Thursday, October 29, 2009

It's Getting Dark



Warning: This mix contains basslines that wobble more than your dad's jellyrolls.

The lack of dubstep on the last mix I made left a hole in me that I needed to fill, so I overcompensated and put together a dubstep mix last night.

Dubstep is a misunderstood genre - kinda like science fiction. Many people will lump anything with a wobbly bassline into the "dubstep" category, and though this is the defining feature (that and a speed of around 140bpm), its a bit like saying any book/movie set in outer space is a science fiction book. Not only does being a fan give you a bit of a rep, the bad habit that arises from this is that when you say you like dubstep people instantly assume you mean everything from the dark, hard stylings of Goth Trad, past the "clownstep" business that Jack Beats and Rusko love, out to the pop/electro dubstep remixes that have been making waves since Skream put out that La Roux remix.

I tend to prefer my dubstep without cheese nor minimal essence - and mostly without rap. MC Dynamite completely ruined Caspa's Rat-A-Tat Tat. My choices from the assorted menu tend to be dark bangers and those with emotional, melodic samples.
While I tried to keep any of the original, dated hits (which I still love) like Chase & Status's Saxon and Caspa's Remix of TC's Where's My Money?, I think this is a fairly good control sample of what I personally think makes dubstep worth listening to.

Enjoy! (mediafire)

Tracklisting

GTRONIC - Destroyer
Udachi - Jellyroll
Last Japan - Jungle Warrior (TEDD's "Eseya Huo" Remix)
Hostage - Badman Sound
DZ - Down
The Prodigy - Breathe (Numbernin6 Remix)
Datsik - Gizmo
Tek-One - Pressure
Mikey B. feat. Ill Bill Bachelor - Still Dre (Dubstep Fix)
Wachs Lyrical - Dark Entity VIP
Pitbull - I Know You Want Me (Evol Intent Remix)
Mistabishi - Printer Jam (Barbarix Remix)
Reso - Beasts In The Basement
Emalkay - When I Look At You (Sduk Remix)
Reso - Onslaught
Deadmau5 - I Remember (Caspa Remix)
Teasers - Sooner Or Later (Jakwob Remix)
BONUS - Flight of The Conchords - The Most Beautiful Girl In The World (Kissy Klub DNB Version)

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Megadrive


Warning: This post does not accept game cartridges.

DJ Sega played at Triangle last Friday, coming all the way from Pennsylvania to hit us with the East Coast ish that got the guy onto Diplo's Mad Decent label. The electro junkies at Triangle just didn't know what to do with it - is it hip-hop? is it dubstep? Are his decks skipping?

Baltimore beat (there's probably another term for it, but I'm not very genre-savvy) is indeed unique, but it's not hard to see where it came from. My guess is it's just a tangent of the East Coast hip-hop sound, where a few DJs decided they'd rather screw with samples of other tracks than just lay down a beat for an MC to spit on. The upside is in it's shock value - "hey I love this son-what the hell is he doing to it?!", where the downside is, to be frank, it's a bit repetitive. As soon as you pronounce the bassline, you've got to do more things with it than just boom, boom, b-b-boom. Still, if you can get past that, the key is in hearing Nirvana and Michael chopped to death. That, and wonderful moments like this one below.


The track did get a little bit more expansive with it's sampling, but hardly - so you get the repetition. But the fact that Timmy! is obviously having a brain explosion over a beat is extremely entertaining, to this patron, at least.

The crowd swelled at the start, but slowly dropped off til we had a lot of the dancefloor to ourselves. Shame, really - not often Osaka gets a change of pace like that.

Nice work Sega - now, if you wouldn't mind giving me back my girlfriend before you go...cheers.

Dilem-Mo



Warning: This post features unfashionable facial hair.

I'm currently tossing up whether to grow a moustache for Movember.

Any moustache I grow would be purely amusing and decorative, as sadly I don't really have the ability over here to collect any funds for charity.

The dilem-Mo I am facing is that
- I really don't look that great with a mo
- I'm not 100% certain about the above statement, as every time I try to grow one, they get to a point where they itch like a Mo-fo and I frustratedly shear them from my upper lip.
-Not many of my compatriots seem to care much for growing one themselves.

But what the hey. I figure there's no better a time to put aside my deMo-ns, Mo-ve past my irritation and put it all in Mo-tion.

I could organise a collection and send it to someone in NZ, but it seems a bit tough. If anyone knows anyone who I can send Mo-ney to, however, please let me know - I may change my Mo-ind.

I think this is all entirely because I like saying the word "Mo".