Echoes : On Dubstep / Dub Techno
October 4, 2007 at 10:11 am
Basic Channel - Octagon
(octagon/octaedre 12″ / 1994)
Deepchord Presents : Echospace - Abraxas
(The coldest season cd2 / 2007)
Luke Hess - Sacred
(Dubout / 2007)
Skream - Dutch flowerz
(Skream! / 2006)
Deadbeat - Melbourne round midnight
(Journeyman’s annual / 2007)
Burial - Prayer
(Burial / 2006)
Lux - Data
(Deepchord 09 / 2000)
The Others - Bushido
(Africa 12″ / 2007)
Dub techno is a bit of a challenging listen, much in the same way, say, free jazz is. On first listen, the genres are practically opposites, but in approach and execution, they are remarkably similar—it isn’t about the melodies, it’s about the sounds and the feelings. The “challenge” in free jazz is to follow all the different parts down their winding paths and to see the craft and invention in its rendering. The “challenge” in dub techno is the opposite, to find the excitement and movement in what at first sounds like a static and unmoving piece.
Since dub techno was pioneered by the Basic Channel camp in the early ‘90s, casual listeners might not even have noticed much progression—after all, the template is basically the same concoction of deep, muted, echoing chords, subsonic bass lines, compressed hi-hats, and lots of tape hiss—and much the way that Ornette Coleman might sound just like Anthony Braxton to the untrained ear, so might Maurizio sound just like Thomas Brinkmann. Dig a little deeper into either genre, however, and the subtleties and nuances become more and more apparent, and one’s appreciation deepens. The devil may be in the details, but so are the thrills.
[Todd Hutlock for Stylus review of "the coldest season"]
Images: Version 111a & Letitiaf0x
A video mix. Kode9. I like the mix for some reason. first time heard it.
“dubplate KODE9″
Dubstep’s early roots are in the more experimental releases of UK garage producers, seeking to incorporate elements of dub reggae into the South London-based 2-step subgenre. These experiments often ended up on the B-side of a white label or commercial garage release.[2][1][5] Like another, more vocal garage hybrid, grime, the genre’s feel is often dark; tracks frequently use a minor key and often feature dissonant harmonies such as the diminished chord. Other distinguishing features often found are the use of samples, the fact it is a largely instrumental genre, a propulsive, sparse rhythm,[6] and an almost omnipresent subbass (which dubstep night Forward>> has described as “b-lines to make your chest cavity shudder”[7]).
[edit] The dubstep rhythm
Dubstep rhythms are usually syncopated, and often shuffled or incorporating triplets. The tempo is nearly always in the range of 138-142bpm.[6] Dubstep rhythms typically do not follow the four-to-the-floor pattern common to many other styles of electronic dance music, but instead tend to skip beats and repeat sets of two bars rather than single bars. Often, a track’s percussion will follow a pattern which when heard alone will appear to be playing at half the tempo of the track; the double-time feel is instead achieved by other elements, usually the bassline. A prime example is Skream’s Rutten, which features a very sparse rhythm almost entirely composed of kick drum, snare drum, and a sparse hi-hat, with a distinctly half time implied 69bpm tempo. The track is instead propelled by a constant subbass following a four to the floor 138bpm pattern.
In an Invisible Jukebox interview with The Wire, dubstep artist Kode9 commented on a DJ Mark One track, observing that listeners “have internalized the double-time rhythm” and the “track is so empty it makes [the listener] nervous, and you almost fill in the double time yourself, physically, to compensate”.[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubstep
I don’t care for all those, but I really like that deadbeat track.
Interesting post, thanks.
Well, this was more of a request post since one of the readers mailed me some weeks ago asking me to post smtg about dubstep, I’m really not a huge fan of the genre and my modest dubstep collection is pretty much comprised of the artists above, I do get really curious about how this type of music would translate in a dancefloor, apparently in London there have been some important gatherings in these years playing exclusively Dubstep and Dub techno and it’s been growing as of late but I find the genre rather difficult to dance to, not to mention it’s stiff and cold atmospheres difficult to trip to as well. Probably I just need to dip a bit more to understand it, that wiki link from sq has some good quotes and history of it.
The deadbeat album has some interesting moments, It immediatly catched my attention after reading that opening album track “lost luggage” features fellow montreal-ite Sophie Trudeau from A silver mount zion and GYBE! fame contributing on violins.
glad to see some dubstep on MDM, thanks for sharing.
Nice selection, thanks. I’ve seen people dancing, wildly, to dubstep at the FWD club night in Shoreditch and it made sense! Check out Appleblim’s stuff on the Skill Disco label too: pure quality…
[...] see also: On Dubstep / Dub Techno, image: David Lynch for FETISH Shoe Campaign. [...]
Dynamite…all of it. Many thanks guys. Where can we buy these tracks…I want them all!
The older release is a bit hard. But for newer releases you should be able to get them in any online stores or bigger brick and mortar stores if you live in big city.
amazon.com carries most of newer releases if you don’t mind shopping there. Otherwise it’s pretty much googling session of random e-store.
Some may require a deeper dig…I wouldn’t mind getting the full lengths…I’ll find them. Thanks again.
[...] new album preview mixed by Kode9, courtesy of Fader Magazine, and a dubstep/dub selection on Motel de Moka Ramadanman - Carla 6blocc - Never Scared Cult of the 13th Hour - Wickedness Cotti - The Search [...]