I think there's a few things going on here. We can all accept you Chicago guys frustration at under researched articles in dry magazines way out from the epicentre. Shit that you care about and put a lot of energy and time into has been sent to the work experience boys who prepare articles full of fluff and misinformation. Those articles will keep cropping up; only way round it is to pitch them first.
Also I garanfuckingtee in a mirror universe if it were a bunch of Chicago cats talking about some UK-based scene you were apart of it would be the same reaction. You guys take your music pretty seriously too you know. Also if you came here and realized how terrible the club scene was, how much bullshit you have to deal with to get a gig here, and how broke some of this cities best musicians are, Neema might not come off like a jukenazi
This also rings true. Not a complete parallel, and though we all know dubstep's long gone, it's hard not to despair at another Borgore or Mt Eden.
I lived in London almost 10 years. When I arrived, yeah, I went Oxford Street & bought just-released
Kid A and got into Aphex Twin. But you spend a while there, you acclimatise to the city's sonics & movements & populations & if you're into the music, develop pretty deep instincts as to how the city's music relates back to all that. There's a lot at stake there, and bullshit has to be fought. (eg anyone seen that film Shank? Only seen the trailer, but,
jesus.)
mms, the guys are fighting against real threats here. Misinformation & bullshit abounds, and then there's the diplo vultures hovring around waiting to dry hump and eviscerate some shit that's localy and structurally and important. Turf does come into that.
don't want to learn anything about a genre they are so interested that I don't give a shit.
The problem is here, talking about learning and education. Most posters here seem like musically curious people. Personally I've only ever posted on this thread because it's the only one really heading out into territory unknown and undocumented anywhere else, and I feel weird talking for us collectively, but whatever. People here will pore over whatever's put in front of them, but no-one's going to reject the reaction we had when we first found the stuff. In my case that was Nate, RP Boo, Solo & Spinn, but mostly Nate. I spent a whole evening ripping the shit of utube - the only place I could find it - and listened to it at night on a coach on the way to an airport. Listened to Give Dat Man Room on repeat staring down at the demarcation of fields over the south east UK. It was strong shit and I tripped out. Music is just as much to do with these sorts of events as my 10 year event in London, and I'm not going to be educated out of that moment.
Kids and adults do make music in different ways, too. Elmoe can do things - pretty subtle things, true - that Roc can't do, vice versa. I love both these guys btw, and I'm certainly not trying to oppose them. I don't know Roc's bio but I get the impression that he's been around a while, his stuffs lean & concentrated, well chosen elements and well fucking put together.
Work dis pussy samples a bit of synth from Crossroads by bone thugs, shit still propels. Elmoe samples the X files theme and puts together some weird, woozy shit, thrown together in a way you can only do when you're young. Both guys have made some accomplished shit.
The Aphex comparisons are not totally lame either. In the early 90's I was 10 years old & definitely not active in IDM cirlcles, but my understanding is that there was this pervasive idea (still undefeated f we go by that BBU article dave q mentioned) that dance music is mindless. So these guys took the template and made some shit that's active straight on the brain. Didn't Aphex call it Braindance? Then we've got grime; excluded from the clubs and dances by a racist police force it concentrated on the radio, became a tool for MC. My understanding of juke and footwork is that it doesn't cater to big communal parties, everyone facing the DJ, etc. It's for guys to dance in a circle against one another.
All three of these instances, big shared-consciousness dance music got more self conscious and shed its easily danceable elements to pursue something else.
You and Neema are obviously dedicated & eneregetic guys and I've got a lot of time for that. That's another reason I want to check out more RP Boo stuff; I found an interview again on utube where the Boo's imploring everyone to get together and build some shit, and still he makes some of the starkest, coldest stuff I've ever heard, and I've only every heard maybe 5 of 6 tracks I know definitely are his. If I lived anywhere in the Eastern US I'd be straight on the greyhound or domestic flight & be checking this stuff out first hand, but that's not an option. So there's the internet, which is a real place where you can spend real time, and it's just absurd that I should have to validate whatever experience I've had with the music there.