BASS KITCHEN: 12TH PLANET - FLINCH at Bottom Lounge in CHICAGO, IL on 02/16/12

BASS KITCHEN: 12TH PLANET - FLINCH at Bottom Lounge in CHICAGO, IL on 02/16/12

Dub Phizix and Skeptical feat Strategy - Marka - There's a Wardance in East London Park

Yes, yes! I can't believe this anthem slipped by me, I must be listening to the wrong DJs. The biggest tune of 2011 is reminds me of the old and proper dubstep. Brings me back to a time you can go out and hear Loaefah's "Goat Stare" and Mala's "Left Leg Out". There's Indian Chiefs in the woods and firedancers prancing in the park. A wardance in East London. Catch this vibe. Get it on vinyl at Exit Records site.

We a kill dem a bloodclaat gain Got the tings on lock down again Them a tek ten shots in again Dem pon a old pan sound dem again Man a gash dem and light them again Becaa me nah hyping again Man are ready fi di war, when it comes on top, ‘ca me nah feel frightened again

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

1Xtra D&B Show with Crissy Criss 2011-11-24 Upfront Mix

http://www.filesonic.com/file/3997659955/1Xtra_D&B_M1X_Crissy_Criss_2011-11-24.mp3 There’s new music from Nero, Wilkinson, Fred V, Grafix on this one. It's a proper mix n blend and sampling of the current state of drum n bass from a guy that's literally grown-up doing this. Crissy Criss really knows his shit and you can tell he's got mad passion for this music. It's always a pleasure hear his latest mixes, have a listen. Sorry no TL.

Modeselektor feat. Thom Yorke - "Shipwreck"

Wonderfully sublime tune from Modeselektor feat. Thom Yorke. Warm moog-y pads flood the main builds ups while York floats mysterious vocals on a sound bed of galloping, skippy breaks and rolling subs. Fuzzy, dubby, and sunny with a sense of dread and panic lurking in the distance, and another tune I find hard to pigeon hole, which is fan-fucking-tastic.

The video feels like what Hanna would have been in the short form. Some texured dark near-future, with a kid running from a large dog, scrounging for batteries, so he can go to sleep with the lights on. It's simple, tactile, and whimsical. Also cold, and kind of lonely in the vein of Where The WIld Things Are. While it looks and sounds great, I'm a bit over this kind of look and story. Can we move on from the dirty sweaters, twigs, sunny ruins, and wild lost kids?

So Undead! Trailer

SO UNDEAD! trailer from so undead on Vimeo.

So Undead! is an exhibit about making connections between seemingly unrelated genres: Extreme Guitar Music ie. Punk, Metal and HC and the endless shades of Electronica. The art that will be shown at the event is wholly based on interviews conducted with artists, who in the past have dabbled in guitar distortion and are currently masters of the art of the synthetic. The interviewees include: Mary Anne Hobbs, Robot Koch (Jahcoozi)..., Cristian Vogel (Super Collider), T.Raumschmiere, Lars Kirchbach (Tolcha), Vladislav Delay (Luomo), The Foreign Beggars, CREEP, Sneaky (Fingathing), The Bug etc.

This looks pretty cool. I myself have a a strong background with punk, hardcore, grindcore, death metal and black metal. In high school I did a death metal fanzine called "Lockport Underground", and contributed to several others. Put out several tape compilations and one professionally released cassette EP by a band from the Netherlands. Years later, in college I did a punk/hardcore/extreme music fanzine called "I Hate you!" which was later changed to "I hate you! (And I hope you fucking die)" so I wasn't confused with a another 'zine that took my exact name (even though I had it first). Also a more lifestyle/story garage punk 'zine called "Fucked For Life". This was like '96-'98. I got into drum n bass in '98 and started a record label called Assassin Records around 2000. Put out two DnB 12"s before calling it quits after our European Distro closed owing us hundreds of dollars. Not to steal the thunder, and make this about me, but I'm interested in checking out this movie/ doc, as it seems to closely parallel my experience in underground music and many of my friends. I don't often get a chance to reflect on that part of my past, and this is the first I've actually blogged about it.

There's is something interesting in people on that journey searching for uniquely voiced aggressive music and taking similar paths to get there. Musicians get there one way, journalists and label owners another, and fans probably take the longest most winding trek of them all. It will be cool to examine this subject in a longer form and make the connections. I remember being floored when I first found out drum and bass producer Klute was also the drummer for U.K. skate punk band The Stupids, a band I used to listen to all the time. Mitch Harris from Napalm Death, Terrorizer, and Scorn fame; also went on to producer drum n bass and various dubstep projects. And Borgore, of course, was in the death metal band Shabira, and influenced by the band Death from their LP "Scream Bloody Gore" in taking his Dubstep moniker. "It comes from Borger, which is my family name and then Gore comes from Death's album, ‘Scream Bloody Gore’." For a music nerd like myself it will be exciting to examine those kinds of personalities, and just hear people talk about hardcore, punk, and metal; that are into bass culture as well. If you are down, support this movie, spread the trailer.

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

Birdy Nam Nam - Goin' In

"GOIN'IN" - OFFICIAL VIDEO from Savoir Faire on Vimeo.

Rhythmic chanting, pitched down vocals, and a simple deconstructed, almost beat-less, electronica. I don't where it falls on the music spectrum to be honest. Songs and videos like this are always a pleasant surprise. I wan't to label and categorize it, but I really don't know what to call it, so it sits in limbo to be judged on it's own merits. The video is a weirdo mash up of 2d and 3d computer graphics, some vector, some pixel-pushing and all of it bizarre.

Greg Reve [T.O.B.] - Decoy (ill.Gates & Dov Remix)

T.O.B. - Decoy (illGates + Dov Remix) - FREE DL by ill.gates

In celebration of Greg Reve's latest Decoy EP, ill.Gates and Dov have teamed up to release their drumstep remix for free download.

This one is a tearing, plodding, stalker track. Take any scene from a recent horror movie, insert this tune, you have a killer hunting it's prey. It's a little on the simple side, would have like to see it twisted out further, but for what it is, not bad. I've been well into what most of ill.Gates has been dropping lately anyway.

Juakali - Freak You Back Ep

FREAK YOU BACK - OUT Feb 4, 2011 by juakali

Juakali - Freak You Back Ep

Hahah, oh wow...When you got Joe Nice writing your one-sheet for you, you know you got a hit record on your hands. "Freak You Back" has Plastician on the buttons, doing his thing with menacing buzz synths and a pumping sub-line. Eerie FX and a powered-down stuttering whistle round out the back-end for a polished finnish. Juakali's flow over the top has calm but commanding presence, spitting about Margaritas, Paparazzi, Hendrix and Yoda , basically blowing your mind in the dance club. It's weird though, I wouldn't really call this a party tune, it's more epic sounding than that and should probably be on a soundtrack somewhere. Plastician has beening caning the hell out of this one, so you all have probably heard it on Rinse FM and all that. TeslaRock channels The Others for a bit of a rootical 2006-styled remix of "Freak You Back", with congo natty riddims, flutes and a more minimal deconstructed bass. The verses clash a bit with this riddim, but the chorus fits nicely. It's for all you "emptyness is form" medi-nerds for sure. DLX's take on it is experimental and almost drum-step. The dark synths remain intact from the original incarnation, and the a chopped, stuttering amen break, drives it along with some occasional thumps from the bass. It's not my favorite approach to be honest, but it does capture that foreboding mood that's prevalent in the Plastician version.

The other original on here is "Tha Chillski" produced by Stagga and Monky, which is sort of a glitch-hop kind of tune in the vein of Bassnectar, but with more of a dancehall flavor. It's got a definite Adult-Swim quality about it, maybe something you'd hear at the end credits of Aqua-teens, or on their commercial bumps. To be honest I prefer tunes like this than 90% of the commercial hip-hop that's out there. I dig the blasted harmonic-whine of the bass, the simple crack-slap beats, and classic hits and stabs. It's got a nice demented video game feel to it. Juakali drops some sick measured verses with Dr. Octagon-eque inflections, but delivers a kind of silly chorus. It's a fun tune though, so I can overlook saying 'tha chillski' even though it reminds of the coolness of the "check you later" guy in Dazed and Confused. This is good a EP and well worth picking up for the originals. Stay tuned for a brief Q&A with Juakali.

Flying Lotus - Kill Your Co-Workers

Behold the glory of low-poly violence! This is a uplifting little drumstep/electro kind of tune, and fits right at home with Warp Records camp. It's a bit different from the normal Flying Lotus dubstep that you might be used to, as it's filled with all kinds of electro bit-crushed beeps and twisted casio sounds. And it's a message I can relate to. Kidding! The best part is you can download all 3D character files free at beeple-crap.com/​resources.php
And upload your own works using them at vimeo.com/​groups/​flyinglotus