When did dubstep lose the plot?

when did dubstep lose the plot?


  • Total voters
    82

john eden

male pale and stale
Well?

please be specific about particular tunes, events, haircuts, etc which you feel are significant.

You may also berate me for suggesting it has lost it.
 
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Dubstep is generally only palatable for me if there's a grime MC on it (fuck Crazy D and his woah woah woahs) or it comes from Anti-Social.

I love a lot of stuff coming out from the likes of Martyn etc but I don't view that as Dubstep anymore.

So, let's say 2006 because that's the last real time there was any true interaction between grime and dubstep in a radio sense. I'm not talking about the odd guest appearance because they don't count.
 

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
It would be madness for me to get involved in this thread.
Except to say that, as I rambled on about in Blackdown's comment box the other day, there's a real change that things will improve again over the next few months through the increased influence of the synthy stuff.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
The smoking ban... a joke but I think that the music did really change from being all about stoned swagger/paranoia/dub-echo to being proper 'rave' music - big bolshy synths, 'who's got the biggest drop' contests etc. at a certain point. It was probably a number of factors, including trying to export the music from small dark loud spaces like PP to big rooms where the sound wasn't good enough to make sub-bass interesting.

As much as I hate a lot of wobble and the expectations/crowd its created, I think you could say that it was a neccessary evolution - I mean, I always bang on about how great 2005/6 were but if it had carried on down that gloomy half-step road it would have got boring eventually... Divorce a lot of these tunes from their context ('Night', 'Spongebob' etc) and they can sound pretty great. And stuff by artists like Joker/Gemmy/Zomby has benefited from the shift in emphasis from minimalist/sub-bass to colourful synths and an unhinged feel.
 

bassbeyondreason

Chtonic Fatigue Syndrome
Yeah, there definitely seems to be some crazy stuff coming out the other side of wobble, like the more deranged Coki tunes and that whole Starkey/Dev79 "streetbass" school. Like I've always said, wobble is fine, it's the tyranny of the half-step trudge I hate, so I guess dubstep kinda lost the plot for me when the halfstep became absolute orthodoxy.
 

benjybars

village elder.
even tho this thread is pretty tongue in cheek, i'll just point out -


zomby, brackles, oneman, peverelist, kode9, hyperdub, dusk and blackdown, pangaea, ramadanman, joker, DMZ, FWD, gemmy, BenUFO, mala, martyn, swamp81, hessle audio, geiom, quest, L.D, chef, silkie, bok-bok, ikonika, deep medi, pinch, hotflush....


things aren't all that bad.

pretty good actually.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
even tho this thread is pretty tongue in cheek, i'll just point out -


zomby, brackles, oneman, peverelist, kode9, hyperdub, dusk and blackdown, pangaea, ramadanman, joker, DMZ, FWD, gemmy, BenUFO, mala, martyn, swamp81, hessle audio, geiom, quest, L.D, chef, silkie, bok-bok, ikonika, deep medi, pinch, hotflush....


things aren't all that bad.

pretty good actually.

I think this is a key point - there's probably more good stuff around now than ever before, right? It's just that there's exponentially more rubbish.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
i liked it more when there was interaction with grime and more crossover even if the artists themselves didnt want to admit or talk much about it. but i still like stuff thats out there, even some of the generic stuff. i like what tubby plays, or what was on some of that benga-caspa b2b show on rinse a while back. but then i never liked some of the stuff a lot of 'true' dubstep fans raved about, the stuff that was very ponderous, self important in its earnestness, or just really inert and seemed to go nowhere. i hated that stuff. always liked the stuff with a bit more rhythmic emphasis. plus i just like that it still favours bass. grime has virtually no bass action and neither does funky. i also like a lot of the stuff thats grown out of dubstep, the wonky producers, and those doing something a bit different. in truth, all that has actually made me appreciate dubstep a lot more (plus before i was so into grime i just didnt have enough time to pay all that much attention to dubstep, and despite liking various tunes, i kinda looked down on it a bit through grime-tinted lenses).
 
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MrFence

Oh the humanity.
even tho this thread is pretty tongue in cheek, i'll just point out -


zomby, brackles, oneman, peverelist, kode9, hyperdub, dusk and blackdown, pangaea, ramadanman, joker, DMZ, FWD, gemmy, BenUFO, mala, martyn, swamp81, hessle audio, geiom, quest, L.D, chef, silkie, bok-bok, ikonika, deep medi, pinch, hotflush....


things aren't all that bad.

pretty good actually.


Someone told me that even though there are lots of good tunes being put out at the moment the raves (FWD excluded) have become shit now and that's what really made the scene in the first place. I wouldn't really know as I don't go to them but it seems a fair assumption to me.
 

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Someone told me that even though there are lots of good tunes being put out at the moment the raves (FWD excluded) have become shit now and that's what really made the scene in the first place. I wouldn't really know as I don't go to them but it seems a fair assumption to me.

Right, I know I said I wasn't getting involved but......, (think this is ok for me to do as it doesn't involve passing judgement), other than FWD (which seems to be usually pretty good and sometimes excellent) and DMZ (the consensus about which seems to be that it's ok but currently not too exciting) what are the big, popular, regular, influential raves/nights for dubstep? And what sort of strands of the sound are they playing?
 

Blackdown

nexKeysound
but then i never liked some of the stuff a lot of 'true' dubstep fans raved about, the stuff that was very ponderous, self important in its earnestness, or just really inert and seemed to go nowhere. i hated that stuff. always liked the stuff with a bit more rhythmic emphasis.

ever heard Mala?

plus i just like that it still favours bass. grime has virtually no bass action and neither does funky.

ever heard Roska or Hard House Banton?
 

hint

party record with a siren
Dubstep lost the plot when someone decided that the video for "Night" should be an animated squid.
 

matt b

Indexing all opinion
Dubstep lost the plot when someone decided that the video for "Night" should be an animated squid.

Should have been more like this, no?

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=""></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
 
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