Tag Archives: dubstep

Midweek Music: Shirk, Arbitraire, Snoop Dogg, Dark Sky & More!

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Advent - Stamp The Wax
While the holiday season bears down on us, that doesn’t mean the tunes have to freeze over. 5 more tunes, and not a cold shoulder in sight!

You don’t hear glitch hop like this much these days. I’m a huge fan of the orchestral feel that the track gives off. It’s almost got this mad scientist feel to it, as electro clashes with glitch and everyone wins. Definitely not something I’ve heard in some time, so even though I’m a year late to the party, Shurk got followed like woah.

Arbitraire showed up from nowhere with this winner of an indietronica tune. There’s a pretty high level of moodly dopeness here, with the track wandering into London Grammar territory at times. It’s hard to keep this kind of production under wraps so watch for this group, wherever they’re from, to start making digital waves in 2016.

Stamp The Wax is one of my favorite UK blogs & for the holiday season, they’re bringing out the Advent Calendar. A whole month of music leading up to Christmas, with all the proceeds going directly to the artists, with mastering, hosting and all of the trimmings being comped. This tune comes from Dark Sky, a hugely talented London trio. This 8:25 epic journey feels like it’s halfway between the worlds of techno, garage, minimal and topped with just a dash of Latin. It feels very Barcelona during Sonar Festival, with the tune oozing character but not in a hurry to get anywhere.

A tune from 2004 by a group called The Real Tuesday Weld, this is about as random as it is chill. The genre was dubbed Antique Beat, but this was 3 years before Beats Antique showed up, so it’s managed to be its own thing. The video is what happens when you let a YouTube producer loose on the Internet Archive. The track is as close as you can get to a modern iteration on the classic Steamboat Willy vibe of vintage jazzy lounge music.

This is one of those remixes you’ve heard over and over in tiny pieces. I kept hearing it on forums and had to track it down. It’s about 3 years too late, but if you’re legit looking for a celebration anthem for 420, a way to test out new speakers, or troll straight edge friends, I got you covered. Just don’t tell Dr. Dre.

Midweek Music: DZZ, Mobil, Win & Woo, The Kairi Collective & Priscilla Sharp

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summer New week, more music! One classic, couple newbies, all quality & no bullshit. Wide variety this week, so let’s get into it!  DZZ came out of nowhere on this one. With a premiere on Nest HQ this week, DZZ is going places. This tune is at once chippy, future and melancholy. The production values are off the charts on this & the drippingly synthetic vocals are stupendous. This is my sleeper hit for the week, so get into the whole EP here.

Collectives are so hot right now. The Kairi Collective dropped this release and I couldn’t be happier that they did. This chilled vibe is unmistakeable. The glitchy, dubsteppy sounds work perfectly with the classical violin, piano and shifting chords. Really looking forward to where Pensees, Quok & Jan Amit are going with this as this effort is tremendous.

 I’m so glad Tropical has turned into an element of music production, instead of a genre of music. Just like dubstep before it, people are realizing that steel drums & sexy sax do not a song make. You still need a hook and possibly some catchy lyrics. Win & Woo have a great little ditty here, and have a soaring mainstage career in front of them as long as they do the work.

This one takes a minute to get going, but you want to give it the time it deserves. Like a girl who knows what she wants, this track takes its time and really explores a sound that’s both future & 90’s vintage. I don’t know how to describe this, except maybe if Cyndi Lauper did some K & then took some allergy meds. And I mean that in the best possible way. It’s like if The Eurythmics had a Macbook to produce on. Trust me, you want to hear this. Priscilla Sharp knows what she’s doing so don’t disappoint her.

Classic trance vibe right here, and it’s from 2013. This really doesn’t need any further introduction besides it being euphoric trance that needs to be played on high volume. Mobil does amazing work here, so show it some love. And if someone can clue me into where I can get more full-length mixes of this style of trance, hit up the comments.

Midweek Music: White Boys, MitiS, GRMM, Lookas, KSHMR & Vaski

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These Irish guys said they’d let me know when their new single was out and they came through. This is a funky, indie flavored track that really makes me want to go to the party this was filmed at. Excellent effort by White Boys, and I can’t wait to see where they go with this sound. Here’s to hoping they invite me to the next party. I’ll show up. Even if it’s in Dublin. That kind of scene is totally worth a hop across the pond for.

GRMM is an Australian stunner on Hegemon records. This future tune took me by surprise. It almost shimmers as it smooths along the avenue. Travolta Cool is such a clever title for a relaxed track like this. Now I’ll be following this dude around the internet like the weird, creepy sonic stalker I am.

MitiS is a force of nature. I don’t care if you’ve followed him for years like I have, or if this is the first time you’ve heard one of his tunes. His signature fusion of electro, progressive, trance & chillout make him an act to remember. I interviewed him way back when. Who knows if he even remembers now that he’s a big star. If you don’t know why, put Forever into your face.

This Song Is Sick debuted a stupendous chillstep track this weekend. KSHMR & Vaski collab with Francisca Hall for a lovely, edgy dubstep track that keeps it taut. This one is some new hotness that should be getting a lot of attention this week already.

 Lookas keeps things real, and I’m so glad to hear some originals from this guy after a string of dope remixes. This kind of anthem trap that gives you hope for the future and doesn’t remind me of white guys with dreadlocks at all. When it could be performed live with a drum line you know it’s dope.

Earworm Of The Month: SubVibe – Lemons [Portal Dubstep]

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SubVibe - Lemons

SubVibe – Lemons

It’s been a tough month, so I needed something with a little more punch. In this post-dubstep era, the rare tunes that still effectively leverage the wubs earn my respect. This one came out over the weekend and it’s been on repeat. I am going to inflict this on everyone I know, so you might as well get it over with. This has a beginning that evokes the best of Portal. This is the greatest motivationalstep I’ve ever heard. I don’t think that’s a genre, but this anthemic massive vibe that the step & quotes bring forth is really potent. Even just the quote:

Do you know who I am?! I’m the man who’s gonna burn your house down!

With the Lemons.

There’s some great guitar work halfway through, showing that SubVibe aren’t resting on their laurels and keeps you engaged. This is critical with dubstep. It needs to change up or we stop paying attention. 3min in, when the quote comes back, the hardness is in full effect and it crosses into the realm of Seven Lions and the best of the best. This track totally blew me away, and I don’t say that about many things. The energy drops back down after more surprisingly good guitar work, leaving me hoping for more. Alright, I’m into it, let’s bring dubstep back just for Portal.

Midnight Music: Amy Steele – The Wolves (KOVEN. Remix)

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Super glad I got tipped off to this by an old friend. I haven’t heard triumphant melodic dubstep like this in a while. While the chilltrap & chillstep movement has powered along, my awareness of that punchy dubstep sound has dropped off. This is a severe mistake which UKF has helped rectify. The growling bass &  echoing vocals are exactly what they need to be to make this vibe work in the unironic, almost triumphant way KOVEN. has been able to here. The duo have an awareness that I think deserves as much development as possible. The burbling dubstep shining against the vocals give me flashbacks to Marina & the Diamonds and Ms. Lily Allen. Get at these peeps.

DJ Joman Is Weirder Than Ever. [Epic Always Sunny In Philadelphia Remix]

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Well this is stunning. I’m not sure how you even storyboard something like this. Joman, after totally dominating my earholes for months in 2013 with Daymanstep, has returned with an even more ambitious project. Instead of just pulling from a couple of shows, he pulled from multiple seasons, all the way up to Season 9. To be clear, everything you’re seeing, was actually aired by It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, so keep that in mind. It takes 2min to even get to the explosive proglectro remix that we were waiting around for. Through and through, this is a stunning project that will make your relatives uncomfortable. This is up there with some Williams Street shit, except this one actually has a dance beat and not that sweet, sweet Aqua Teen Hunger Force money. To be clear, a tremendous effort that I’ll use on people who say they love illadelphia & hate dance music. Just try not to show this to someone who is tripping too hard. That might not go well for them.

New Burial. What Else Do You Need To Know?

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We’ve been blessed with a full track from the magical, musical mind of Burial. This time coming off of Keysound Recordings, it takes all of 5 seconds to become perfectly apparent that Burial is back and doing what we all love him for. The moody bass, straddling the lines between breaks, real dubstep (pay attention kids), UK garage comes on strong, with his signature ethereal vocals shimmering into existence a little over a minute in. It’s not new ground, but I could not be happier this is out, to remind people that stuff can actually sound like this. It rambles along, pulling the feeling of loss & almost confusion into the vibe of the track, and before you know it, it’s gone. A 2:41 track is tiny compared to most of his work, but at the same time, it’s still manna from the heavens. Even though it is always raining in Burial tracks, so don’t look up unless you want to get bass rain in your eyes.

Cole Rolland Plays Dubstep On Guitar. Someone Tell The Pegboard Nerds.

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Firstly, dope 80’s style electric guitar work definitely needs to come back. And if this kid is the one to do it, so much the better. Cole Rolland takes the electrostep remix of Krewella’s Alive by Pegboard Nerds and drops it live, on his axe. This is a massive accomplishment & further reinforces my hypothesis that dubstep is the synthetic equivalent of a whammy bar, especially when he plays dubstep…largely with his whammy bar. I am a huge fan of the technical skill involved in this cover, and would love to see more guitar YouTube people get into this kind of cross over work. Shit, Infected Mushroom sounded dope with a live guitarist. What are you doing to cross boundaries while expressing yourself on Monday huh? 😀

Midnight Music: Virtual Riot – We’re Not Alone (Cybin Quest Remix) [Synth Bass]

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Virtual Riot - We're Not Alone (Cybin Quest Remix)

Remix contests are one of the best things that have come out of broadband & global DJ culture. Every time, some ridiculous unknown producer comes out of the invisible internet to put a previously incomprehensible spin on a tune. Virtual Riot does some amazing work, that’s hard to top, but it looks like it’s happened. I know that sometimes it’s hard to listen to a lot of more potent synthy stuff, because a lot of the time, even though the sound that was created “sounds” cool, it’s not used well, and the track is boring. This is definitively not the case with Cybin Quest. This DC native dropped a potent remix of We’re Not Alone last month that I’m just now able to give the attention it properly deserves. This is new sounds people, from an angle people were getting bored of. Everyone can drop bonkers Datsik/Exision/Baystep sounds, but very few can use them correctly. Listen, and enjoy. This kid’s got my attention, and he should probably have yours.

Midnight Music: MitiS ft. Crywolf – Oasis (Vocal Mix) [MitiSstep]

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I don’t know how he keeps doing it. MitiS knocks another one out of the park, this time, pushing out the first single from his new Oasis EP. This triumphant epicstep carries the lofty standard of quality we’ve come to expect from MitiS forward mightily. The soaring synthy step-y lines accompanied by some almost soulful male vocals by Crywolf make for a wonderful little track. There’s a rambling, almost pop-punk quality to the tune that comes in during the isolated anthemic vocals. The ping-pong beats glitter along, making you feel as if you’d just beaten a Mega Man game for the NES or something. This makes his upcoming tour even more exciting. The full EP drops at the end of the month. Don’t sleep on it.