Ikonika – Contact, Want, Love, Have [Hyperdub]

The Mega Drive generation has been in full effect in recent years, people who grew up with 8-bit bleep tones engrained on their brains from bashing buttons and chasing pixels have been translating those influences into their art. You can hear this ‘PlayStation boogie’ in the ever-blurring fringes of the dubstep scene, its been devouring the bleeps like a ghost chased Pacman and showing it off with pride. Not only that though it’s all being twisted through other influences and that makes it a hard album to pin down, she’s got a unique voice that touches on so much and comes out in directions that are hard to imagine. You get the upfront playfulness of modern R&B and the sweet syrupy bleep funk of Skweee or the aforementioned computer game soundtracks playing off the dark, heavy bass weight of dubstep and a diverse rhythm-scape that seems to feed on anything from skippy garage to tough and rough uk funky hybrids via a hardcore punk sensibility. Ikonika’s debut 12” with the addictive and sinuous ‘Please’ really got me hooked back in 2008 and her debut album in 2010 does the same.

Power up with ‘Ikonoklast (insert coin)’ and before you know it ‘Idiot’ is unleashed on you, this dropped on a 12” recently with a fantastic Altered Natives remix that strips back the hyperactive bleeps and bumps up the chunky house funk vibes, it’s a killer track… The original bubbles with energy and comes alive on dance floors thanks to its bouncy bassline all while it leaves it’s Gameboy hook in your head for days. The epic, sweeping synth lines of ‘Yoshimitsu’ and the slow burning, ‘Fish’ with there subtly shifting melodic patterns feel like your sinking into a sea of neon bliss, the latter especially has been one that always seems to creep into my sets. The drums skip, bubble and roll around the ebbing digital tide perfectly.

The massively heavy and spaced out ‘R.E.S.O.O.L.’, which turns out to be looser backwards is one of those tracks you didn’t see coming. Its got all the hallmarks of her sound but twists them in a way I couldn’t predict, a pixelated Godzilla attach that grinds, growls and swirls with mysterious melody. The dark 80s/90s-esq synth workout ‘They Are All Loosing The War’ feels like grime work its way back in a time machine to a techno rave in a dark warehouse. The next two may be familiar if you’ve been following Ikonika: ‘Millie’ has been a favourite of mine for a while; the twisted off-kilter woozy synth patterns bounce off the deep bass tones perfectly. And the beats go from punchy half step and rock-like to pumping energy fuelled dance floor shakers. ‘Sarah Michael’ appeared on the ‘5’ compilation last year, it’s a track that has grown on me considerably. When the bass drops it kicks a hell of a punch and those Street Fighter-esq melodies really work their way under your skin. ‘Continue?’ really does remind you of the moment in a game where you die and have to choose to reboot or give up, but with this album it’s an easy choice. Keep rolling…

The latter half of the album gets more percussive, taking pointers from uk funky’s hard soca bump. It’s an influence that’s really taking hold in the dubstep scene over the last few years probably thanks to its addictiveness in the dance, and Ikonika takes on this influence with ease. ‘Heston’ bumps hard with digi-snares, claps and kicks that make you want to shake it alongside roller-rink melodies and deep comforting bass, it’s a subtle one. The hard hitting ‘Psoriasis’ reminds me of Lil Silva the uk funky don with his square-wave synths and raw grimy dance floor power, filtered through the Ikonika prism of bleeps and short circuits. ‘Video’ Delays’ takes those chunky house drums and off-sets it with hypnotic Bladerunner synth lines. The last push comes in the form of ‘Look (final boss stage)’, which has that Lil Silva vibe again, tough grimy and fun. ‘Red Marker Pens (good ending)’ ebbs and flows with a melodic kind of bliss channelled through the swirling pads, synths and hypnotic bass tones.

Contact, Want, Love, Have is a seriously addictive album. I’ve been to busy playing it to bother writing about it, but it has to be done or I’d feel like something is missing. It’s a really fun coherent piece and the first full-length artist album to showcase the bleepy synth led direction that Hyperdub have been playing with over the last few years. Ikonika makes a world of her own here, there are some kind of boundaries set up somewhere but she moves freely between them, keeping things interesting and diverse within her distinct sound. The way the music progresses from bumps and bleeps to smeared syrup drenched passages is pretty addictive. The melodies are so catchy and the bass so hard it’s like she’s mutated things so much that some kind of new hardcore-pop-r&b-hyper-dance hybrid has been created where the lead singer has been replaced by synths and everything has been cranked up for maximum enjoyment.

http://www.myspace.com/ikonika
http://www.myspace.com/hyperdub

Kyle Hall – The Dirty Thouz EP [Wild Oats] | Kaychunk/You Know What I [Hyperdub]

Two pretty different releases from the young Detroit producer: The Dirty Thouz EP on his own Wild Oats imprint takes a route down the almost lo-fi clockwork techno avenue, a retro leaning spectral take on the Detroit techno sound, full of soul and rolling glitchy hip-hop-esq beats. While the Hyperdub offering is a more straight up techno effort but with a twist.

The Detroit axis of vaguely new artists from the aforementioned Kyle Hall to Omar-S have reunited my love for techno, which has been on the wane slightly in favour of dubstep, UK funky hybrids and hip-hop beats over the last few years at least. These guys almost sound like the Detroit equivalent of what Burial is to garage and dubstep. They channel the ghosts of their cities dance music past, keeping it slightly elusive and a tad nostalgic while still pushing it in new and interesting directions. But Kyle Hall and Omar-S aim more squarely at the dance floors while they’re at it.

The two KMFH tracks from Dirty Thouz, ‘I'm KMFH GIRL!’ and ‘Luv 4 KMFH’ show Kyle at his most soulful and sparse, with woozy winding synth lines and bleep funk bass tones over winding beats that feel like they’re warping like they’re being played off a broken tape deck. They balance soulful warmth with a haunted machine like skeletal existence brilliantly. They fit somewhere between 80s b-boy electro, the twisted hip-hop soul of J Dilla and the ghosts of Detroit’s past.

The opener on the Hyperdub 12”, ‘Kaychunk’ is a rolling techno affair, twisting and flexing in an almost garage-like fashion but sticking pretty firmly to Kyle’s deep funk drenched techno. Bleeping lead lines and squelching bass that really brings the boogie is the flavour here. Reminiscent of DaM-Funk at times but in a KMFH state of mind at all times. But it’s ‘You Know What I’ that see Kyle Hall playing with a dubstep tempo and creating a lush, synth funk techno track that meets somewhere between the purple funk of Bristol or LA, the deep lush techno of Detroit and the spaced out bass-soul of London’s dubstep sounds, its an unexpected and very welcome twist. Both 12”s show a unique side to his productions and re-affirm his one to watch status.

Kyle Hall - EXCLUSIVE fabric Blog Mix by fabric



http://www.myspace.com/kylehalldetroit
http://www.myspace.com/hyperdub

Terror Danjah – Acid/Terror Danjah Ft. DOK – Pro Plus [Hyperdub]

Unless you count Joker Hyperdub haven’t released any grime before, which is a pretty amazing feet considering Kode9 has always been a strong advocate of the sound. Maybe there just wasn’t much need for grime on Hyperdub back then, the labels dark distopian sound in the early years may not have suited grime. But now the horizons have expanded and the raw synth led hyper-funk of more recent material opens the doors back up for grime and especially Terror Danjah and DOK.

‘Acid’ sees Danjah on an old skool rave tip merging his hard skipping hyper-funk with ’92 Hoover synths not far off being a homage to The Prodigy’s ‘Charlie’, minus the cartoon cat samples which have been replaced with some seriously big funk hooks and drum programming to die/dance for. ‘Pro Plus’ sees Terror Danjah hook up with the underrated DOK, thought to be his evil twin who stays in the shadows… who also has a distinctive hard-funk sound that’s maybe more percussive than Terror’s. Sub bass grooves and swirling synth melodies get things bumping next to a spacious drum groove. The two work together perfectly and unleash a twisted slab of hyper-funk that could give primetime Timberland a run for his money.

Two supremely funky grime offerings from two quality producers, they harness the raw energy of the genre and offset it with a musical edge that really brings things alive. Again Hyperdub bring the goods and open up their boundaries even more while keeping that distinctive sound firmly in tact.

http://www.myspace.com/terrordanjah

http://www.myspace.com/dokmusic

http://www.myspace.com/hyperdub

Originally written for Sonic Router.

DVA – Natty / Ganja [Hyperdub]

Scratcha DVA drops his debut 12” for the iconic Hyperdub with his own take on the funky sound, one that the grime producer has been perfecting for some time. After the infectious Jelly Roll EP DVA hits back with two prime cuts of dark no nonsense percussive funky.

The snares on ‘Natty’ have that off-centre skippy nature, like skimming a pebble over open water and they really give the track a lilting groove, which plays off the tribal percussion in fine style, switching from one subtle groove to the other only to be enhanced by the pulse of a ragged bass tone that really makes things swing. It’s so simple but so effective, a dark side funky track that really gets under the skin. ‘Ganja’ is less reliant on the percussive interplay and instead hinges on the catchy sinuous bass line that winds its way around the track not unlike DJ Mujava’s ‘Township Funk’, a cycle of whining bleeps that twists into dance floor oblivion.

Hyperdub always do funky differently, be it the smeared synths of Kode9 or the loved up deep and spacious sounds of Cooly G and DVA brings his own dark and minimal take on the sound with this 12” too. ‘Natty’ is a percy and ‘Ganja’ is kind of addictive, solid 12”.

http://www.myspace.com/scratchadva

http://www.myspace.com/hyperdub

Originally written for Sonic Router.



DVA is playing Leeds on 10th Feb with Heny G on an old school garage flex and Ramadanman @ Tropical, Wire. He’s done a mix and the flyer looks shit hot so check it all out here.

King Midas Sound – Waiting For You… [Hyperdub]

Bitter-sweat smoky dub, love songs full of longing and a heavy sense of dread: Kevin Martin makes a return with a new project to follow up last years fantastic ‘London Zoo’ under The Bug pseudonym. Roger Robinson joins him in a more prominent roll, taking off where he left with the subtler cuts from the aforementioned album, eerie falsetto and a fragility that really balanced the aggressive energy of that project. Hitomi also features; often on backing vocals or in a more prominent roll giving Robinson a strong counter point to play off, the pair create an atmosphere full of ethereal emotion. ‘Waiting For You…’ is the first full artist album form Hyperdub since Burial’s sublime ‘Untrue’ and continues in a line of albums from the label that are full of a melancholic darkness and tension that shows a side of our modern existence so well. In fact ‘Waiting For You…’ may well be the natural successor to ‘Untrue’ in theme at least, both albums seem to deal with love and longing in some way but from entirely different angles.

The opener ‘Cool Out’, which came out last year with a couple of brilliant remixes from Flying Lotus and Dabrye. The original has lost none of its appeal though, the opening lines ‘We kill soundboys with our shaoulin styles’ are delivered with a sweat fragile air about them that gives the lyrical bravado of the whole track a eerie juxtaposition of styles that works so well. ‘Waiting For You’ and ‘Meltdown’ have a similar stripped back minimal sound that lets the love sick lyrics really breathe so lines like ‘Seems like I’m heading for a meltdown’ really stick in your mind. The latter was also on the fantastic ‘5’ compilation, a biter sweat lovers dub track that this album excels in. ‘Darlin’ works with similar effect.

‘One Ting’ first heard in dub form as part of the 12” before the album is a dense affair that comes across as a hip-hop variant on London Zoo era Bug material. ‘I Man’ also appeared on that 12” under the name ‘I Dub’, it’s my favourite on there too and the vocal works a treat. The gentle winding toy box melody that ushers in the teeth shaking bass line gets me every time. It’s probably the best vocaling of the previously released dubs too, the lines, ‘Morning brings a smile, I have a happy vibe’ make it one of the most hopeful here too. ‘Outta Space’ comes with some subtle dancehall beats and chords that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Vengalis album, but seeped in dub and a fuzzy fragile atmosphere.

We get our first glimpses of Hitomi on ‘Earth a Killya’, where she ushers in the opening mantra, a gentle, hushed delivery that’s so controlled that it’s both beautiful and sinister. Robinson delivers his lyrics in a simple spoken tone, which offsets the two deliveries really well. This trac and the wonderful ‘Lost’ most reminds me of early trip-hop and early Bristol sounds, they have the breaks and the latter even has Portishead-esq loop. The bass pulse that echoes out of the un-named instrumental before ‘Goodbye Girl’ is something else, it reaches right through you just like the feelings of heartbreak but in sonic form. It’s emotion recreated in bass a feat this album pulls off brilliantly throughout.

‘Waiting For You…’ is an album of loss, longing and heartbreak; it’s a heavy listen at times due to its dense atmosphere and emotion. But it’s also a brilliantly relaxing listen that gives puts you in a Zen like state of tranquillity to meditate on the albums messages and the lush bass heavy atmosphere. Kevin Martin, Roger Robinson and Hitomi have created an album that you’ll find yourself coming back to and discovering more in the lyrics and sound, it’s an album that grows and reveals its self slowly.

http://www.myspace.com/kingmidassound

http://kingmidassound.blogspot.com/

Hyperdub – 5 Years of Hyperdub [Hyperdub]

Like a virus spread by bass and mutating into different strains all the time, Hyperdub is a force to be reckoned with and I don’t think there’s a cure. This 5 year celebration compilation is two discs of low end bass transmissions from Hyperdub’s past and as they always have at least one eye on the future one whole CD of fresh upfront material. Every side is explored and every artist on the label gets a look in along with some very special guests. From the doom and dread of the first releases that helped shape the sound of early dubstep, drenched in dub roots, garage gone insane and something all together more sinister, all the way to the ‘Wot Do U Call It?’ newer releases that’s really gone viral and spread into corners of hip-hop, funky, house, grime and beyond with twisted synths leading the way.

5 opens with the new up front material and King Midas Sound’s lovers dub ‘Meltdown’ which also happens to be a taster for his forthcoming album. It’s a spooky laid back, spaced out and loved up rootsy affair and shows that through all the twisted synth smears that Hyperdub still know how to keep things old school and fresh all at once. Kode9 & The Spaceape step up with a re-tooled version of ‘Time Patrol’ with added vocals from Cha Cha, this track kind of serves as a bridge between the new and old sides of Hyperdub, its got that dread dub feel but with twisted synth motifs. LV’s contributions fit into the digital dancehall roots end of things too.

I’d love to talk about all of the tracks but that would be far to epic, plus you can read about the fantastic ‘Aidy’s Girl is a Computer’ by Darkstar here…

The hip-hop contingent turn in some quality tracks, Samiyam’s ‘Roller Skates’ is so hypnotic and funky, while Flying Lotus makes one of the best tracks of the comp in ‘Disco Balls’ with a lilting buzzing 303-like bass line and swaggering groove. ‘Purple Smoke’ by Black Chow is a dubbed out J-Pop meets Tricky in Bristol sort of sound and also one of the many Kevin Martin aka The Bug/King Midas Sound productions here.

The labels breakout artist, Burial brings his first new solo material since Untrue in the form of ‘Fostercare’ and it’s pretty much what you’d expect from him. Dark and spaced out, a half step garage mutation with plenty of groove and atmosphere. It’s closer to something from his debut album than it is Untrue, or maybe somewhere inbetween with its darker sound but with ghostly R&B vocals. You can tell he’s been honing his skills, it’s a fantastic, subtle return.

Hyperdub’s constant mutating has already explored the fringes of dubstep and hip-hop and this doesn’t stop when things drop to a house pace with contributions from Cooly G, Zomby and Martyn all clocking in at around 130-ish. ‘Weekend Fly’ has a really skeletal dub feel to it but with a skipping funky groove, plus vocals from miss G its dark and mesmerising. The prolific Zomby drops ‘Tarantula’ a mad hybrid of Detroit-P-Funk infused house and his own brand of freakery, it’s some bumping twisted funk. Martyn ups the groove and lowers the bpm with a bleeped out, dark, driving house anthem.

Mala makes a rare appearance with the brilliant ‘Level Nine’ with his unique sound, a dark and soulful meditative soundsystem shaker. This is maybe the most space age track I’ve heard from Mala in some time, the synths give of a melancholic sci-fi like look at the not to distant future and maybe one of the top picks on the comp. LD’s ‘Shake It’ comes off like a mutant robotic techno beast made for huge soundsystems, full of percussive excursions and gnarly bleeps, its full on but has a deranged kind of funk.

To finish disc one the twisted synth come out in full force with Quarta330 who arguably had a big hand in the proliferation of this sound, ‘Bleeps From Outer Space’ is a bubbling 8-bit dancehall tune that Mario might be set to in a hidden level where he gets stoned with Sonic. Ikonika drops a taster for her forthcoming album early next year with ‘Sarah Michael’ and its so addictive, like a mixture of Terror Danjah style grime and her own blend of dubstep and energetic, twisted electronica, she makes me move. Joker & Ginz the Bristol wonder team drop ‘Stash’ with a swaggering G-Funk/Crunk number, at first I wasn’t sure it was up there with Re-Up and Purple City but its really grown on me, they work so well together.



The second disc is the older more familiar Hyperdub transmissions, its bookended by the two versions of ‘9 Samurai’ the original and Quarta330 Remix. This pretty much sums up the direction Hyperdub has gone in, when they first dropped on 12” one side took in the doom-fuelled dread and the other twisted it into an insane smeary, 8-bit synth tweak out and was described as Kode9 as circuitry crying. This opened the doors, along with the likes of FlyLo’s off-centre hip-hop experiments to a whole new sound that’s really taken off.

So here you get stone cold classics, rarities and un-released bits. Burial’s now pretty hard to get hold of ‘South London Boroughs’ from his first EP sounds as fresh and ghostly as ever. The Bug and LV’s dancehall excursions point to the roots in fine style. The two Kode9 & Spaceape tracks are both un-released gems from the archive, ‘Ghost Town’ yes that Ghost Town by The Specials gets shaped into a laid back dark as hell bass pulse ballad not unlike the first Hyperdub release ‘Sine of the Dub’ the beatless version of Prince. Then comes ‘Fukkaz’ which The Bug covered for his London Zoo album last year, an angry shout to all the fukkaz out there.

The rest are fairly recent releases including the amazing ‘Need You’ by Darkstar with its skipping vocoder garage soul and Ikonika’s twisted, bending ‘Please’, which I still can’t get enough of. Zomby drops a couple with Rusitie’s rendition of ‘Spliff Dub’ and his insane hypnotic wonked out arpeggio grooves of ‘Kaliko’. The soulful vocoder almost Dr. Dre-like pop of ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is’ and Joker’s Digidesign, which I still get in my head all the time bring things to a close with the aforementioned Quarta330 Remix.

As an overview of Hyperdub you can’t go wrong with 5 it showcases all their talent and just brings gem after gem to your ears. The new material is as fresh as hell and there is nothing tired about the rest. There really isn’t a track that I don’t love here I’d love to be able to slag them off a bit but it really is all killer, Hyperdub are one of the most consistent and interesting labels around, there transitions continue to push dance floors into new directions. I’d like to say the future is bright but with the sound of darkness and dread along with the twisted glowing nuclear mutations, we’re more likely to have a meltdown and be destroyed, which will be equal parts exhilarating as it will be terrifying but the good thing is Hyperdub will still be sound tracking it.

www.myspace.com/hyperdub

www.hyperdub.net

Darkstar – Aidy’s Girl is a Computer/Kyle Hall Oats B So Good Remix [Hyperdub]

Finally it’s landed, ‘Aidy’s Girl is a Computer’ first emerged sometime last year, I first heard it in Oneman’s Generation Bass mix on Radio One and it stuck in my head right away. Since then every set that it’s graced its stood out, no one quite sounds like Darkstar. The twisted melodic 8-bit vocoder garage sound of last years ‘Need You’ on Hyperdub turned a lot of heads inside and outside the scene they even got props from Radiohead who let them re-interpret ‘Videotape’ for the Mary Anne Hobbs Wild Angel Compilation. This 12” also features the talents of Kyle Hall a young producer from Detroit who like his mentor Omar-S makes a raw no nonsense house in the tradition of many Detroit producers before.

The original is a chiming, rolling, bass-pulsing garage joint with some serious digital soul. Apparently it came about when one half of Darkstar tried to make their computer sing and spent so much time with it that they may as well have been seeing each other. The tracks full of melodic 8-bit sprinkles, smeared synth sounds that come out sounding like a deeply twisted accordion of sorts, and an almost anthemic yet subdued melancholic feel. There is a beating heart and soul to this production, when the breakdown melts its way in there is some real emotion. Darkstar make songs that just so happen to work in the club just as well as they do elsewhere. It’s probably a contender for track of the year if such award existed.

Kyle Hall’s Oats B So Good Remix twists the original into a tracky deep Detroit number, all punchy kicks and dubbed out chimes, there is a blissed out hypnotic feel with the synth lines being morphed into gentle pads rather than smeared squiggles. The warm digital p-funk bass really makes this track as does the g-funk bendy synths and when all the elements are in full effect there is an almost psychedelic air to it. House is in good hands with Kyle Hall and his ilk.

This 12” is essential and bridges the gap nicely between the 5 years of Hyperdub compilation and the full album Darkstar have in the works, which is pencilled in for release sometime next year and bound to get them a lot of attention. But for now savour ‘Aidy’s Girl is a Computer’ in all its digital soul splendour.

www.myspace.com/hyperdub

www.hyperdub.net

http://www.myspace.com/darkstar001

http://www.myspace.com/kylehalldetroit

12”

More from the semi-regular rumedge through the record bag series, of stuff I didn’t get to review/missed, over at SR as we didn’t get promos or other such excuses. For upfront reviews, interviews mixes and more visit Sonic Router, but for now check out these beauties.

Silkie Feat. Mizz Beats – Purple Love [Deep Medi]
Purple in vibes and colour on a super limited platter, funked up slab of future soul with some of the most swung beats and vibrant bass around.

King Midas Sound – Dub Heavy - Hearts and Ghosts [Hyperdub]
Dark and dubby, ghostly sound system shakers. They will shake your teeth and send you in a trance, doom fuelled taster of forthcoming album.

Hyetal – The Last Time We Spoke/Amour [Formant]
Long awaited platter from Bristol new boy, A-Side pushes a dub techno vibe with digi-siren effects and melodic chords. Amour gets steppy with an ear for melody and a way with bass, deadly.

Emvee – Glitch Dub/Nocturnal [Wireblock]
Broken funky with a soca groove, fuzzy bass and infectious midi soul. Glitch Dub does things dirty and Nocturnal brings the boogie this will make you move.

Pinch & Moving Ninja/Peverelist – False Flag/Junction (Shed Mix) [Tectonic]
Latest Tectonic Plate 12” with main man Pinch on a half stepping dark as hell weighty collaboration as Shed turns Peverelist into a garage infused nugget of techno with a euphoric sadness.

Rossi B & Luca/EL-B– Jah No Dead/Son De Cali [Soul Motive]
Garage legends line up for Soul Motive’s 4th, Rossi B & Luca bring dark dubby 2-step, it sounds huge and so fresh. EL-B takes it breaky with a deep and soulful garage vibe that oozes quality.

All out now

Cooly G – Narst / Love Dub Refix / Love Dub [Hyperdub]

Original writen for the Sonic Router bass blog and all round good egg, it just had to go up here aswell as I'm a sucka for Cooly's beats and I wrote about her self released EP a while back here Vol.s 2 & 3 of which are out now, but here is the big one the Hyperdub 12".

UK funky is making moves on the underground with its soca infused beats, house tempo, big bass, smooth grooves and that all important hint of dirt. It’s the juxtaposition of light and dark vibes that makes UK funky interesting, plus the massively danceable beats of course.

Singer and producer Cooly G hailing from South London where so much UK bass music has been pioneered before, drops her debut 12” for forward pushing, genre spanners Hyperdub who always have their ear to the ground for new and exciting hybrids. This platter shows both sides of funky while also helping to push it in new directions.

The first track ‘Narst’ comes on like a dirty grime infused dance floor shaker reminiscent of recent instrumentals from Nocturnal fed via old school Chicago house. It kind of sounds like the most gritty of super hero’s theme tunes, but one with a bit of slinky class like Cat Woman. The strings build and dub out before big house kicks propel everything forward and the other percussion funks it up into a big danceable beast before the chest beating bass throws down on you.

The flip which features ‘Love Dub’ and its refix is defiantly a highlight the intricate soca drum patterns flow, shake, bump and groove in all directions and make you want to wind your body in new and sexy ways. This is the smooth loved up end of UK funky, pure vibes. Cooly G sings snippets in her sweet and slinky way as smooth loved up chords get all warm and fuzzy above and the bass punches bellow, its all so spaced out mellow and minimal yet insanely danceable. The original and refix aren’t to dissimilar they both bring dubbed out vibes and amazing percussion with the soulful feel but the refix kind of steps up the kick a little.

Cooly G takes funky in new directions here by really stepping up the production values and making some really minimal forward thinking sounds all of her own.

http://www.myspace.com/coolyg

Cooly G – DUB OrGANIzER Vol.1

Cooly G takes funky into a whole other deep direction. The bass is huge and the beats remind me of that really old minimal / stripped back Chicago house but with a mad little London skip, grime and edge to them. Awesome stuff, she is going to be huge on the dance floor this year I reckon. There are big things coming from her in the form of a Hyperdub release as well, you don't get much cooler than that!

DUB OrGANIzER Vol.1 is a wicked collection of deep and lilting funky it manages to be sophisticated and sexy sounding yet a little bit raw all at once. First track Dis Boy Pt. 4 has a low slung steel drum and trumpet vibe to it but they don’t sound like your regular drum and horn combo as all her percussion is really deepy, skippy and clicky like its made by machine and filtered through and organic funk grinder. The horns are deep in the mix and filtered low, they give it a nice grimey sound. Little soulful vocal snippets and samples give all these tracks a really nice housey style. On track two Ya Instrumental you can really hear the bass working and the African rhythm’s that are so prevalent in this vibrant funky scene at the moment, this track really reminds me of Township Funk by DJ Majuva but a lot more mellow and spacey.

If you don’t know already funky is a dirty London swung house hybrid that kind of echoes past swung and housey scenes that seem to come out of our capital city, you know the ones UK Garage / 2-Step which mutated into Grime / Dubstep. Funky is another beast though it takes elements of house that has always been a big part of UK club culture and mixes it with the rhythmic flows of Africa. Not unlike house has done in the past, I mean in the early days house from Detroit and Chicago was a lot looser than some of it is now. The strict four to the floor kick patterns kind of took over really. But anyway funky brings the funk back by adding a new variation on swing by joining the dots somewhere between house, grime, dubstep and African style drumming. It’s kind of a UK version of Kwaito but that’s a whole other kettle of fish for another time…

Back to Cooly G, Craze Refix pounds and skips while ghostly vocal snippets usher the track in and melt into an acid line. Acid has always been a big part of house things really kicked off when someone got hold of a 303 and got tweaking. So the Craze Refix follows this tradition and puts a deep and hypnotic twist onto it. What I love about this funky scene is that it’s putting the bass back into house again, it’s something that has been lost a little over time, it’s like the second coming of the bleep and bass manuva of Warp in the early 90’s but with a slight contempory flavour. The final track on the EP is Floating a mellow little number with some really cool lyrical samples that flow over the soul drenched house patterns.

There is something really compelling about Cooly G’s take on funky it strips away everything that I can find a bit annoying about the scene, which is the overly cheesey stuff with dance moves and just down right blatant rip offs of old house. She’s not as dirty and grimey as people like Lil Sillva, Apple and D Malice she has her own deeper style that puts her out on her own at the moment. Cooly is pushing it in her own little direction and it’s very refreshing indeed. I can see her getting picked up far and wide by house and minimal heads as well as funky and dubstep DJ’s.

You can buy the DUB OrGANIzER Vol.1 EP direct from her myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/coolyg

Hyperdub Up and Coming

Hyperdub is setting it’s self up well for the beginning of 2009 with some quality slabs of bass music. Stretching its already diverse catalogue into territories far and wide, well this time it’s going a bit funky at least. I will maybe do an article on funky soon enough but for now just check this out. It made my jaw drop.

HDB018 A. Joker - 'Digidesign' AA. 2000F & J Kamata - 'You Don't Know What Love Is'

Late February

These two tracks have been around for quite some time now but they still rock so hard. Digidesign has to be one of my favourite Joker tracks so far and the 2000F & J Kamata tune is some next level P-Funk vocoder business.

Joker

2000F

J Kamata

HDB019 LD A. Traumatic Times AA. Woodblock early 2009

I think LD played these in his Marry Ann Hobbs showcase but I’m not to sure about that. LD is blowing me away right now with his funky swinging and driving drum patterns he just has so much soul and a wicked dancy vibe. Check out an interview with LD by 3barfire’s Markle here.

LD

HDB020 Cooly G A. Narst AA. Love Dub / Love Dub refix Out in March

Cooly G is almost an unknown to me, I say almost as I found her just yesterday and thought to myself, now this is some good shit. Then I went for a peek on dubstepforum like you do and found out that Kode 9 had picked up some of her tracks for release! She makes a deep funky kind of house, you know funky as in funky. It sounds pretty different to your average funky too so may well push the sound into yet more diverse territories. She also has a self-released CD out soon that you can cop from her.

Cooly G

HYP009 A. Kode9 - Black Sun B. Kode9 - 2 Far Gone March release

I will let the video of Black Sun speak for it’s self here:





This is one fucked up funky paced wonky bleep fest from what I can gather, I’ve only really seen it on the video so we will have to wait and see what the rest is like. Big things!

Kode 9

Then:

‘don't worry . . .it all goes to shit after this one
got a double ep from this guy from bavaria playin the spoons wooden spoons, mind you, not some formulaic metal spoon sheet’
Hyperdub (2008)

Zomby – Zomby EP (Hyperdub) 12”

Zomby has to be insane just check out Gloop and Aquafre5h on this EP for starters then go and read his interview about Parrotte’s with Blackdown here.

What more proof do you want?

I have been so excited about this mad wonky / bleepy stuff coming out, loads of his tracks in this vain have been played on the radio for what seems like an age to me. Then he decided to drop a full length album of throw back rave tunes, Where Were You In ’92? that has had a lot of good press but didn’t really get me hooked. I wanted the mad stuff!

Hyperdub came up with the goods on that front by dropping the Zomby EP late last year, two times the 12” as well. Spread across its disc’s are some varied productions from Zomby he covers a lot of basses from all out fucked up bleepers to sublime 2-step rollers. He fuses some sort of Aqua-Crunk mixed with chip tune hybrid on Aquafre5h and Gloop, that just sound like nothing else I’ve ever heard.

The tracks are so inventive and messed up yet they will still keep you moving on a dance floor, that is a mean feat to achieve at times but it’s one that Zomby pulls off time after time. He comes off like a wacked out nut job even compared to his nearest contemporise like Ikonika’s deep and bleepy sounds and Rustie’s off the wall Zig Zag.

The 2-steppa’s are really soulful and melodic and the bleepers are pure swaggering badman space funk with grime and dirt all over it.

The first 12” kicks off with Spaceman, which is a sublime off-kilter bleepy track not to dissimilar to something Starkey might make if he got a pet parrot and went a bit mad. It has sci-fi bleeps and bloops, hardcore horn stabs and just a general air of spacey goings on.

Kaliko is yet another highlight a very hard to explain highlight at that, you really have to hear some of these tracks to believe them. Skipping arpeggios and electro style beats ebb and flow in strange directions making it sound like a mad grime track beamed in from space via Africa.

Test Me For A Reason finishes the first 12” in subtle rolling 2-step style with heaps of soul and melancholy. You can get lost in this one so easily it’s such a ncie departure from the fucked up tracks. Gorgeous vibes, what a sweet tune.

Flip onto 12” number two for the really deranged bangers. Aquafre5h is the track that made my ears prick up a while ago now. It flows like a digital liquid soup with grit in it that makes it all the more dirty. My head nods so hard to this track.

Gloop is also in a very similar vain to Aquafre5h with its dirty slow-mo bass and gloopy soup bleeps. This time there are some mad arpegiated synth lines that up the tension a little, badman stuff.

1 Up sounds like a gameboy gone into deep space hyper drive and its not to happy about it. Its murky, doom drenched and just generally a bit fucked up.

The final track is Diamonds and Purls and it comes across like a dirty R&B track fed through the dark side of Sluggabed and Rustie by Zomby on a dark night. The classic sample peaks through the grime and gives the track a strange detached air with a bit of soul. It’s very strange indeed I love it.

For more brilliant stuff from Zomby check out his offerings on Ramp and Werk records to name but a few.

http://www.myspace.com/zombyproductions

Hyperdub

This is just getting silly now Hyperdub...

In the last month or so Hyperdub have been on a roll announcing some amazing 12"s of pure next level music, check this list out:

HDB014

12" vinyl & Digital

A. King Midas Sound - 'Cool Out'

B1. King Midas Sound - 'One Ting' (Dabrye Remix)

B2. King Midas Sound - 'Lost' (Flying Lotus Remix)

for the delay folks. . .new release date is October 27th

HDB015

12" vinyl & digital

Ikonika

A. Millie

B. Direct

Sorry for the delay folks. . .new release date is October 27th

HDB016

2 x 12" vinyl & digital

A1 Zomby - 'Spaceman'

B1 Zomby - 'Kaliko'

B2 Zomby - 'Test Me For a Reason'

C1.Zomby - 'Aquafresh'

C2.Zomby - 'Gloop'

D1 Zomby - '1 Up'

D2 Zomby - 'Diamonds & Pearls'

November Release

HDB017 - Quarta 330

12' vinyl & digital

A. Quarta 330 - 'Sabacco'

B. Cardopusher - 'Homeless' (Quarta330 rmx)

Soon come

HYP008 Kode9 vs. LD - BAD E.P.

A. Kode9 vs. LD - 'Bad'

B. Kode9 vs. LD - '2 Bad'

November Release

More news and full audio soon at www.myspace.com/hyperdub

You see what I mean hey?!?

It's probibly not the end of it either Darkstar's new track ‘Aidy’s Girl is a Computer’ has been played by Oneman on Generation Bass the other month and the tracklist say's it's a Hyperdub. Then when Burial unmasked himself he mentioned that an EP would be coming soon, he has since said on that very same blog that he is making the tracks at the moment and I for one can't wait for that. Plus he can take as long as he wants its Burial for goodness sake.

Hyperdub wow!

Get Your Wonk On

Wonky? Wonk-Step? Dub-Wonk? Aquacrunk? That’s far to many ridicules questions to answer, what the hell am I on about. Well Wonky or what ever you fancy calling it is a variation on dubstep that’s getting some plays right now. I’m by no means a grime/dubstep expert but this new sound has grabbed my attention.

The main players seem to be the excellent Flying Lotus, who I have been aware of for quite some time with his remix of Mr Oizo and an album dropping soon on Warp. He makes some seriously funky off tempo high tech space funk electro dubstep A.K.A Wonky. He joined Kode 9 of Hyperdub fame in the Rinse FM studio for a back-to-back session that is blowing my mind right now. It’s out there and so wonderfully danceable and strange. Unfortunately I can’t find a track list anywhere to share with you.

Another Wonky main stay is Glasgow’s Rustie, of Wireblock records. He has just completed a mix that aired on Marry Anne Hobbes radio show the other week. The only things I recognise on the track list are the aforementioned Flying Lotus, the record labels Planet Mu, DMZ and Warp, grime/dubstep main stay Benga, another Warp new signing Pivot and a hell of a lot of Rustie.

Pitchfork describe the new style as follows:

‘As summer 2008 approaches, a theme-- not a genre-- has emerged across many existing styles of music: the mid-range is being hijacked by off-kilter, unstable synths. Crossing hip-hop, hyphy, grime, chip tunes, dubstep, crunk, and electro, one flavor unites a network of exciting sounds. What do you call it? Wonky.’

Enjoy, get your wonk on.

Kode 9 Vs. Flying Lotus Rinse FM session (Re-Up)

Rustie on Radio One Marry Anne Hobbes Show