Category: dubstep

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Devotional Dubz Mix Volume One

The first Devotional Dubz mix is now up on the FACT Magazine site. Do please check it out. It’s probably the best thing I’ve ever done. Here’s some backstory.

In the summer, I put out Lady Dub, the first of the Devotional Dubz series of dubstep / dark garage refixes of r’n’b tunes, which was the counterpart to the harder ragga techno styles on the double album, Belief is the Enemy, that was released at solstice. Lady Dub is a refix of D’Angelo’s nu-soul classic Lady, or rather of DJ Premier’s remix of it; it turned out to be fairly popular, helping to propel the garage revival that we’ve seen this year. It also offered a different vision of dubstep, one that reaffirmed the form’s original tolerance for sweetness and vocals while offering the biggest booming 808 sine waves I could manage.

Each Devotional Dubz release will have a DJ mix that acts as a kind of sonic manifesto; therefore the first one focuses on the other side of dubstep, the landslide, horsepower, mala side that traces a lineage back to soul and dancehall and broken beat, just as jungle traced a lineage back to r’n’b as much as to bashment. It includes exclusive refixes and blends of r’n’b tunes, alongside unreleased Grievous Angel garage tracks that have previously only been heard on Blackdown’s Rinse show, and some special edits of dark garage classics. It’s lush, it’s spacey, it’s skippy, and at the end it’s unremittingly heavy, but all the way it’s pure garage flavour.

Turn it up and feel the sunshine. Volume two will be out in a few months when I’ve got some funky stuff out of the way.

00:00: Jill Scott: Slowly Surely (Grievous Angel’s Erzulie Edit)

02.20: Craig Mack: Brand New Flava (Grievous Angel’s Iron River Edit)

05:19: Grievous Angel: Lady Dub

08:07: Jill Scott: Watching Me

09:30: Vaccine: Wishful Thinking (VIP Mix)

12:03: DJ Abstract: Touch

15:18: Jill Scott: Crown Royal (Grievous Angel’s Fucking In Sunshine Edit)

17:07: Jill Scott: My Love (Grievous Angel’s Deeper, Tighter Edit)

19:29: HorsePower Productions: Gorgon Sound

21:56: Grievous Angel: Lady Dub (2Step Remix)

25:10: Groove Chronicles: Be Happy

28:09: Grievous Angel: What We Had

31:47: El B: Bison

31:58: Groove Chronicles: Faith In You

34:13: Dru Hill: Freak Like Me (El B Remix)

39:11: El B: Two Thousand

40:34: Our Lady of Rage: Afro Puffs

42:00: Grievous Angel: I Love Dem

49:13: Ends

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New mix – Social Circles Bizzle

I’ve been caning old 2003-era Social Circles gear recently. I just can’t enough of it – that moment when garage had turned grimey but wasn’t quite grime, was feeding into what would become dubstep, and was utterly banging and incredibly danceable. Following the brilliant 2step revival that we’ve seen this year I would really like people to make more in this style. It’s bloody hard to do though.

Anyway this mix is nice and short at 25 minutes and is all decks, no Live and no FX, and though I say so myself it’s fucking great music. Give it a go.

Here.

Tracklisting:

Sticky – Who Are You (2004)
Sticky – Boom Shell (2003)
Mr Fidget – Fidgestrumental (2003)
Simon Sez – Shut Your Mouth (2003)
Donae’o – My Philosophy (Bounce) (2003)
Sticky – Ganjaman (2002)
Sticky Feat. Viper* – I’m On The Mic (2003)
Maxwell D – Serious (Jameson Remix) (2001)
Sticky Feat. Viper* – I’m On The Mic (Instrumental) (2003)

Soon come: a techno-y dubstep mix (when I can work out what the track listing is!), a Devotional Dubz special (for on the wire… if they get themselves sorted out, otherwise I’ll just stick it up!!), another garage mix, a VIP Grievous Angel mix for Electronic Explorations (delivered), a mix for the Boomnoise and Pokes show (delivered), a grime mix (was nearly done… then I got a load of new records) and probably a Narrows style 4×4 mix cos I’m using those tunes to teach my seven year old how to mix :). Plus a couple of very, very special ones I can’t talk about…

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Lady Dub is back from pressing plant, out soon

Tons of boxes

I spent a delightful day at the distributor yesterday, stamping and marking each and every Lady Dub in the world. The finished vinyl was back from the plant a bit quicker than we expected so I hotfooted it over to Manchester – and there they were! Box after box of beautiful, crisp virgin vinyl. 

 

Each copy now has the Devotional Dubz logo stamped on the bag (quite a nice bag for a plain white, actually), together with a mark on the centre. Most of them are like the pic below – “Lady” or “Lady Dub” in ink on the a-side, plus a somewhat distorted, flaked out logo stamped on the b-side.

The majority have some level of unique marking. For example quite a few just have this written on them:

Tat says “Rollage” in case you can’t make it out. There’s a bunch of different stuff. 

It took hours, but it was worth it. I did debate with myself about whether it would be better to leave them as pure whites with just the logo on the bag. But in the end I decided more was actually more in this instance. The image on the bag does actually look really good – as you can’t quite see judging by this pic:

And the distorted logo on the label looks great, I think:

Lets hope this one sells – I’m mad keen to get on with the next two.

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Narcossist

Is there anyone – anyone at – currently working in dubstep who is better than Narcossist?

Well, the answer is yes – but you have to go to the top drawer producers to find people who are actually better.

Trust me, the quality is now THERE. All that potential is getting realised. There are a good three or four tunes that are just stunning, totally realised dub techno / garage hybrids that do serious damage. Pure rollage vibes too.

Check out http://www.myspace.com/narcossist especially Targets, Sunblind, Nude Refix, and most of all, the new one, Metronome. This is likely to go on wax and I really hope it does because I want to buy it. What an amazing deep tune! He’s already getting attention from all the right people – blackdown, TRG, Dub-U, Martyn, Ben UFO, all the taste makers are on him and of course I’ve been representing him for a couple of years now. Catch up now if you haven’t already,

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Belief is the Enemy is IN THE SHOPS

Yeah – it’s out, a couple of days early!

Sounds of the Universe calls it a “Dazzling and timely fusing of genres from dubstep to techno, uk garage to bashment”, which is flattering. It’s certainly a fusing of genres. There are samples of We Want You, Lickle Friction (sounding surprisingly banging!) and 1985 Style up there as well

Naturally it’s in at Boomkat as well. The write up is quite good. “Contrapuntally slender snares” indeed! I should say, for the record, that I have never knowingly had ANYTHING to do with IDM in my entire life.  It’s a garage ting!

It’s in at Forced Exposure in the US as well.

What a blast! Bang on the solstice season too. There should be a couple of radio shows coming up soon where you can hear these tracks as well as some tasty new things. Plus there’s an On The Wire special for Devotional Dubz. Lady Dub should be out during the Dog Days.

Huge thanks to everyone who’s bought this already (yikes! some people already have!!! amazing…) and to Matt at Electrik Dragon for believing in the music.

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Grievous Angel presents Belief is the Enemy

The first Grievous Angel album is called [b]Belief is the Enemy[/b].

It’s out on 27th June on Elektrik Dragon, through Baked Goods.

It’s a two disc set: the album comes with a mix CD, called [b]Believe in Dub[/b].

It’s a proper album. There’s a load of different flavours here… pounding hard techno-y gear, sweet soft dubstep rollers, dubby garage, bashy stuff, grinding industrial riddims. And a bunch of tracks with Rubi Dan, the MC from Heatwave, the famous London dancehall crew. He’s a BAD MC.

You can hear previews of the tracks at [url]www.myspace.com/grievousangelsoundsystem[/url].

Track listings are as follows:

CD1: Belief Is The Enemy:

1. We Want You 138. Deep, lush dubstep
2. Lickle Friction 138. Hard industrial dubstep
3. Gone, Gone, Gone 138. Deep-space dubstep
4. Immigrant 138. Twisted industrial dubstep breaks
5. 1985 Style 100. Dancehall
6. Long Gone Dub (With Rubi Dan) 138. Soft, spacey dubstep
7. Move Down Low (With Rubi Dan) 120. Banging ragga techno with MC
8. Culture Killer (With Rubi Dan) 130. Banging ragga techno with MC
9. Soundman Tribute 138. Banging ragga techno – stupid but fun, squealing headache synths…
10. Velvet Dub (Bitten By The Black Dog) 138. Heavyweight electronic dubstep
11. Culture Killer (Discomix) 130. Minimal ragga techno
12. Velvet Dub 138. Deep, lush dubstep

CD2. Believe in Dub.

00.00 1985 Style
05.45 Bad Man Dub (Black Hole remix)
11.51 Velvet Dub (VIP mix)
16.52 Gone, Gone, Gone
23.50 Long Gone Dub (With Rubi Dan)
27.32 We Want You
31.57 Lickle Friction
37.04 Glitter Dub
42.15 Culture Killer (With Rubi Dan)
47.28 Immigrant
51.13 Soundman Tribute
56.46 Culture Killer (Discomix)
60.59 Move Down Low (Version)
63.51 Move Down Low (With Rubi Dan)

The mix CD has additional tracks, and everything is cut up, has loads of extra FX, sirens, yard tape samples etc. It’s pretty massive.

I don’t know about you but I switch between wanting albums as seperate tracks (for mix ammunition) and hearing the tunes in the mix as the artist intended (and as the tunes really deserve). With this album you don’t have to choose – you get both. I like the mix better. But the album has the Black Dog remix. You really need to hear that and it’s one of just two they’re doing this year. And lots of people seem to want Culture Killer and Move Down Low as standalone tunes. So…

Catalogue number is ELEKD-02. Street date is 27th June. Distribution is Baked Goods. You know what to do – it’ll be worth it. Vinyl news when I have it.

Like I said before – big up all soundmen in here who’ve been playing my stuff out – Tim Dub Boy, Sam Atki2, Blackdown, Paul Hotflush and all the rest of you. All I ever wanted was to get some tunes played in the dance. Getting a CD out is a nice bonus.

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shout on rinse

listening to youngsta on rinse on a stream in a hotel room in stockholm, got a nice shout out from task. lovely

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Massive new night

Prancehall and Hanna’s new night
This is the new night from PRANCEHALL tomorrow – Thursday 17th April, Visions Video Bar, Dalston: “Next Thursday is the start of my new night with Hanna who does the House Party events.”

What a wicked line up!

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Blogariddims 34: Grievous Angel Presents 2Step Heaven

I’ve wanted to do this for aaaaagges. When I was talking to droid about what sort of blogariddims I wanted to do next, I had a bunch of ideas in mind, including:

  • a techno-y dubstep thing (this is forthcoming!)
  • a jungle one (also forthcoming – part three of the 94-era jungle series, this one will be amentastic!)
  • a vocal pop one (weird I know)
  • some kind of electro one… didn’t really have the material for it…
  • some weird slow halfstep thing entirely made of refixes (which might happen if there’s not much work this year!)
  • another reggae one (at least two of which are forthcoming – a dancehall hits thing based on the set I did at solstice last year at C90’s bash with Maga Bo and Heatwave) and a slightly deeper ragga hits thing

But in the end there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to do one on what is for me the best music ever made that’s not overtly reggae (instead this is covertly reggae and all the better for it) – namely 2step UK Garage. This is simply the most exquisite. funky, deep, transcendental music ever, the surface obsession with bling and coke concealing a vast underworld of chthonic musical figures and traces that dazzle and seduce like no other music I know. Jungle, r’n’b, house and reggae meld into an intoxicating sweet yet dark confection that is both instantaneously satisfying and compellingly more-ish.

No, Reynolds fans (of whom I am proud to number myself), I’m not talking about 2step’s association with the endlessly reflexive arousing and denying high of cocaine. I am talking about the experiential vigour of the music. For this is not another example of Great British Drug Noise – though it functions perfectly at that level. Rather, 2step is both late night ganja smoking bassline vibronics, and great music to do the washing up to. Late night hedonic indulgence music, and an extraordinarily effective antidote to the boredom of long car journeys. Mates music and girlfriend music.

I love it, I can’t get enough of it, and I am delighted that the core of the dubstep movement is reverently keep its flame alive. And that Grime almost perfectly turned 2step inside out, remaining defiantly true to its swinging rhythmic even as it inverted it.

This is the second big 2step mix I’ve done. I did Abtract 2step, on CD, in 2000 IIRC, which had loads of top notch dubby and ragga-touched 2step from the big boys of the time such as Dem2. Groove Chronicles, El B, Wideboys. People seemed to like it. Most of those records have been in storage for the last four years, but in 2007 I bought up quite a lot of old garage. Much of the old skool 4×4 stuff went on to what was for me an exhilirating mix to do, the 4×4 Heaven mix that came out a few weeks back. I’ve got a load of mental Narrows style early 2009s new school 4×4 which is probably better than most of the bassline around at the moment, though it’s really a different thing. I fancy having a go at that at some point, probably in combination with some really girly soft garage.

But the real focus was on 2step – preferably dark, but not unremittingly so, and not too breaky, though it had to be awesomely funky to make the cut. There were some fantastic tunes that didn’t make the cut. Over a couple of weeks, I went through a series of mixes, discarding each version as I went, before finally editing together the mix from three late versions. None of the actual mixing on this podcast is digital – it’s all vinyl, decks and mixer, no Ableton on this one – though it’s made from four takes. It’s pretty close to what I really wanted to do with this mix – just a touch too dense and twisted early on. And there’s a couple of imperfections in the mixing, but that’s just vinyl for you. But overall, I like this a lot, cos most of the tunes aren’t too familiar, and the good bits are just fucking mental. I hope you like it.

It’s now here: http://www.grievousangel.net/GAMixes/2step_Heaven_Vol_1_Blogariddims_34.mp3

Now, a bit about the tunes…

0.00: Sonrisa Feat. MC Onyx Stone: Grooving Me (Splash It Like Champagne Mix). Public Demand 2000.
God, this is so heavy, yet so slinky. I have no idea who any of the people on this are. But it’s a TUNE. MASSIVE bass, achingly swung beats, sleek vocals… ultimate garage dub. Until you hear…

7.01: Dem 2: Baby (You’re So Sexy) (Big Time Scary Dub Mix). Locked On 1999.
Dem 2 are just the best, aren’t they? I mean, Groove Chronicles is almost perfect, Chris Mac slays it, but there’s something about every Dem 2 record that is just so… eeeeeevvillll… in a really GOOD way. This one has some of the most ridiculously fucked, swinging beats ever made, constantly feeling like they’re about to fall into a precipice… Really hard to mix actually. The A-side is superb vocal 2step and I really must put that in a mix too, but the Big Time Scary Dub is, well, just that.

11.24 Groove Chronicles: Masterplan. Groove Chronicles 1998?.
An utter and complete classic. Here I have just trashed the tune into Dem 2. Meditational love on wax.

15.15: Victor Romeo: Love Will Find A Way. (Ray Hurley & Mark Yardley Dub Mix). Public Demand 1998.
Ray Hurley’s odyssey into the 1989 Jack Tracks house classic that became a yardstick for UK Garage brilliance. I couldn’t resist bringing MasterPlan back in. Reaches a peak at about 18:29 when Trick Or Treat starts cutting in. Woudn’t it be great if they played this at DMZ?

19.33: Trick Or Treat Feat. Paradise: 2Step Flavas. FTL 2000.
Smart, sharp, almost political rap and one of the greatest 2step beats ever made.

24.19: Frances James + DJ Face: Girls Play Too (Baffled Angry Vocal Edit). AM:PM 2001.
Awwwwwww, yes! Utterly delicious r’n’b-relick garage as only AM:PM can do – just check out the Roger Sanchez remixes of Janet Jackson’s When I Think of You for undiluted US Garage dub. This one has WICKED bubbling r’n’b-style bass and SICK discordant percussion and of course, the superbly self-pleasing female vocal.

29.12: Suburban Lick: Here Come The Lick (DJ South Central Remix). Locked On 2000.
A really nice sub-aquatic dub rendering of this hit, complete with delightful jungle-referencing helicopter (beat) samples.

33.13: Mr. Vegas: Western End (The Birmingham Crew) ( B-15 Project Original Remix). Oracabessa Records 1999.
Why Mr Vegas was bigging up the Birmingham crew I don’t know (doubtless John will illuminate me). But it’s a great bit of ragga flavoured 2step.

35.00: Tracie Spencer: It’s All About You (Not About Me) (Zed Bias Remix). Contraband 1999.
This was a late addition to the arsenal – it arrived one day and was in the mix the next. Awesomely funky requantised break. I just kinda slammed it in while keeping Mr Vegas in, Basement Jaxx-style.

38.05: Shade Sheist Feat. Nate Dogg & Kurupt: Where I Wanna Be (Dub-A-Holics R&B Switch Mix). Public Demand 2001.
Yeeeeeeeeeessssss!!! This is just fantastic… so colourful, flavoursome, yet so banging and bouncy too.

42.00: Tasty Jay & Nicky Ni: Rinse Out (Tasty Mix). Strange Youth Recordings 2000.
I think this is both a great record and a fascinating piece of musical history; you can hear jungle so clearly in the beats it could have been an early crossover record from jungle to garage, but the MCing is very obviously an immediate precedent for grime. And of course it melds perfectly with…

45.48: Stone Kold Joints: Wicked Press. Krunch Records 2001.
This, my friends, is quite simply one of the five greatest achievements of western civilisation. One of the all time timestretched warp basslines wraps itself around one of the greatest bits of infectiously deadpan MCing in any genre. I love this tune to death. Even more so when you keep the mother running perfectly in time with Rinse Out for minutes at a time :-). Wicked tune, thoroughly deserves the rewind. And the langourous, twisting solo bassline goes all the way into Vincent J Alvis.

50:35 Vincent J. Alvis: Body Killin’ (M-Dubs Breakbeat Funk Vocal Mix). Babyshack 1999.
For many people this was it – this was the tune that really turned them on to UK Garage. Unbelievably heavy, underpinned by the biggest garage break yet deployed, saturated with male lust whose sheer need was tempered with a dark tenderness, this was the chthonic apocalypse people had been invoking since 1997. This record is so big it destroys almost any tune you care to mention in the jungle canon, even thought it’s a vocal tune.

55.02: James Lavonz Feat. She & Mr D: Mash Up Da Venue (Mash Up Dub). Locked On 2000.
Something dark yet cooled to come down from the otherwise obscure sensuous peak reached by M-Dubz and Vincent J Alvis (which I had to bring down in tempo a bit to make fit – hope that doesn’t annoy you too much).

58.04: Groove Chronicles: Stone Cold. Groove Chronicles 1998.
And just to bring you down to a sweet plateux – what many regard as the single greatest record in the entire garage catalogue. Ridiculously soft, fluffy sax rides over a super tight garage riddim, before a cone-shakingly malevolent bassline finally takes hold. From dub to jazz funk and back.

And then that’s it. Many thanks to Droid for inviting me to contribute to the series and big up to him for keeping this brilliant show on the road. It must be a major hassle making it work month after month.

Sign up to blogariddims here…

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Grievous Angel Presents Dubstep Sufferah Volume 3

Dubstep Sufferah 3

The idea behind the Dubstep Sufferah series was that while dubstep is fantastic when it’s mixed live and hyped up, there’s still scope for mixes that are coherent, long-form pieces of music, in the manner of house or techno mixes. For Volume 3, I was originally going to do an all-vinyl mix, but it wasn’t really unique enough, and then Paul Autonomic said he wanted to hear some of the unreleased stuff that I have, so I went in another direction. Simultaneously there was an explosion of creativity in grime, and I found that loads of it actually went really well with dubstep. So Dubstep Sufferah 3 turned into a dubstep versus grime cross over mix, while also showing how dubstep doesn’t have to be this narcoleptic, mordant trough of despondency that some people are trying to turn it into.

This mix has already gone out to a bunch of people over email and well over two hundred people have got it – it seems to be going down fairly well.

It’s now up as a fairly heavy 180Mb LAME-encoded 320K mp3. I didn’t bother to zip it this time – you know the score, download it by right clicking (PC) or ctrl-clicking (Mac) on the link, don’t play it in your browser. If it gets caned I may have to put up a more light-weight version. You can get it here. 

Dubstep Sufferah Volume 3

00:00 Narcossist: No Love (CDR)
03:36: Caspa: Homesick (CDR)
04:24 DQ1: Gud Money (CDR – forthcoming on Tectonic)
05:24 Kano: Mr Me Too (Kano Mixtape)
10:43 Side 9000: Dhun (CDR)
13:42 MASSIVE MUSIC: Find My Way (Kode 9 remix) (Hyperdub)
16:52 TimeBlind: Copy Copy
18:31 Roll Deep: Celebrate (Rules and Regulations CD)
21:28 DJ JSL: Coyote Dub (CDR) / Slew Dem: Bumbaclaat Badman
23:19 Monochrome: Mine a Kill Dem (CDR)
26:44 Narcossist: White Lotus (CDR) / Scare Dem Crew Featuring L.G., Pointer, Ears, Lassy, Scotty D., Muscles, J.P. & Flamin’: Take Off
30:18 Skream: Make Me (Tempa) / Timbaland & Magoo: Get Crunk / JME: Deadout / Caspa : LFO King (CDR)
33:36 Cloaks: Dark (Version) (CDR) / Kano & Jammer: Tapout (Jah Mek The World The Classics Mixtape)
37:40 Komonazmuk: Fear (CDR) / Roll Deep: Babylon Burners (Rules and Regulations CD)
40:55 Coki: Tortured (Tempa) / Ruff Sqwad: Down (Gun an Roses Mixtape)
43:44 Cloaks: Too On Top (CDR) / Trim: But I Still (Soul food mixtape)
47:17 Loefah: Voodoo (666) / Lord Finesse: Check the Method (DJ Premier Scratch Mix)
52:20 Loefah: Natural Charge (Grievous Angel Edit) (CDR)
56:40 Loefah: Disko Rekah (Deep Medi) / Cluekid & Cotti: Sensi Dub (White)
59:41 Cluekid & Cotti: Flashback (White) / Ruff Sqwad: When Itz On (Guns and Roses Mixtape)
63:07: Skream: Losing Control (Grievous Angel Edit) (Tempa)/ Trim: In the Ghetto (Soul Food Volume 1 Mixtape)
65:28 Grievous Angel: Culture Killer (CDR) / Trim: Wot Part One (Soul Food Volume 1 Mixtape) / JME: 96 Bars of JME
70:39 TRG Vs Selector DubU: Losing Marbles (CDR)
73:37 Kode9: Magnetic City (Hyperdub)
78:33 ENDS

Now, let me tell you a little bit about each of the tracks…

00:00 Narcossist: No Love
A very, very fresh, very hot new track – Joe only finished it a week or so before putting this mix up – and it’s a lovely bit of bleepy rolling dubstep. More at www.myspace.com/narcossist – Joe has loads of dubz…
03.36 Caspa: Homesick (CDR)
Dunno when or if this is coming out. I really like Caspa when he’s in more reflective mood, and I’ve dubbed this heavily too.

04:24 DQ1: Gud Money (forthcoming on Tectonic)
I’ve had this for absolutely ages. Really top notch dub, almost as good as wear the Crown, be interesting how it sounds after Pinch has had it mastered.

05:24 Kano: Mr Me Too
One of the standout tracks from the Kano mixtape – minimal heaviness, screwed and chopped a bit. Bit of a “statement” track which I’ve used to signify that this is more than just another dubstep mix – this is a mix that brings dubstep and grime back together.

10:43 Side 9000: Dhun (CDR)

A rarity from Czech producer DJ Side, which came out on mp3 over a year ago – I thought it was one of DJ JSL’s lost classics but it’s my memory playing tricks with me. It’s certainly good enough to be one of JSL’s – yes, it’s THAT good. It’s a corking bit of Indo-dub. Lots more over at http://side.skate4you.cz/.

13:20 MASSIVE MUSIC: Find My Way (Kode 9 remix) (Hyperdub)
is this the first Kode track to feature his new trade mark, Augustus Pablo-style melodica? I don’t know but this remix (has anyone heard the original?) is wonderful.

16:52 TimeBlind: Copy Copy
From a flawed EP, but this is Enochian, glitchy, hermetic dubstep at is best. Surprisingly popular too, no wonder it got a repress, and it’s the perfect foil to…

18:31 Roll Deep: Celebrate (Rules and Regulations CD)
This is where we stop lolling around in a dubby fug and start jumpin around the room. SUCH a huge party tune.

21:28 DJ JSL: Coyote Dub (CDR) / Slew Dem: Bumbaclaat Badman
JSL is going to be a MASSIVE producer one day if he carries on pumping out huge, eminently danceable and listenable tunes like this. Slew Dem go over the top fantastically well. More over at here.

23:19 Monochrome: Mine a Kill Dem (CDR)
And the utterly wonderful Monochrome slide in there really well too. Monochrome is Tom Churchill’s new dubstep outfit who have a HEAP of fantastic tunes, I nearly put them all on here and probably should have. Tom if you don’t know him is an absolute don in deep techno and house circles with his Emoticon imprint and is also a serious broken beat man too. Get a fabulous mix by Tom of most of his work as Monochrome here.

26:44 Narcossist: White Lotus (CDR) / Scare Dem Crew: Take Off (Fresh Breath of Ears mixtape)
One of Joe’s best tunes from last year (and there were a few!) gets ripped to shreds under the onslaught of the highly gifted Scare Dem Crew. More taut bouncy grime set in counterpoint to heavyweight dub. I love this bit…

30:18 Skream: Make Me / Timbaland & Magoo: Get Crunk / JME: Deadout / Caspa : LFO King
Yeah, some serious mixology on this one. Bassline swaps between Skream’s Make Me and Caspa’s unreleased LFO King, which I still think will be a huge tune. Total LFO-frenzy sickness. Plus JME and Timbaland over the top. Not a bad little cut up. But it’s merely a warm up for…

33:36 Cloaks: Dark (Version) / Kano & Jammer: Tapout
Oh my god, how good are Cloaks? We at DustScience got to know them through techno wunderkind Derailleur, who’s done some releases with us, and Cloaks are mates of his. Vast rhythmic invention and overwhelming industrial soundscaping go just perfectly with Kano and Jammer’s unbelievably paranoid riffing. Total heaviosity, I just love this. Turn it up!

37:40 Komonazmuk: Fear (CDR) / Roll Deep: Babylon Burners (Rules and Regulations Mixtape)
And the dread vibes get ratched up significantly by Komonazmuk, who is one of the very, very few refugees from drum’n’bass to really get dubstep in my opinion. Part of the HENCH crew, he’s got form, having had a string of releases on Moving Shadow, Tech Itch, Hard Leaders and his own imprint Ice Minus Recordings. This tune goes just great with Roll Deep’s yardie flow special, here cut up to fit. Another great moment, especially the way it flows into…

40:55 Coki: Tortured /Ruff Sqwad: Down
Every grime MC’s favourite dubstep tune to toast over, so it had to be Roll Deep to start, and a Ruff Sqwad classic to finish! Some great jazz intervals with the combination and one hell of a climax, the mix just goes on and on, with Cloaks bassline gettin more and more syncopated as it goes on, Trim’s string riff glidin over the top… mental

43:44 Cloaks: Too On Top (CDR) / Trim: But I Still (Soul Food Volume 1 mixtape)
Yes yes yes! More metallic, grinding industrial funk from Cloaks – it just sends me into spasms every time I hear it! MASSIVE swing when you lay Trim on top too. This is a good bit.

47:17 Loefah: Voodoo (666) / Lord Finesse: Check the Method (DJ Premier Scratch Mix)
Voodoo was a bit of disappointment when it came out (should it have come out?) but it’s full power comes out in combination with an MC. And, well, it wouldn’t have been right to combine Loefah with grime, not when it’s just soooooooo tempting to layer his beloved hip-hop over it. I had a bit of a Premier fixation at the start of the year and just fell in love with this tune, which was on an early Premier mixtape. I’m always telling Loe he’s the DJ Premier of dubstep so the combo was made and I really like it.

51:07 Loefah: Natural Charge (Grievous Angel Edit) (CDR)
Surely this will come out some time? (Assuming he’s finished it!) I’ve had this a long time, over a year, and it goes just great with Lord Finesse. I really stretched it out though – that one note 808 bass drop is just addictive.

54:24 Loefah: Disko Rekah (Deep Medi) / Cluekid & Cotti: Sensi Dub
This mix was going to be mostly vinyl mixing until Paul Nomos / Autonomic persuaded me he really wanted to hear some of the unreleased stuff in a computerised mix, and what he say goes, so the vinyl mix will have to wait for a bit. This is the only bit that survived – it’s just got a few bits of the Disko Rekah CDR in there. Some intense EQ refixing going on here. There’s a whole story about Disko Rekah and how it ended up on Deep Medi but this isn’t the time to tell it!

59:41 Cluekid & Cotti: Flashback (White) / Ruff Sqwad: When Itz On (Guns and Roses Mixtape)
Banging acid mentalism from CLueKid and Cotti here, going a long way from the dancehall refixing they’re famous for, and it’s just mental! Cuts into and out of Ruff Sqwad’s classic

63:07: Skream: Losing Control (Edit) / Trim: In the Ghetto
Yet more acid mentalism, this time from Skream! I cut this up so much, I love it, it’s so banging, we’re heading deep into acid techno territory but with wobble bass and Trim whispering in your ear and fucking with your head. Pogo-tastic – anyone who thinks dubstep is all slovenly monging should hear this.

65:28 Grievous Angel: Culture Killer (CDR) / Trim: Wot Part One / JME: 96 Bars of JME
Probably my favourite of my own tunes, here massively pitched up so its ragga techno rhythms are utterly pounding, working neatly round Trim’s bleeps. But this track takes on a whole other aspect when JME comes in. This is the peak of the mix. There’s so much space in JME’s tune you think it’s just laid back but it there’s intense deep funk going on and that intensity really comes out when you put it over something uptempo.

70:39 TRG Vs Selector DubU: Losing Marbles (CDR)
Another incredibly fresh tune – it was only finished a few days before closing out the mix. It’s ragga techno but a lot deeper than my stuff, easing the heaviness down a bit.

73:37 Kode9: Magnetic City
And now the long drift down into silence. The Nine’s utterly spellbinding melodica journey kills it every time and here it is dubbed to fuck. Includes the ghostly presence of Flow Dan drifting through the background, from Loefah’s remix of The Bug’s Jah War, bringing the MC presence in the mix to a natural conclusion.

78:33 ENDS