The difference between dubstep four years ago and now is similar to the difference between Please Please Me and Sgt. Pepper’s. Naturally, installment two of our Summer of Speed Rounds dives into it—the first of two, maybe more.
There’s a sense that you can pick up the entire story of the music’s move just from tracks released in 2010. Start with the dusty, slo-mo funeral procession of Badawi feat. Vengeance Tenfold‘s “DstryPrfts (Shackleton Remix)”; the oddly warm industrial bash of London vet Distance‘s “No Warning”/”Jungle Fears” and “Clockwork,” backed with his remix of Pinch feat. Rudey Lee‘s “One Blood, One Source”; and the Sun Touch EP by A Made Up Sound, aka Hague dubstepper Dave Huismans, better known for his acclaimed work as 2562. (Those are on The Index, Chestplate, Tectonic, and A Made Up Sound, respectively.) “A Made Up Sound” was a 1995 track by Source Direct on Metalheadz, the high-water mark of the jungle era, and for Huismans to nod toward it so obviously says something. So does “Energy Distortion” (7even), the title track of an exceptional album by a Frenchman simply calling himself F, which brings to mind the “artcore” of Spring Heel Jack’s 68 Million Shades; Untold’s B-side remix brings the sound closer to date.
London duo Various Production was making dubstep early, and their atmospheric work on Lauren Pritchard‘s “Stuck (Various Production Remix)” (Pritchard Island) is all about that nasty bass stab and precious little to do with the song. A veteran of London radio crew Rinse FM, DVA (aka Scratcha DVA) strips things way down on “Natty”/”Ganja” (Hyperdub); the B-side’s pitch-shifted tone is a great dumb hook in oddball disguise. Hyperdub boss Kode9 saved “You Don’t Wash” for his DJ-Kicks mix (!K7); it’s sprightly and hooky, and I dig its big gleaming synth wash even as I’m starting to think it’s a cliché.
So, probably, is the tweaked and twisting tuned-percussion riff of Cubic Zirconia‘s “Josephine (Egyptrixx Dub)” (Don’t Cry), though it matters even less when a track is so clearly an anthem. It’s not a fluke, either: Egyptrixx, aka Toronto’s David Psutka, has two exceptional EPs, Battle for North America and The Only Way Up (Aahhh! Real Monsters and Night Slugs, respectively), in which he grabs on to good little riffs and filters, fucks around, and fritzes with them for minutes at a time without tiring you (or the riffs) out. On the latter, a Cubic Zirconia remix traverses Chicago house, a salsa breakdown, and the creature known, inevitably, as post-dubstep. More next week. 