Subliminal Transmissions on Drowned in Sound

And so Drowned in Sound's spotlight on dubstep/grime/funky/whatever continues. Subliminal Transmissions will be a monthly column focusing on 'UK-centric post-garage music'. With Sonic Router's Rory Gibb penning the first feature, we're in good hands. The first Subliminal Transmissions features a mix giving 'a decent overview of some of this summer’s best and most anticipated releases, and giving a reasonable point at which to begin the wallet-destroying practice of 12” acquisition.' Track list:

Digital Mystikz – Unexpected [DMZ]
Pariah – Crossed Out [R&S]
George Fitzgerald – Fernweh [unreleased]
Ramadanman – Fall Short [Swamp81]
Superisk – Find Your Way [forthcoming Punch Drunk]
Joe – Untitled [Apple Pips]
Low Density Matter/LHF – Blue Steel [Keysound]
Simon/Off – Bilals Echo [Elevate]
Mau’lin – Tripwall [unreleased]
Al Tourettes – The Next Meal [If Symptoms Persist]
Hyetal – Phoenix [forthcoming Orca]
To Rococo Rot – Fridays (Shackleton’s West Green Road Remix) [Domino]
Cooly G – Phat Si [Hyperdub]
Kidkut – Lilt [Apple Pips]
WickedA – A Nie Dvamata S Bobi Piem Kafe (Ramadanman Refix) [white]
Ikonika – Shouldn’t Be Here [forthcoming Planet Mu]
Jackal Youth – Bruk [Reduction]
FaltyDL – Because You [Planet Mu]
Joe – Level Crossing [Hessle Audio]
Peverelist – Better Ways Of Living [Punch Drunk]
Scuba – Golden (Melisa Puga’s Howeverdoyouwant Vocal Mix) [unreleased]

Subliminal Transmissions Mix 01: August 2010 by Eighteen on Mixcloud

Download from here: http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4140752-subliminal-transmissions-01?10-years-of-dubstep

25 Tracks: a Dubstep Chronology Mixtape on Drowned in Sound

The influential Drowned in Sound website is celebrating its tenth birthday, and as part of that they're running a series of articles this week on dubstep and its numerous offshoots and mutations. First up is an excellent retrospective mix/article by Rory Gibbs:

"Although it's difficult to ascertain the exact reasons why dubstep in particular has proved such a fertile ground for such focused experimentation, it's probably got a lot to do with the amount of space inherent in its structure. When those spaces first developed, leaving chasms between kicks, snares and gulping maws of sub-bass, it reflected the grimly identikit nature of the semi-urban cityscape surrounding its creators.

But later on, as producers from outside those regions adopted its influence, those gaps left room for other synthesised sounds to creep in. And unlike, say, jungle, which was already tightly packed with overlapping layers of sound, adding extra elements - toxic synths, found sound, swung percussion - posed less risk of overcomplicating dubstep into an indistinct, undanceable mess. It posed a perfect opportunity for a huge range of electronic musicians to imprint entirely unique stamps on its basic form; the seemingly endless array of permutations doing the rounds today offers pretty strong evidence to support this notion."

The tracklist of the mix:

Groove Chronicles - Stone Cold
Horsepower Productions - Hdn
Benga - Amber
Toasty - The Knowledge
Vex'd - Venus
Digital Mystikz - Neverland
Burial - South London Boroughs
Kode9 - 9 Samurai
Pinch - Qawwali
Skream - I (Loefah Remix)
Skream - Midnight Request Line
Shackleton - New Dawn
Peverelist - Erstwhile Rhythm
2562 - 'Channel Two'
Trg - Broken Heart (Martyn's Dcm Remix)
Pangaea - You & I
Ramadanman - Humber
Appleblim - Vansan
Geiom - Reminissin' - Kode9 Refix
Untold - Anaconda
Ikonika - Please
Joker - Gully Brook Lane
Brackles - Rawkus
Scuba - Latch
Joy Orbison - So Derobe

Download/stream/article available here: http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4140731-25-tracks--a-dubstep-chronology-mixtape

Mount Kimbie add Dublin and Galway shows

London post-dubstep duo Mount Kimbie have just released their first LP, Crooks & Lovers, which is the follow-up to the superb, boundary-pushing brace of EPs they released last year, Sketch on Glass and Maybes. They've announced a tour of the UK as well as a couple of Irish dates : Galway's Roisin Dubh on October 12th, and Dublin's Academy 2 on the 13th.

Mount Kimbie - Field (from Crooks & Lovers) by Hotflush

Foals - Spanish Sahara (Mount Kimbie Remix) by fabric

Another ace mix from the one and only jimitheexploder

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/xplodersessions

Joker - Tron

Big, big release this. I'm still feeling my way through the dubstep/grime scene, so i'm not going to make a lame attempt to describe this tune. Instead, here's a killer write-up from jimitheexploder over at http://thesonicminefeild.blogspot.com/:

"This is a track that can’t be stopped, a certified anthem that has to be unleashed on the public while it’s hot. It’s so hot it can’t be left until Joker finishes his album the track is just too big to be confined and sat on. It’s not to often an anthem comes around that you’ll hear everyone in the dubstep scene and a fair few beyond play out, but ‘Tron’ is one of them and has been for some time, maybe pre-dating the last scene wide anthem ‘Hyph Mngo’ and the latest upstart ‘Footcrab’. At a time where there is so much talk of the scene expanding and bleeding in all directions, ‘Tron’ shows that there is still a united core at work behind dubstep and one with depth too if you take those three examples. So to write words about this track seems almost futile, as you’ve either heard it and even sung along to it’s twisted synth lines, hell you may have even choreographed a dance to it… But if you haven’t heard it, first of all where have you been? And come inside you’re in for a real treat, you’ll be throwing gun fingers from your neon glow bike in no time.

The 5th release on Joker’s Kapsize label is born: ‘Tron’ takes Joker’s hyper addictive synth funk aesthetic and really lets it wile out. It’s smoother than breakthrough anthem ‘Gully Brooke Lane’ but more deranged than ‘Digidesign’. It’s a track that sounds like it’s born out of the last few years of Joker playing bigger and bigger raves, a track that doesn’t hold back. It’s smooth yet hyper-filth all at once, blurring the lines of dubstep and grime along with crunked out hip-hop. The intro springs into action like a hyped up circus/big-top soundtrack and not unlike a grimy vision of Quest’s ‘The Seafront’ before really letting loose. Then you get the drop, THAT drop: pent up energy, compressed and unleashed through vintage synths and hyeprfunk melody lines that burst and flutter as they progress over fat bass tones and punchy drums. The nearest you’ll get to ‘Tron’ in Joker released material is his work with the badman that is Ginz, but if you’ve stepped inside one of Joker’s sets you’ll no doubt know, ‘My Trance Girl’ and ‘There She Goes’ are on a similar tip.

The VIP is a hot one too, smoothing out the edges and upping the funk to create a track that is what you may imagine the rumoured Silkie collaborations to sound like if/when they surface. Smooth supped up late night street soul. Plus it’s a welcome twist up of the original to throw the floor, which is handy when the original is so well played. Joker blurs the lines and leads the way with his dubstep meets grime hybrids. Fitting in with Terror Danjah and Swindle as much as he does Gemmy and Guido, let alone Skream and Benga. ‘Tron’ is finally unleashed it’s a firm declaration of intent by Joker to shake up dance floors."

Joker  "TRON" (original mix) by Multiverse


http://www.myspace.com/thejokerproductions