12”

Another episode in the sporadic series that goes by the name of: ‘Eight random platters from my record bag that I’m kind of addicted to right now’.

Baobinga – Ride It/Ride It (Untold remix) [Build]
Tough rhythmic house from Baobinga, the original bangs hard with a heavy broken, tribal feel that’s so chunky it’ll make the dance floor bumpy. Untold turns it into an evil bass pulse driven number that ups the pressure nicely.

D1 – Just Business/Pitcher [Dub Police]
Jungle infused dubstep from D1. Just Business comes out of the dark via a sample from The Wire, clattering drums and bass big enough to shake down Hamsterdam. Pitcher goes all bleepy with funky-esq drum patterns that are pretty infectious.

Starkey – Rain City/Beatingz [Rwina Records]
Street Bass Don, comes back with two slices of pure dance floor fire that combine his gutter music hyper-funk, party starting ideas with a gnarly bright and trancy set of riffs that are so melodic that they get lodged in your brain.

Harmonimix – A Milli/Bills Bills Bills [White]
Cheeky white label from the mysterious Harmonimix, if you know your bass heads you’ll easily pick up the clues on who’s behind this. Both tracks take the well-known numbers into twisted soul-funk/dubstep hybrid, with buckets of funk. The finale to ‘A Milli’ harmonizes Lil Wayne’s raps in a way you just don’t see coming.

Pangaea – Pangaea EP [Hessle Audio]
12” Double pack from a producer that always brings a subtle timeless vibe to his tracks that just oozes quality. Here we see him branch out his style a bit compared to recent material. ‘Why?’ uses quick jungle meets funky drums, a bumping bassline and emotion packed vocal sample to great effect. ‘Neurons’ takes on dubstep at its own game, a half-stepping deep as hell Headhunter meets Youngsta number. ‘Sunset Yellow’ takes subtle atmosphere; a deadly chord sequence and bumping electronic drums accented with tribal rolls and makes a really slow burner that gets under your skin. The rest slays as well…

A Made Up Sound – Sun Touch/Drain/Untitled (Original Shortcut) [A Made Up Sound]
2562 whips out his alter ego for some slower paced techno infused gems. ‘Sun Touch’ meets techno and garage halfway down a hall in a dark basement; the warm house stabs and gentle horror pads build the track with minimal ease. ‘Drain’ takes the pads further into warm, detuned bliss, fleshing out the dark sparse beats. The ‘Untitled’ track is an original from the Shortcuts album, which showed him working out sketches, this one turned into the fantastic ‘Love In Outer Space’.

Martyn – Hear Me (Zomby remix)/Seventy Four (Redshape remix) [3024]
Quality remixes of tracks from Martyn’s album last year: Zomby takes us into bumping house territory, with big dub basslines and psychedelic synth licks, it’s seriously addictive stuff. Redshape goes all dub-techno, low slung and cold, echoing Detroit as much as Berlin.

Sully – J Treole – The Loot (Sully remix)/In Some Pattern [Keysound]
Insanely addictive 12” from Sully, the garage swing king. His remix of ‘The Loot’ goes deep and jazzy with plenty of bump and bass, which really offsets the smooth jazz vibes perfectly. ‘In Some Pattern’ is a super slinky, low swung beast with twisted anthemic synth hooks that build and drop into bass fuelled oblivion.

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12"/10"

The semi-regular round up of random platters in my record bag returns with some heavy weight excursions in bass.

Zomby – Digital Flora Part 1/Part 2 [BRAiNMATH]
Maybe just maybe the best slice of Zomby yet, pure psychedelic dance floor material. Pt. 1 is spaced out while Pt. 2 ups the groove.


Instra:Mental – Watching You Ft.dBridge/Tramma [Nonplus+]
Killer minimal d’n’b cut with heart wrenching vocals, it’s made me buy 170bpm for the first time in years. Tramma drops to 140 and keeps things warm and minimal.


A Made Up Sound – Wire/Bounce/Dicsonnect/On & On [Clone Basement Serries]
2562 on a techno tip, dropping some warm sounds that bump and bubble.


October - Elephants/Medium [Immerse]
Some seriously early proto-dubstep from 2003 that sounds like techno gone eski-grime. Really raw and rolling, it just builds and builds.


Terror Danjah – Industry Standard Part 4 [Planet Mu]
Zumpi Hunter comes on like a grimey G-Funk workout, with Swindle adding even more musicality of his own distinct style. The flip ups the hype and drops like an energy rush, 4x4 builds and 8 bar rallies. Essential.


Spiders – Spiders [BRAiNMATH]
Mysterious dark and rootsy material, I can’t stop mixing it with Bury Da Bwoy by Mala. So much atmosphere and tension built with minimal beats and tweaked out production.


Hyetal – Pixel Rainbow Sequence/Peverelist Remix [Reduction]
Incredible Bristol transmissions, A-side hyped and euphoric with twisting synths and bumping beats. Pev takes it on a freaked out techy psychedelic tip, flowing synths and bubbling arpeggios.


Dorian Concept – Trilingual Dance Sexperiance/Tropical Hands [Affine]
Deranged trance inducing face smashing hip-hop wonk-out with a funked up slow-mo house rendition on the flip, it sets fire to dance floors.

Exodus & Room 237 Presents: Jamie Vex'd / 2562 / Youngsta & SP:MC / Neil Landstrumm / Clark @ West Indian Centre, Leeds. 25th September 2009

It’s been a little while since I went to the West Indian Centre to soak up the sounds coming out of the almighty Iration Steppas Soundsystem, I mean everyone has been away for the summer ripping up Croatia and all sorts so I guess I can be forgiven… But this line-up has brought me out of the woodwork and walking into the main room to hear Digital Mystikz Anti War Dub just proves it was the right decision.

Saying that though the place was a little empty during Computer Controlled DJs set, which was really surprising as I’ve only ever been to the West Indian Centre when its been packed to the rafters. They played a well nice selection of all things good and bassy though from DMZ beasts to grime bangers, there was even a bit of funky in the form of Bok Bok’s recent outings in that sound, this didn’t bring on loads of dancing and movement as I expected though, I guess Leeds is more of a dubstep town right now as that always gets everyone moving be it lad or lass. The addition to the main room of a projector and a dude in the corner freaking about with pictures and film was pretty cool though.

Unfortunately Sigha whose productions I really love was in the second room at exactly the same time as Jamie Vex’d who I kind of wanted to see on the huge soundsystem so I only caught a few moments of his set but the bits I saw where well nice and its wet my appetite for more. I was also really surprised to see Jamie Vex’d playing so early but the place soon packed out and he built one hell of a set, he crossed so much gowned and so effortlessly. Everything from his own productions like the quality Twitch remix and other Planet Mu bits, all the way to Terror Danjah grime instrumentals such as Sidechain and the Swindle remix of Zumpi Hunter, or Grievous Angels well nice 2-step re-rub of Napath’s Sounclash VIP. I almost bust a gut when he dropped the Zomby dubplate Murcury’s Rainbow…



Which popped up on youtube a while back (see above) and maybe a Blackdown Rinse FM show but that’s about it and there is no word yet of a release, in fact it’s the most Zomby I’ve heard on a night out. I had reservations about some of the One Foot Ahead Of The Other EP on Ramp working on the dance floor but when its powered through Iration Steppas I guess you don’t have to worry about that, everything sounds so alive and HUGE. This was followed swiftly by Untold’s amazing Stop What You’re Doing, which I’ve been aching to hear out for ages now, and it really does sound different the no beats, pulse bass freakout really hits the spot for me the tension the lack of beats bring is just something else, then coupled with the Zomby dubplate which is of a similar vibe all be it more psychedelic just slayed it. Things get a bit more blurry as the bass rumbles and the red stripe flows but this is still the first set of the night from one of the big guns… plates from The Bug were a plenty, to the delight of my sister who loves to shout Bug lyrics at me, but only while not shouting the lyrics to Next Hype of course… which also popped up in the mix accapella style over some unknown bass heavy shakers. Skream, Piddy Py and Distance even got a look in, who insanly got mixed with a does of R&B in the form of Timberland yet it worked far to well and made me wonder why he hasn’t reached for sub bass himself… along with the smeared wonk of Tiago with his swirling Bable Fish a track that has been on my radar for a while but I never expected it to sound so fucking good out this loud, the bass pulse that kicks in half way through is something else. This really was a far-reaching set mixed quick and on point on laptop and controllers, I almost felt sorry for 2562 following it as a lot of BIG tracks had been played and I don’t mean obvious bangers just MASSIVE sounding twisting turning genre escaping monsters.

After a break for air entering the main room again to see 2562 playing to a spindly crowd was a real disappointment, its like we had entered a whole new club. He was playing his own brand of rolling dubbed out techno that really contrasted the sweeping flailing twitched out, smeared synth wonk and far reaching magpie set of Jamie Vex’d. When you got deep into it though and put the small crowed out of your mind the beats where so bumping and infectious that it was hard not to move, almost everything I heard sounded like 2562’s productions but I spotted some new Untold in there too. The room filled more over time but it was still a bit disheartening to see it like that when he’s one of the leading lights of the scene, making some of the coolest, skippyest rolling dubstep meets techno around. But then after Jamie Vex’d it was easy to see why people needed a break and even the big boys on Warp and Planet Mu didn’t pack out the crowds like I thought they would. Landstrumm played a mad set that sounded like an OCD kid who had learnt to make all of dance music’s past on toys, so you got electro addled grimey, dancehall, rave, techno hybrids of all styles and tempos at the drop of a hat. You never knew what was going to happen but he locked into things long enough to keep you moving and tease you before twisting into the unknown again. I also checked out quite a bit of Youngsta at this point who was rocking it with SP:MC, I’ve never felt so hypnotised by a dubstep DJ before it was none stop deeper than deep half stepping dubplates that would have sounded like chillout music anywhere but the bassy backroom of the West Indian Centre on the Sweat Potato Soundsystem… or you know others like it. A hell of a lot of it sounded like Kryptic Minds with the odd bit of Skream’s dark side thrown in, everything worked so well and really wet my appetite for DMZ next week in the same venue.

From then on tiredness set in and after a very brief brush with Clark and unfortunately missing Distance altogether we left into the night on a fucking long drive home to the county with the bass resonating loud in our ears.

Zomby - One Foot Ahead Of The Other EP [Ramp]

Back again from the dead Zomby walks amongst us One Foot Ahead Of The Other. A double EP of day-glow psychedelic bleep driven music that only the man himself can make, in some ways this is the natural successor to last years amazing Hyperdub EP full of twists and turns, flailing Gameboy sounds, freaked and tweaked arpeggiated synths and deep undulating bass. But this time the beats are more four to the floor rather than the lopsided boom bap of its predecessor. Its all somehow more floaty and dreamy too, make no mistake these tracks will destroy dance floors but this by hypnotising them.

The title track opens proceedings in fine style the break-y beats combined with a sublime bleep bloop melody over some chest beating bass create a beautiful melancholy yet energetic number. Zomby’s use of melody is something else on this EP he’s always had an ear for it but it really drives the One Foot Ahead Of The Other EP. Helter Skelter has a similar feel to much of the Hyperdub EP with twisted speeding up and down synth motifs and a monster groove, you get a wicked fucked up energy from it.

You flip and reveal yet more bombs Pumkinhead’s Revenge is easily one of the highlights for me the bleeping high end makes psychedelic shapes and switches over a steady driving four four beat and the odd deep bass 808-esq stab. Its almost as if acid house has been torn a new a-hole by beings not from this world.

The lilting twists of Polka Dot create such a tense pent up energy that will keep the dance floor on edge. There is a kind of Baltimore house bounce at play here somehow, it really is hard to categorise Zomby he’s been embraced by the dubstep community yet is something else entirely, he’s out on his own...

The sublime shimmer of Godzilla may well be some of the best work Zomby has put out to date, you can get lost in those twinkling shifting melodies and spaced out grooves that the bass and beats bring. It switches up into an energetic finale too.

The deep bass driven groove of Expert Tuition is probably the most dubstep sounding thing on here, but with added skip and shuffle. Again the EP’s trademark is those killer synth hooks and bleeps but here we get a nice smeared neon synth line that gives a woozey feel.

The last side kicks off with Bubble Bobble which I’m guessing is inspired at least in title by the amazing computer game of old, there is certainly a bubbly feel to it you can hear shapes in his synth work. This would have fitted in nicely on the Hyperdub EP too, the beats really propel this one, this is fucked up.

Mescaline Cola has a futuristic dancehall bass and bumping jacking beats that play under yet more woozy smeared synth lines and addictive bleeping tweaked out melodies, this is another favourite of mine.

The EP comes to a head with Firefly Finale, a moving almost emotional sounding end of night number that sounds like it could have come straight out of a scene in an RPG on the SNES but perked up for the dance floor.

One Foot Ahead Of The Other is a special EP you just don’t hear music like this from anyone else, Zomby is a talent pushing his own vision further with each step. The Hyperdub EP pushed things forward but was to weird for some the groves were hard and strange but here he’s brought melody to the forefront and made something that’s easier to listen to yet doesn’t compromise any of his deranged twisted ideas, this will win over a lot of new fans. This has to be one of the must have EP’s of the year. Zomby has found that if he puts One Foot Ahead Of The Other he doesn’t put a step wrong.

http://www.myspace.com/zombyproductions

http://www.myspace.com/ramprecordings

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!

Rustie – Zig Zag (Wireblock) 12”

This is a super limited slab of one-sided laser etched future funk bass hype music. There are only 1000 12”s of this around at the moment so if you want it you will have to grab it quick or forever be looking for it on ebay for ridicules prices. This track is like a sugar rush and maybe one of Rustie’s best so far, which is saying something with his track record. Zig Zag is all over the place its so wonky it hurts, you feel like you are being taken in so many different directions as you can hear different tempos and pitch shifts at once. This is wonky wild pitch if ever I heard it. The sounds he uses are like some kind of freaked out mix of hip-hop and trance with a blast of electro for good measure. It’s like he gave Blaze a sugar injection and set him loose in the studio with sonic the hedgehog some extra hairdo to top up with e numbers and made him get his wobble on. Right now Rustie is making some exciting music as are people like: Joker (who has an up and coming 12” on Kapsize with Rustie), Starkey, Zomby… They all get their urban bass music going in some strange off-kilter future style.

Buy it here: Wireblock

Rustie Myspace

Wireblock Myspace

Zomby Vs. M.I.A.

Zomby has made some of my favourite dubstep on the last couple of releases I have grabben. The Rustie mix of his Spliff Dub is huge, which you can find on Hyperdub. His 12” for Ramp Recordings Strange Fruit and Liquid Dancehall is another massive tune. Liquid Dancehall is a low-slung dirty dance floor bomb that reminds me of a war zone for some reason. Strange Fruit is a beast with its 8-bit arpeggio synth line and grinding beats.

What can you say about M.I.A. she has taken dancy pop music by the scruff of the neck and dragged it round the world to pick up loads of flava’s then dropping it off at a party. Paper Planes is my favourite track by her I think just for the irresistible loop and gun noises.

So when I saw these remixes up for free on dubstepforum I jumped at the chance to grab them and thought I would share them with you lot too. The post said:

‘Since Zomby is such a lovely chap, he is giving away 320's of his M.I.A. remixes for free.. Enjoy!’ Ramp Recordings.

Zomby Vs. M.I.A. Tropical Mixes:

Zomby – Paper Jigglin’
Zomby – Eski Flu (M.I.A. Vs. Zomby)

Download

Zomby Space

M.I.A. Space