I do love Simon and regularly defend him against his detractors. But his natural contrarianism can lead him to some strange value judgements at times. To wit, he hath discovered 16 bit and seems to be arguing that this is is an example of post-Spongebob wobble being, well, fun, in contrast with the half baked noodle of the deeper side of the scene. (via blissblog.)
Which is fine in itself – I have often defended, online and in print, the better-quality elements of jump-up style dubstep as the natural successors of the Prodigy but… oh Simon! Do keep UP!
Yes you are quite right that “this is not only a good laugh but actually quite musical i think”. “We” like 16 bit. We liked that track a long time ago and we still do – we being, you know, proper dubstep heads with taste and everything, the fans going dribbly over Joy Orbison and apparently being all chin-strokey about it. But no, we’re NOT “all for these bastard children of “spongebob” because we actually know what that means! Because it does not typically mean Prodigy-style jump up splattercore that still has its roots in grime/garage/jungle. No – it means heavy metal student toss. That’s the reality – if you actually go to the clubs and know the scene and how it develops.
(Just as we knew that wonky within dubstep was not conditionend and defined by ketamine, even if drugs are – newsflash! – used by some producers some of the time. But that is an old and ugly dispute in which there is no profit in revisiting.)
If you want more of that big and bouncy rave-y wobble that’s actually good, then check out Starkey (on, let us not forget, Blackdown’s label – yes Blackdown, who has led the charge against content-free wobble-metal), and yes you’re already on Raffertie, well done, and check out Sully’s heavier bits, and so on and so forth. All of whom we’ve been talking about for, literally, years. (Yes I know Simon likes Blackdown and his CD! That’s not the point…)
So yes, you’re right, but you’re a bit late, but then again so what, that doesn’t matter, and good luck to you for bigging up Raffertie and Zomby. Fine.
What DOES matter, to me anyway, is that Simon has drawn what is in my view an uttery false – and quite damaging – opposition between 16bit and Joy Orbison (with whom I played on Friday) – false IF YOU ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT’S GOING OFF IN THE CLUBS. To wit:
“i mean, where would you rather be–in the midst of a crowd aving it apeshit to this sort of scato-splatterbass? or in the midst of headz sagely nodding (off, more like!) to moist ‘n’ milky minimalism such as this “talisman” of a track?” By which he means Hyph Mngo.
Now I suspect Simon hasn’t seen Hyph Mngo played in a club or dropped into a mix himself. I have done both.
And Hyph Mngo FUCKING GOES OFF. It is a BANGER. People go APESHIT MENTAL TO IT. It is a solid gold RAVE TUNE. I mean… those sampled diva vocals… Simon can articulate what they mean, what they convey, in terms of hardcore and smashing the dance far better than I can. He played it as his last tune on Friday. Pulled the previous tune back, played Hyph Mngo from the start, stupidly long intro and all, and of course, most people in the room weren’t such music nerds that they’d heard it loads before. But they got it immediately. It was massive. Earlier in his set Joy didn’t play 16bit, or Spongebob, but he opened with some grime bangers, played lots of dirty (AND tasteful) garage, lots of crude and crunchy bassline – loads of tunes that link directly into 16bit. And it all fitted perfectly with Hyph Mngo.
So to dismiss Hyph Mngo with a flick of the wrist just because Hancox or whoever likes it is just silly!
And if Simon only knew the antecedence of Joy Orbison, he would be scrambling to interview him. Seriously. Becuase it’s fascinating, it confirms all his most important ideas in the most visceral, physical way possible, it brings to life much of what he has been observing and theorising for years. Literally. But that’s a nugget of information I am not at liberty to share at this time. However… Simon, get in touch with Joy Orbison, absorb the rest of his tracks, find out where he’s from and where he’s going.
You’re going to love it!
And while you’re at it, get into some uk funky – and check out what happens when Zed Bias and MJ Cole play it! And the new broken / latin stuff that’s coming in! Best scene for years…