Dubstep Jams

When it comes to Dubstep, im verging on the unknown. It makes me uneasy / excited when i hear music that reverberate my insides like dubstep can. Its slightly frustrating when i listen to dubstep, i cant pinpoint a track name or artist - I guess that's just experience. But for now - im happy to go with the flow and get my dub-on. Dubstep tracks are becoming more and more common in a variety of club sets, and i can only see that as a good thing.

Dubstep is hitting the world on a big scale, with pioneers like Caspa & Rusko spearheading the Dubby onslaught around the world. Right now, London is the place to be for this new bass heavy genre. With a strong influence from a mish-mash of music styles - reggae, DNB, hip hop and grime to name a few, their are some serious talents to be heard.

Chase & Status are no exception, they have been succesfully producing Hip-Hop and DNB, recently signing to Andy C's Ram Records. With an album expected for next year, their track 'Eastern Jam' has wet my appetite. In this bangra style track, C & S have turned their hands to filthy Dubstep, creating a huge juddering bassline cheekily minlged with 'bollywood' style vocals to a devastating effect. If this is my starting point, expect alot more Dubstep posts in the near future.

Chase & Status - Eastern Jam (Indian Dub) / zShare

Swedish Electro Mafia - Exclusive Blende Track & Mix

When you listen to a Blende track, a few words come to mind - filthy, banging, dirty, violating. I like the way he makes the most outrageous sounds, and is so unassuming, calm and friendly - a stereotypical Scandi! Hailing from Sweden, Johan Klereby a.k.a Blende has established himself as a prolific remixer and producer of awesome bangers. With his huge remix of Seduction's 'Ironie' being the first track to perforate my ear drums - ive been keeping a close eye on his tracks. You can buy alot of his music at Juno - Also check his myspace here.

I managed to get my hands on an exclusive remix of Swedish Techno/house producer Adrian Lux's track Strawberry. The indie vocals twist niceley over crisp drum hits, growling guitar synths and a wonky rolling layer underneath the drums. Very tasty!

Those Dancing Days & Adrian Lux - Strawberry (Blende remix)

Also check Blendes heavy summer mix, with brilliant opener from The Who remixed by SebastiAn, followed by the usual in-your-face synths we all know and love:

Blende Summer 08 Mix - Tracklisting :

The Who - Baba O'Riley (SebastiAn Edit)
M83 - Graveyard girl (Yuksek remix)
Martin solveig - C'est la vie (Goose remix)
Dilemn - Brazen boogie (Blende remix)
Don Rimini - Ohow
Grum - Go back (Le Caste Vania remix)
Blende - Breaking Bones
Busy P - Protect & entertain (Crookers remix)
Grum - Love disco
30Hz - Me crazy
Mike Movement - Ebf (Blende remix)
Joakim Garraud - Rock the choice (Sebastian ingrosso remix)
ACDC - Back in black (Fisk Remix)

Expect big things... Already being played by the likes of D.I.M, MSTRKRFT, Kissy Sell Out and more - Blendes dirty remixes are real primetime dancefloor killers.

Friendly Fires

Im a bit behind with the whole Indie scene at the moment. The closest i get is hearing a remix. After hearing Klaxons "Atlantis to Interzone" remixed by 100 different producers im not that fussed about listening to the original. The same goes for a lot of the indie bands out there.

There are some exceptions that are hard to ignore. I like the twinkly-ness of the Foals, Late of the Piers weirdness (Just watch the "Bears are coming" video...) and the retro fun of the Mystery Jets.

You may have spotted a trend here... anyways - relative new-comers Friendly Fires from St. Albans seem to fit this niche style that i like. They have quite a dark, melodic sound - check out the bleepy, floating "On board" which reminds me of a certain Hot Chip. My favourite track however, has to be "Jump in the Pool" which has a much 'spacier' sound that just hits the spot. Cant wait for the remixes....

Friendly Fires - Jump into the Pool

A1 Bassline Bangers

Its weird. When i think bassline, i think craig david style garage or chavs on the back of the buss belting out chipmunk music through their nicked mobile phones. Maybe im just out the loop?

"Justice" esque - big distortion electro is all good and well when i want to work up a sweat... But I like something a little different every now and again - who was it that said variety is the spice of life? I like producers that do something a little cheeky, weird or intriguing - I first heard Switch, and i was like "what the fuck!?" Its a good feeling to hear something unique.

I never thought Bassline-y electro would work in a club.. but its a great bit of wobble to play after some dirty electro. Wideboys and A1 Bassline tunes seems to be on constant rotation, and it gets people dancing! A1 Bassline remixes are my favourite, being mainly jittery, garagey fueled bangers. A1 Bassline is the brainchild of one half of ravey group Partyshank.

Here A1 remixes house producer Andy George's "Big Dipper" to devastating effect:

Andy George - Big Dipper (A1 Bassline Refix)

There is also a great mix on Trash Menagerie which is definately worth a listen!

Les Petit Pilous - Not suitable for kids?

Don't mistake them for a delicious, child sized fruit yoghurt - Les Petit Pilous are a french technoduo, and are seriously full on.. I mean face-melting stuff.  I found them through the boys noize myspace, to which they are a part of the succesful label owned by Alex Ridha. They did a few remixes which caught my eye, including an attempt at Cold light by the Yeah yeah yeahs. I was hooked, and subsequently found Puzique and D.I.M - what a treat.

My favourite track has to be Jolie Fille, which is a nuclear war of noise, energy and squealing synths. It seemed to be a favourite of Erol's for a good while in 07', getting regular plays in his often distorted techno-ey sets. 

Check out their myspace, theres a track called Paris naked that is just fuckin mental - definately 

a prime time club banger. I like LPP for their utter dark, twisted style - often I stick to tracks that are more acceptable or popular - when i have a burning urge to drop Nice bird.... Maybe i should just go with my gut instincts!

Les Petit Pilous - Wake Up 

Les Petit Pilous - Nice Bird 

Les Petit Pilous - Housi (just a preview)

Bruce Willis is dead

We all know Mr. Oizo, the bearded Ed Banger legend, who has been immortalised for his 90's levi ad soundtrack "Flat beat". Not only is that an absolute banger still, i keep forgetting that it got to number one in the UK charts... haha.

I saw Oizo a while back in manchester, and his DJing style is, shall we say "unique". Never before have i seen some mix beyonce into psytrance into SebastiAn and get away with it. People were moshing about like madmen.

Oizo seems to ooze cool, he doesnt really try to be in the limelight - hes just awesome. Creating glitchy weird bangers like transexual and the saxophone spazzyness of patrick122 makes me happy.

This newish tune, which seemed to do the rounds a little at some of the summer festivals is a bit harder, with almost a panicky - siren fueled beat. I like it, although i dont know if i could pull it off in a mix with the pizazz of the man himself.

Mr. Oizo - Bruce Willis is dead

8-Bit Basslines

I cant remember how i found Boy 8-Bit, nor whether long hair is fashionable again, but what i do know is that he probably one of my favourite producers / remixers out right now. He sits nicely between a sea of filthy bangers and wobbly basslines that are populating the DJs playlists right now.

Taking his name from an 8-bit megalosound sampler he used to make tracks, hes gathered quite a following in the last year or so, and for good reason... His background and passion for dnb, garage and bassline sounds can be seen to melt through his tracks, whilst adding cheeky 8-bit sound with an ease and style that is often crudeley attempted by others. 8-Bit's remix of the Black Ghosts 'Anyway you choose to give it' brought him to the attention of the bloggers, with floaty gameboy-esque interludes complimenting the fuzzy bass lines and splashing cymbals.
With a growing back-catalogue of remixes, Boy 8-bits remixes of South Rakkas Crews 'Mad again' and bublegum pop prince Mika's 'Lollipop' are personal faves offering clever breakdowns and rasping garage-y basslines. His remix of the Bumblebeez 'Rio' takes a slightly different direction, with a more echoey, dreamlike intro driving the vocals, followed by a hip-hop sounding synth and topped off with a smidge of Boy 8-bits trademark bass.

Mika - Lollipop (Boy 8-Bit Remix)

Bumblebeez - Rio (Boy 8-Bit Remix)

Actionherve

A quick post is needed for my old fave Herve. Hes continuing to churn out wobbly beasts, and his trademark style still hits the spot. I wonder ..... how long it will be until i get bored of him? Well i hope its a good year or two before that happens.

Anyways.. Herve AKA Joshua Harvey is known by a multitude of aliases: Action man, herve, the count of monte crystal etc etcbut this doesnt detract his tradmark wobbly, bassy club tracks. Favoured by the likes of Switch / Erol and Annie Macs radio shows hes already a favourite in the electro scene.

If hes not working on remixing other peoples tracks hes probably chumming around with Sinden or playing at Bugged Out nights and the like. His recent remix of Kidda's - Under the Sun has a summery buzz that cant be missed.

Kidda - Under the Sun (Herve Remix)

A crowd pleaser from Hannah Hollands Field Day set:

Jesse Rose and Actionman AKA Herve - Take it to the Club

And a slick remix of Bloc party:

Bloc Party - Mercury (Herve is in Dissaray Remix)

A-Trizzy

I first heard A-Trak 3 or 4 years ago when i got my first pair of turntables (i was really into hip-hop back then), whilst I was looking through DJ Battle. I stumbled across A-traks battle rotuine, he seemed to be pretty slick:



In between winning DMC titles and more recently touring the world with Kanye, A-traks all-round DJing skills have been turned to production. What a treat... He is now schmoozing with Ed Banger crew members Mehdi and Busy P to name but a few, which has no doubt has influenced his creative juices.



A-trak has succesfully turned his production skills to the likes of Digitalism, Simian Mobile Disco, Boys Noize and of course Kanye West. A-Trak has the ability the combine melodic drum beats and chopped vocals with growling, punchy basslines. They work in such a way to produce tracks worthy of any dancefloor.

He has also recently been involved in the Nike "Running Man" series, a group of mixes from various artists including LCD soundsystem designed to "accompany jogging workouts". Its definately worth a listen - combining hip-hop, electro, electronica and techno across a seamless mix. The fact a giant such as Nike are backing A-trak shows just how big he is likely to get... Whether or not he will keep producing electro or not remains a mystery, but im happy to jump on the bandwagon while he does.

Digitalism - Idealistic (A-Trak Remix)

Field Day Festival

Despite the oh-so unpredictable english weather, im hoping that next weekend will be bright and sunny! Londons Victoria park is hosting the quality line-up-fest that is Field Day Festival 2008, and im sure its going to be a corker. With the likes of the Crookers, Foals, Brodinski, Richie Hawtin and Simian Mobile Disco all gracing us with their presence: theres going to be plenty of naughtiness for everyone, all for 26 quid.

I must say, im a little weary considering last years efforts: which saw hundreds of angry punters queuing ages for both a pint, and for a piss. But rest-assured, the Field Day website has reassured us that the facilities will be upto scratch this time round!

Amidst a sea of sweaty, booze (and other stuff) fueled revellers, my highlights for last year had to be Erol Alkan and Justice, but im sure that these electro beasts will not be missed this time round - the huge Crookers steamtrain will probably be crazier than both put together !

This year is definately feeling a touch more techno, with BattyBass flag-flyer Hannah Holland and heavy techno/electro lover Brodinski making Bugged Out stage appearances alongside Berlin dub madmen Modeselektor.

For me, the Bugged out stage is where its at - so expect lots of wobbles, bass, synth and goodness from early doors on saturday. Cya there

x

Alter Ego - Fuckingham Palace (Modeselektor Remix)

Radioclit - Divina Gosa (Brodinski Remix)