Alright, so we didn't exactly kick your Monday into hyperdrive. We apologize, but the robots just wouldn't let us go to bed this weekend. After a couple chilly days in good ol' NYC catching up with friends and peeping the Books at Webster Hall, it's back to the working week - licking our wounds and trying to keep the dream alive. Let's get it poppin' with the special Monday post, as promised...just a day late! We'll make it up to you and post some extra special goodness. Oh, and don't forget to visit our illustrious in-house illustrator, Mr. Dan Lisowski. Give him work. Enjoy!
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2006 was a great year for music. It saw young bands making good on the promise of their debuts, veterans triumphantly returing to the top of their game, and a sense of legitimacy even started to infiltrate the pop culture mainstream (almost). However, of all of the delectable aural delights one hulking leviathan stands above the pack, brokenly transmitting from the dank heart of South London with its lurking basslines, deeply minimalist ryddims and shadowy ambiences: dubstep reigned supreme in '06.
Defined and championed by an exponentially multiplying crowd of producers, labels and DJs, the dubstep sound has marked a return to the hallmarks of classic British electronic music. It has reclaimed the structures of jungle and two-step, paring them down to their most functional essence, revisited the mournful soul vocal samples of mid-90s club music and subsequently drowned them in oceans-deep pools of reverb, ultimately dragging the mangled corpse of what came before through the desolated back alleys of grime and dub...only to toss the whole mess into the Thames, leaving it to moulder at the bottom in a triumphant showing of social frustration and profound musical innovation. It is a reclamation, in a sense, of the UK street music that had previously been caught in the mechanations of pop culture and self parody. Crushing, deep, and deadly effective, dubstep is a sonic revolution.
With 2007 settled in, the further proliferation of dubstep's purveyors is inevitable. So, in the spirit of looking back and taking stock of what has heralded this explosive new scene's arrival, we offer you a selection of some of last year's best. Showcasing dubstep's flagship labels and premier producers, these cuts are representative of the dubbed out cream of the crop. Bomb the bass.
Dank:
DJ Distance, "Temptation" (YSI)
- Tectonic
Burial, "Distant Lights (Kode9 Remix)" (YSI)
- Hyperdub UK
Skream, "Blue Eyez" (YSI)
- Tempa.
Digital Mystikz, "Anti-War Dub (Feat. Spen G)" (YSI)
- DMZ
Don't forget to pop by Boomkat or Bleep for all your dubstep acquisition needs.
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