skull disco - soundboy spanking

zhao

there are no accidents
very niiiiiice! i liiiiike. you like? sexy-time!

EDIT: sorry I'm drunk posting again. what i meant to say is that the atypical drum patterns bridging the gap between half-step and garage with polyrhythmic structures aping almost Latin (Cuban) percussion on certain tracks is very refreshing and seems to be breaking with the banging dubstep stereotype. and its use of arabic samples is exemplary of how the genre can develop and expand -- which is to say virally, inclusively, and poly-morphous. sometimes the tracks gets a bit noodly, but that's what disc jockeys are for. INNIT.
 
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gek-opel

entered apprentice
Yer- its bloody good stuff (tho obviously most of Shackleton tracks are familiar from the dubsta mix). Shame that Appleblim's best choon isn't on here ("Vansan"). Indeed Shackleton appears to have got his sound together quite quickly (or at least from what's on show here) whereas the earlier Appleblim stuff is weaker, but gets much much better as you go thru the releases (more obviously minimal/techy). Indeed "Vansan" syncs in nicely with the electro-step mood of Skream's (hopefully shortly forthcoming) "2D" (which is a mighty fucking animal, easily making up for the hand-fulls of by-the-numbers poorly engineered dreck he's been foisting on the public for most of 2006...)

I was tempted to start a "wither dubstep?" type thread as no one seems to be discussing it anymore but ho-hum eh?
 
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hucks

Your Message Here
I missed the dubsta mix so this was the first time I'd heard a lot of this. It's pretty special - there's not enough precussion like that....

But I was totally unmoved by the Villalobos mix of Blood on my Hands. Lost all the warmth of the original, and just didn't have the imagination of the rest of the album.
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
Re: Villalobos mix- Really? Its pretty similar to the original, minus the sub. I like the Villalobos as it's even more haunted and hypnotic, the way the basic drum pattern is quite small and relatively muted in the mix is clever, cos it makes the massively dubbed out drum rushes and manipulated percussion pulse sound even more massive booming across this bleak open plain of sound. I probably like this remix more than Villalobos' own Fizheuer Zieheuer...
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
Yes, that's true, it does give it warmth- that's why the Villalobos one is so good- colder, it enable the words to take precedence. He also thins out the backing chords... creating a kind of icy frozen dub techno... built out of echo but not bass...
 
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noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
re skream: i do think the mixdown is better on the skreamizm vol.1 material than some later stuff. the sound design / placement / eq sounds tighter. might have something to do with the mastering.
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
That's precisely what I was getting at- engineering stuff- how bright and rich the sounds are as much as how they are arranged etc. "2D" stands up in those terms (of sound design basically) with the cream of the minimal crop etc... Skream is a bit of a sacred cow and the man's released a tonne of dreck- I think of him as the Michael Caine of dubstep- a lot of shite but the peaks excuse the rest, and somewhat of a lovable figure...
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Doesn't mean they aren't good tracks though. And I wouldn't say he's released that much drekage really - maybe some of the remixes? I even enjoy those. It's a minor though - I'd hate for dubstep to be too much about 'engineering' - we know where that leads. Not really sure how 2D stacks up on those terms until I can listen properly at home but it's certainly a nice tune.
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
http://www.deeptime.net/blog/?p=127

Noteable for details of the new Shackleton material...

"I’m really taken by his new material, a lot of which runs at a more languid 120 BPM. His 140+ rhythmscapes are usually quite dense - full of timbral shifting as the individual elements carry on prolonged dialogues with one another. But these new tracks, with their slower pace and slightly more sedate programming, are much more spacious. They give Sam’s affection for dub more room to play. And they open up new spaces for vocals, now being provided by the MC formerly called Great Emancipator (he’s got a new name now but I’m afraid it’s slipped my mind). What’s more (and this goes way back to my desire for more Agitronics), Emancipator’s lyrics tend towards overt and specific political commentary. This is an absolute breath of fresh air in a period when virtually everyone making music seems allergic to political conviction, as if somehow, politics and agitation have become too quaint after 2001. Shackleton’s music is heading in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, only a couple of these tracks got an airing at the show, as Sam was concerned about testing dancers’ patience too much. I heard a few back at the house, though - including a freshly cut dub of his Pole remix (don’t even get me started on how great this Pole thing is going to be)..."
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
Doesn't mean they aren't good tracks though. And I wouldn't say he's released that much drekage really - maybe some of the remixes? I even enjoy those. It's a minor though - I'd hate for dubstep to be too much about 'engineering' - we know where that leads. Not really sure how 2D stacks up on those terms until I can listen properly at home but it's certainly a nice tune.

Mmm- they're perfectly fine but don't play to his strengths- they could almost be by anybody. Engineering for the sake of engineering (in the modern drum and bass sense) is shit, true, but pursuing delicious sonics (as in modern minimal) is a slightly different matter entirely...

Re: 2D--- Its one of the tightest bits of programming I've heard, and a totally nu look for dubstep, opening it up rather than locking it into duff-step monotony (ie glitch electro-step).

One thing that I find weird re:Skream is in a lot of Derek Walmsley's pieces he seems to think that "Request Line" was some massive turning point, and that afterwards Dubstep became ever more mature and melodically inviting. Actually its been a strangely un-influential track, with most dubstep after following a basic wobbler/trudge pattern, rather than the bright, mysterious vaguely grime influenced feel of "Request Line". Obviously an epochal track in terms of the profile of the genre, but still...
 

Logos

Ghosts of my life
One thing that I find weird re:Skream is in a lot of Derek Walmsley's pieces he seems to think that "Request Line" was some massive turning point, and that afterwards Dubstep became ever more mature and melodically inviting. Actually its been a strangely un-influential track, with most dubstep after following a basic wobbler/trudge pattern, rather than the bright, mysterious vaguely grime influenced feel of "Request Line". Obviously an epochal track in terms of the profile of the genre, but still...

Actually I think it scared people off using arpeggios or fluttering sounds for fear of simply ripping Skream off...only Mala really has mined that Derrick May/Omni Trio ying-yang/light-dark approach to melody that was touched on in request line, imo.
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
Actually I think it scared people off using arpeggios or fluttering sounds for fear of simply ripping Skream off...only Mala really has mined that Derrick May/Omni Trio ying-yang/light-dark approach to melody that was touched on in request line, imo.

Yer that could be it. I think a lot of Mala's stuff is a bit darker than Skream's tho.
 
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