as they were in the olden tymes, I can say original and incisive things like ''What happened to all the pitch-bent synths?'' and ''This doesn't even sound like Dr Who's Robot-Dog choking on a football!'' before I shuffle off to the smoking area to smoke some traditional dubstepper's ketamine and speed.

Best use of my license fee money since Planet Earth filmed that bat dying in a hill of cockroaches and shit IMO.

T/L as follows:

Generation Bass
Recorded live at Maida Vale, hosted by Mary Anne Hobbs & MC Sgt Pokes

Rustie - 'Jagz The Smack' (Stuff)

Silkie & Quest… chosen by Mala
Conquest – ‘Stand’ (Deep Medi)
Silkie – ‘Dam 4’ (Soul Jazz)
Conquest – ‘Hard Food’ (Ase)
Silkie – ‘Test’ (Dubplate)
Conquest – ‘Last Dayz’ (Dubplate)
Conquest – ‘The Seafront’ (Deep Medi)
Silkie – ‘The Horizon’ (Dubplate)
Silkie & Mizzbeats – ‘Purple Love’ (Dubplate)
Conquest – ‘The Unknown’ (Dubplate)

Kulture… chosen by Skream
Kulture –‘Diesel’ (Disfigured Dubz)
Kulture –‘Steppin’ Outta Babylon’ (Dubplate)
Kulture – ‘Spooked’ (Dubplate)
Kulture – ‘Vitamin D’ (Dubplate)
Kulture feat. Ghost 1 – ‘Purple’ (Promo)
Kulture – ‘Rock The Boat’ (Bootleg)
Kulture – ‘Tonight’ (Dubplate)
Late – ‘Misty Morning (Kulture Remix) (Dubplate)

Joker & MC Nomad… chosen by Kode 9
Joker – ‘Stuck In The System’ (Earwax)
2000F & JKamata – ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is’ joker special (Dubplate)
Joker & Rustie – ‘Play Doe’ (Kapsize)
Gemmy – ‘Double Yellow’ (Dubplate)
MR E – ‘Space Invaders’ (Dubplate)
Rustie – ‘Tempered’ (Kapsize)
Joker – ‘80's’ (Kapsize)
Joker – ‘Gully Brook Lane’ (Terrorhythm)
J@kes & Joker – ‘3K Lane’ (H.E.N.C.H)
Joker – ‘Holly Brook Park’ (Kapsize)
Gemmy – ‘Back 2 The Future’ (Punch drunk)
Joker – ‘Snake Eater’ (Soul motive)

Starkey… chosen by Vex’d
Starkey –‘Gutter Music (Keysound / Planet Mu)
Starkey – ‘Striking Distance’ (Planet Mu)
Starkey – ‘Pictures’ (Planet Mu)
Graphic feat. Beans – ‘ I am Metal’ (Starkey remix) (Offshore)
Starkey – ‘Pressure’ (Planet Mu)
Starkey – ‘Dark Alley’ (Planet Mu)
MOVES!!! – ‘All Skate’ (Dubplate)
Starkey – ‘Miracles’ (Planet Mu)
Styles P feat. Swizz Beats – ‘Blow Ya Mind’ (Starkey Remix) (Seclusiasis)
Starkey – ‘Spacewalk’ (Planet Mu)

Chef… chosen by Hatcha
Mr Lager & Alys Blaze – ‘Tell Me’ (Sub Freq)
LD + Clue Kid –‘Not Gonna Cry’ (Ringo)
Geoim feat. Marita – ‘Reminiscin’(Berkane Sol)
LD & Kode 9 – ‘Bad’ (Hyperdub)
Flying Lotus feat. Dolly – ‘Roberta Flack’ (Martyn’s Heart Beat mix) (Warp)
Clue Kid – ‘Monkey Style’(Subbalicious)
Cotti – ‘Calm Down’ (Bassface)
Kutz & Benga – ‘I’ll Kut Ya’ (Dubplate)
Coki - ‘Robotnik’ (Dubplate)

Oneman… chosen by Loefah
Brackles – ‘Get A Job (VIP)’ (Applepips)
Loefah – Midnight’ (Dubplate)
Toasty – ‘Lickable’ (Dubplate)
Point B – ‘E Blade’ (Combat Recordings)
Mala – ‘Forgive’ (Deep Medi)
Groove Chronicles – ‘Stone Cold’ (White Label)
Darkstar – ‘Aidy’s Girl is a Computer’ (Hyperdub)

Cyrus… chosen by Distance
Cyrus & Distance – ‘Violate’ (RTP005)
Cyrus – ‘Decisions’ (Dubplate)
Cyrus – ‘Night After’ (Dubplate)
Cyrus & Distance – ‘Surrender’ (Dubplate)
Cyrus – ‘Space Cadet’ (Dubplate)
Distance – ‘Magnesium’ (Dubplate)

LL - 'Out The Club' (Dubplate)

* as per usual I'm stealing from Kode 9 here, his description of Joker beats as inducing something like a ''collective electric shock on the dancefloor'' was absolutely jizz-worthy.

** not playing down the influence of grime here btw. Please don't tell me to suck my mum, because I'm very impressionable, and I'd jump off a cliff and land in my mum's glosh if somebody told me to do it.

Spam Chop - ''Decks N FX'' Mix

Spam is usually something to be avoided on the internet - that is, unless you have a one inch long penis and want to meet busted slags in your local area to fuck and then reluctantly comfort as they begin to sob uncontrollably into the bedsheets and show you their scars.

Not in this case though! Spam Chop (pictured above taking the fucking piss out of Semtex) is one of, if not THE, baddest DJ in Nottingham. He's playing at Outlook in Croatia in a few weeks time, and at the Pollen album launch in Nottingham (alongside Gravious, Forsaken, Brackles, Shortstuff and a whole bunch of other n'er do wells) on the 23rd*. He's also playing a load of other places, which is only right as he always absolutely duppies every dance he plays at (including Wigflex, which he co-runs) with a mixture of every genre that's more fun than electro house and psy-trance in the world.

Oh, and also he hosts a show with man-like-Geiom on Kemet Radio every Wednesday 12-2am, which can be listened to online, at that time of night, but at no other time.

I've already posted this mix up but the link died and now it's alive again so why not? To suggest another ''Why not?'', ''Why Not?'' forget about getting a bigger penis and knocking up local birth-marks in your area for today, download this Spam instead and just have a wank to it? That's what I do, often without even having the mix on! Leave feedback here.

Spam Chop Decks N FX Mix (Mega Upload Link)

1.Sampler Routine(various lock grooves and vinyls used)
2.Subversion, Mass Apathy
3.Matthew Jonson, Return of zombie bikers (midnight operator remix)
4.Early Bird, Galavant (wigflex)
5.Skream, 2d
6.Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom, Rise
7.The Hizatron, Ulysees 55 (wigflex)
8.Rusko, ??
9.Geiom, Marathon Drums (looped,effects)
10.Marlin Spike, Bongo Rocker
11.Pinch, Lazarus
12.Wobbulator
12.Metaphi, Anticipation (wigflex)
13.Rui Da Silva,Escaping My Mind (tolfrey & inxec mix)
14.Stefan Tretau, Reiner Modern
15.Metaphi,Half Hearted (wigflex)
16.Stefan Bodzin,Pendulum
17.AFX crying in your face & Bodzin (looped)
18.Early Bird,Absence makes the heart grow fonder (wigflex)
19.AppleBlim & Peverilist,Over Here
20.Clouds,Protecting Hands (geiom refix)
21.Thomas Schumacher ,Red Purple
22.Perc & Fractal,Up (perc mix)
23.Chaim, moon
24.Stefan Tretau,??
25.Bodzin & Romboy,Ariel
26.Metaphi,Half Moon (wigflex)
27.Digital Filth (remix)
28.Reagan,Teddybear
29.Untold,KIngdom
30.Rekorder 0
31.Locomotive,Breath
32.Ellen Allien,Go
33.Matt Tolfrey & Craig Sylvester, Shakil
34.The Tuss,Goodbye Rute
35.Ricki Rucker HighHat Lock groove
36.Geiom, Auxology & Unessecery Stress (looped)
37.Thomas Schumacher. Kick School 79
38.Moonbeam,Spring Story
39.Ricardo Tobar,El Sunset
40.Citizen Kain,Doppelganger & El Sunset (looped)
41.The Hizatron,?:huh: (wigflex)
42.Bodzin,Valentine
43.Butch, On the Line
44.Avus, Furry Hat
45.Peverelist,Erstwhile Rythm (forsaken Remix)
46.2562,Channel One
47.Minilogue,orglar
48.Various Productions,Suj Mix
49.Fairmont, Mobula
50.Rekorder 10.3
51.Bass Clef, Zamayatin vol1
52.DMZ,Blue Notez (looped)
53.Apparat

2 decks,1 cdj, sampler/mixer and a kaos pad. All loops n FX are live.

GET ON THAT.

* Pollen Myspace = this.

New J Rolla Mix

The last J Rolla mix I posted on here was the best mix I'd downloaded all year, and this new one looks like it might compete with that...

>>>J ROLLA Ruptured Dubstep Mix Vol.1 <<<

"A fresh deep and dubby mix recorded by Ruptured Dubstep resident J Rolla.
You can also grab a copy at the forth-coming Rupture night @ Corsica studios on July 12th.

Mostly new stuff with a couple of older ones chucked in, variety of styles. Check it out..."

DOWNLOAD OR STREAM

01: geiom - reminissin' - (shackleton refix)
02: trg - less music
03: anstam - aeto (b)
04: headhunter & ekelon - timewarp
05: helixir - springz & wirez
06: izc - sand
07: quest & eskmo - speakers corner (eskmo & antiserum remix)
08: 2562 - enforcers
09: ramadanman - drowning (version)
10: trg - broken heart (martyn's dcm remix)
11: sines - test two
12: digital mystikz - neverland
13: dabrye - air (kode 9 remix inst.)
14: jack sparrow - predator
15: peverelist - junktion
16: search & destroy - candyfloss (loefah remix)
17: kode 9 - konfusion (dub)
18: appleblim & peverelist - circling
19: trg & dub u - losing marbles (2562 remix)