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Dubstep needs to return to the notion that it can be anything. 2006 saw certain sonic signifiers established. ie the wobble and half step. But this was merely the sound at the time. Not something the dubstep sound should solidify around.

The rise in popularity last year has lead certain newcomers to think that this is what dubstep is. but dubstep has really always been anti formula, with sub bass being the only crucial element.

The notion of 'always FWD' seems to have been reduced to a vacuous mantra. There need to be progression in order not to stagnate. I want to see this happen. I want more adventurous producers, not scared to break the 06' mold. I hear a lot of producers making very predictable, uninspiring 'dubstep'. I want boundaries pushed.

At the moment progression seems to be going into two distinct ways.

1) The integration of oldskool sounds; the re-injection of swing. 2step nostalgia. blackdown has talked about the phenomenon of the old sounding new and i don't think it's a dead end to explore this; swing as the antithesis of cold half step. this is something i think is important. the dubstep / garage connection is getting lost. i'm particularly feeling what TRG is doing with this. I don't want revival, i want to see innovation with swing in dubstep.

2) The other new flex is the exploration of minimal, with peverelist and appleblim pushing things in this direction. Not to mention pinch's sound being closely related. I think there's tremendous potential here. The crossover of these two sounds could yield some spectacular results. I think its logical for dubstep to explore a reduction in contrast to maximal wobble anthems.

Skream's new bits are exciting: glitchy and techy and ultimately a pretty interesting direction to explore. Add magnetic man into the mix with the scuzzy house sounds and there are plenty of interesting things happening but I don't think innovation should be down to the established top tier dubstep producers. I want to see new producers step up to the challenge.

I'm not saying there is no innovation. Just not very much innovative dubstep as a percentage of what i'm hearing. I want more tunes which have the 'fackin' 'ell' effect. Recently there haven't been that many.

I'm sure people with have a lot to say about this. So add, refute, agree, discuss...

Boomnoise is scarily on point

oh yeh, and big up TRG!

Gimme rowdy 2 step sounds, I love em! Skream is a badman for pushing things FWD he always seems to be experimenting with every tune.

amen, boomnoise. great thoughts. I'm no production engine (at the mo), but I strive to introduce other relevant ideas on the decks. I agree the best way to approach dubstep is with an open mind... for a start think of all the other types of music that occupy the same tempo range. booty bass, crunk, slow jams, raggae, hardcore, etc. it's a wonderful vast world of ~138bpm beats out there. they shouldn't be any less of an influence to producer folk than the latest coki tune.

I'd like to bring the Grime compilation up again: sure, it was dubstep mislabeled as grime. but has any dubstep since really sounded like that? it's not halfstep. it's not swung. it's something else... it's experimentation. and it's a superb LP. people started making this kind of music to relieve themselves of formulas. let's continue on this tradition.

Excellent thread Boomnoise. You've laid out the problems and possibilities really clearly. I've been arguing similar points (e.g. here, here and here for while now.

You're right, 2006 was the year that a mutating musical system was reduced to a particular collection of sounds and siginifiers working in very limited ways. I think it was almost inevitable given that the huge surge in interest (between 'Request Line' and Breezblock) occurred when the dubstep vinyl market was completely saturated with the dark halfstep tunes that had finally made it off of dubs. There was literally no other dubstep to buy unless you started digging up the back catalogues. As far as most newcomers knew, that was the be all and end all of dubstep. So, predictably, as new producers tried they're hands at it, it sounded, for the most part, like uninspired variations on what Loefah et al had been doing for a couple of years already. Worse, a lot of the structural subtleties that had originally gone into halfstep - e.g. the bare skeleton of swinging garage - were lost in the translation. Add to that canned sonics imported from dnb, and this bizarre fixation on not just darkness but the notion that dubstep should be 'evil'-sounding, and we ended up with a lot texturally bereft and rhythmically dead electronic music plodding along at 70 Bpm. I saw The Roots of Dubstep project as an attempt at intervention but the dye had been cast in most minds by that point. Honestly, I'm barely keeping up with most of the music coming out right now - with some very notable exceptions, mind you - and I wish I was more excited.

And, before anyone takes this assessment the wrong way, let me say that it's not meant to divided this scene between old and new fans/producers/DJs, or to put down recent converts, or to slag off the new wave of producers. Hierarchies like that are only about ego.

But, I do think that when entering something new, something others have built with care, it's important to see how it works, how it developed and why. By all means hack it, mutate it, but begin by figuring out what made it interesting in the first place. Something has to change though because most of the tracks coming out are dull. For anyone who's not convinced, ask yourself if you really want to find yourself at a dubstep party next year, slowly lurching to the same straight, metallic, bass-centric beats that have become the sonic orthodoxy of this scene.

I'll tell you what I'm doing. I've been following dubstep for about three and half years. I've been working on beats for two years. Last year, I gave up trying to make tracks that sound like dubstep, and I started focusing exclusively on learning how to make beats that function like mutant garage. I've been working on it whenever I have time, but I know I don't have a good enough grip on it yet to start posting 320s in the Audio section. Which leads to another point - just because you have an 'exclusive' doesn't mean that it's quality. Quality control has dipped as the lure of having 320 'dubs' has grown. There are great tracks in the Audio forum, but they are few and far between.

As for where the potential for newness lies, I'm really in agreement with Boomnoise. The possibilities of cross pollination with minimal, the revisiting of 2step. Talking to Blackdown last year, Burial said that 2step still holds a lot of potential futures in it that have yet to be explored. There's a lot of truth to this. Likewise his comment about bringing back garage's softer sides, along with that 'rhythmic danger' and that combination of slink and skank. Mala continues to do incredible things, drawly quite clearly now on house influences. He's even come up with a solution to the halfstep v. 4x4 v. 2step v. breaks conundrum with his 'wonky donkey' galloping kicks tracks.

I'd like to see Loefah lead the charge away from halfstep. I think he's done about as much as there is to do with it and now he needs to move on. He's the icon of that style and I think a shift on his part would carry a lot of weight in many producers' minds.

FWD.

you know J_J

autonomic wrote:I know I don't have a good enough grip on it yet to start posting 320s in the Audio section.

This is important - just cos you can dont mean you should.

& writing tunes by commitee online is proper stupid.

think whatever people are making groove is key, as someone above said the original halfstep used the skeleton rythms of jungle/2step swing and that skeleton isn't present in alot of stuff today. groove is what makes a dilla or timbaland beat sound dope even though it only uses 4 sounds, its an instrument in itself i reckon.

re the "dubstep sound" i've been thinking about this a bit and as a producer of any type of music you've got a few variants to fuck with:

rythm - groove quantizes, triplets, dottted notes, played in rythms etc
sonics - sound choice, complexity, weight, effect use
tune - samples, keys, harmonys, melodys loads of other theory i know nothing of
structure - monotony, variation, progression, randomness

blah blah blah and theres probably loads i've missed and some i've put in twice, doesn't really matter.

basically i'm trying to say theres enough things to vary that theres not alot of excuses for genericism [not to say that when writng i'm completely original]. the only real constants need to be sub and the tempo and theres still room for manouvre there.

definately down with drwing in influences from other sounds too

If one thing is going to shape the way dubstep goes in 07, for me, it's got to be Quality Control.

Trying my best! But totally agree mr boomnoise. Quality control needs to be maintained.

there needs to be more raves in London...

Jungle if u think of it and I aint comparing coz its a totally different time and game had alot more raves 3 years into its run.

All good having out of town raves but the majority of the music is coming from its home. LON crew stand up!

Im with res on this

Boomnoise you got it bang on the head. Things have to progress otherwise the scene will not grow, but at the same time stay true to your style and be original with it rather than imatate that which already exists.

I will do my best also.

Lets keep building people and remember variety is the spice of life

The one thing thats struck me also is how emotionally stunted some of the tunes around can be, Im referring more to the dark side of things.

i try to not copy what i hear and i try to not do the same thing over and over and i try make stuff that i would like to hear at the dance

boomnoise wrote:If one thing is going to shape the way dubstep goes in 07, for me, it's got to be Quality Control.

I feel that but how are you going to enforce it from the top-down? You just gotta trust that people won't buy whack shit.....and trust that the labels who insist on putting out whack shit get the message.

This is an important topic. Its the diversity of this scene that makes it so vital right now, if it loses that, we're fucked. Definitely agree on the issue of quality control. On the one hand, I think its good that smaller labels are springing up and putting things out but its seems all too rushed too often. I've gone down the record shop too many times over the last few months and just been handed piles of characterless dark half-step. The sub bass might be the key constant to dubstep but I think that truthfully its those tunes that really have something going on in the high-end that are the best. Its an exciting time right now and I agree that the 2-steppy (big up Burial and TRG) and techno-y (Skream, Benga, Magnetic Man, and to an extent Ramadanman) angles look the most fruitful. I reckon we'll be alright, it seems enough people are conscious of the potential traps and once tunes like 'Losing Control' start coming out, it'll filter down.

if it dont groove it doesent move

boomnoise just said what i've been telling people for a minute now.

The 2step swing thing would be a welcome throw back in my opinion..
I'm also feeling the minimal thing quite a bit (tons of techno djs in my city are all over this right now).

To be honest though, I'm most excited to see the North American mutation of the sound.
It might not be heard yet.. but talking with other stateside people you can certainly feel the energy that something is bubbling under the surface.
it's just a matter of time before North Americans start putting out uniquely sounding "stateside" dubstep citing their homegrown sounds for influence..