Joker, A Personal Favorite.

     The English. Something about them and their style of music guarantees a "British Invasion" every year. We had Rock in the 60's, Punk in the 70's, New Wave in the 80's, Brit-Pop in the 90's, and Dubstep in the last six years or so.

   There's something infectious and uniquely British about Dubstep. Thats not to say the North American guys don't have their own sweet brand of it, I'm a big fan of Zed's Dead and 12th Planet. The general grimness that pervades all of the original South London Producers (Burial, King Midas Sound, Zomby, etc) comes from a grim London scenery populated by lots of low budget clubs, all of where these guys got their start.

  Joker is one of these originals, the difference being that his music has been geared for dance-halls from day one. His synths are organic and deep, almost replicating bass in its depth of sound. His remix's are usually of fellow Englishmen, his remix's of Simian Mobile Disco's "Cruel Intentions" and Professor Greens "Just Be Good to Green" are both definitive versions of the artists songs.

Here are some sweet Joker tracks. I'm just to tired to write anymore, treatments really taking its tole on me.

Just Be Good to Green (Joker Remix) - Professor Green

Just Be Good To Green - Professor Green Feat Lilly Allen (Joker Remix) by WilliRegretit

Purple City - Joker & Ginz

Joker feat. Ginz - Purple City by olteanu69

Watch the Sun Come Out (Joker & Ginz Remix) - Example

Watch The Sun Come Up (Joker & Ginz Remix) by VacayWave

142 Minute Beat Per Minute Mondays!

Its that time of the week again! Lots of fun Dubstep tracks, old and new, to titillate your ears and massage your soul.

    There's this new expression going around called "womping". Its related to dubstep and is meant to imply partying, dancing, going crazy to it. I really hate this expression. All this is is new terminology being used by crossover Dub fans, those who picked it up a few months ago and can't wait to find a new way to bring it into the mainstream. Jerking crossovers, scene kids, all these groups can gravitate towards the new hip form of music that Dubstep has become. I'm a bit of a purist and certainly a snob, so I can't abide this kind of bullshit.

    Happy listening, friends. Remember, don't ever use the words womping or womp! I will find you and gut you and yes that is a written threat.

1975- Zeds Dead

Zeds Dead - 1975 by zedsdead

Cry Me a River - Borgore

Cry Me A River - Borgore by bestofdubstep.com

Drive - Alpines (Skreams I Ain't Got A License Remix)

Drive Skreams I aint got a license Remix by darylauguste

Dhaaru Pee Ke (Liquid Stranger Remix) - Specialist & Tru Skool

Specialist & Tru Skool - Dhaaru Pee Ke (Liquid Stranger Remix) by darylauguste

Pinch Feat. Yolanda - Get Up (Guido Mix)

Pinch feat. Yolanda - Get Up (Guido Mix) by darylauguste

May the Wiccan Mother Goddess bless us, each and every one.

Cold Cave: Cherish the Light Years review.

Ah, Cold Cave. What a depressing looking bunch! Not since the eighty's has the independent music scene seen such a somber set of individuals.

     Not surprisingly, Cold Cave owe's much of their sound to their 80's new wave spiritual brethren. Their latest album, ironically named "Cherish the Light Years",  brings to mind bands like the Cure, Joy Division and the Smiths, not just in terms of sound but also in terms of lyrics. "I feel guilty being alive, when so many beautiful people have died," front-man Wesley Eisold croons on "Confetti", arguably the best song on the album. Doomed romance, bleak despair, all of these things are recurring issues for Eisold, who can't seem to get a grip on where he's going, or who hes looking for. "I don't think we're meant for this world", the opening track "The Great Pan is Dead" laments. The theme of isolation is the most prevalent throughout the album, as it was for Cold Cave's influences.

    As for the music itself, it veers slightly more towards the newer electro pop side then bands like Joy Division would have been comfortable with. The sound is melancholy, the synths jumpy and the guitar low pitched and quick. So how do they shake the obvious Joy Division comparison? Simply a more modern sounding group, just as depressing but not quick as grounded in post-punk. Cold Cave is immediately catchy, a lot of Joy Division isn't. In "Cherish the Light Years", Eisold hits a little quicker, comes at the listener more directly then Ian Curtis did.

The album isn't without blunders. "Alchemy and You" is to blunt and to loud for the sound Cold Cave is going for. Indeed, the entire album is mastered very strangely. It's far louder then it should be, and while the music itself is intimate and begging for companionship, the volume of the record can repel the gentle, lonely listener. These mistakes can be forgiven, as "Cherish the Light Years", is a very good album, full of the pain and angst that drives so many adolescents to go to liberal arts colleges and only calling their parents once a month to ask for money.

                                                        8 out of 10 Unicorn Horns.


Here are my favorite two tracks from the album.

Confetti - Cold Cave

Cold Cave - Confetti by Vicente EDPMC

The Great Pan is Dead - Cold Cave

Cold Cave - The Great Pan Is Dead by artsandcraftsmx







   

Grime and Dubstep, a beautiful pairing.

                     Brothers Skepta and JME, two frequent Dubstep/Grime collaborators.

This is a somewhat obviously titled post, everyone knows how closely Grime and Dubstep resemble each other, the later spawning in part from the former. Both are aggressive, bass driven genres of music and both are distinctly English. I love the Englishman flow and it fits well with the intense, in your face vibe most Dubstep generates. The nature of the pairing is relatively unknown to American audiences, who embrace the meshing of the two genres but don't seem to understand the close proximity of the two, both musical and physical (both genre's come out of East London).

Some tracks? Oh, I think so.

Intensive Snare - Plastician (Ft. Skepta)

Plastician - Intensive snare (Ft. Skepta) by darylauguste

Heavy - Chase and Status (Ft. Dizzee Rascal)

Chase & Status - Heavy (ft. Dizzee Rascal) by alyule

Just Be Good to Green - Professor Green Ft. Lily Allen (Joker Remix)

Just Be Good To Green - Professor Green Feat Lilly Allen (Joker Remix) by WilliRegretit


WOAH!

New Burial EP!!!

I nearly wet myself when I saw this. Burial, the reclusive English producer has just released a three track EP titled "Street Halo" and like all of Burial's releases it sprung out of nowhere, no hype, nothing. Burials ghostly dubstep sends chills through me every time I listen to it.

   Here are all three tracks from the EP. I'd review it, but I need a little time to dry my eyes.

Street Halo - Burial

Burial - Street Halo by casketcrashvigil

NYC - Burial

Burial - NYC by isaidahip

Stolen Dog - Burial

Burial - Stolen Dog by isaidahip

The Mandatory James Blake Post

    Everybody loves James Blake, myself included. Something about a classic English singer-songwriter turned Post-Dubstep figurehead is just irresistible. Also, a guy who call do Joni Mitchell covers and Lil Wayne reworks is not only talented but has a solid sense of the ridiculous, and you know I love that.

   What really defines Blake (which also is what makes him a rare talent) is his musical intelligence, his gift for meshing seemingly un-meshable sounds and textures to make songs that not only brim with "heart on your sleeve singer-songwriter" emotions, but a rare combination of that and incredibly complex, brilliant musicianship. This isn't an album review so I won't go into to much description of Blake's self titled debut. I'll just say that it brim's with a talent for songwriting, all of it, that is increasingly rare in a musical era dominated by singles and outside producers.

   It was only a matter of time until singing and Dubstep were incorporated by somebody. One could argue its already been done with guys like Darkstar, but not in the way Blake does it. To call Blake's music Dubstep would be underselling it, like so many great artists he defies classification. The consensus of Blake from the music community is overwhelming excitement, and its easy to see why. He represents a bright future for pop music, electronic music, music in general. I know I'm on the bandwagon.

Some James Blake tracks, for the soul.

Wilhelms Scream - James Blake

James Blake, "Wilhelm Scream" by blatanti

I Only Know (What I Know Now) - James Blake

James Blake - "I Only Know (What I Know Now)" by Strange Moss

Childish Gambino

    Childish Gambino is the alias of one Donald Glover, a Georgia born NYU graduate with a degree in Dramatic Writing. Doesn't sound like the average start of a rap career does it? To make things even more unlikely, Glover originally came to prominence as a member of the sketch team Derrick Comedy, famous for videos like "Bro Rape" and "Memory Loss" (a skit in which Glover, suffering from amnesia, repeatedly blows his male friend). So he doesn't come with a huge amount of street cred. But in a world where Drake, the half white, half Jewish, Canadian Teen Soap star can make it big, I'd like to believe anything is possible.

   What makes it even better is that Glover is good. In fact hes damn good. Childish Gambino explores an area covered by guys like Atmosphere, one plagued by troubled romances, suicidal thoughts, and drug and alcohol abuse. Self esteem issues are the new "Fuck the Police", so I predict a pretty solid future for Childish Gambino, who's only begun to come into his own.

  THIS IS THE 21st CENTURY FOLKS. There are no more rules of legitimacy and I suggest you embrace it. Things are way cooler without a bunch of OG's lurking behind a corner waiting to blow the "sellout", "poser", etc, whistle.

       Here are some sweet Gambino tracks, fo free (I usually charge $10 a track, I know, I'm benevolent).

Freaks and Geeks - Childish Gambino

Childish Gambino-Freeks and Geeks by stealth912

The Longest Text Message - Childish Gambino

Childish Gambino - "The Longest Text Message" by One Thirty BPM

142 Minute Beat Per Minute Mondays!

A new weekly post focusuing on Dubstep tracks! Some old, some new, some borrowed, some blue... If you don't like these you have no taste, stop reading this immediatly.

By the way, hope everyone enjoys the new layout redux, I'm no good with HTML but I think its pretty swell.

No explanation needed, just listen, love, download, send me money.


Andreya Triana - A Town Called Obsolete (Mt. Kimbie Remix)
Andreya Triana - A Town Called Obsolete (Mount Kimbie remix) by Hypetrak

Jack Beats. Ft John B - All Night (Skream Remix)

Jack Beats - All Night Ft. John B (Skream Remix) [HQ] by rollingTUFF™

Stars - Starkey

Starkey - Stars (Feat. Anneka) by samplethis

Lucid Dream - Clubroot

05 Lucid Dream by darylauguste

Nneka - Heartbeat (Chase & Status Remix)

Nneka - Heartbeat (Chase & Status Remix) by Birdi

Kito & Reija Lee - Sweet Talk EP

    As part of my segment on woman in dubstep, this serves a mini-review of a sweet female EP.

    Kito is a producer from Perth, Australia. Unlike the two woman covered in yesterdays article, Kito gears her music largely towards the dancefloor, with upbeat tempos and lovely female vocals a regular. Sweet Talk, her new EP featuring fellow Aussie, vocalist Reija Lee, is no exception. The EP's centerfold is definitely the huge "Sweet Talk", a club banger with Joker like synths and a rumbling bass. Its catchy, its simple, and its a fantastic tune. The rest of the album feels even more house influenced, to the point where the line between it and Dubstep are blurred. Its more synths and less bass then the title track, but it still manages to maintain a positive, funky feel throughout.

    Sweet Talk serves as a great reminder that female produced music really does offer something different. The basic beat, the bass, is all typical dubstep fodder, but the lyrics, the entire vibe of the album is decidedly  female.

7.5 out of 10 Unicorn Horns.

Here are a few Kido tracks, one original and one remix, both intensely awesome.

Sweet Talk, Kito's #1 tune.

Sweet Talk on Annie Mac BBC Radio 1 by Kito.

A Kito remix of, OMG, Vaccine, another woman!

Vaccine - Fever (Kito Remix) by darylauguste

The Next Big Thing...Just a Band: A Very Short History of Females in Dubstep

                                                    Christine Clemens (Vaccine)
                                                                          

        Dubstep is a male dominated genre, no way around it. The guttural bass, the juttering synths, theres something undeniably masculine about the entire genre, and thats without taking into account lyrics. With songs like Borgore's "Act Like a Hoe" ("Act like a hoe, but first do the dishes!"), Rusko's "Cockney Thug", and most of Skream's first self titled LP even the subject matter (if there is any) finds itself in a very masculine, aggressive realm.

     Given all these things its not overly surprising that their are so few female Dubstep artists getting any sort of publicity. In some ways it feels the stereotypical "female" elements of electronic music, catch based melody, upbeat tempo, etc are missing in the genre.

                                                            Ikonika

      Introducing two of Dubsteps finest (and only) producers, Vaccine and Ikonika. Vaccine is the moniker of Christine Clemens, a Los Angeles native. Ikonika is the moniker of Sara Abdel-Hamid, a native of the UK. Both are making impressions in a male dominated scene, and both have very different styles.

    Vaccine's music draws a lot of comparisons to the "cleaner", more melody driven faction of Dubstep that includes artists like Clubroot, Eleven Tigers, and Burial. Her breakbeat's aren't drowned out by bass and her tracks are characterized by ghostlike synths, giving them a haunting, organic feel. Its certainly not as rave ready as some of her genre counterparts, but Vaccine's music is earthy and emotional, evoking a lot of sounds and feelings forgotten by the bro-steppers of the world.

    Ikonika has been a big name for awhile. She's signed to Dubsteps most famous label, Hyperdub, and her sound displays a lot of similar traits to that of fellow Hyperdub artists Kode9, Zomby, and Joker. What I mean by this is its old school, 120 bpm, slow, dark, almost evil in its sound. In fact Ikonika's sound could be confused for quite a number of UK producers.

    Both woman aren't particularly dance floor oriented. There music should be listened to in the dark, on a late night drive, etc. Its beautiful, dark, and has a distinct style of its own.

    Woman are making there way out of the woodworks and into the public conscious. Rock, Punk, there are tons of genre's that started out as purely male. Its only a matter of time until it gets infiltrated by some rad females.

                                                        Aussie producer Kito

Here are some sweet tracks by these two ladies.

Proxy - 68 (Vaccine Remix)



By Proxy - 68 (Vaccine remix) by Vaccine

Cubic Zirconia - Hoes Come Out at Night (Ikonika Remix)

Cubic Zirconia - Hoes Come Out At Night (Ikonika Remix) by Ikonika