Saying goodbye to dubstep

Much dubstep has disappeared up its nihilistic fundament. Most of what now passes for dubstep sounds like deathmetal cybergrunge. It’s unlistenable. Even major practitioners like Benga have fallen for the race to create the next theme tune for Top Gear, the acme of irritating TV irrelevance. After coming up to a brilliant climax with Diary Of An Afro Warrior, we get Phaze One and crappy, stereotypical stuff like No Bra, No Panties (classy, eh?!). And I really wouldn’t wish that on even Jeremiah Clarkson. The dire collection released by The Ministry Of Sound this year entitled The Sound Of Dubstep is another miserable case in point. 46 tracks of absolute vuvuzela earpain. The freedom of the internet means we all now have to be quality filters of the multi-dimensional wall of music out there, even within any one genre. To cut it short, that really means we just choose what we like listening to. OK, if we’ve time, it doesn’t stop us creating a list of what’s what. And very few people are memorable in this dubstep dramascape. Benga merely sounds like the best of the rest, when the rest is nothing but a bowel blockage. For sheer consistency and the creation of a particular sound, it’s Burial and label-mates King Midas Sound, as far as I’m concerned. These days, I’m no longer into car crash histrionics. I want the sound of modern Mantovani. Which reminds me. Röyksopp’s Senior is out a month today and I’ve just downloaded The Drug as a taster. But I’ll wave goodbye with a soundtrack of 13 on the 13th...

MOUNT KIMBIE Serged from Sketch On Glass EP
BURIAL Raver from Untrue
KING MIDAS SOUND One Ting (Dabrye remix) from Cool Out EP
SCUBA So You Think You're Special from Triangulation
BENGA Loose Synths from Diary Of An Afro Warrior
BREAKAGE Open Up from Foundation
DJ ZINC My DJ from Wile Out EP
FLYING LOTUS Zodiac Shit from Cosmogramma
NOSAJ THING Voices from Drift
PARIAH Orpheus from Detroit Falls EP
PINCH Gangstaz from Underwater Dancehall
SKREAM Kut-Off from Skream!
STARKEY Time Traveler from Ephemeral Exhibits

markgriffiths@idealconsulting.co.uk

Day 18357 (the Revrrbaliser edit)

Everybody’s prodding me for the latest musical sampler. Hang on a while, can’t you! Your electrendster is discovering and listening as fast as he can. Put aside your 13,000 tracks from the past and all of your guitar memory. As ever, The Quinq has something new for you…

Dorian Concept Clap Beep Boom from When Planets Explode
King Midas Sound One Ting (Dabrye Remix) from Cool Out
J Todd Aaaa from Ryzzynynce
Flying Lotus Bad Actors from 1983
Hudson Mohawke Everybody Else Is Wrong from 7 x 7 Beat

Dorian Concept sounds like R2D2 having a breakdown inside an Osaka pachinko parlour. King Midas Sound is a stable-mate of Burial and, therefore, untouchable for that unmistakably skeletal Dubstep sound. J Todd, on the other hand, is the fusion that would have fissioned had Parliament collaborated with Kraftwerk in 1975. My funkatronic favourite from this list. As for Flying Lotus, it’s a kaleidoscopic collision of TV theme tunes and film set soundscapes. The Avengers meet The Professionals for A Few Dollars More. As for the noise of Hudson Mohawke, well, it sounds like nothing less than a Red Indian lost in the middle of a modern metropolis (I saw one once on the night of 4th January, 1981, but he was walking very determinedly towards Leeds railway station). And all of this under the beat of electronica. It’s a far cry from beautiful Röyksopp. But I’m giving you another slice of the future. Go hear it! And don't bother me for a week or so. The builders are in. And The Quinq is learning Norwegian.

markgriffiths@idealconsulting.co.uk