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Dr Pytor EP [F4T08]

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

F4T, or Food 4 Thought Records have been pushing a strain of dubstep that you might consider to be rather experimental. With the arrival of Dr Pytor, a new producer for the label – things don’t look set to change too soon. If you like your dubstep to be thoughtful, yet somewhat abrasive, or considered, yet slightly off-kilter, then this release may just be right up your street.

I’m not sure what Mr Pytor has his doctorship in, but it could be “Doctor of Athmosphere” – judging by the vareity of tracks on display here, and some of the chat from the release-sheet, I woulnd’t argue if somebody told me it was. The 4 tracks range from blaring alarm-echoes, to drawn-out growly bass but all united by well considered percussion in this case.

I’d say definately one for the headphones.

You can check out the details here

Posted in Diverse | Dubstep

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Forensics – My Strength Is My Weakness My Weakness Is My Strength

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

If ever there was an argument for the “less is more” ethos of musical production, you can be darned sure that Forensics would be right up there fighting his case. His ability to mould these semi-industrial sounding tracks from just a few elements is astounding, and his determination to break the typical structure of what one might term dubstep seems to be something of a trademark.

With no real drops or breakdowns – but more of a stream of sample-led ebbs and flows his newest (and fifth) LP on Digital Sin is certainly along the lines of what you might expect if you had heard his previous work – but with this one there’s a real element of mystery, something sinister and what sounds to me like far more textural work than I had heard from him before.

You might consider this a progression, and it’s one I’m glad to see. It’s definately something to check out – and although there’s not always a hook, riff or recurring theme in some of the tracks to grab hold of, it’s always refreshing to hear producers breaking the mould, and just doing their own thing whether people like it or not.

The album will be out onDigital Sin on June 8th

Posted in Diverse | Dubstep | Minimal & Dubby

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James Blake – Air and Lack Thereof / Sparing The Horses [Hemlock]

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

I recall a good few months ago when an eager James Blake sent me a couple of tracks through dubstepforum for a listen. Both were beautiful chilled pieces of piano work with some finely tuned sub beneath, and Blake’s talent was instantly recogniseable. It would seem now that he’s very capable of producing a vareity of sounds, from that stripped back piano work, through fuller sounding wonky to the reaches of some excellent vocal pieces. Hemlock have first dibs on his stuff this time however!

The London based label’s new release now finds James pushing out one of the first tracks he created (although not one he had sent me previously). In his own words “Air and Lack Thereof is actually the first tune I ever wrote, and it took me a year to work out how I wanted to approach it, but I think the waiting paid off. ” I’ll say. You’ll most likely recognise the track since it’s been getting some heavy support from plenty DJs, both radio and live. I’ve got very little to say about it short of this: You cannot afford to miss this when it’s released.

On the flipside to JB’s curiously named pseudo-wonky dubstep affair you’ll find ‘Sparing The Horses’ which, considering how quickly it was written, is a track with some serious growing ability. Again, James comments “I finished [Sparing The Horses] in about a week. I knew how I wanted to approach it, but I wanted to push the sound into new territories.” And i’d say he’s done just that.

So it would seem that James is doing rather well. An ace release on Hemlock, following an excellent mix on the truly excellent “Electronic Explorations” podcast last week, and I’m almost certain we’ll be seeing and hearing more from this meistro before the year is over.

James’ MySpace

Hemlock MySpace

Posted in Deep & Groovy | Diverse | Dubstep

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Burial / Four Tet – Moth [you know... the mysterious one...]

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

So it’s shrouded in mystery and lacks artwork as well as track notes (thus far). Burial joins bizarre twee-audio-tinkerer FourTet for an interesting meeting of techniques and music.

Track 1 – which sounds like “the Burial track” to me (although they most likely both worked on both) and sits drenched in the usual Burial schmooze of dusty beats, woodblock cracks, and almost indistinguishable melody which all seems to add up to something people jump on at the first chance. My immediate reaction is that it’s not as memorable as some of his other work. Mainly because it sounds like Four Tet’s messed about with it and given it a bizarre ‘happy smiley’ sheen which completely removes part of what Burial was all about for me. Where’s the moody desolate “walking home from a club at 5am” type feeling?

Track 2 – which by elimination I’m assuming is “the FourTet one” gets a bit housey. For those who can’t get audio, it sounds a bit like your next door neighbor, playing that horrendous 2004 version of Lou Reed’s Satellite of Love at high volume with the treble turned down.

it’s not terrible. There are blissed-out elements that shine through – but it’s not the greatest thing I’ve seen over-hyped, and after catching Mr Hebden’s musical-nonsense-mongery live at Connect Festival 2007 when he decided it would be a good idea to team up with jazz drummer Steve Reid and bash out some free form noise, I’m hardly surprised that his half of the release isn’t grabbing me by the man-breasts and wrenching me forward to scream audio loveliness in my face like some flower-adorned hippy drill-master.

If you’re lucky enough to have pre-orded the vinyl, then come the 4th of May I expect it won’t matter what I think, as you’ll be a mega-fan of either artist if not both, but if you’re waiting for a re-pressing or eagerly awaiting a dodgy low-fi copy from your mate, or a rip from the radio – don’t get too worked up, I’d imagine once you hear the tracks in their entirety you’ll realise it’s quite a lot of fuss about not very much.

Posted in Diverse | Dubstep | Leftfield

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A DFRNT type of update…

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

One on a more personal level in fact.

I’ve got a few things to mention…

Firstly, you can download the promo mix of my forthcoming album “Metafiction” from the release page on the DFRNT site. Basically a taster of all the tracks from the album, in order – so you can start saving for the CD right away. (or not, depending on how you feel about it I suppose!)

Secondly, you can download my new April mix from the mixes page on the DFRNT site. There’s a tracklisting so you don’t get lost.

Thirdly, I’ve completed my remix of “Valley of the Shadows” by Origin Unknown, which you can download from the tracks page on the DFRNT site. If you’re not familiar with the original, I suggest you educate yourself here.

I feel guilty posting about myself, but heck… It’s my ruddy blog OK!?

Posted in Diverse | Dubstep | Progressive | Regular

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Ben Neill – Mutantrumpet

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

Get a look at this!!

mutantrumpet

Apparently it’s a “Mutantrumpet” and it’s only owner is Ben Neil – http://www.myspace.com/benneill – I urge you to fire on over to his page or website and take a listen to his tracks.

Think tripped-out jazz type dubstep with moments of blissful lounge, all while underwater, on acid.

Posted in Deep & Groovy | Diverse | Dubstep | Progressive

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Rhythmicon – Solstice Dub [EXCLUSIVE FREE DOWNLOAD]

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

So I’ve got a couple of new exclusive tracks up my sleeve for you, the first of which comes from Rhythmicon.

“Solstice Dub” is a truly incredible track, which conjours up images of Summer, tranquility and beauty. I don’t want to say too much about it here, as I’d encourage you to at least stream it – if not go for the download.

You won’t be disappointed.

Rhythmicon – Solstice Dub

Stream a 128k preview…

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Download the track here (right click & save target as)

Rhythmicon is a representetive of the Pacific Dubstep chaps, so you can find out more about him and his cohorts here – http://www.pacificdubstep.com

Posted in Deep & Groovy | Diverse | Dubstep | Exclusive downloads

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The Polish Cartel – Lowfreq Poland [Apparition Recordings]

Friday, February 27th, 2009

We’ve had Bay Area Dubstep, The Romanian Eesti Dubstep, French Dub System, Mary Anne Hobbs’ Bristol Showcase, Her visit to the West Coast of the US, and no doubt numerous other compilations from various places in the world. Well it’s time for Poland to step up, and give us what they’ve got. ‘Us’, meaning the rest of the world, and ‘what they’ve got’ meaning – a brilliant selection of producers.

lowfreq2

Lowfreq Poland, is an 11 track release on Apparition Recordings, featuring exclusively Polish producers (as far as I know). I’m not going to review every track on offer here, but I’d like to highlight one or two of the best.

FusionArt presents a beautiful spacial track called “Wind Up” , where percussion, shakers and chimes all collectively work together to bring us something far great er than the sum of its parts.

Hansollo’s “Victory Over Babylon” takes the reggae side of things, but beefs it up with a large slab of wub. I think this is one of the stand out tracks in terms of production value – there’s a really crafted sound to this one. I normally shy away from the overly reggae influenced tracks, but this one has staying power for me.

Kaosbreed’s wonderfully inspired “The Bell” rings true with the sound of strong techno influences, much like Playing Heads’ “Less Cocaine” and Paranoises “Sleepless Shadows” which not only takes techno influences, but works in wonderful film-like samples, a growling bass and some excellent percussion work.

Substacja’s “The True King” has some inspired head-nodding moments, verging on the neo-garagey goodness of the likes of 2562 or Martyn, but for me – the highlight here is SUbstep Infrabasses “The Unstoppable”.

The Unstoppable seems to be a manifesto for this wonderful collection fo producers. Clearly they’re all on a mission to have Poland recognised on the dubstep map – and what better track to lead the way than this. Incredibly filthy bass-work, that the likes of Skream or Benga would be proud to slay a crowd with, alongside sublime techno stabs that really round-off the top end of the sound. A smidgeon more weight on the snare is my only criticism, and it’s a small one at that.

All in all – I’d say at least give this a chance. There’s some real gems on here, and there’s bound to be something for most people. I’d normally have not bothered, but I’m glad I took the time to check this out, as it’s more than just a try-hard stab in the dark. Far more.

Lowfreq Poland will be available excuslively on Beatport from 12th March – be sure and find out more on the MySpace

Posted in Diverse | Dubstep | Heavy | Reggae & Roots | Regular

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Fused Forces – Prefer to be Plastered / Night Crawler

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Fused Forces on MySpace (Prefer to be Plastered)

Chunky synths, choir effects and a hefty bassdrum, warping saw bass and some hornage. It all adds up to quite a track. The track in question being “Night Crawler” by Fused Forces. The B-side to their debut release on “Scruffy Hoodlum”.

The A-side of this one is the bizarrely titled “Prefer To Be Plastered” which is an altogether more random affair, starting with some almost jazz-esque piano work over an ethereal synth. The break gives us a bit of a twisted bassline and the drop brings in this really crazy warped jazz track. Almost the sort of thing you’d expect to see in some flipped-out wacky cartoon of some jazz joint in downtown acme-land.

The more I listen to this, the more it really gets me. It’s a definite grower and if you’re not jiving back and forth in your seat by the time you’ve finished the track – there’s definately something wrong.

I’d say jump on this pronto – Prefer to be Plastered is something WELL worth testing on the dancefloor.

I’m told the release is due out in the next week or two, so keep an eye on the Fused Forces MySpace.

Posted in Diverse | Dubstep | Heavy | Regular

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Quantum Soul – Apache & Chimera

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

Both tracks are available to listen to through the MySpace

Apache
It’s quite the epic intro, with orchestral stabs, and a buildup with some movie vocals. The drop hits out with this twisted-up echoing sub bass, a growling midrange stab, and some high-end synths to keep the feel from the intro.

There’s something of a head-nod-stroke-bounce element to the whole thing. The cheeky addition of flutey notes, a breakdown to remind us of the high-end and vocals, then the second drop that gives us more of the same with a little bit extra lands this track in my “will play again both in the house, and in my sets” folder.

Chimera
“Excellent” he exclaims… “More of the same” – another solid bouncy intro, some vocal sample slapped on the top, and a breakdown that actually sounds well-sculpted and crafted. The style is still relatively growly, and there’s some great percussion over the top, as well as that familiar off-beat keys plink.

Both these tracks are really solid. I reccomend you check them and Quantum Soul out before you’re forced to!

Posted in Diverse | Dubstep | Heavy | Regular

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