Some Dubstep Recommendations

In the current dubstep-idm-"post-whatever" beat scene explosion, there is a wealth of great material.

Dubstep, the vague catch-all term for this current style, has been around for a couple years and comes out of the UK Garage scene. While there are some common traits (starting with skittish beats, and subchaining, or that "breathing quality" to the track) the sound can be wildly different and in my experience breaks down roughly (very roughly) into two camps. First you've got your slower more "wonky" dubstep (wonky because it has that wawawawawa synth sound) as characterized by Rusko. On the otherside you have what Praveen, founder of Percussion Lab, calls "Lovestep". This "Lovestep" is in my eyes epitomized by Burial's "Untrue". Burial, arguably the first dubstep great, hails from Bristol, the semi-official birthplace of dubstep.

However these categories quickly break-down when one considers the scope of the sound. From the Dub (as in the kind from jamaica) flair of The Bug to the glitchy-tendency of many Warp veterans, the current electronic music vanguard is as all vanguards are, beyond any neat description. Hyperdub's "5:Five years of Hyperdub" compilation indeed takes a look at a large swath of this sound. However, Joker, with his simplistic melodies and low BPMs seems to be onto something completely different from Flying Lotus's idiosyncratic "post-hip-hop" stylings or Zomby with his strange "post-club" offerings. Yet both appear on the same track. Perhaps at the heart of the sound is a certain urban quality, as if the music represents the fractured souls of our metropolitan climates.

As a sincere fan of the "album-as-a-coherent-statement" view, I of course have to offer my list of favorite dubstep albums. It is here, I must make the disclaimer, that I am no expert on the music, indeed I almost doubt that anyone truly is, the way one could be an expert of say a romantic-era classical music. The music is characterized by being in flux; an elusive set of new tracks, sounds, new micro-genres, sub-genres, scenes, etc.

Anyway here are some that have gotten to me

FaltyDL- Love is a Liability
2652- Unbalance
Burial- Untrue & S/T
Flying Lotus- Los Angeles
Zomby- Where Were U in 92?
The Clonious- Between the Dots
King Midas Sound- Waiting For You

Embedded here is an entertaining video posted by Xlr8r a while back about featuring FaltyDl talking about his music while rolling an Atlantic Roll.