wise

bare BARE BONES
Not feeling that Velour - 'She Wore Velour' sorry Andy the beats are off, too rigidly swung.
Maybe the input of the mysterious Dubstep producer, heavy snare on the 3rd = yawn
The first 2 off the ep are listenable, prob cos of the straighter house beat underneath

Feeling this Blawan remix too, he can swing them drums proper

 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Blawan is definitely one of the best producers to have emerged from 'post-dubstep' in my opinion, and I think it's probably his drums which distinguish him above everything else. Or rather, they lay the foundation for the success of his tunes. There's a rhythmic tightness to his music which is similar to that found in the production of funky producers like Funkystepz/Ill Blu etc. I wrote about this at tedious length here I'm not sure about everything I wrote there but I do think Blawan is a stand-out producer in that scene.

I think this is what distinguished Sully as well (who you said you used to like) - his drums were so solid and chunky, as well as having swing to them.
 
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Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Not feeling that Velour - 'She Wore Velour' sorry Andy the beats are off, too rigidly swung.

Fair play mate.
I agree that the Blawan EP is ace. Will check out the new Mizz Beats, I've liked bits & pieces that I've heard from her before.
 

wise

bare BARE BONES
The Mizz Beats is a little bit jazz noodles actually, I wouldn't actually buy it I was just trying to find something positive to say about wonky synths.
I really liked her Deep Medi release though she's a quality producer
 

wise

bare BARE BONES
There's a rhythmic tightness to his music

This is key definitely, I think once you can program great drums you can build properly funky tunes where the other elements add to the groove rather than just floating on top of it.
A lot of the "future garage/post-dubstep/alt-funkstep/intelli-2step" producers just can't do good beats, and even if they can kind of do the drums they miss the point that the rest of the tune should be as rhythmic as the beats and bass.
This is what Garage does so well and why listening to so much Garage compounds my misery with these new producers
 

alex

Do not read this.
The Mizz Beats is a little bit jazz noodles actually, I wouldn't actually buy it I was just trying to find something positive to say about wonky synths.
I really liked her Deep Medi release though she's a quality producer

really? I didnt find anything exciting about that release whatsoever, just usual boom kisssh dubstep??
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
most of these guys are horrendously weak at programming drums. either that or they just dont like anything 'obvious'. or theyre too concerned with trying to make something 'intelligent' and 'emotional'.
 

tom lea

Well-known member
most of these guys are horrendously weak at programming drums. either that or they just dont like anything 'obvious'. or theyre too concerned with trying to make something 'intelligent' and 'emotional'.

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Sectionfive

bandwagon house
There has been some great Mizz Beats stuff on Alex Nuts show the last few months.

Most of the stuff on the show falls into the 'good' category regarding all this stuff imo.
 

jimitheexploder

Well-known member
Drums are key for me, when those are solid and have a good groove going it brings it all together. Some people can be a bit clunky with them and that can really take away from a track for me. Sometimes tracks work dispite it though I mean I love Tron by Joker but its a bit slugish in the beat department, same with some Swindle stuff, he's really musical elsewhere but the beats I dunno dont reach that same musical swing. I'll happily bang a load of it though when the mood takes me. Then you get people like Blawan, Martin Kemp, Joe, Untold, Sully, Ramadanman, etc... who all have it on lock.
 

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Blawan is definitely one of the best producers to have emerged from 'post-dubstep' in my opinion, and I think it's probably his drums which distinguish him above everything else. Or rather, they lay the foundation for the success of his tunes. There's a rhythmic tightness to his music which is similar to that found in the production of funky producers like Funkystepz/Ill Blu etc.

This is a really good point - but actually the increasing prevalence of the qualities you were mentioning in tune coming from this sort of non-aligned 130bpm zone (for want of a better way of putting it, again) has been a big part of why I'm found myself enjoying more of it of late. Compared to where we were at around this time last year, producers seem to be employing more coherence and conciseness and rhythmic tightness in terms of how they approach making tunes. Along with Blawan's stuff, examples that spring to mind would be Arpjam by Jam City, Claptrap & Level Crossing by Joe and The Alps by Braiden. And Fatherless obv. (None of these should be new to anyone who posts in this thread, but there you go).
***
The Day Before Tomorrow by Mizz Beats is a pretty neat tune imo. I should prob listen to Alex Nut's show more often than I do currently.
 

alex

Do not read this.
most of these guys are horrendously weak at programming drums. either that or they just dont like anything 'obvious'. or theyre too concerned with trying to make something 'intelligent' and 'emotional'.

please post examples of intelligent and emotional drums? or have i misread that.

You seem very hard to please, i'm sure if someone came with something 'obvious' you would call them out for being to commercial
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
i should prob just not post in this thread as i have nothing new to add. basically, i do like things like velour (reminds me of dmx krew actually), l vis, jam city and joe (claptrap is/was great), but part of me would much rather listen to lil silva or champion or house girls (and thats not some 'realer than thou' thing, i just have particular tastes), and those guys are very 'obvious' id say, so im def not the type of person to dislike that for being 'commercial'. i suppose i feel a bit compelled to hate on this stuff a bit as it seems to have the most hype around it. and im worried that as that seems to be the case, it might end up eating everything else. everyone will be looking to make stuff that appeals to this sort of audience as there seem to be so many (well, comparatively) more opportunities through that.

this might be irrational.

(edit - ps - i never meant intelligent drums btw, just stuff that seems a bit 'proggy' for lack of a better word, or music that, considering its dance music, just doesnt do it on that front, not for me at least - it all seems a bit watery and insipid).
 
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Fundamental

Well-known member
I agree that the programming and mixdowns are not there yet but the levels are definitely on the up and I will take good ideas with feeling over an insipid pseudo-techno tune any day of the week.

Plus acts like Dark Sky are getting the beats and grooves tight and the execution and creativity of ideas on point too. Interestingly enough they are incorporating that 808/909 sound subtly into their work without resorting to using it all out. Those 909 samples have been around for 25 years for a reason: they all hit the right places in the sonic spectrum, in the club and on radio. If you combine that with a solid 2-step derived groove you are onto a winner, in my head. This tune is worth a mention....

http://soundcloud.com/surefire-pr/sfs003-distal-hxdb-typewriter-tune-vip

Blawan is a don. He is groove centric, they say he is an acoustic drummer which explains things. His tunes remind me of Hatcha FWD sets circa 2004 when it was all about the congos. That feeling was compounded in my mind when I heard him at Neighbourhood Plastic People recently. Delightful.
 
I'm sorry to interject on this but come on Alex mate. You get a lot of the same promos as me- probably more in fact- and I know about 3/4 of the stuff getting made by producers who I guess could be collectively grouped in this thread is just fucking dull. I don't know about "intelligent drums" (which is a terrible term, doesn't work sorry) but the amount of lifeless, far too tasteful stuff with no bass or bite with stilted 2-step drums is a joke. Honestly the state of a lot of stuff in this "nascent scene" is just dire. And really I don't agree with the idea of this being a new genre either, it's just loads of people making house.

I think it was Luka who said on here recently that London music seemed a bit corny and fake to him lately and I don't know about that but I do kind of feel the same about this end of it

I guess someone could say all this stuff about what I make as well but I don't really care.

Not including Damu in all of this as others have, mind, as I fully rate him.
 
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CrowleyHead

Well-known member
I definitely think Blawan is 'that guy' at merging dubstep and funky in an intelligent yet danceable quality. Possibly because his tunes do possess aggression and darkness, but not in an overly dreading way like say El-B? Whereas a lot of future garage/post-dubstep tries too hard to be bright and cheerful. Others tend to that description of the Boddika/Swamp sound getting oppresive and overly dark.

Blawan and Sully are like, THE guys with an understanding of the balance for me.
 

bandshell

Grand High Witch
The best producer around is Actress, imo. Easily the most interesting output in the UK, for me.

He's not really in the scene though, I suppose. He's out there somewhere on his own.
 

alex

Do not read this.
err, you're on numbers bro, you definitely get sent more promo's than me, I'm on two main promo list's that are established labels. The majority of the stuff I get sent aren't promo's, they are tracks sent to me purely from me asking the producer for them.

Don't know what you took from my post and the one previous, but the stuff I PERSONALLY expose myself to that could be categorised in this 'scene' I rate. Fair enough I was generalising a bit, as I didn't comment on which producers ARE
very interesting to hear
but I still stand by it being an age thing.

Iv'e not once called it anything but UK House. F**** Garage is obviously a pile of wank, I get sent hardly any f**** garage tracks, so the 2step thing, I don't know what that is about. My selections are usually a mix of european house (some US) and where I can, the UK House/Funky bit's, any of the garage I play is old.

If it's pissing you off so much then stop reading fact magazine.
 
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