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Dubstep

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KvP:
It's not so much that US Bass music is different from UK dubstep that makes it tiresome, so much that it's just one song. Not even that, just the one element, the wobble bass drop, the bigger the better. And over the few years of the scene's existence there hasn't seemed to be a single artist that's been willing to move beyond that focus, outside of Low End Theory's emphasis on Dilla-esque beat programming. Even that seems to be stagnating, recently.

There's this act called Pretty Lights that comes out of the town I live in and they have 3+ albums of a single song template, churned out over the course of maybe a year and a half. It's got that one primary focus on bass and everything else is purely incidental, which is one of those things that people tend to hate about dance music in general. It feels cheap and easy, because it really kind of is. There are a couple of reasons for this - one is that the US scene seems to be almost entirely digital in its mode of distribution, which invites problems with quality control that invariably come with that territory. It informs both the way the music is produced and presented and the way it's consumed, and the community across the pond is a lot more region- and city-based and the dialogue between artist and fan is generally less open, which seems to correlate with more risk-taking. It's also dominated by 12" singles and EPs, which lets new sounds and artists last longer without overstaying their welcome. A song will generally flit around DJ and be battle-tested in clubs for a few months prior to wider public release (Wut is a good example of this - the label had to release the song months ahead of schedule because an excerpt from an exclusive mix - the only place where the song was available - became so popular). I could probably list the number of truly good dubstep LPs on one hand. Take away Burial's Untrue and it becomes arguable that there are none. It fares better from a listener standpoint when released in small doses. A lot of dance music is like that.

ThePianoMan:
No one's gonna do it? Well, I guess it'll be me, then.

Skream - Midnight Request Line
This is one of the defining tracks of dubstep--if you know dubstep, you should know this track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6pTSGvp7T8

Benga - Emotions
Benga's a classic, and this is a great example of the more melodic side of dubstep.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_rCgJiXr-g

Kode 9 vs Badawi - Den of Drums
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNOvlNZAACY

Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo
This was a big track last year, if I recall correctly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsJVW5apRmY

Burial - Archangel
This is more a fringe dubstep sound--Burial broke through in a big way, but his sound is far from typical dubstep. Well worth hearing, though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlEkvbRmfrA

That should give you a decent start. I could really go on and on, though.

Dimmukane:

--- Quote from: KvP on 07 Nov 2010, 02:17 ---There's this act called Pretty Lights

--- End quote ---

I'm unabashedly a fan of these dudes, and I'm a little confused when you say they focus primarily on the bass.  I mean, they definitely do the WOMPWOMP thing, but I feel like Derek wouldn't have added a drummer if the percussion wasn't also getting some attention.  Admittedly, I don't know much about dance drummers, but that guy is not half bad.  He emulates a drum machine to a point, but isn't so mechanical that it wouldn't have made a difference whether he was in the band or not.  Maybe I'm just one the people who tries to listen to the songs as a whole instead of as club anthems...I like how he'll juxtapose some old Sam Cooke stuff with some random early-90's rap lyric, or use a sitar in those silent moments right before a breakdown.

They are kinda doing the one-song template thing this year, though.  I happen to like that template, but two years ago he had a very different sound and I'm sure that'll continue to some degree as time goes on.

De_El:

--- Quote from: Odal on 07 Nov 2010, 01:34 ---That Gold Dust song linked earlier in the thread sucks pretty bad... :\  Flux Pavilion is big time hit-or-miss for me.  Probably more miss than not.

--- End quote ---

Ha! That's completely mystifying. I thought the Flux Pavilion songs you linked were totally tiresome, and I think Gold Dust is great. Gold Dust is so much poppier and hookier. Whatever.

I guess as much as I appreciate that it's not the purist's dubstep, my love for noisy, abrasive shit compels me to a bunch of cheesy ass wobble dubstep. If it's got well-chopped female vocals to go with it I can't resist.

Like, this song is pretty rote, but I can't really resist it in the slightest.

Dimmukane:
Saw this quote on that video, couldn't help but laugh:


--- Quote ---This song is so fucking sick my dinosaur shits on me as we play in our filth we listen to this song
--- End quote ---

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