Subliminal Transmissions 06: R'n'Bass

[dontdiedontkillanyon]

All of this having been said, to dwell excessively on demographics may be to miss the point slightly. Web 4.0 plays the role of cultural particle accelerator, sending fragments of sound skating across the surface of the globe at unimaginable speed before smashing them headlong into one another. As a result, many upcoming producers are refreshingly unconcerned with sticking to strictly defined genre lines: everything blurs into one single, undifferentiated mass of sound. Where the dancefloor’s demands are no longer a limitation, the boundaries find themselves on unsteady, corroded ground, with the emergence of several artists making music reflecting that melting-pot sensibility.

The likes of Damu, Dro Carey, Hype Williams and Forest Swords are writing music that’s thrilling in its disregard for genre functionality (be that for either pop or club audiences). Forest Swords' spectral cover of Aaliyah’s ‘If Your Girl Only Knew’ bears only the slightly similarity to the original, choosing to cloak its sentiments in a haze of anonymity. Again, R’n’B’s influence is tangible (FS’ Matt Barnes regularly discusses it in interviews) but displaced in space and time, refracted through post-punk’s wiry, contorted frame.

Forest Swords - 'If Your Girl' [Olde English Spelling Bee]:

[video=youtube;8H8eNui6CC4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H8eNui6CC4[/video]

Dro Carey - 'Much Coke' [Brain So Soft]:

[video=youtube;O3GLAHVCOvE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3GLAHVCOvE[/video]

The Venus Knock EP, by Sydney’s Dro Carey, is smudged to the point of obscurity, finding a disorienting middle ground where fragments of hip-hop bravado snag in a thicket of barbed synth and sub-bass. He’s equally comfortable exploring regions both on and off the dancefloor, with upcoming material for Ikonika’s Hum & Buzz imprint and a raft of tracks on his Tumblr channeling those same blurred tendencies into music that demands direct physical action. London’s Damu, meanwhile, boasts an impressively prolific record - his Soundcloud page is packed with everything from minute-long synth experiments to fluorescent club hits. The neon two-step of ‘Be Free’ is particularly spectacular, marked out by supple threads of melody that dazzle like burning magnesium.

Damu - 'Be Free':

http://soundcloud.com/damu/be-free

Hype Williams - 'Rescue Dawn' [De Stijl]:

[video=youtube;NupR1k7QZdE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NupR1k7QZdE[/video]

London-Berlin duo Hype Williams’ output so far has been akin to a compression chamber, physically squeezing reference points into almost impossibly dense but still graceful vignettes – a paradox that makes them a joy to listen to. Last year’s untitled album on Carnivals saw them chucked into the ‘hypnagogic’ melting pot, but their recent Do Roids & Kill E’rything 7” was altogether more claustrophobic, screwing a Drake vocal with a homemade chemistry set and melting down Sade's 'The Sweetest Taboo'. Their second album Find Out What Happens When People Stop Being Polite, And Start Gettin’ Reel (one of the best titles we’ve encountered for a while) opens with the autotuned whine of a crying child and continues as a seedy, ambiguous take on soul and hip-hop. Upcoming third album One Nation is a further distillation; it’s intense and strikingly self-contained, save a brief snippet of Cassie’s ‘My Addiction’ vocal, writhing in an endless tortured loop.

The music emerging from these camps and others frequently reflects the internet’s democratization of music culture. It’s getting harder to track the provenance of individual sounds as small, insular scenes are swiftly scattered across the globe. The atomic fragments released when those separate particles collide are, it would seem, a powerful mutating force.

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[dontdiedontkillanyon]

Flex Mentallo's recent mix for Always Everything takes the convergence of UK bass, hip-hop and R'n'B as a basis and runs with it, exploring even a small selection of the sort of hybrids that are currently developing.

Tracklist:

Gucci Mane - Volume (instrumental) [Prod. J.U.S.T.I.C.E League]

Morgan Zarate - Hookid

Young Jeezy - What They Want

Maximillion Dunbar - Down There

Gucci Mane - All About The Money (Instrumental) [Prod. Drumma Boy]

Beyonce - Diva

Rustie - Dragonfly

Young L - Loser

Ginz - Boss

Rick Ross - MC Hammer (feat. Gucci Mane)

SX - 10:28am (Instrumental)

Pearson Sound - Blanked

Ciara - Ride (feat. Ludacris)

Becoming Real - Showdown In Chinatown (Instrumental)

Dozen - Too Much (Illum Sphere)

Ludacris - Party No Mo

Superisk - Find Your Way VIP (Instrumental)

Kuedo - Joy Construction

The-Dream - F.I.L.A

Jam City - 2 Hot

Hype Williams - Ooovrrr

http://www.mixcloud.com/alwaysevery...m_campaign=base_links&utm_term=cloudcast_link

 

[dontdiedontkillanyon]

And the pick of recent and upcoming releases...

LHF – EP2: The Line Path [Keysound]

Speaking of LHF… The shapeshifting London collective’s second EP finally lands on Keysound this week, and true to the form promised by their regular mixes it's a considerable expansion of their universe. Split between two of the group’s main producers, it once again represents nothing so much as the combined creative force of sleeping London’s restless dreams. Double Helix’s ‘Chamber Of Light’ is their finest moment so far, driven by oil slick percussion and broken by moments of sudden shattering force, before sheets of unsteady melody rip through its core. ‘Bass 2 Dark’ again pushes forward with stop-start, arabesque intensity, while Amen Ra’s two tracks cast their eyes across the Atlantic, reinforcing the London-LA connection with visceral force. ‘Candy Rain’ is particularly special, lurching out of the blocks in a haze of half-drunk, half-stoned synth.

Illum Sphere – Dreamstealin’ [Tectonic]

In the past, Illum Sphere’s music haunted the loose, off-kilter beats of J Dilla and Madlib with dubstep’s ghosts – the end result didn’t quite fit happily alongside either (mostly a good thing). However, this first release for Bristol’s Tectonic label both refines his sound and pushes its boundaries outward. His murky, heavily reverbed synths are still present and correct, but on the aptly named ‘Dreamstealin’ perform a strobe-like dance over skittish hi-hats and walking bass that could have been nicked wholesale from a seventies psych record. The result is an unsteady but rather beautiful fusion of old and new. ‘Blood Music’ is a little more sedate and less engaging, but Indigo’s remix gives it a subtly Detroit-ish Autonomic makeover, punctuated with bursts of programmed breaks and a certain aquatic flair.

Orphan101 – Propa/Disemble [Apple Pips]

It’s testament, I suppose, to Appleblim’s curator’s ear that even producers whose output tends towards the patchy usually pull something quite special out of the bag for his Apple Pips label. Alongside Komonazmuk, upcoming Bristolian Orphan101 is a case in point – his previous tracks, whilst lean and muscular, lacked flair. This lovely little 12” shines by comparison, hosting a pair of pulsing four-to-the-floor grooves that retain intrinsic ties to their UK roots even as they drive forward with Berlin-worthy intensity. Just beneath the surface of both lurks the oceanic influence of Drexciya, which occasionally summons a deadly riptide from beneath – check the massive stabs of bass that knock ‘Propa’ off its feet for a few seconds at a time.

 

[dontdiedontkillanyon]

Julio Bashmore – Everyone Needs A Theme Tune EP [PMR]

I’m still yet to be entirely convinced by the slightly fidget-y, Dirtybird approach to house that characterizes much of Julio Bashmore’s music. That said, at his best (‘Batak Groove’; ‘Footsteppin’) he produces sophisticated hybrids that, while not wholly original, convincingly fuse a whole host of different approaches. With that in mind his new EP is probably his best so far. The voices that pepper ‘Battle For Middle You’ summon the phantoms of raves long past in a way that avoids nostalgia in favour of celebration, and the title track makes ingenious use of triplets to give a 4/4 track the lilting feel of a waltz.

Distal & HxdB – Typewriter Tune [Surefire Sound]

As its name suggests, Distal and HxdB’s ‘Typewriter Tune’, and its accompanying VIP mix, use the snap of ancient keys to craft beats that click like the mandibles of some gigantic insect. Alongside seasick synths that swing back and forth in a decent aural approximation of the Titanic going face-down-ass-up, the result is a pair of hyper-caffeinated, nervy club tracks. ‘Frozen Barnacles’ is a little more straightforward rhythmically, welding the same chaotic sense of melody to winding ‘step percussion.

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4141892-subliminal-transmissions-06--r-n-bass