I’ve some more blog-cleared dubstep/2-step/garage gems for your rapacious ears:
The Mancunian four-piece Delphic are on of those indie-dance bands who provide material ripe for remixing. Reniassance Man brought their sparse minimal house to ‘Counterpoint’, Ramadanaman, Doc Daneeka and Riton each rejigged ‘Doubt’, and now ‘Halycon’ gets the remix treatment from L-Vis and Julio Bashmore. But it’s the fractured garage beats of Deadboy’s remix that really intrigues – the hotly tipped Londoner who brought us the huge ‘U Cheated’ (check the pelski post). Here he cuts up 2-step snares and bass pads into urgent, juddery fragments, and then sparingly scatters the fratured shards of garage beats across the gentle croon of Delphic’s vocals. Enchanting:
Delphic – Halcyon (Deadboy Remix) [pelski highly recommends]
Ikonika stole the show at our York-based Idioteque night. Anyone who opens with the ominous strings of ‘Jumeriah Riddim’ is off to a good start… Her set was a masterclass in drawing a fluent line between dubstep, funky and garage, with a hint of rnb (tasteful, mind you). And now she’s handing out this remix of The Brown Acid: all hard-hitting smacks of garage snares, faint conga taps and Ikonika’s trademark bleepy melodies:
The Brown Acid – Bastard Kids (Ikonika Remix) [pelski highly recommends]
If you haven’t already been following Debruit I suggest you check him out sharpish. ‘Congo Whoomp’ introduced me, but, more recently, ‘Nigeria What’ truly won my affections. I don’t have the liberty to post it, but I advise you go buy his Spatio Temporal EP right away. His sound can be described somewhere between wonky hip-hop and experimental electro-funk: expect warped synths and 808 claps galore. Octa Push (from the under-appreciated Steak House Records) worms his own squelchy, bass-warped erraticism into ‘Im Goin Wit You’ (found on the Let’s Post Funk EP)
Debruit – I’m Goin’ Wit’ You (Octa Push Remix) [pelski highly recommends]
José James’s is making a real name for himself: ‘Blackmagic’ (enforced with stunning remixes from Joy Orbison, Untold and dOp) displayed his gentle, melodic voice and penchant for gentle jazz-funk. On ‘Code’, James has enlisted the much-praised hands of Flying Lotus on production, who brings a low-key touch in the form of organs and some quietly shuffled beats (buy the album here):
For me, it’s impossible to think about 2009 vis a vis dubstep without mentioning the outstanding hyperdub compilation. And it’s impossible to talk about the compilation without at least passing mention to Darkstar’s ‘Aidy’s Girl Is A Computer’ (check out my top 50 tracks of 2009 for more). By now you’ve heard me and a thousand others praise it no end, so I’ll spare you the fanboy ramblings… Now Darkstar’s back with a new track – a freebie – they threw to their twitter followers a few weeks back. Like ‘Aidy’s..’, it has a measure of warm, indie sensibilites, spliced ‘n diced, but uses a distant and sparse arrangements of beats. A real grower:
