Cypress x Rusko - "Roll It, Light It" West Coast Grimestep

What a great collaboration between Cypress Hill, Rusko and director Jodeb. "Roll It, Light It" does what it says on the tin. It's a deep dubstep roller with slightly glitched-out hiccups and Cypress crew spitting slick grimey bars to the riddim. The rhymes are faster than you typical Cypress tune and seem fall into Grime-esque patterns, but that could just be because of the dubstep beats and association with it. Anyways this style doesn't always work, but here it's a freaking home run. Cypress are running ting's all up and down this tune, but they aren't making jibberish and bum-rushing the flow. Quickfire burst, then mellow chorus, let the tune breathe, then back into it. Future MC's take note, that's the way it's done. The video itself is a gorgeous train ride through collapsing monuments, broken glitch loops, Plexus vectors animations and color tearing separations. Newton-fueled down-rezzing and broken pixelization echos the grinding bit-crushed bass, harmonizing into a luscious aural and video landscape. It's edited quick and punchy but you still get a proper look at all the beautiful renders and slow destruction. Fucking aces.

Re:Generation more like Regurgitation

Am I right? This trailer made me puke a little bit in my mouth. The last beat is actually kind of dope, but the whole idea of even making a movie about this... barf. Here's the write-up quote:

“Follow DJ Premier, Mark Ronson, Skrillex, Pretty Lights and The Crystal Method as they remix, recreate and re-imagine five traditional styles of music. From the classical perfection of the Berklee Symphony Orchestra to the bayou jams of New Orleans jazz, our five distinctive DJs collaborate with some of today’s biggest musicians to discover how our musical past is influencing the future”

That paragraph makes slightly nauseous as well. Hey producers, get over your self.

Top-Twenty Bass Tracks of 2011

Oh man here's is my obligatory 2011 top ten list. But it isn't ten, its twenty. I'm lazy and can't make decisions, sorry. Anyways here you go, I'll post up links to the tunes as I stumble across them and start rambling about how they are epic-ly brutal. Happy Belated News Years you bass freaks.

 Top-Twenty Bass Tracks of 2011 

 1. Dub Mechanics - Propane
I first thought this dubstep tune was by Coki and posted up about this on the blog here looking for a tune ID. Some helpful soul on dubstep forum finally pointed me in the direction of a you tube video and it's by some Dub Mechanics, whom are unknown to me. Best info I can find on them is on there sound cloud page.

"The Dub Mechanics, a South London based duo who Dj & produce Dub, Dubstep and various other genres of music."

As exclusive and mysterious as this dub is, it's actually nothing compared to it's gnarly roar. This tune is devastation and mega-death. It's the gamma bomb rage virus that triggers a zombie apocalypse. Barking rabid robot dogs commanded by lord Darkseid that will devour you and all you're little twilight raver buddies. A whirlwind of comic book violence and crappy metaphors. In otherwords, sick. For that it earns my top spot on the list.

 2. Evol Intent - Hollow Earth
Neurofunk inspired drum n bass tearouts tunes never really seem to get old do they? Alot of 2011 was me rediscovering my love for drum n bass. I found the landscape had changed and everything became slower   and mixed with old school flavors. Which is great, but I was looking for tunes like this that jumped forward from where I left off.

Evol Intent delivers one mother of a payload with Hollow Earth. A twenty megaton explosion of plasma pulsing bass and wreckage. It's got that sci-fi cinematic intro similar to a Dom + Roland or Virus tune, with some very lush and over-produced flotsam and jetsam spaces sounds. They are all too familiar trimmings of a tech-step epic. It drops straight into a hardstep runner, spits you out the otherside of the blackhole into a dubstep breakdown that dissects the beats and provides lot of delicious edits for the beard-stroking massive to fawn over.

So yeah basically I'm saying it's got some straight forward banging phrases on one hand, and complex breakdowns, on the other. Makes it an interesting tune to listen to again and again. All while being kick-ass and heavy and make me want to run around and play lazer tag and shit.

 3. Phace + Mistanthrop - Energie
GAH! What a stormer! This one draws a dark sci-fi vibe from films like Alien, Bladed Runner, Terminator and maybe Hellraiser In Space and injects it into a brutally futuristic beat. A tradition set forth by godfathers of tech step such as Dom & Roland, Ed Rush & Optical and )EIB(. It's not groundbreaking by any means but the sheer bass weight and energy makes it noteworthy. It's just fun having proper tech-step back in the lime light.  4. Modeselektor feat. Nazizi & Abbas "Monkey Flip"
 5. Digital Mystikz - Animal
 6. Basher - Androids
 7. Zinc - Recovered
 8. Azealia Banks - 212
No brainer on this here. Huge bangin'track from the indy breakout artist out of Harlem, Azealia Banks. Azzy can be as soulful as she is raunchy, and the contrast between the salty and sweet styles make "212" the perfect dancefloor banger. Granted, production on this isn't on the heavy side, but it's decent bass track. The groove is funky enough to get people moving and the hard-hitting bars amp up the vibe 'till screaming takes over the breakdown and dives into the honeycomb vocals on the refrain.  9. Mosca - Bax
 10. Magnetic Man - Karma Crazy
 11. Skream - Exothermic Reaction
 12. Excision + Datsik remix of Noisia - Alpha Centauri
 13. The Aliens - Xterminate
 14. Stinkahbell - Something In Your Eyes
 15. Interface - Twister (Ft. Shahin Badar)
 16. Wickaman - Free Bea
 17. Critycal Dub Feat Level 2 - Touch The Sky
 18. Noisia Remix of Deadmau5 - Raise Your Weapon
 19. MRK1 - Cardiac Arrest
 20. ill.Gates + Dov Remix of Greg Reve - Decoy

Great Scott vs Transmissions - Mad Hydraulic Bounce / My World Mashup FREE Mp3

http://40hzmedia.com/Music/GreatScott/Great_Scott_vs_Transmissions_-_Mad_Hydraulic_My_World_Mashup.mp3

Great Scott vs Transmissions - Mad Hydraulic Bounce is lush aural gltichscape with a mid tempo breakbeat. Safe enough to be used as a film soundtrack, but interesting enough not to make it on the radio. It's a freebie and being used to promote:

Glitch.FM Founder Great Scott Drops New EP on Muti Music + Freebie and Music Video "Glorious Dystopia" Now Available on Addictech + Music Video for "Looking Good" feat. Dual Core

Link to: GLORIOUS DYSTOPIA on beatport.

Skream & Benga - BBC 1xtra 23/09/11

http://cdn.getdarker.com/bacbc1b7ea5d4adc420e07a9c15ca9ef/download.mp3

It seems like it's been ages since I've posted a full mix, so thought I'd go back to the roots of this blog and post up and one by Skream & Benga who are playing at the Congress in Chicago Oct. 19th. Go check it out if you can, they always put on a killer show.

1. Buraka Som Sistema — Hangover (Caspa Remix)
2. Joker — Back In The Days
3. Stenchman — My Favourite Tree
4. Icicle & Distance — Exhale
5. Actrazor — Infadel
6. Echo Park — Fibre Optic (12th Planet & Finch Remix)
7. Kode9 — Samurai 9
8. ConQuest — Hard Food
9.
10. Showjacker - Rob da Banks guide to barely believable genres of music
11.
12. Chase & Status — Hitz (Dillon Francis Remix)
13. Sam Frank — Simple Life
14. Rusko — Taking It Back
15.
16. Sgt Pokes MC Session with Skream - Various Tracks
17.
18. Welcome To My Hood - Trolley Snatcha
19. Emalkay ft. rod azlan — Flesh and Bone
20. Amon — Tobin (16 bit remix)
21. Trolley Snatcha — Flying Missiles
22. Buraka — ba ba ba (caspa remix)
23. The Others — First Flight
24. Trolley Snatcha — Nasty sh**
25. Emalkay — Fabrication
26. Trolley Snatcha — Giving Up
27. Trolley Snatcha — The Jungle
28. Yogi ft. ayah mahar — Follow You (Trolley snatcha remix)
29. Foreign Beggars ft. noisia — Contact (Trolley snatcha remix)
30. Spor — Pacifica (chasing shadows remix)
31. Trolley Snatcha — Make my whole world
32. Goth-Trad — Babylon Fall
33. Goldie — The Core
34. Buraka Som Sistema — Hangover (Ba Ba Ba) (Caspa Remix)
35. Stenchman — My Favourite Tree
36. Actrazor — Infadel
37. Echo Park — Fibre Optic
38. Kode9 Kode9 — Samurai 9
39. ConQuest — Hard Food
40. Chase & Status — Hitz (Dillon Francis Remix)
41. Sam Frank — Simple Life
42. Rusko — Taking it Back
43. Flux Pavilion and SKism — Jump Back (feat. Foreign Beggars)
44. Goth-Trad — Babylon Fall

KRADDY - Operation Prometheus and Free Album update

KRADDY - Operation Prometheus Well my Kraddy heads, here's another new freebie for you all to devour. Bit-crunching Van-Halen styled guitar soloing rise up and explode to trance-y hollowed-out rave organ riffs over a hip-hop anthem beats. It's a mish-mash of unlikely elements forced into a unsettling shotgun marriage, and it kind of makes me uncomfortable. Like in a overly-art directed kind of way. By that I mean it sounds like there were too many cooks in the kitchen. The styles clashed on me a bit, in a high school kind of way. This feels like it should be a in a video game trailer for some dystopian futuristic first-person shooter, or maybe a Zack Snyder movie like Sucker Punch.

I got privvy to a couple of other choons on his upcoming free album. "Holy Avenger" is a mid-tempo steady-as-she-goes talk-boxer with some freak-out classic rock stylings at the end. Like if Peter Frampton and Chemical Brother's had a baby. As ridiculous as that sounds I mean it in a good way. I really dig the dramatic cinematic break-downs, and warbly vocoded keyboard rolls. My only crit was it seemed really reliant on the looped rhythm and could have benefitted from better phrase and riff variations. It would make the overall tune more dynamic and interesting instead of just being surprised by the dope ending.

See my other post for the Black Box review. To paraphrase I basically thought it was a dope strip club grinder. Unfortunately the other tune on this called "NYC" I wasn't much feeling much either. Guitar and beats with a electro synth can be done a million different and exciting ways, but this isn't one of them. It sounds like a freeplay tune used to open a lame CSI ripp-off show. It's slow, it meanders, it tries to be a little funky and wail, but ultimately it goes no where. There's just no payoff and as a result there's very little point to this tune. It could be the foundation of a cool glitch-hop type tune. But could've, should've, would've it's not. This is a case where less is less. There's just not enough going on to keep my interest.To sum up, 2 for 4 is the count and so far Kraddy's new album is batting .500. I guess that's pretty good for baseball, but we'll have to see how the rest of the tracks work for a proper real world album evaluation. Hopefully it's not just pandering to the post-production world in order to get a movie/TV score deal.

*UPDATE*: Here's the full free album. Looks like at least one tune got renamed, NYC changed to Bare Bones. After giving it a full listen, the batting average get's far far worse, like Ryan Dunn bad. Just wasn't feeling most of this one, and the post-prodcution demo reel diss is not far off really. Oh well, it's free at least. ANTHEMS OF THE HERO by KRADDY

George Lenton - Inform EP

Inform EP by georgelenton

George Lenton's got a new EP out on the glitchier side of house/electro/breaks."Inform" is a bit of a 2-step crack rocker with some fidget stylings, a random piano line, and some gated snippets. Pretty standard "rock-the-club" elements, but mixed up and arranged with a fresh perspective. I find the Brazillian dancehall vibe to be really capitvating on this. The flip side of that coin is "Why Not" which is absolutely loose in the cage. Glitch house disco squelched out of what could easily be some poor DJ's laptop after a beer has been spilled on it. I like it though, it's experimental enough for me get past the disco guitar which is normally hard for me to stomach. It's a bit beat juggle-y and broken-down, and junked-out in the right kind of way. Computer glitch fx and downsampling can get pretty annoying when overused, but restraint and taste are flexed properly in this instance.

"Believe" isn't my steez, so I'm gonna skip. "RDD" wraps this one up with some warm synthy love in a vein similar to Joker or Stinkahbell. It's a more dubstep 4-on-the-floor, than the other house beats on here. DJ's like N-Type and The Others should be all over it.

BLNRB-NRBLN *Update*

In early 2009, three bands from the world-reknown Berlin electronic music scene set out to a journey, their destination: Nairobi, Kenya, in East Africa. The idea ‘Berlin meets Nairobi’, brainchild of Goethe-Institut Nairobi and electronic music duo Gebrüder Teichmann, was as simple as it was complex at the same time. Berlin musicians would come to this vibrant East African metropolis and meet, mix and mingle with artists from the local music scene.

BLNRB - WELCOME TO THE MADHOUSE (DALA DALA MIX) by OuthereRecords

Ok wow, it's hard to even wrap my head around this project in a proper way. To me, it feels like an electronica missionary, so maybe you should read the full scoop on this straight from the source, because I think my take on it is just all wrong: Welcome to The Madhouse.

Talking straight music, the tune that comes in at 9:45 by Nazizi is pure spitfire, and can run alongside any top grime artist, no problem. In fact I'll go as far as to say it brings a new energy to genre in terms of beats and vocal cadence. It's intricate, weirdly glitched out funky dancehall with some squee-like fx peppered throughout. It's the intensity of a gang-war at the nightclub, boiled down to a blindin' club banger. Then at 10:45 it takes a sharp left turn into some driving hard strumming alterna-punk. It might be that a new tune was mixed in with the same vocalists, or it's part of the song, it's always hard to tell with no track listing. Either way, a bit out of place.

It all comes a back more into focus with the BLNRB EP Available on iTunes This sampler is bit more on the average side for me. The standouts are Dirty Laundry and Very Necessary, the former is some unusual tribal two-step, and the later is electro-alt band/ nerdcore soundclash. None of the songs on this really match the energy of that Nazizi tune in the mix, and just kind of fall into the mediocre realm. They're not bad, but I can't say I'm really excited or into them either.

That's about all I got on it, and I'll leave it to you to make heads or tails of this project, there's just too much going on for me to sift through. Good luck!

Update: Mike Oates found the Nazizi tune on You Tube, and fuck yeah, here it is in it's full unadulterated glory - Modeselektor feat. Nazizi & Abbas "Monkey Flip" (Monkeytown Records) Out March 18 :

Loop StepWalker - Radio Autopsy

Loop Stepwalker - Radio Autopsy (Electrostep mix Clip) by Loop Stepwalker

Well, here we have it, the song that finally broke dubstep. This is when Fonzi jumps the shark and we have to tune into to the next episode to see if he gets devoured or not. I've been mostly ducking the glut of noise merchants that have been disguising themselves as dubstep, for the better part of the year. Occasionally I'd check in to see if there were any diamonds in the rough, but for the most part, it's been all Borgore and Funtcase derivative wanna-bes. Until now. Loop Stepwalker (sigh, that name actually pains me to say out loud) delivers the next evolutionary step of filth in this self-proclaimed "electro-step" tune. Really it's just a mash-up of bro-step, house, and gabber. I'd compare it to when breakcore emerged out of the drum n bass and gabber scenes, but that'd be a disservice to the productions quality here. While I kind of loathe the actual tune, I can't deny the superior craftsmanship or innovation that's happening. It seems like it's a natural progression of the extreme switch-up bassline style that's been churned out the past two years, but mashing genres and executing in a crisp and professional manner. Anyways give a listen, and comment below and tell me to fuck off, I'm probably way off basis.