DUBSTEP- breaking news, gossip, slander, lies etc

[Dubquixote]

Skream in NYC

For those in the NYC area, Skream's playing this Friday at Dub War in the former Limelight Chapel (now called Avalon). Info in the events section. Quite a treat for the US dubsteppas.

 

[petergunn]

Dubstep features in this months Wire: Interviews with Kode9 and Boxcutter, review of new DMZ releases on Souljazz... along with an irritating piece by the editor saying that he likes dubstep, to the point of it being "revelatory" but which also slags off 2 step and grime... what a load of crap...

but, c'mon, it's The Wire, you had to expect that!

 

[mms]

Dubstep features in this months Wire: Interviews with Kode9 and Boxcutter, review of new DMZ releases on Souljazz... along with an irritating piece by the editor saying that he likes dubstep, to the point of it being "revelatory" but which also slags off 2 step and grime... what a load of crap...

yeah but the overview in plan b talks about 'crappy 2 step' etc which was a bit naff for a piece that was overall an excellent overview of 2006..
weird things about dubstep -
dark music that produces massive joyful energy but its more like a footie roar than ecstacy rush, so why is this in 2006, its almost sonic catharsis, especially the subsuming element of the bass.
Also there are so few guys that do it really well, so far why u think that is?

 

[gumdrops]

i quite like the piece in plan b. does it find favour with the dubstep hardcore?

 

[gek-opel]

OK people, fair enough, it is the Wire, however all the talk of "breakbeat" (do they mean Hardcore continuum I guess?) makes them seem like some kind of bloody old man, sat at the back of some grimey pub! Also and more specifically "Two-step reduced rhythm to a macho trudge" (!!!) Have they ever heard any 2-step garage??? Its rhythms are the least macho in dance music! 2-step garage rendered dance music's predominent pulse prissy, a precise and hyper syncopated spasm, breathy with fluttering hi-hats, daintily encrusted with off centre snares (for Christ's sake). Rob Young comes across as someone who is utterly out of touch. What a knob-head. Also Current 93 on the cover...? YAWN- cutting edge my arse.

 

[TNT]

www.ilovefwd.com

if u dont know, get to know
Friday is gonna be mental! EL-B! *rubs hands with glee*

 

[bassnation]

OK people, fair enough, it is the Wire, however all the talk of "breakbeat" (do they mean Hardcore continuum I guess?) makes them seem like some kind of bloody old man, sat at the back of some grimey pub! Also and more specifically "Two-step reduced rhythm to a macho trudge" (!!!) Have they ever heard any 2-step garage??? Its rhythms are the least macho in dance music! 2-step garage rendered dance music's predominent pulse prissy, a precise and hyper syncopated spasm, breathy with fluttering hi-hats, daintily encrusted with off centre snares (for Christ's sake). Rob Young comes across as someone who is utterly out of touch. What a knob-head. Also Current 93 on the cover...? YAWN- cutting edge my arse.

lol, fair point.

having said that, garage is not the only music with a 2-step rhythm. techstep jungle was also 2-step and everyone knows how dirgey that was. somehow i don't think he was referring to that, though.

 

[Grievous Angel]

Also there are so few guys that do it really well, so far why u think that is?

It's difficult to do well - d'n'b refugees take note. Easy to do mediocre half step though.

Next DMZ:> Mud / Ruffage. Biggest Loefah riddims ever. Murder.

Gek Opel is absolutely right.

I know a Wire columnist who was pitching to do a feature on dubstep for the Wire but was told that it wasn't long since they did Grime so dubstep would have to wait. Seems to be coming in through the back door, via reviews, anyway.

Would have been fab to have Current 93 on a cover - any cover - in 1984. Never actually liked the music as such (give me Planxty any day) but Tibet's an interesting bloke. Currently proselytising Christianity rather than Thelema - what a wind-up merchant!

 

[tate]

Tim Finney reviews Burial today

 

[gek-opel]

Hmm. The coverage in terms of reviews has gradually been accruing... one month they had about 10 reviews dotted across electronica, dance (sorry critical beats, eugh...) and dub. They bloody well ought to do a feature, The Wire really pisses me off, so much potential to be a fantastic publication, so frequently frustrating and spasmodic in its coverage of interesting areas. I took Philip Sherburne to task about this on ILM a few months back, and to be fair he has started reviewing a reasonable amount of dubstep, so mustn't grumble too much eh?

Oh and Tim F? Great review... loved the description of Pinch's Qawalli as distant low-end tribal thud and ghostly shards of accordion rejecting rigor mortis futurism in favour of necromantic fluidity

 

[Grievous Angel]

They bloody well ought to do a feature, The Wire really pisses me off, so much potential to be a fantastic publication, so frequently frustrating and spasmodic in its coverage of interesting areas.

Yeah, I find it irritating. When it's good it's good but I look at page after page of artwank / jazz and I just glaze over, though it must be brilliant for people who like, well, art-wank . You'd have thought dubstep would be bang on their agenda but clearly it's not. What it should be is, well, a Dissensus magazine - post-dance music yet embracing of (interesting) rock / post-rock, jazz, post-classical and "world" music with a critical yet enthusiastic viewpoint, great thick slabs of reggae coverage, quite a bit less coverage of marginal art stuff... it could be so good, and it would sell so much better. Loads of rootless 30-something males with disposable who want "their" magazine but aren't being serviced by Mojo or Word or Q or FHM or...

And it would either have its own forum, or would deliberately stir up debate on ILM and Dissensus.

Oh and Tim F? Great review... loved the description of Pinch's Qawalli as distant low-end tribal thud and ghostly shards of accordion rejecting rigor mortis futurism in favour of necromantic fluidity

Yeah but... that doesn't actually mean anything does it?!

 

[polystyle]

Like that Paul - 'Dissensian magazine' , has a bass ring to it .
30 and 40 somethings rooted, unrooted , zooted , freestyle

Anyway, if they ain't with dubstep let 'em come around 10 years later
Dubwar NYC tomorrow night and the tide is high

 

[gek-opel]

Re: Tim F's nice turn of phrase... I think it describes Pinch brilliantly, bar the bit about "necromantic glide" it doesn't sound undead in any sense, more fluttering and teeming with life, little glistening shards of delicately writhing synth in a vast empty negative space. Anyone know when Pinch is going to release some more tunes?

Re: Dissensus mag- problem is that this area of music is covered VERY well by net-based media (ie the blogs and forums like this) it kind of undermines the necessity for a real world magazine I think, plus the increased fluidity and intensive interactivity of the blog-forum nexus is way more in tune with things in this area than a magazine could be.

 

[Grievous Angel]

Hence the end of most interesting print music journalism. Sad really.

I haven't bought a music magazine in - god - years. Used to be two or three a month in the eighties and nineties.

 

[gek-opel]

The irritating thing is that you don't really have much to look back at later, unlike with a pile of magazines... I still read The Wire, but that's as much due to the fact it has waaay more words than most music magazines (which increasingly resemble comics for the photo-word ratio) and I like something that takes a while to read. However, the recent Editorial made me want to smash things (so out of touch!) I'm still surprised there hasn't been some kind of palace coup against all the tiresome obscuritanists yet...

 

[nomos]

Anyone know when Pinch is going to release some more tunes?

There's at least a 12" forthcoming on Planet Mu in the next while. Real stormer of a track. Hopefully he'll be on at least one of the those 'Tectonic Plates' releases as well.

I know a Wire columnist who was pitching to do a feature on dubstep for the Wire but was told that it wasn't long since they did Grime so dubstep would have to wait.

Probably squeezed out by very urgent features on Xenakis, Derek Bailey and Lee Rinaldo

 

[mms]

There's at least a 12" forthcoming on Planet Mu in the next while. Real stormer of a track. Hopefully he'll be on at least one of the those 'Tectonic Plates' releases as well.

Probably squeezed out by very urgent features on Xenakis, Derek Bailey and Lee Rinaldo

the new and very good planet mu 2 cd sampler has new pinch / vex'd / distance and other stuff on all for a fiver:

the vex'd track is really good

http://www.warprecords.com/?mart=ZIQ100CD

 

[nomos]

^^ yeah that's the track! all hoovery with the wobbly-bump. appleblim's got one with hoovers as well.

 

[Gabba Flamenco Crossover]

Re the slagging of 2-step in the wire. I remember reading a gushing-to-the-point-of-nausea piece on 2-step by Kwodo Eshun about 5 years ago, based around a wookie interview. Going on about choirs of angels, borderline pisstake stuff only it was straight up. One of the worse pieces of writing I've ever read, really awful.

Dunno if their archives are online, but if people want to check it out it was a cover feature in one of the december issues - think it would have been 2000. i know it was december cos my mate cut out a blow-up of wookie's head & put it on his xmas tree.

If you find it, mail it to the editor & remind him to check his facts next time if he doesnt want to look like a tit.

 

[john eden]

It was quite clear to me, reading The Wire, that the guy was going on about the harsh 2-step linearity of tech-step.

It was a bit of an odd piece tho.