oh yeah, and not to everyones taste, but i ride 100% for
and everyone should check
too. both of those on the marmite tip - you'll lap it up or spew.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
I've heard good things about The Weeknd from several separate sources ("the future of r&b" was one hyperbolic assertion). I copped the free d/l the other week, but I've been so wrapped up in other shit that I haven't really listened to anything newer than the Frank Ocean album for the last couple of months. However, I heard this on 6 Music the other morning, and it blew me away. The Unthanks have sort of passed me by somewhat, but I may cop on the strength of this alone.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
oh yeah, and not to everyones taste, but i ride 100% for
and everyone should check
too. both of those on the marmite tip - you'll lap it up or spew.
Really liking the Weeknd, this sound is definitely working for me at the moment. Gave the Bible Eyes a quick listen through and, while I love Marmite, this isn't doing it for me at the moment. Kind fo going in one ear and out the other without leaving an impression. Did listen to it on the way into work though so will give it another try when my brain is more in gear.
I've had a listen to snippetts of the new Radiohead, and the first 6 or so tracks all sounded like Four Tet.
Not that that's a bad thing, but the collab seems a bit more obvious now.
I think they'd most likely label themselves as dub producers, although I seem to remember being schooled on the correct nomenclature - any digital reggae or dub should be called 'ragga'. The Disrupt track (first half of the clip) is pretty decent, and dare I say it, the most traditional of the two, but the Tapes one is mental. Apparently the producer records everything onto, duh, tape before the final mixdown to get that authentic vibe. Liking the distorted quality to it.
Check the second track here, also a cool take on dub.
If someone had asked me to imagine what a band would sound like if they comprised the lead singer from Hot Chip, a former Derek Bailey sideman, a member of Spiritualized and the drummer from This Heat (the latter three all with backgrounds in free improv), the last thing on earth I'd have said would have been The Band.
For those who, for reasons alien to me, can't stand the Based God's vocals. Clams Casino, the man behind a number of Lil B's best beats (he did I'm God) as well as a number of other artists released an album of his instrumentals fairly recently which I finally got round to checking out. Sort of based/ambient/new age instrumental hip hop. Highly recommend it if you haven't already checked it out.
Who-da-thunk-it, this is quite good. Balearic-hop? You're mellowing in your old age A**.
Indeed, my long suffering ears can only handle so many trunk rattlers these days before I need respite. Clams and the Jamie xx are currently my go to selections and he seems to be giving every beat he's ever made away to download on his twitter http://twitter.com/clammyclams. Trying to eat them all up before they expire, most are brilliantly simple. In case you hadn't heard it, this is the one that first made me notice him around a year ago based round chopping up some Imogen Heap.
Of course none of this would have been possible without Lil B but we'll leave that out of this thread......
I think they'd most likely label themselves as dub producers, although I seem to remember being schooled on the correct nomenclature - any digital reggae or dub should be called 'ragga'.
I'm bored, so I thought I'd jump on this one.
You're not completely wrong, ragga as a musical genre was born in the 80s when Jamaican music started to go digital, but can be used to describe anything from Sleng Teng to Tanya Stephens. It's also pretty synonymous these days with 'dancehall', although the later has a much broader definition.
As a genre rule, ragga generally involves a MC though, so it doesn't really cover digital dub. Although there are plenty of ragga dub versions, but broadly speaking dub is something of it's own beast.
There's also the UK based sub-genres like lovers rock & steppers, that are definitely not ragga but exist in the digital reggae sphere.
Thanks for the heads up on the Clams instro give away, his I'm God beat is definitely a favourite.
Yeah I think I got about 20 extra instrumentals in the end so holla if you have any trouble getting them, lots of goodness in there including a great remix of Big Pun.
Appreciate the work at breaking down the genre of that track - so would this just be labelled as Digital Dub then? Christ for a such a small island we sure have a gift for categorising every single musical release into it's own sub genre.
I grabbed a few of them from his Twitter, although several were dead already, but I manage to find some re-up'd to a blog already. Those & the Inst. Mixtape should keep me happy for the time. ty anyway.
Yer the track/s Duder posted are a bit of an oddity tbh. It's just a slightly electronica take on; digi-dub, for the firsthalf, then 80s dancehall/ragga rhythm for the second.
We do indeed love our sub-genres.
Right now, a fierce debate is raging amongst critics and fans of the bassier side of things-- some call it "post-dubstep" while others call it "bass music" or refer to it by tempo ("130bpm"). Everyone is trying to avoid giving it a name, but are these emerging sounds the real deal or the emperors' new clothes? It's perhaps easier to say what post-dubstep/130bpm/bass music isn't than what it is. It isn't grime, either in its pop, instrumental underground, or MC-lead variants. It isn't dubstep, in either of its remaining dominant styles-- wobbly brostep and eyes-down halfstep. And it isn't house & funky, though this movement has had a massive catalytic effect on our as-yet-unnamed/defined genre.
So what is it? So wide is the musical reach of the acts in question, it's only meaningful to mention broad clusters of artists heading in shared directions rather than describing them as part of a greater whole. So you can point to the commonalities of James Blake, Jamie Woon, Mount Kimbie, and Darkstar in the way they use full vocals in prominent-but-interesting ways, yet have ties back into percussive, bass-lead music. Similarly, for takes on the space between earlier dubstep, garage, and house & funky, there's a long list of camps, including Oneman's 502 (Jay Weed, Teeth, Fis-T, Visionist), Loefah's Swamp81 (Boddika/Instra:mental, Addison Groove, "Sicko Cell", Funk Bias, Falty DL), Hyperdub (Kode9, Burial, Ikonika, Scratcha DVA, Cooly G, Zomby, LV), Hessle Audio (Ben UFO, Ramadanman, Joe, Blawan, Peverelist and by association, Joy Orbison), Night Slugs (Bok Bok, L-Vis 1990, Jam City, Mosca, Girl Unit), Numbers (Jackmaster, Deadboy, Jacques Greene, Slackk), Blunted Robots (Brackles, Martin Kemp, Shortstuff, Mickey Pearce, Dark Sky), and L2S (Whistla, Clueless, Submerse and other 'future garage' artists). France has its own thriving contingent via Canblaster, Bombanou, and French Fries that seem as enthralled with the emotive broad strokes of Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx's finer moments as they do with London pirate culture. Breach, Doc Daneeka, and Julio Bashmore should probably get a mention, as should Braiden's electro tweaks. Moving further into experimentalism and synth jams finds you with acts like Damu, Brey, Original Face, Walton, Kidnap Kid, Melee, SBTRKT, and Logos. With Swamp81's Addison Groove, whose "Footcrab" introduced the long since-thriving juke scene to this arena, it's a simple matter of some 30 bpm and you're in footwork territory-- an influence you can hear across the board at 130bpm now.
As the sprawling list above shows, well-meaning attempts to loosely define the ground we're covering here are somewhat futile and almost certainly flawed. This is not one genre. However, given the links, interaction, and free-flowing ideas between different waters of this archipelago of creativity, you can't dismiss all these acts as unrelated, solitary individuals either. So we return to the issue in question: Is this the real deal or no deal whatsoever?
The case for the prosecution begins with the thorny question of genre. Any collection of acts that starts at James Blake and ends in DJ Rashad is almost certainly not a single genre. So why does it even matter whether it's a genre at all? Well, if there's one thing genres are good at, it's unity of purpose and building fresh new ideas from that unity. If all we're seeing a collection of disparate individuals pulling in separate directions, we may see some interesting results but there's unlikely to be any collective momentum gathered nor shared emotional experiences forged around a few massive anthems. Nor would we see fans falling head over heels for it, as they did with recent great scenes like UK garage, jungle, dubstep, or grime. Critics also like to explicitly or implicitly raise the issue that the continuum of those previous pirate-radio scenes were mostly working class phenomena, while this new movement isn't and therefore couldn't possibly be as great.
Another criticism of this sphere is that many of its artists act in near-indistinguishable proximity to other scenes; where once there was the pirate-driven rudeness that runs through dubstep, UK funky, and UK garage, suddenly there's just house-- often of the most safe, trad, tepid kind. That's not to make a value judgement about house, but if what you're doing is making so-so examples of a genre that started in the mid 1980s, it's hard to claim you're the new thing.
The genre-proximity issue, detractors complain, extends beyond just the influence of house. Firstly, the genre in question only exists in the form it does because of brostep and a need to make something less moronic. But what are its unique elements? If you take out the house flavors, juke vox chops, eski synths, R&B-diva samples, and dubstep bass pressure, which bits uniquely pertain to this not-genre? This criticism leads to the conclusion that what we're currently seeing is in fact just what Kode9 called a "holding pattern" for the next big thing, the palate cleanser between meals, musical "sorbet" if you will. And while sorbet's nice, you probably wouldn't want to eat an entire meal of it.
The case for the defense begins simply-- stuff your preconceptions. No, it isn't one whole genre, but so what? The music being made by these acts in 2011 is amazing-- as good or better than many of the genres it shares borders with. From Girl Unit's "Wut" to Kode9's "Love Is the Drug" via Mickey Pearce's refix of Redlight, Teeth's "Shawty" to Ms Dynamite and Dark Sky's refix of Nelly Furtado and Timbaland. Joy Orbison's new dub "Ellipsis" loops the phrase "we just used to like... do our own thing," evoking memories of simpler, carefree times before a set of rave-esque pianos complete the audio nostalgia. It's as if to say, "Let's not over think this one, just come with us." Because the ability to mix coherently between the best of UK funky, house, grime, juke, kwaito, jungle, and electro while still nominally looking like bass-led rude pirate house is a wonderfully rare moment of creativity and freedom-- the kind of freedom people find in the most fruitful-but-fleeting moments of great genres. Put in simple, indivisible terms: this stuff is really, really fun right now.
Yes, criticisms about parts of the genre being too safe are valid. But many genres, scenes, or movements contain sections of mediocre work and should be seen for what they are and avoided. But to judge our broad collection of "bass" artists in question by their best work is to see what quality is being produced-- as good as UK funky or grime in 2011 and far better, on the whole, than dubstep (unless you find LFO modulation, screaming infantile synth-fits, and utterly predictable large dynamic range changes an original idea).
Does this not-scene have one unique idea that is undeniably its own? Probably not. But nor would you expect a series of broad, interconnected collectives to have one common idea. In an era of rapid, Internet-catalyzed exchange of ideas, perhaps we should embrace the possibility of a broader, distributed idea of how a scene or movement can self-organize?
And does it matter that it might not be a predominantly working-class movement, making it prone to over-emphasizing serious, "sophisticated" elements and leaving out the rude flavors? Not remotely if the music holds its own on the ruff-o-meter, not least because records like Mickey Pearce's Ms Dynamite refix is more than rude enough and many of the working-class-dominated pirate scenes in London couldn't be less rude if they tried nowadays, with a vein of musical conservatism running through the parts of road-rap trying to be U.S. rap, grime trying to be chart pop, or parts of UK funky trying to be "sophisticated" minimal and trad U.S. house.
So who's right? Unsatisfyingly, both camps have a strong case, but I'd strongly urge anyone to avoid writing this entire space off on ideological grounds unless you've first listened and danced to some of its finest proponents. Preferably somewhere quite loud.
Various hyperlinks on og page.
I think that I agree with Kode-9's assesment that the music is in a holding pattern right now, and frankly I don't think 2011 is as big a year as 2009, just that more people are discovering these sounds.
6th Borough Project are dropping their full album this month, very accessible funky low bpm house with plenty of nods to the boogie era but far left of the tacky funki stuff
I'll be deleting most of the UK Bass stuff from my harddrive in 2013
Uhmm, maybe about 3 people here will be interested...
I think that I agree with Kode-9's assesment that the music is in a holding pattern right now, and frankly I don't think 2011 is as big a year as 2009, just that more people are discovering these sounds.
Please to explain.
-
One glaring emission from a rather aimless piece, was that the exact same thing happened after dnb died & this, genre that's not, could well be seen as a direct continuation of that scene. It's been happily embraced by the kinds of djs/collectors who have always sat happily between genres.
Uhmm, maybe about 3 people here will be interested...
I think that I agree with Kode-9's assesment that the music is in a holding pattern right now, and frankly I don't think 2011 is as big a year as 2009, just that more people are discovering these sounds.
Please to explain.
I'm not really fussed what these sounds are called, but as this 'other' music has steadily got more prolific & popular the clamour for an identity has grown louder. I think the tunes that came out in 2009, when dubstep first began to move away from 140 bpm and was being called 'dub-techno' and such things, well, I think they were much better. For example;
Floating Points: vacuum boogie/love me like this/j&w beat etc
FaltyDL: human meadow/to london
Martyn: great lengths/yet/for lost relatives
Appleblim & Ramadanman: sous la sable
Geiom & Appleblim: shreds/flame tree
Burial & Fourtet: moth/wolf cub
Joy Orbison: hyph mngo/wet look
It feels to me that a lot of things coming out now are moving so close to a very straight house format that they're losing the 'swing'. I enjoy stuff that came out in 2010-11, just not as much as the great tunes that came out in 2009. Trying to pin-point what genre a musical style is isn't that important though, as you said it kind of follows on from previous uk bass music anyway.
Uhmm, maybe about 3 people here will be interested...
I think that I agree with Kode-9's assesment that the music is in a holding pattern right now, and frankly I don't think 2011 is as big a year as 2009, just that more people are discovering these sounds.
Please to explain.
I'm not really fussed what these sounds are called, but as this 'other' music has steadily got more prolific & popular the clamour for an identity has grown louder. I think the tunes that came out in 2009, when dubstep first began to move away from 140 bpm and was being called 'dub-techno' and such things, well, I think they were much better.
It feels to me that a lot of things coming out now are moving so close to a very straight house format that they're losing the 'swing'. I enjoy stuff that came out in 2010-11, just not as much as the great tunes that came out in 2009. Trying to pin-point what genre a musical style is isn't that important though, as you said it kind of follows on from previous uk bass music anyway.
Got ya.
imo, part of the reason people are writing/talking about this now in 2011, more than they did in 2009, is purely the fact the dubstep has gone completely stale and left a vacuum.
That & the fact there have also been some new artists that are getting major push towards the coffee tables and dinner parties.
- That Jamie Woon lp was a snooze fest imo. The fact that noone else has mention it, or a single song off it, suggest others felt the same.
imo, part of the reason people are writing/talking about this now in 2011, more than they did in 2009, is purely the fact the dubstep has gone completely stale and left a vacuum.
Yes. What's next? If the music is going back to house, and hardcore came from house, and jungle came from hardcore, and DnB came from jungle, and garage came from DnB, and Grime came from Garage, and Dubstep came from either Garage or Grime, and 'uk bass music' came from Dubstep, and...
Okem said:
- That Jamie Woon lp was a snooze fest imo. The fact that noone else has mention it, or a single song off it, suggest others felt the same.
If someone had asked me to imagine what a band would sound like if they comprised the lead singer from Hot Chip, a former Derek Bailey sideman, a member of Spiritualized and the drummer from This Heat (the latter three all with backgrounds in free improv), the last thing on earth I'd have said would have been The Band.
hey, thanks for the heads up, i??ve just unpacked the LP and its sounding really great! actually just listening to it.... thx
Comments
and everyone should check
too. both of those on the marmite tip - you'll lap it up or spew.
Tumblr'n'b is what my mayne said - bare people agreeing with that little witicism. its nice.
Really liking the Weeknd, this sound is definitely working for me at the moment. Gave the Bible Eyes a quick listen through and, while I love Marmite, this isn't doing it for me at the moment. Kind fo going in one ear and out the other without leaving an impression. Did listen to it on the way into work though so will give it another try when my brain is more in gear.
Not that that's a bad thing, but the collab seems a bit more obvious now.
BOSH:
Woah! I don't even...... What the hell does this get listed as? Post-step-dubstep?
Check the second track here, also a cool take on dub.
Amazing cosmic soulful reggae from New Zealand. This will be good for the Northern Hemisphere summer
UK Garage throw-back steez
Haunting slow-mo synth-scapes.
Probably one of the most refreshing artists of the last few years in my opinion. Lone. Sun drenched jacking house? Not sure. But dope.
Th rick wilhite is in the mail. I'm keen to check the floating points/fatima
About Group - Don't Worry by DominoRecordCo
If someone had asked me to imagine what a band would sound like if they comprised the lead singer from Hot Chip, a former Derek Bailey sideman, a member of Spiritualized and the drummer from This Heat (the latter three all with backgrounds in free improv), the last thing on earth I'd have said would have been The Band.
Who-da-thunk-it, this is quite good. Balearic-hop? You're mellowing in your old age A**.
Indeed, my long suffering ears can only handle so many trunk rattlers these days before I need respite. Clams and the Jamie xx are currently my go to selections and he seems to be giving every beat he's ever made away to download on his twitter http://twitter.com/clammyclams. Trying to eat them all up before they expire, most are brilliantly simple. In case you hadn't heard it, this is the one that first made me notice him around a year ago based round chopping up some Imogen Heap.
Of course none of this would have been possible without Lil B but we'll leave that out of this thread......
You're not completely wrong, ragga as a musical genre was born in the 80s when Jamaican music started to go digital, but can be used to describe anything from Sleng Teng to Tanya Stephens. It's also pretty synonymous these days with 'dancehall', although the later has a much broader definition.
As a genre rule, ragga generally involves a MC though, so it doesn't really cover digital dub. Although there are plenty of ragga dub versions, but broadly speaking dub is something of it's own beast.
There's also the UK based sub-genres like lovers rock & steppers, that are definitely not ragga but exist in the digital reggae sphere.
Hope that doesn't just added more confusion.
good man, the answer !
robin hannibal is inspirational
Yeah I think I got about 20 extra instrumentals in the end so holla if you have any trouble getting them, lots of goodness in there including a great remix of Big Pun.
Appreciate the work at breaking down the genre of that track - so would this just be labelled as Digital Dub then? Christ for a such a small island we sure have a gift for categorising every single musical release into it's own sub genre.
Yer the track/s Duder posted are a bit of an oddity tbh. It's just a slightly electronica take on; digi-dub, for the firsthalf, then 80s dancehall/ragga rhythm for the second.
We do indeed love our sub-genres.
Various hyperlinks on og page.
I think that I agree with Kode-9's assesment that the music is in a holding pattern right now, and frankly I don't think 2011 is as big a year as 2009, just that more people are discovering these sounds.
This is my dudes. I know Soulstrut loves these euroman raps so enjoy.
I'll be deleting most of the UK Bass stuff from my harddrive in 2013
-
One glaring emission from a rather aimless piece, was that the exact same thing happened after dnb died & this, genre that's not, could well be seen as a direct continuation of that scene. It's been happily embraced by the kinds of djs/collectors who have always sat happily between genres.
I'm not really fussed what these sounds are called, but as this 'other' music has steadily got more prolific & popular the clamour for an identity has grown louder. I think the tunes that came out in 2009, when dubstep first began to move away from 140 bpm and was being called 'dub-techno' and such things, well, I think they were much better. For example;
Floating Points: vacuum boogie/love me like this/j&w beat etc
FaltyDL: human meadow/to london
Martyn: great lengths/yet/for lost relatives
Appleblim & Ramadanman: sous la sable
Geiom & Appleblim: shreds/flame tree
Burial & Fourtet: moth/wolf cub
Joy Orbison: hyph mngo/wet look
It feels to me that a lot of things coming out now are moving so close to a very straight house format that they're losing the 'swing'. I enjoy stuff that came out in 2010-11, just not as much as the great tunes that came out in 2009. Trying to pin-point what genre a musical style is isn't that important though, as you said it kind of follows on from previous uk bass music anyway.
Zed Bias - Stubborn Phase (forthcoming on Swamp81)
Zed Bias - Neibourhood (Locked on 1999)
Maddslinky feat. Skream - 50 Shades Of Peng
Maddslinky (alias) from 2001
imo, part of the reason people are writing/talking about this now in 2011, more than they did in 2009, is purely the fact the dubstep has gone completely stale and left a vacuum.
That & the fact there have also been some new artists that are getting major push towards the coffee tables and dinner parties.
- That Jamie Woon lp was a snooze fest imo. The fact that noone else has mention it, or a single song off it, suggest others felt the same.
Yes. What's next? If the music is going back to house, and hardcore came from house, and jungle came from hardcore, and DnB came from jungle, and garage came from DnB, and Grime came from Garage, and Dubstep came from either Garage or Grime, and 'uk bass music' came from Dubstep, and...
Pure gash.
hey, thanks for the heads up, i??ve just unpacked the LP and its sounding really great! actually just listening to it.... thx