News / dubstep
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1 min read
MUST DIE! - VOGUE
Read more . . . →MUST DIE! makes music that sounds like a server room catching fire, and VOGUE is him leaning all the way into it. The first minute is almost polite by his standards, a clipped vocal and some negative space, and then around 1:20 the whole thing folds in on itself and starts screaming metal. I’ve heard a lot of design-y dubstep that mistakes ugliness for aggression; this one earns the ugliness because there’s an actual hook underneath, a two-note motif that keeps surfacing between the chaos so you never lose the thread. It’s the rare heavy track I could hum afterwards,...
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1 min read
SKisM ft. Virus Syndicate - Like This (Skybreak Remix)
Read more . . . →Skybreak got his hands on a Never Say Die staple and rebuilt the whole thing from the chassis out. The original ‘Like This’ was already a brick — Virus Syndicate barking over a riff that never apologises — and this remix keeps the bars but swaps the engine for something with way more moving parts. Skybreak’s whole thing is that hyper-detailed, glitched-to-hell sound design where every eighth note gets its own little event, and about 1:40 in the drop folds in on itself twice before you’ve figured out where the downbeat went. It should feel cluttered and instead it feels...
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1 min read
ZEDS DEAD - RETURN TO THE RETURN (OF THE SPECTRUM OF INTERGALACTIC HAPPINESS): THE MOVIE
Read more . . . →With a title that long you’d better deliver, and somehow Zeds Dead do. This is the Canadian duo in full maximalist mode, a sprawling bass odyssey that lives up to its ridiculous name by cramming about four tracks’ worth of ideas into one runtime. It opens almost gently before detonating around 1:30 into the kind of grimy, wobbling bass workout that made their name a decade ago. What I love is that Zeds Dead have been doing this long enough to not care about trends, so this sounds gloriously out of step with whatever’s current, all old-school dubstep menace filtered...
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1 min read
501 ft. Belle Humble - HeadRush (beastboi. Remix)
Read more . . . →Belle Humble’s voice is the kind that can carry a whole track on its own, so handing it to beastboi. for a dubstep remix is a small act of violence I fully support. The original HeadRush was already a big vocal moment; this version keeps the top line intact through the first drop, lets you fall for it, then absolutely wrecks the second one with a low end that sounds like it’s chewing through the mix. What gets me is the restraint before the 2:10 switch. beastboi. holds the drop back a full bar longer than you expect, and that...
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1 min read
Halogenix - Sawtooth
Read more . . . →There’s a specific kind of half-empty warehouse at 2am where a track like Sawtooth makes total sense — too weird for the peak, too heavy for the comedown, perfect for the bit in between. Halogenix has spent years in that Ivy Lab world where dnb, halftime and bass all bleed into each other, and Sawtooth lives right on that seam. The lead is exactly what the title promises, a serrated synth that saws back and forth like it’s trying to cut through the low end, and the drum programming underneath swings in this loose, off-kilter way that keeps you slightly...
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1 min read
Ray Volpe, Kai Wachi - PAIN
Read more . . . →Two of the most reliably heavy names in American dubstep on one track, and PAIN earns its title in the first fifteen seconds. Ray Volpe brings the lurching, riddim-adjacent bounce he’s built a following on, and Kai Wachi drags it somewhere darker and more industrial. The vocal is pitched down into something menacing before the first drop even lands, and that’s the tell that these two weren’t going to phone it in. What gets me is the restraint in the buildup: they hold the tension a good eight bars longer than most producers dare, so when it finally collapses at...
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1 min read
501 - The Final Cut (Chime Remix)
Read more . . . →What happens when a dnb producer hands a track to someone who lives at 140? You get The Final Cut in Chime’s hands, and the answer is: it gets meaner and slower and somehow more urgent. 501’s original was rolling neurofunk, all forward momentum, and Chime drags it down into dubstep territory without losing the aggression that made it work — if anything the halved tempo gives every bass growl more room to actually land on your chest. Chime came up making melodic stuff and has been getting progressively filthier release by release, and this is him fully committed to...
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1 min read
Eptic - The End (WINK Remix)
WINK took an already-mean Eptic dubstep track and somehow made The End meaner. Play it loud and your neighbours will introduce themselves.Read more . . . →Get the tee →Support the blogThree words. One opinion. Cotton. -
4 min read
Burial: The Ghost Who Defined a Decade
Who is Burial and why does Untrue still own UK electronic music? William Bevan made the saddest dance record of the decade — and nobody's matched it.Read more . . . →Get the tee →Support the blogWhat if your laundry was also a personality? -
1 min read
Habstrakt & Badjokes - Right Here (Silcrow Remix)
Silcrow drags Habstrakt & Badjokes' Right Here somewhere darker and grittier. A remix good enough to make you forget the original existed.Read more . . . →Get the tee →Support the blogShips in 3–5 days. The outrage ships immediately.
