After some conversations with friends about dubstep recently, I thought I’d put up some tunes from last year to serve as a catchup/beginners guide to the genre and its surrounds. I’m by no means an expert but over the next two pages you’ll find my favourites from Burial, Zomby, Joker, Peverelist, Benga, Skream, Samiyam, Darkstar, 2000F, Joy Orbison, King Midas Sound, Kode 9, Guido and more.

Please put your own must-listens in the comments.

Burial (with Four Tet)

Enigmatic dubstepper Burial and electronic experimentaller Four Tet combined on a 12″ last year which had two tracks at 18 minutes in length total. ‘Moth’ was the standout track of the two (the other being ‘Wolf Cub’). Perfectly combining Four Tet’s ability to chop up percussion samples in inventive ways with Burial’s ability to produce some growling yet almost supernatural sub-bass. More..»

sheisdanger You’d be forgiven for thinking that dubstep is a man’s game because so far it mainly has been. Step forward Maya Jane Coles and Lena Cullen aka She is Danger to re-address that skewed balance.

‘Hurt You’ is a sub-bass skank with both girls singing atop. While the vocals are straight out of ’90s electronica and the lyrics are a tad clichéd, the tune is a bit of a monster. The single is available on download sites from 14th December with an album coming in Spring of 2010.

MP3: She is Danger – Hurt You

They’ve also remixed recent blog favourite ‘Under the Sheets’ by Ellie Goulding (who by the way is supporting Passion Pit in March in the Olympia).

MP3: Ellie Goulding – Under the Sheets (She is Danger remix)

A video for ‘Hurt You’ is below.

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I heard this via Annie Mac and her excellent 2 Disc Mix CD Annie Mac Presents which was released a couple of weeks ago. It’s indicative of the new breed of dubstep tunes – all emotional with strains of other electronic music at its core. It’s a bit epic this. Nice one Subscape. Buy the 12″.

Annie Mac plays The Academy this Thursday with Ou Est Le Swimming Pool and another dubstep champion Benga.

kong Tonight sees the launch of Prince Kong’s debut long player Proper Horror Show, Dublin’s premier grimey dancehall artist. Over the last two years, Kong’s sound has mutated from spastic breakcore to rival the likes of The Bug for quality underground junglist rhythms. He has been working with some of the best MCs around: Warrior Queen, Jah Balance, Lady Grew, Eccleton Jarrett and MC Quilombola.

Proper Horror Show drops tonight in the Melody Bar, Capel Street, Dublin which also serves as the launch of label Ghettoquietly.
Forcefed, Eomac and Manus Goan will also be playing live and their is limited FREE DOUBLE VINYL of Proper Horror Show on the door. Amazing. It’s €10 and runs from 10.30pm to 2:30pm so if you’re popping along to this first you’ll make it in. Here’s a tune from Proper Horror Show:

MP3:Prince Kong – Outside feat. Tommy Trouble and Eccleton Jarrett

Incidentally, the photo above is by Rich Gilligan who has an exhibition of skateboarding photography happening until Sunday on Lad Lane (Just of Baggot St.), Dublin 2.

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Forthcoming on HotFlush Recordings in September (home of Mount Kimbie) is this killer ambient dubstep track ‘Wet One’ from London’s Joy Orbison which serves as the B-Side to ‘Hyph Mngo’.

A bit of buzz around this guy is forming on the basis of those two tracks. With similar reaching stuff from Benga, Joker and more, 2009 is looking like the year dubstep really began to leave behind the “wub wub” to incorporate a little bit of everything else. Thanks to Adnans and other random Twitter people for the tip.

Sample a downbeat mix by Joy Orbison after the juuuuump. More..»

jamievexd2

It was 2005 when Vex’d released Degenerate, one of the first dubstep albums to get noticed in any major way. I’m not sure what they’ve been doing since apart from a couple of twelves on Planet Mu but this solo EP from Jamie Vex’d In System Travel is definitely worth your time.

It fits right into the Planet Mu canon, somewhere between Legion of Two’s distorted bombast, Boxcutter’s ambient dub and a plethora of other names – Milanese (check his new one The Lockout), Various and of course Vex’d themselves. Tunes heavy.

Jamie Vex’d – Saturn’s Reply

A mix he did for Luckyme with tracklisting is after the jump More..»

judeestill Remember those archaic days when you picked up a magazine or newspaper and saw a playlist of what people were into that week. There is power in those subjective charts. No great fanfare or descriptions just ten of the best song around right now you should know or you might already know.

  1. Ellie GouldingStarry Eyed (Jakwob remix)
  2. Little GirlsTambourineTambourine EP (Paper Bag Records)
  3. Major LazerPon De FloorGun’s Don’t Kill People Lazers Do (Downtown)
  4. Skream & BengaTrapped in a Dark Bubble12″ (Techtonic)
  5. Daniel Rossen (of Grizzly Bear) WaterfallCrayon Angel – A Tribute to Judee Sill (American Dust)

See the full chart >>

goldielocks You may not know it yet but Goldielocks is a serious dub and grime head. The Croydon producer worked with Benga (on ‘Bear Goggles’), Tinchy Strider and remixed Mutya (her who used to be in the Sugababes) She has two EPs under her belt and is 75% English and 25% Swedish apparently.

Despite making her own productions, ‘Fuckabout’ is co-produced alongside Mark Pritchard (hear his other recent epic production ‘Wind It Up’ here) is a dub-heavy tune that falls somewhere on a venn diagram between grime, electro, dubstep and hip-hop.

Goldielocks – Fuckabout

She’s also remixed Little Boots’ latest single:

Little Boots – New In Town (Goldielocks remix)

Goldielocks also features in this month’s Wandering Feet Red Bull Podcast (iTunes link) which features interviews with Dave Longstreth of The Dirty Projectors, Senegalese world music icon Baaba Maal and dubstep newcomer Subeena, whilst the tunes come in the form of Portuguese techno from Photonz, Parisian post-funk from Debruit and GoldieLocks. It’s good. Check it. Also, there’s a RBMA workshop tomorrow night with Jape and Daedelus.

rodrigo

One of the gigs I missed which I regretted muchly of late was Prince Kong at the !Kaboogie Squidge EP launch a couple of weeks back (Also missed The Alphabet Set one for my sins). The whole stonking, rumbling set is up at !Kaboogie now and features over an hour of the best future dub, bass and ragga coming out of Ireland (and most other places) at the moment.

The durrty-skankin’ set has MC Rodrigo of Super Extra Bonus Party and MC Lady Grew from London, who I know little about but has bags of attitude. Seriously, this is heavy. Rod comes in about the 15 minute mark and Lady Grew pops up at the 26 minute mark.

Prince Kong feat. Lady Grew and Rodrigo live at Thomas House

PCP has some great photos of the launch (as the one above) and a couple of exclusive Prince Kong tracks. Kong’s album Proper Horror Show will be released this month and is expected to feature Jah Balance, Warrior Queen, Rodrigo and Lady Grew. The Well Sick EP is also coming on !Kaboogie records.

From the demo I heard a few months back, it’s going to be turning a lot of heads in the UK and Europe – I’m looking at you Mary Anne Hobbs.

In case you missed this first time around:

Prince Kong – Angsta

lazerHere’s a megamix/sampler for Diplo and Switch’s new project I mentioned last week. Major Lazer’s upcoming album is called Guns Don’t Kill People Lazers Do. The album was recorded at Tuff Gong Studios in Jamaica and is full of hipster-flavoured digital dancehall shot through with the production of Diplo and Switch.

Guests on the album include Mr. Vegas, Amanada Blank, Santigold, Turbulence, Jah Dan and Ms. Thing. Tracklisting, bio and live from SXSW video in the more. it’s sure to be a fun-listening record.

Major Lazer Album Sampler

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legionComing in June on Planet Mu is the debut album Riffs from Alan O’ Boyle (Decal) and David Lacey under the moniker Legion Of Two, a darkly dystopian dirge project which pits “electronics against live drums and percussion”. Seriously, heavy dub and industrial stuff indeed, it’s like supremely dark dubstep done live (loads of Ds right there). ‘And Now We Wait’ has been a Mary Anne Hobbs favourite for a while now and the guys did a session for her last week. It’s phenomenal. Check out that, ‘And Now We Wait’, a live vid below and listen to samples from the album here.

Legion of Two – Mary Anne Hobbs session (mediafire link)

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