Box Musique » Dubstep

Slugabed and Robot Genitals

David — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:46:34 +0000

Most notably signed to Planet Mu, Slugabed is Gregory Feldwick, a unique producer that originally hails from the proud city of Bath. In his bio he describes his music as “lazer battles in the future” although quickly asserts that “everyone says something like that”, illustrating his tendency to avoid convention. Quirky, irregular and more out there than Mork on LSD, Slugabed’s music is peculiarly charming, rather like disabled animals or crazy old men who flirt with their nursing home carers. If you want it in simple terms, it sounds like someone’s dropped a robot’s bollocks in a blender and I very much like it.

His EP Ultra Heat Treated, a 6 track labyrinth of mangled bass and impossibly sweet synths, dropped in February to positive reviews and everything I’ve heard from him before and since has been similarly mind-bending. If they ever remake Weird Science (with Kelly Brook please) Slugabed should bang out the soundtrack, it’d be sick.

Listen to ‘Ultra Heat Treated’ below and experience a vivid flashback to the time you got fucked by the Mysterons…

Buy Slugabed tunes at 7digital.

Mount Kimbie – Crooks & Lovers

Oldsy — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 16:35:42 +0000

Dentists should have this album playing on surround sound while they fuck about with your teeth. Who cares if they eventually get sick of it, I’m having my damn molars ripped out here. There is little to be said about this superb album that hasn’t been said already; even the Telegraph admitted it was bloody brilliant and it’s not often they use naughty words or have a clue what’s going on with people under the age of 52.

The album is made up of tracks right, and those tracks are made up of drums and bass and beeps and twangs and guitars and, most importantly, silence. The genius of Crooks & Lovers, therefore, lies in it’s sparsity and simplicity. At no point during this long player’s relatively un-long exploration of contemporary electronic dance music does a sense of uncertainty or bewilderment ever rear it’s ugly head (Editor’s note: better descriptive words needed here; shame author is retarded). Words are boring so here is the official video to ‘Would Know’. The ‘review’ continues after the drop.

To try and describe this album using references to genre-related shitballs is an exercise in destroying what this album stands for. It belongs in the same border-less vacuum as Flying Lotus’ Cosmogramma in that it is music for music’s sake; a space you can float into, be gone with worries such as pre-determined structure or standards and lose yourself.

Crooks & Lovers is a work of art and, like all works of art, a completely subjective affair. The beauty lies in discovering how this album moves you. ~~A friend~~ My only friend recently said it’s the perfect driving album. True but it’s also the perfect everything album. For me ‘Blind Night Errand’ is the solo bedroom skank, ‘Mayor’ is an invitation to cycle as fast as possible and ‘Between Time’ the nostalgic gaze over forgotten horizons.

Box Musique were raving about Mount Kimbie way back when and for good reason. They won’t be soon forgotten with a release as timeless as this. Unless the world ends in 2012 but then who’d be complaining. Not that I hate life, there just wouldn’t be anyone around to complain you see. Point is, Crooks & Lovers is undeniably brilliant, jeeze.

Buy Crooks & Lovers at 7digital.

ASC – Deep Space Mix 15

David — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:06:36 +0000

ASC is definitely one of the most interesting dubstep/electronica producers currently inhabiting our glorious planet, his recent LP Nothing is Certain was a tranquil triumph and everything he creates seems to be more delicate and exquisite than what came before. He’s also a pretty prolific DJ and every now and again drops an intriguing ambient mix on his blog. The suitably titled ‘Deep Space Mix 15′ is essentially a 50 minute atmospheric soundscape that submerges you in aural depths as chasmic as infinite…well…space. Beautifully relaxed yet languidly interesting, this is one to slide on when you really need to take a step back and collect yourself.

Tracklist after the jump.

ASC – Deep Space Mix 15

Tracklisting
01 – Brian Eno – Signals
02 – Fill – Involved With The Shadow
03 – Mint Julep – Refraction
04 – Alpha Wave Movement – Silent Promise
05 – Brian Eno – The Secret Place
06 – Quosp – Night Coast
07 – ASC – Bloom From Rainfall
08 – John Serrie – Gentle, The Night
09 – Plaid – White’s Dream
10 – John Serrie – The Auran Vector
11 – Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd – And Then I Turned Away

Buy ASC tunes at 7digital.

The History of Dubstep

David — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:22:06 +0000

Recorded at Thekla in Bristol for the Foo Magazine versus Monkey!Knife!Fight! night a couple of weeks ago, ‘The History of Dubstep’ is Plastician’s masterfully compiled journey charting the genre’s evolution from its humble garage beginnings to the diverse landscape we know today. Featuring tunes by the likes of Wookie, Skream, Flux Pavilion, Artwork, DJ Zinc and Sukh Knight, there’s a huge amount of quality running through this mix and some equally good MCing from P-Money — the guy who destroyed Ghetts — augmenting proceedings. If there’s one thing you download today, don’t let it be another Anal Adventure flick…let it be this.

Plastician and P Money – The History of Dubstep

Tracklisting after the jump.

Tracklisting
Masterstepz – Melody
Groove Chronicles – Black Puppet
Reservoir Dogs – Buddha Finger
DJ Zinc – 138 Trek
DJ Zinc – Go DJ
Wookie – Storm
Menta – Sounds Of The Future
Artwork – Red
Alias – Fight Club
Musical Mob – Pulse X
Bootleg – Eskimob
Wizzbit – Jamhot
Alias – Gladiator
Plasticman – Venom
Plasticman – Hard Graft
Digital Mystikz – Anti War Dub
Skream – Lightning
Skream – Midnight Request Line
Coki – Burning
Rusko – Jahova
Benga & Coki – Night
Skream – Chest Boxing
Coki – Tortured
Macabre Unit – Lift Off VIP
Benga -
Joker – Gully Brook Lane (Plastician Special)
Wiley – Morgue
Plasticman – Jackal Riddim
Plasticman – Section 7
Wiley – So Amazing
Terror Danjah – Creepy Crawler
12th Planet – Sixty Eight
Boogaloo Crew – Days Go By
Chase & Status – Saxon
Emalkay – When I Look At You
Magnetic Man – Mad
Simian Mobile Disco – Cruel Intentions (Joker Remix)
Skream – Filth
Trolley Snatcha – We Rock The Forest
Mr Virgo – Megaman
Doctor P – Sweet Shop
Redlight – MDMA
Skream – Wibbler
Skream – Raw Dogz
Skream – Untitled
Bassline Smith – Fu Manchu
Flux Pavillion – Got To Know
Rude Kid – Electric
Plastician – Elixir
Joker – Tron
Sukh Knight – Shutdown
Teddy – Dirtbag VIP
Teddy – Modern Warfare Instrumental
Kosheen – Guilty (Plastician Remix)
Flux Pavillion – Normalize
P Money – Left The Room (Skream Remix)
Plastician & 12th Planet – West Croydon

Outside the Box is… (TEMPACD016)

David — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:26:09 +0000

Amazing. From the lush beginnings of ‘Perforated’ to the frenetic finale of ‘The Epic Last Song’, Outside the Box is a pleasure to behold. Somehow richer than his self-titled debut, Skream’s sound has matured to positive effect, offering sweeter melodies, deeper pads and a new dimension of gorgeous vocal presence. Tracks such as ‘How Real’ featuring Freckles and ‘Where You Should Be’ featuring Sam Frank are testament to the evolution of his style and the rhythmic fluidity of the album as a whole. Similarly, his collaboration with dBridge and Instra:mental on ‘Reflections’ and the appearance of 8-bit infused roller ‘Listenin to the Records on My Wall’ displays a versatility which has become increasingly evident in his work with Magnetic Man. This is no surprise as Skream’s involvement in the development and innovation of dubstep is undeniable and I believe that from every angle Outside the Box is another step in the progression of the genre’s unspoken yet over-arching blueprint.

With all this talk of maturity and change you could be forgiven for thinking that raw edge of old was gone, but that is certainly not the case. Nastiness is still a tangible force in Skream’s world and ‘Wibbler’ delivers enough to venom to down a herd of elephants mounted by Ghurkas on crack. There are also plenty of other tunes, such as ‘Fields of Emotion’, ‘The Epic Last Song’ and ‘CPU’, offering up their fair share of booming low-end masochism, so bass is by no means scarce. At the opposite end of the scale, aperitif ‘Perforated’ introduces us to the action with a largely percussion free soundscape and ‘A Song for Lenny’ acts in a similar fashion as a light interlude before ‘The Epic Last Song’ executes the firework finish. These two particular tunes are a fine example of the album’s lavish musicality and Skream’s new attention to atmosphere and majesty.

I literally have nothing bad to say about this album. It is a tour de force and should be lauded as such. I just hope the genre elitists can handle listening to it knowing everyone else loves it too. It’s incredible.

Skream – How Real (feat.Freckles)

Buy Outside the Box at 7digital.

Trolley Snatcha – SlowDown (DP038)

David — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 18:01:15 +0000

I’ve been neglecting the heavy shit of late. A lot of time has been spent lying in an ambient stupor when I should have been jauntily tipping my top hat and do-si-doing the bass bins. Trolley Snatcha’s contribution to DP038, a joint release on Dub Police with Circus’ Doctor P, is perhaps the nasty kick in the balls I needed. A dulcet ethnic hook haunts a filthier than thou bassline that will pummel and shake the wobbly mass that you call a face until you’re uglier than Jo Brand and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s love-child (phew…deep breaths). It sounds a bit like a dog with an eye patch fucking Pochohontas behind the bins on a spaceship. In other words, it’s beautifully gruesome.

Meanwhile, Doctor P’s offering — cannily titled ‘Badman Sound’ — is about as imaginative as a Werther’s Original and seems to have pretty much the same bassline as ‘Sweetshop’. Perhaps he should just remove ‘man’ from the title and stop lying to us all, the swarthy blaggard. Lord knows why it snatched the a-side. Oh well.

Look out for Trolley Snatcha’s EP soon!

Trolley Snatcha – SlowDown

Buy Trolley Snatcha tunes at 7digital.

Coki – Emergency

David — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:26:21 +0000

Every now and again Coki pokes his head above the parapet and drops a mad tune from a great height; ‘Goblin’, ‘Red Eye’ and ‘Burnin’ all spring to mind. Following this trend, his latest blast of sporadic genius is ‘Emergency’, a step back to the days when dubstep was frightening and the bass kicked harder than a ’90s rave mule. Wheeled up about a million times by Chef on Rinse FM the other day, it’s as heavy as a hefty dose of swine flu and will make you want to swing your grandma by her legs until you take off like a fucking helicopter. Madness.

Buy Coki tunes at 7digital.

Timbaland Created Dubstep? Wait…

David — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 13:42:14 +0000

Not only does he bombard the world with mediocre tunes and clog up music channels with his pudgy bulldog face, Timbaland has now claimed to have created dubstep. Recently talking to Danny Walker from RWD, Timbaland discusses the UK scene as if he somehow conceived it in his super-womb, possibly around the time he incubated Kanye West’s foetus in a nest made of Missy Elliot’s liposuction run-off.

“The UK scene”, he muses, “they’re always telling me that I started it. You have Dub-bass…”. George Lamb — yes, George Lamb was there — interjects at this point asking if he’s talking about dubstep and Timbaland exasperatingly continues “Yeah, dubstep but I call it dub-bass [as the room laugh]. It’s the bass that drives the music. It’s funny cos they went back to some of my old music that really created that sound and just, instead of going fast, they went slow with more bass. To me, I like it but they call it dubstep. I like how they dance to it now, it’s cool.”

So basically, Timbaland reckons he initially created and further inspired dubstep. What. The. Fuck? He thinks that Horsepower, El-B and Oris Jay were sitting about listening to Bubba Sparxxx and Destiny’s Child thinking “How do I make thiiiis?!”. My neighbour’s sausage dog makes better bass than Timbaland when it farts. He’s a lunatic.

Original Article / Thread at Dubstep Forum

Ramadanman – Tense (ABUCS007)

David — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 14:20:44 +0000

His half of Dubstep Allstars Vol. 7 was sweeter than an iced kitten with a mini-cast on its injured paw and 99.9% of everything he produces is focused, resonant and downright magnificent. Honestly, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who has a single bad word to say about Bristol heavyweight Ramadanman…apart from perhaps a pocket of jealous producers frantically trying to emulate the fluidity of his sound.

In light of this, it should come as no surprise that I’m infatuated with his recent remix of Scuba’s ‘Tense’. A seemingly frenetic tune that appropriates its name by threatening to buck the constraints of tempo yet beautifully pacing itself via a simple bobbing synth, it’s a masterful rework of Scuba’s hypnotic original. Hints of IDM merge with the skeletal majesty of dubstep as a break-neck rhythm inexplicably maintains anodyne dignity. The NHS should play this in ambulances as they race the injured to hospital…no-one would slow down but everyone would be as calm as a sloth with a cold one.

Appearing on the latest release on Scuba’s cunningly titled Abucs imprint, ‘Tense’ is the b-side to ‘Eclipse’ on ABUCS007 and whilst not completely over-shadowing the title tune, is certainly my favourite of the two offerings. Listen below and don’t forget to support the bad motherfuckers behind it!

Scuba – Tense (Ramadanman Remix)

Buy Ramadanman tunes at 7digital.

New Bass Clef Tracks

Oldsy — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:02:37 +0000

2 to be exact. Don’t really know how new/old they are, I’m going on the Myspace play count. Nice and long but with plenty of variation too. Bass Clef is probably one of the most honest musicians out there and these newbies showcase that perfectly; nothing too fancy but no attempted disguises either and it all just works. Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching a lot of Thomas the Tank Engine recently but I’m hearing a lot of nostalgic sounds and it’s bloody awesome. Fresh Prince snares and squeaky synths all taking me back to a Caribbean beach in the 80s. Shit dude back to the office next week, got a stock market to bring to it’s knees (again).

Myspace is still holding it’s own and you can find these 2 new tracks there. If you can’t wait that long then here’s a live recording to get you all excited about falling out of your hammock and seeing one of the UK’s finest live musicians. He’s playing at The Big Chill. Love live analogue.

Buy Bass Clef tunes at 7digital.