Review of the year, 2006

It’s been quite a busy year for me. January I put up the second 94 jungle mix, Jungle Got Dub. BTW, this is up at http://www.grievousangel.net/JungleDub94.mp3. I should really re-master it – bit bass heavy. People seemed to like it though. There was the first in a trio of Phil Hine interviews in January too. March was big – the first in the Dubstep Sufferah series went up. I put some time into that, I loved doing it and it got a bit of attention and a couple of thousand downloads between here and Barefiles. Plus I went to the inaugural night at BASH – fucking mental and I met lots of dubstep people for the first time, and even better, saw Mala play in Sheffield with Space Ape. Just beyond belief. In April I did my first “modern” dubstep tune, or at lest my first halfstepp-y thing, Lickle Friction. (As you may recall Kode 9 had got in touch about some of the old 138 stuff back in, IIRC, 2003.) Anyway, Lickle was built around the Jammy’s / Scientist phone call mp3s that were doing the rounds at the time and was quite a nice little roller, and it’s been played out a bit apparently. Even bigger, me and John’s mix for the wonderful Dave Stelfox’s show on Resonance FM went out on the nineteenth of this month. It’s still up here. And I went to see Mala play too… In May I put up No Sunshine, my refix of Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine, which had been going round and round my head since January. I still love this, so much so I did a remix of it in a mate’s pro studio later in the year. It’s been played out lots. Plus I finally got to DMZ. And John released the first RSI Radio, which was great, and which I did some editing and mastering on. In June I did the second Tense Nervous House Music mix, where I caught up with the glorious renaissance of techy deep house that’s been brewing for the last few years, best exemplified in my view by Ame and Trentemoller. In July, I think it was, me and John did our first contribution to the magnificent Blogariddims series. Didn’t do much for the next few months – other than work on Dubstep Sufferah 2, which took a while, though not as long as the first volume did. It finally went up in October. It’s only done a few hundred downloads, but I think it’s the best mix I’ve ever done; when it first went up the demand took out my server in hours. After that I was just too busy with work to do much. So – three solo mixes this year plus two collaborations with John, which isn’t a bad tally.

Besides my own stuff, it’s been quite a good year musically. Obviously I’ve been focused on dubstep, of which more in a minute, but there’s been loads of good house too. As for reggae, I have yet again failed to fulfil my new year resolution of buying fresh reggae every month, but not for want of trying. Just wasn’t feeling much this year. No doubt Eden’s end of year round up CD will show me where I went wrong. I think 2006 will go down as the year that dubstep finally fulfilled its potential on vinyl. Anyway, all my favourite tunes this year were dubstep. My top ten should hold no surprises really, but here they are in order of them embedding themdselves deep into my mind and obsessing me:

1. Loefah: Ruffage / Mud

Jesus. What a fucking tune Ruffage is. I think Loefah is the best producer in the world right now and I tell you, he’s only just started. Mud needs a big system to really work, though it sounded fab on dubstep warz, but Ruffage is just… “rough… beats…”. It’s an AMAZING record, deep and lush and throbbing and saturated with flavour, I just love the electro style Loefah’s been pushing this year. You think this tune is just all groove and no soul, but… it does… Obviously Disko Wrekkah is even better, the best record to come out of dubstep and it will be the biggest dubstep record of 2007, assuming it comes out – which I expect it will. But that’s not out yet… I’ve had it since the start of the summer – probably my high point for the year – but it’s been so much a Loefah signature tune I haven’t dared play it. Maybe it’ll go on a mix when the release date is coming up. In the meantime go to DMZ just to hear it, and listen to Ruffage. Fucking mental. I should put up the vocal dub mix of Ruffage I did for Sufferah 2, see if anyone wants to play it out…

2. Pinch: Qawalli (VIP mix)

Oh boy. The deepest, heaviest, low slung deep funker of a track that dubstep has produced. Ultimate squidge. Right up there with the great deep, aquatic techno and house tunes…

3. Skream: I (Loefah Remix)

Loefah sends this tune into a downward spiral of bass that never ends. It rocks. Loefah thinks I is better than Request Line – and it is now.

4. Loefah: System

There’s just nothing to this tune. Couple of synth horn stabs, primitive electro beat… there’s a couple of bars with a variation in the drum programming at the end that would take this track into a whole other universe, but he just casually slings in a taste of it… and it’s just unadulterated genius.

5. Skream: Dutch Flowers

The “big” Skream track you’re not supposed to like but what a tuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeee!!! I know Blackdown doesn’t like the digidub influence in dubstep and especially in Skream’s work but I have to say, I just love it and this tune exemplifies that digidub template while taking on a ridiculously happy, bouncy energy. Love it love it love it and it’s a CRIME it didn’t get a female vocal version to take it into the August top ten… maybe next year…

6. Benga: Zombie Jig

Probably 2005 really but it was on the CD (which, ahem, was patchy IMO), so… Is Benga more talented than Skream? I guess they’ve worked so close to each other for so long that a comparison is pointless, but in any event Benga has truckloads, I just wish he could get a few more records out.

7. Virus Syndicate: Major List MCs

Is it dubstep or is it grime? I don’t know that, but I do know we need more records like this – unbearably funky but intensely spacious backing matched with outrageously tight ensemble vocal flow.

8. Mala: Left Leg Out / Blue Notez

I love Loefah’s stuff but I expect Mala will eventually be seen as the greatest producer to come out of dubstep – the spiritual force of his records ensures that. It’s almost a cliche now to compare Mala with Shaka – my favourite DJ ever as regular readers know – but the comparison really does stand. His and Coki’s records are, in the main, dub missiles designed to pulverise dancefloors on plate. Mala is as interested in the transcendent potential of sonics in and of themselves as any 1980s industrialist and much Digital Mystikz output this year has translated that vibrational arsenal directly, and gloriously, into vinyl. But it’s not the sucession of wobblerz that will cement Digital Mystikz’ wider reputation – it’ll be the more emotive tracks tracks like these.
9. Digital Mystikz: Ancient memories (Skream remix)

Feel the jazz funk vibes seep in tt=he darkness!

10. Headhunter: Sleepwalker

THE standout track from the Tempa All Stars two double pack.

And a few more that didn’t quite make the top 10:

BlackDown: Lata

Intimations of greatness here – Martin walks it like he talks it…
DQ1: Wear the Crown

The bad-man producer. Difficult to choose between this Headhunter.
Digital Mystikz: Earth Run a Red / Conference / Haunted

Sheer dread heaviosity. (Can get a bit wearing compared to the best of their contemporaries though.)

Digital Mystikz – Anti War Dub

Super 4×4 excursion and ubdoubtedly a classic (but doesn’t quite have the legs it might have done)
Random Trio: Indian Stomp (from the Cyrus EP)

Such space, such minimalism… terrific tune and a great mixing tool.

Caspa: Rubber Chicken

Great, laidback, deep funk tune, possibly the ultimate wobbler… but hold tight for next year’s LFO King, which I’ve had for fucking months and is dayglo rave aceness.
Toasty – The Knowledge (Vex’d Remix)

Boxcutter – Brood / Sunshine

Great, creative single package – didn’t quite make me want to get the album.

And lots more – this was the year it became impossible to stay utterly on top of all the dubstep releases. It was even harder to properly absorb all the radio shows, even with the help of the magnificent talents of Deapoh and Boomnoise. These two have between them rendered a hugely valuable service to both today’s dubstep massive and future generations by recording and hosting all the key radio sessions. Boys, this was your year.
Outside of dubstep? Well, as mentioned both Ame and Trentemoller have really rocked my world. In rock, I did not prove immune to the attractions of Arctic Monkeys. When my wife got the CD I listened to it all, then put it straight back on and listened to it all the way through again. And again. I haven’t done that with a CD for years – not even Burial’s. (And yes, it is a great CD, not for me quite as good as other people have found it to be, but a lot better than, say, the Hatcha mix CD -amazing selection, terrible sequencing… but enough dubstep!). So yeah, the Arctics are the best British rock group since the Stone Roses as far as I’m concerned – just looking at the festival shows on TV it was obvious to me how much tighter they played than all the other bands and how much better their songs are.

Anyway… a very good year, especially with the quality of dubstep and dubstep related events I’ve been able to make it to this year, principally DMZ and BASH. I didn’t expect it to be as good as it was.

Negligees

Imagine a world in which wealth and power depend on a magical substance found deep under the earth. Then, imagine that this substance was found to cause floods, disease, and severe drought. Fearing popular retribution, the wealthy and powerful deny the findings. Studies on the danger of the substance are cast into doubt, their authors are charged with alarmism and corruption. The public is confused — and reassured. Of course, all the while the harmful qualities of the substance continue to act, with increasingly costly effects. Members of the corporations insulate themselves from the danger with canny investments that perpetuate their extreme wealth. Even when the worst predictions are recognized, the propaganda machine continues to churn, assuring victims that their fate was natural and unavoidable.

I know; it’s a crazy story.

Climate scientist Ben Zaitchik on the false thesis / antithesis of the “debate” on human-caused global warming.

No Sunshine news / Grievous Angel Vs Miles Davis

People seem to like my “No Sunshine” refix. It’s the opening track on an extremely nice dubstep mix over at Bambu Breakz. It’s at http://bambu.breakz.be/dubstep/mini.mp3. Lots of unreleased dubs with a smattering of top quality releases, really well mixed, and a great selection of deeper, less heavy dubstep. Bambu adds in his message: “We had a VJ gig last night where we took this mix and supplied it with video (which I hope to get online somewhere soon)..” Which is fantastic, obviously. I’m really grateful for the DJ support I’m getting.

There’s been a bit of discussion about broken beat and jazz influences in substep recently, which is a coincidence for me, cos that’s the sort of stuff I’ve been doing.

I was thinking about how Kode9 talks about dubstep being focused on having massive sub-bass with anything you want on top, and I wanted to apply that to a dubstep track that heavily sampled Miles Davis in deep space mode. This tune therefore has oodles of round subs, but with a rhythm that’s not exactly a regular dubstep beat – it’s got a lot more strange swing. It’s built around Miles’ Billy Preston tune, which was originally on the Get Up With It LP, though I took the version on Bill Laswell’s Panthalassa remix album. It’s here. This has been played on Selector Dub-U’s radio show.

I then did We Want Miles, a more straight forward dubstep tune which cuts the Miles samples down to breathless ghosts. It’s not a bad roller. It’s here.

Let me know what you think.

Blimey…

That was a was a bit mad. Hundreds of downloads and then – pow… the bandwidth gets toasted. Many thanks to Paul Autonomic for hosting in the meantime. The 320 is now deleted. More soon…

Grievous Angel Presents Dubstep Sufferah Volume 2

dubstep sufferah volume 2

I’ve done a second volume of the Dubstep Sufferah mix series.

It’s a similar format to the first one – select dubstep tunes, with significant additional dub FX and re-editing. However, this time there is even more emphasis on bringing out dubstep’s roots – and indeed the whole ardkore continuum’s roots – in reggae, especially in Brit soundsystem culture. Some commentators have denied that there is a cultural lineage between reggae, but I think that point of view doesn’t take into account some fairly well established history. Not that I expect anyone to agree with me when I say, somewhat exaggeratedly, that dubstep actually is reggae!

Also for this mix, I’ve focused on adding a significant vocal, or at least MC, element to this otherwise primarily instrumental music. It’s noticeable that most of the biggest crowd responses at DMZ are for the vocal tunes, of which only a small proportion have been released, and I really wanted to lighten a mix that would otherwise have been fairly relentlessly minimal with vocal colour.

It also helps to create a time travelling, cut up sense of dubstep emerging form an 80s reggae dance not only is the mix opened with some live Saxon and Asher Senator, and little known Brit digital dancehall mixed with some sweeter dubstep in the middle, but there’s loads of additional MC samples sprinkled across the mix. I’d like to thank Dublin reggae and jungle maestro Droid for his kindness in furnishing me with a generous helping of live dancehall, as well as John Eden for providing the Saxon material via his blog.

Technically, the mix is something of a hybrid. A lot of vinyl mixing, a fair amount of digital mixing, and a load of editing in Live. It’s not a purely authentic vinyl mix and I doubt you could do this on decks; that’s not the point. It is however meant to be a properly constructed mix you can return to.

The narrative arc of this mix follows a classic dubstep mix blueprint. Heavy, harsh, grinding first third, some sweet respite, and some bangers to close. Following a sweet reggae and dub intro, I went straight into an increasingly punishing selection of banging dubstep classics that becomes more industrial and claustrophobic with each track, culminating in a series of monstrous wobblers. I particularly like the cut up of Virus Syndicate’s Major List MCs over Pinch’s Qawalli VIP in this section; they seem made for each other. The heaviness is finally relieved by Iration Steppas’ classic Scud Missile dub, which takes us into an altogether softer, darker, dancehall tinged section.(I’ve been amused and delighted by Skream’s championing of digidub on his Rinse FM show, more power to your elbow Olly, even more so since you’re also championing the jazz funk sound of my Essex youth!) Dark garage originator and fellow Sheffield resident DQ1 does the bridge into deeper dub and more rolling beats; the last third is petty much ravetastic, focusing on Loefah re-edits. He’s the king of the beats and my favourite dubstep producer by a mile (my favourite producer in any genre in the world actually) and while he may be frustrated at not doing deeper tunes, at just doing beats, frankly they’re so great I don’t care.

And that’s it really. I’m very happy with the mix; while all the tunes are familiar to the initiated, I hope they have been dubbed-up and edited enough to sound fresh, and this mix wasn’t about showing off unreleased tunes, it was about creating some particular atmospheres, showcasing what has been arguably dubstep’s most fertile period thus far, and possibly, creating an ear-friendly route in for the uncommitted. I hope you enjoy it; let me know either way.

Dubstep Sufferah Volume 2.

A LAME-encoded 192K mp3 which weighs 104.5Mb is here.

A LAME (Insane) 320K mp3 which weighs 174.1Mb is available for a limited time. Down now!

0.00 Asher Senator / Saxon Sound Intro
1.11 King Tubby / Johnny Clark: A Ruffer Version (Jackpot)
4.45 Digital Mystikz: Ancient Memories (original mix) / (Skream Remix) (DMZ)
10:18 Skream: I (Loefah Remix) (Tempa)
13:48 Digital Mystikz: Conference (Soul Jazz)
17:34 Virus Syndicate: Major List MCs (Jammer Instrumental) (Planet Mu)
18:41 Pinch: Qawalli (VIP mix) (Planet Mu) / Virus Syndicate: Major List MCs (Jammer Vocal Mix) (Planet Mu)
23:36 D1: Degrees (Tempa)
24:59 Digital Mystikz: Haunted (DMZ) Grievous Angel Vocal Edit
28:28 Skream: Glamma (Tempa)
31:16 Digital Mystikz: Earth Run a Red (Soul Jazz)
35:11 Iration Steppas: Scud Missile Dub (Universal Egg)
37:48 Appleblim: Cheat I (Skull Disco) Grievous Angel Vocal Edit
39:57 Mickey Murka: We Try (Version) (Unity Sounds / Honest Jons)
41:29 Benga: Zombie Jig (BengaBeats)
43:27 Kenny Knots: Watch How the People Dancing (Unity Sounds / Honest Jons)
44.49 Skream: Dutch Flowers (Tempa)
46:48 Selah Collins: Pick a Sound (Version) (Unity Sounds / Honest Jons)
47:12 DQ1: Wear the Crown (Tectonic)
52:09 Headhunter: Sleepwalker (Tempa) Grievous Angel Vocal Dub
55:55 Caspa: Rubber Chicken (Tempa)
58:43 Loefah: Mud (DMZ) Grievous Angel “Signal” Dub
63:11 Caspa: For the Kids (Dub Police)
65:40 Grievous Angel: Lickle Friction (CDR)
69:07 Loefah: Ruffage (DMZ) Grievous Angel Vocal Dub
71:43 Loefah: System (Tectonic) Grievous Angel Edit
76:03 Ends

Tippa at BASH

Yeah it happened and it was fucking great.

Maximum respect to Kevin and Loe for sorting this out.

As you may recall I saw Tippa in Sheffield in the summer and very good he was too, albeit in much more of a “pop” vein. But the other night he was absolutely AWESOME. Righteous flow, sharp as fuck, I was flying. Loved it.

Soon come – Tippa over a Bug riddim. Can’t wait.

BASH pix – from May

Just so you know, I now have a Flickr account. It’s mainly got images from DMZ and BASH, so it’s “just another dubstep photostream”, as they say. It’s at http://www.flickr.com/photos/grievousangelsoundsystem/.

Here are a bunch of images from John Eden’s TRIUMPHANT turn at the decks on May 25th. He really was absolutely fantastic.

Here he is being looked after by Kevin Martin – he’s a nice man is Kevin.

And again… hasn’t Kevin got a military bearing?

John looking remarkably sexy drinking a beer:

John in deep concentration… DJ booth as ziggurat… SUFFERAH!!!!

Taking his leave, a job well done, turning over to Loefah, who immediately turned the sound up. Good man.

Loefah on fire…

… wearing one of his amazing t-shirts… that mother was bright…

Eden and Boomnoise kicking back and grooving to Loefah. That was a particularly good set from him too.

Space Ape rocking it during the dub poetry bit – over The Bug’s beats. He was really, REALLY good, totally blew away everyone. He’s on another level in terms of artistry – a truly fantastic MC.

And again… he was FLYING at this point. Not quite the level of invocatory power as at the gig with Mala at Sheffield, but not far off.

Skanking, weaving, raving…

This was, I think, Roger Robinson, but I’m ashamed to say I’m not really sure…

He was very good anyway. Not as tip top as Space Ape, but not bad.

Part 2 was excellent. Really banging dancehall.

For some reason I didn’t do many of the crowd this time.

But here’s some of the friends I went with.
John Eden and our old mate Danny, who quite enjoyed the dubstep being played, much to his surprise…

Me and Danny – yeah, he’s mad!!! Mad for life…

Me and the redoubtable Boomnoise – wicked bloke and one of the very best people in the dubstep scene.

Wicked night yet again. Come on down!