Von D’s Bass Music Blog Mix MP3
Bass Music Blog is rad because it’s a collabo experience between a grip of hot bass/dubsteppy/purple producers across Europe, like Mumdance, Ginz, Baobinga, High Rankin, etc, on which they conduct Q&As with their compatriots and drop exclusives and whatnot. The most recent interview, with French producer Von D, not only investigates his general fromage intake (fascinating stuff), it comes with a mix of his own work that reflects his background in OG dub musics—a low-end chill out with serious futuristic irie vibes. (And there is also an as-yet unreleased Joker track on there, so holler at les dieux.)
Download: Von D, “Chacha’s Leggings Mix” (via Bass Music Blog)
-
posted on Nov 2, 2009 in MP3 / STREAMS tags Baobinga, caribbean, dubstep, electronic/dance, Ginz, High Rankin, Joker, Mumdance, Von D
Lee Perry’s “Blackboard Jungle”: From Dub to Dubstep
Obviously the root sound of dubstep is um, dub, but this video documents legend Lee “Scratch” Perry’s transition into making actual dubstep and does a good job of showing how the genres/cultures inform each other without explicitly saying so… at least until the end when it promos Perry’s new track with FADER fave Jahdan Blakkamoore and Subatomic Soundsystem. Worth watching for great footage of Jahdan performing at Terminal 5 with Major Lazer, a brief interview with Rusko on the topic, and a very, very serious Jamaican gyal narrating. (via Dutty Artz)
-
posted on Oct 28, 2009 in ART+CULTURE VIDEO tags caribbean, dubstep, Dutty Artz, Jahdan Blakkamoore, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Rusko, Subatomic Soundsystem
Skream and Benga Live From Rinse 15 Party MP3
- story Sam Hockley-Smith
It is far from a secret that certain FADER editors are desperately trying to transplant to the UK so that they may fully disappear into the dubstep scene. Whether or not said editors actually end up doing that no longer matters now that we have this hour long Skream and Benga live set from Rinse.fm’s 15th birthday party. This happened at the end of July, and we are still unfamiliar with a large portion of this mix, which either means we are really behind on dubstep or Skream and Benga are on another planet. Whatever the case may be there is a hypeman yelling at us to REACT, REACT a whole bunch, and that is awesome. In case this single hour of dubsteppery wasn’t enough, you can still get on a plane to the UK for this Friday’s FWD Rinse residency featuring, among a lot of others, a TWO hour Skream and Benga set. After the jump check out the massive flyer featuring everyone who has done something awesome in music with a lot of bass in the last year. Anyone want to fly us out?
Download: Skream and Benga’s Hour Long Set
Fabric Birthday Treats: Caspa & Baobinga’s Promo Mix MP3s
This weekend Londoners will not sleep for three days straight if they are lucky: legendary club Fabric is hosting its 10th birthday party and everyone who is awesome in the general vicinity of the UK will be DJing a citywide housequake whose reverberations are so big we may feel them on American shores. Does the phrase “10 pm to 6 am” mean anything to you people? Actually just looking at the lineup here kind of makes us want to cry with longing. In advance of Baobinga’s set (on Friday, room three, before Rusko), he made a hot autumn mix showcasing a lot of the nuevo bass musics gripping the London scene, by some of right now’s hottest producers (also, The-Dream). And dubstep captain Caspa, who plays there tomorrow with fellow bass warriors Skream and Benga (ahhh), and is still amazing despite the fact that he likes the worst American sitcom of the last decade, ponied up some subterranean tremors for his own mix promoing Fabric’s bday. Full Baobinga tracklist after the jump, download Caspa’s mix here. We are still crying, all stuck in New York like it ain’t no thing.
Download: Baobinga Promo Mix
-
posted on Oct 14, 2009 in MP3 / STREAMS tags Baobinga, Benga, Bok Bok, Caspa, dubstep, electronic/dance, Fabric, L-Vis 1990, skream, The-Dream, uk funky
Emalkay, “When I Look at You” MP3
This bazonkulous Emalkay joint is all hyperbolic, heart-stopping samurai wobble. Upon playing this off iTunes in our office on some janky computer, the entire office dropped what they were doing, swooshed their heads over dramatically towards said computer like they’d choreographed it, and were like, WHAT IS THAT MASSIVE CHUNE? We were like yo, you guys are American (except for Chioma, a Brit who pronounces “schedule” like “shedjule”) so if this track has the power to make you pronounce it “chune,” we shall not deign to deny its heart-smashing power. That, and the bassxplosions that blew out the laptop speakers.
Download: Emalkay, “When I Look At You” (via Neonized)
Bat for Lashes, “Pearl’s Dream (Skream’s Pour Another Glass of Champers RMX)” MP3
- story Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
- photo Leonie Purchas (F60)
Can you get more cathartic than Bat for Lashes? Last time we saw her perform in New York we stood alone by the staircase at Bowery, chugged whiskey and cried. Yeah that’s Drama Time 5000, but her music is more effective at purification than three days at a Korean megabath. We emerged like a goddamn phoenix. Skream’s sensibility though is to make everything darker, and on his remix he swoops in with a swift hand and bubbling snares, putting a very very light underscore of synth melody and man-vox like he’s David Bowie in Labyrinthe. The result is less doomsday and more “magic of the natural world.”
Download: Bat For Lashes, “Pearl’s Dream (Skream’s Pour Another Glass of Champers RMX)” (via Annie Mac)
-
posted on Oct 5, 2009 in MP3 / STREAMS tags Bat for Lashes, dubstep, electronic/dance, Pearl, rock, skream
Stream: Burial, “Fostercare”
Yes, this is absolutely the thing we want to listen to first thing in the morning in autumn. Deeply layered, subtle and stoic beats swimming among backwards looped samples of some serene siren wooing. This could be construed as creepy (uh, “Fostercare” dude? Have you seen The Orphan?) but it’s one of the more visual tracks Burial’s done, a somber, amniotic journey. According to Fact Mag this is from the forthcoming Hyperdub compilation. So was this just like, lying around? You can totally imagine Burial chilling in some City of Lost Children-style gothic factory wearing a monocle and frantically creating a jillion more amazing tracks of this caliber. Like Henry Darger but totally not creepy. He could call them his “inventions.” No but really, what is going on in this dude’s brain?
Stream: Burial, “Fostercare”
Premiere: Caspa f. Dynamite MC, “The TakeOver” MP3
If you read this site regularly you know we are on a single-minded campaign to get more rappers on dubstep beats so it can be more popular in the States so its purveyors can tour here more, and also because Jay-Z on Joker would be a monster. Take for example this spooky beat from Caspa aka “The Dopest Ghost in Town”: the wobble sounds that much harder with a dude rapping on it like he maybe wants to punch you in the face. Go in, Dynamite! Coincidentally, Caspa is consistently amazing (ok, maybe we’re obsessed) and touring the States (he hits NYC on Wednesday, September 23 at Le Poisson Rouge). This track comes from his album Everybody’s Talking, Nobody’s Listening, which is heartbreakingly bonkers. North American tour dates after the jump.
Download: Caspa f. Dynamite MC, “The TakeOver”
Stream: Crookers f. Kelis, “No Security”
What with the epic “Scars” with Basement Jaxx and this sparkly dubstep joint from our Milano party brethren Crookers, we’re impressed by Kelis‘ sudden ubiquity, having just popped a kid and gotten divorced and all. As Annie Mac (that’s Annie Mac, right?) says on this radio rip, the new US mainstream’s interest in dubstep is kind of bazonkers, though we’re still waiting for that Jay-Z/Joker collabo. But then Ms Rogers has always been adventurous—you’ll recall her early work with Neptunes when they were the hottest shit in space—and we hear she’s been working on her new album with our beloved Switch, which sounds like one of the best ideas ever. Until that transpires, we’ll marvel at this YouTube rip of “No Security,” which Crookers put up on their own blog. That’s kind of funny, right?
-
posted on Sep 14, 2009 in MP3 / STREAMS tags annie mac, Basement Jaxx, Benga, Crookers, dance/electronic, dubstep, Eve, Jay-Z, Joker, Kelis, Neptunes, Switch
Borgore, Ice Cream Man Mixtape [Dubstep is Metal]
- story Peter Macia
Yesterday, Diplo twittered links to a couple of his new favorite songs: One of them was Soulja Boy covering Drake, the other was some absolute mayhem by Israeli producer Borgore called “Saturday Night (Gorestep).” Go check that out real quick, give it a second to get going. So that song was essentially an instant validation of FADER editor Julianne Shepherd’s belief that dubstep was the new metal—made almost solely for dudes to bang heads, let off steam and feel awesome about life. Coincidentally, after some minor research, it turns out Borgore is in fact the drummer for Tel Aviv metal band Shabira, so Shep was on the money. But this stuff is insane. “Saturday Night” is from Borgore’s recent Gorestep Vol. 1, which is more of the same, a kind of logical, maniacal extension of the gnarliest dubstep, for instance, Caspa & Rusko’s “Power Shower,” but also, like, the last song you ever want your mom to hear. Where “Power Shower,” and others like it, drill holes through your brain with augural bass and suggest some subtle misogyny, Borgore just smashes your head up with sickening syncopated high-speed bass and drum patterns, spits pornish lyrics and samples things we cannot speak about in public. We don’t know how anyone would dance to this, but it would probably involve punching someone or one’s self in the face a lot and a willingness to not be around any girls for several hours. We’ll have to find out when Borgore tours the States in September and October. In the meantime, check out his Ice Cream Man mixtape below, which features many of Gorestep’s tracks, nods at Prodigy and Wiley, a Britney Spears remix and bunch of other crazy shit.
Download: Borgore, Ice Cream Man Mixtape
