Pioneer of bass music in France for almost 10 years now, his productions have always ignored borders and have been recognized for their melodic quality and musicality. Notably supported by Mala Digital Mystikz on his Dubstep productions, this true underground artist is constantly innovating in the studio. Blending House and Garage flavours to massive basslines and Dub skanks, delays and echoes, Boxin and Boston are unique tracks, and as usual with Likhan’, impossible to label.
Cosmin TRG drops the bpm but stands tall for his first outing on Hemlock. Eschewing any notion of ‘feminine pressure’ in favor of a new stripped-back, brutalist sound.
The four melodic, synth-laden tracks are typically raw and grimey but also run deeper with a newfound luminescence. Constructed from a robotic new sound palette,Lil Silva’s tuff flange-funk drum programming and twisted carnival rhythms are permeated by razor-sharp neon synths, jacking cowbells, massive slabs of sub bass and even Silva’s own sampled vocals. These are industrial-size riddims for worldwide dancefloor demolition!
Surprising dark & druggy deephouse/dubstep crossover from the german deep house producer, Kassem Mosse.
Cosmic Revenge presents his second EP, a four tracker for Fortified Audio. Opener ‘Hurricane Blues’ comes off like Ikonika’s ‘Fish’ with a more defined IDM debt, while ‘Mutations’ follows with a clean and melodic garage breaks groove. ‘Cold Hearted’ is the best thing here, running an Altered Natives style drum entanglement with jazzy chords to match before ‘Late Nights’ jams on a halfstepped Gangsta boogie flex.
The Bitch’ bounces a cheeky square bassline into play with old-skool ruff-house vibes pivoting about shoulder dropping syncopation. On the flip ‘Crop Duster’ takes it down low with crouching subs and skittering percussion showing the lineage of Afrobeat through house and broken beats to end up in Natives territory.
Debut of Donga & Blake! Their sound is a balanced fusion of soulful house, deep textured techno and rhythms absorbed from garage, funky and broken beat. These 3 immaculate tracks have a simple appeal but also contain many layered sonic details for the closer listener.
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Industrial stripped techno with some dubby berlin techno influences and straight on dubstep percusion.
Hackman’s productions have a certain sheen and a peculiarly humid quality that make them unmistakable. His impressive grasp of bass betrays his initial foray into dubstep, and it lends his music a power both nuanced and visceral.
Rugged bass and techno transmission from Kero and Function with remixes from Soundmurderer, Corbin Davis and Matt Herdman. Firstly, we should warn you that the Soundmurderer track is a baaadman tune! He reworks his angular jungle style at a dubstep pace but still retains the dipping flex and contrasting breaks tones for sick effect. Corbin Davis gives a bass-loaded techno fix while Kero and Function go hard on the breakbeat techno to sound like British Murder Boys.
A remix for a remix…Falty Dl and Cosmin TRG go at each others tracks and the results are firing!
7even offer a well-deserved opening to Joaan, a talented newcomer from Nantes. ‘Splendor in the grass’ manages to build sheer beatdown vibes for gathering summer evenings, over a cannily deployed half-speed drum and bass.
Remix session from Shed and Ramadanman tackling D-Bridge’s killer ‘ZX81’ from the ‘Producer 2’ compilation on Fat City!
Brainmath cut a layer deeper with a properly good looking double pack from SBTRKT. Landing just ahead of his Grizzly hookup with Sinden, these four tracks feature the masked one exercising his moodier house and garage inclinations. ‘2020’ shuts the airlock and pressurizes yer headspace with sweeping jazzy chords and a streamlined broken house swing finished with that special SBTRKT lacquer.
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sbtrkt – 2020
Brainmath cut a layer deeper with a properly good looking double pack from SBTRKT. Landing just ahead of his Grizzly hookup with Sinden, these four tracks feature the masked one exercising his moodier house and garage inclinations. ‘2020’ shuts the airlock and pressurises yer headspace with sweeping jazzy chords and a streamlined broken house swing finished with that special SBTRKT lacquer. ‘Jamlock’ follows with heavily filtered tech-house with a mongrel blooded flux of UK garage infected swing and Berlin style reserve, keeping the funk tucked tight in the pocket. Meanwhile the deep house mystery of ‘One Week Over’ opens up to reveal a blend of Actress-alike swampy compressions and semi-lucid melodies and finally ‘Pause For Thought’ applies lolling chord sequences to brittle 2-step rhythm and trickling UR style jazz techno keys. The execution is second to none, maybe a little too plastic or digitised for some but made to sound ultra-fresh and oh-so-clean for everyone else. Killah!
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Devilishly catchy melodies and basslines, full of feeling and soul, evolve and grow as the arrangement develops to leave you on an almighty high. Big drops, super heavy drum programming and grooves that sound like only Joy Orbison right now. There’s shades of garage, shades of funky, shades of old school R&B.
When combining the energy of Berghain and Panorama Bar, together with a (in context) unusual side of dubstep, the Sub:stance club manages to take out the best of both “sides” – and fuse them into a concrete monster. Even though the sharp and ambitious sound may seem a bit uneasy as well as clever, the direction in which Sub:stance is going seems more natural than ever. Keeping the essence of the sounds that define dubstep, as well as the tempos, structure and attitude while fusing them together with a very techno-fied city and all the inspiration, aspiration as well as unique sense of bass music – Scuba seems more than just fit to create a mix CD of it all.
The Hipodrome Of Music 