Dubstepping into the Spotlight

The popular perception of Seattle’s Decibel Festival is that it’s
dominated by highbrow techno and experimental music. Those elements
definitely factor into the fest’s program, but there’s far more to it than that. At any given showcase during
this annual celebration of electronic multimedia arts, there’s bound to
be just as much dancing and whooping as there is chin scratching and
serious contemplation.

A striking change to this year’s bill is the preponderance of
dubstep and other bass-centric producers and DJs. Although Decibel
director Sean Horton contends that Decibel has been high on
low-end-­intensive electronic music since its 2004 inception, it
appears that this year marks an increase in attention paid to musicians
and DJs prowling around the sound spectrum’s lowest realms.

“People forget that Decibel has been booking ‘bass-centric’ music
for the past six years,” says Horton. “Modeselektor, Glitch Mob,
Tipper, Flying Lotus, Kode9, edIT, Jahcoozi, Deadbeat, MachineDrum, the
Bug, Meat Beat Manifesto, Dabrye, and CLP, to name a few. Hiphop and
dub have always been at the heart of the music I love, even more so
than techno, ambient, and experimental forms of electronic music, which
so many people seem to pigeonhole Decibel into for some reason. Dub was
what gave birth to everything that electronic music is now known for,
and hiphop is what influenced me to start listening to electronic music
in the first grade.”

Point taken. However, Decibel 2009 is undeniably stacked with more
dubstep artists (Benga, Martyn, Mala, N-Type, Boxcutter, Caspa, Pinch,
etc.) and dub-inflected techno producers (Echospace, Voodeux, the Sight
Below, etc.) than were previous years’ lineups. In addition, outright
dub specialist Mad Professor, dub-informed pan-globalist DJ /rupture,
and dub/dancehall vocalist DJ Collage will perform (the latter with
Monkeytek). To that end, Decibel is hosting two “dB in duB” showcases
and a “dB in duB Afterhours: Dub Mutants.” And in a real coup, Horton
is bringing in BBC Radio 1 DJ Mary Anne Hobbs, who’s become perhaps the
world’s foremost tastemaker and disseminator of dubstep and its myriad
mutations. She’ll be anchoring the “Bass Lovers Unite” showcase with
Megasoid, Daedelus, Nosaj Thing, and others.

This is a momentous move for Decibel, because dubstep has been
evolving in so many exciting directions over the past few years. It’s
one of the few musical genres in which progress and mutation seem to
occur practically on a monthly basis, as artists explore new rhythmic
and tonal territory with ravenous zeal. Dubstep’s compositional
structures and sonic elements haven’t solidified yet, although the
subsonic bass wobble has established itself as a signature trait.
Dubstep can be heady, highly atmospheric, and texturally abstruse, but
it’s also deeply physical music, often featuring sadistically punishing
beats and swarming bass tones that vibrate cells as much as they move
asses (and sometimes bowels, be careful out there). This is the stuff
Timbaland, Kanye West, and other mainstream hiphop producers likely
will be jacking in 2010.

Does Horton feel like he’s taking a risk by booking so many acts in
these styles?

“First off, out of over 100 acts, only about 10 are actually
considered to be dubstep artists,” he notes. “Just to put it into
perspective, we’re booking just as many ambient acts this year, so it’s
not really that substantial a portion of the festival program as a
whole. You also have to account for the fact that we’ve added five new
venues and 10 additional showcases this year. If you eliminated the
dubstep portion of the festival, we’d still be 20 percent larger with
this year’s program compared to previous years.”

One local figure who’s excited by Decibel’s emphasis—however
slight its founder thinks it is—on bass-heavy fare is Ill Cosby,
a skilled producer/DJ who runs the Car Crash Set label and hosts the
Cosby Show Nights program (Tues, 8–10 pm CST) on glitch.fm.

Cosby’s thrown himself headlong into the vibrant electronic-music
talent pool that’s arisen through what critic Simon Reynolds calls “the
hardcore continuum” (2-step/grime/glitch-funk/dubstep, etc.) because
“This is a convergence of everything I like about electronic music: It
has loads of bass, staggered and swinging rhythms, and most of all, no
rules on structure, which keeps everything fresh and surprising. I find
that music, dance music in particular, that adheres to a strict
structure can become stagnant. Music—like Zomby or Hudson
Mohawke—that seems almost lawless is thrilling to me.”

Unsurprisingly, Cosby’s most anticipated acts are Nosaj Thing, Mad
Professor, Benga, Boxcutter, and Caspa, as well as the “Muti Music
Showcase.” He’s also stoked about Hobbs, he says, “As she broke the
dubstep sound to a wide audience and has been a large proponent of the
recent L.A./’West Coast Rocks’ sound,” of which Nosaj Thing is one of
the most deft practitioners.

Speaking of Hobbs, it’s amusing to observe that a 45-year-old former
punk/heavy-metal-oriented music scribe for Sounds and NME is now recognized as one of the planet’s most prominent advocates for
innovative electronic music. The sounds this popular DJ favors are
“unified by [their] elemental nature and spirit of defiance. Electronic
music moves forward in thousands of small scattered steps every day all
over the world, and it’s the sense that you never know what’s around
the next corner, especially with artists like Kode9 and Flying Lotus,
that keeps it so exciting.”

As with so much electronic music over the last 20 years, London has
been the source of much innovation. Does Hobbs have any theories
why?

“Like L.A., London is full of immigrants from all over the UK (and
the world) who’ve given up conventional life in their home towns and
have come to charge at their dreams,” she says via e-mail. “If you are
serious about success, there is no better way to position yourself than
at the heart of a community of kindred creative spirits.”

Regarding her Decibel set, Hobbs says that it’ll be in the vein of
the bold new Wild Angels comp on Planet Mu, which features
tracks by beat futurists like Untold, Rustie, Legion of Two, and
others.

“I’ll try to represent as many different flavors and textures of the
sounds I love as possible, but still build a set that will burn on a
dance floor. You will hear the spirit of Wild Angels coursing
through the set, but it will be a slightly tougher interpretation.”

So in the wake of all this talk of bass’s wondrous transformative
properties and salubrious effects, we wonder what technical audio steps
Decibel is taking to ensure that its venues will properly represent
these extremely low frequencies. Horton is prepared. “We’re outfitting
all the clubs that are hosting the ‘dB in duB’ showcases (Neumos,
Motor, Little Red Studio) with the same high-end PA reinforcement that
Decibel has become known for utilizing, including plenty of extra subs
(KV2 Audio, Dynacord, McCauley, etc.). Rest assured, there’ll be
massive amounts of bass at these venues.”

In keeping with its tradition, Decibel’s palette is diverse and
talent-rich, but in 2009, it appears that bass will be the place. Never
has so much depended on the subwoofer.