DUBSTEP LOSING INTEREST...

chef · Post by **chef** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:16 pm

Right now it's the healthist it's been, I remember when I could count the amount of people pushing/supporting dubstep on my hand.

People take it for granted that it's so easy to get the latest Rinse set to download a few hours after it was recorded. In my day of growing up listening to Jungle flourish it was hard to keep up, not because there was so many resources to get hold of the music, but because there was hardly any at all apart from going to the raves and hearing the music live.
I remember the days when one set would get rinsed for months n months until the point where u gotta fix the tape with selotape I wish things were this accessable. If you don't wanna hear the tunes months before they come out then dont listen to the sets.

It aint all about half step wobble bass, that's a pretty bad stereotype, you've only got to go and check the latest DMZ, coz for me DMZ the label and the dance is what Dubstep's about

You've got to remember not everyone in Dubstep comes from a garage background. Dubstep now aint got fuck all to do with garage, sameway Loefah hasnt got any links to garage, he never came from garage so why would he have to make anything with garage influences. Lots of us come from a wide range of backgrounds, the two biggest being House n garage and Jungle/DnB. Me and Hatcha still do garage and jungle bookings.
Also you cant blame the top boys for setting the pace and then bandwagon jumpers getting stuck in and watering it down, you can't blame Coki for making and a big big like Haunted and then a load of other people blatently cating the sound.

blackdown · Post by **blackdown** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:17 pm

i'm also a bit bored of producers following everyone else by trying to prove how dark/hard/scary they are.

just as it takes real strength to go your own way it takes real strength to build melodies (either sweet or dissonant) or to use feminine influences as well as the usual dark aggressive masculine ones too.

corpsey · Post by **corpsey** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:17 pm

Loefah's ''System'' sounds shit on my computer speakers, and yet sounds shit-yourself on DMZ's speakers.

So is it shit or shit-yourself?

Let me check my finger

rich_c90 · Post by **rich_c90** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:20 pm

Shonky wrote:
seckle wrote:get out to the shows. if you sit at home and listen to this music on your headphones, you'll never fully understand it .
at the end of the day, this music is about standing in front of a wall of speakers.
Frankly that's toss. Good music should sound good anywhere.

No, its not toss. If you talk to anyone who works on aesthetics they'll tell you that its standard aesthetic theory to think that every music has its 'ideal conditions' whereby you really need to hear it those conditions in order to really appreciate it properly. You really can't appreciate Mozart properly unless you've heard it in a proper concert hall and you can't really appreciate a Loefah tune until you've heard it on a big system.

chef · Post by **chef** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:26 pm

There's a big contrast between hearing Horror Show on your laptop speakers at work and in DMZ @ about 3am. The tune's about bass so you gotta feel it, it weren't made for the local coffee bar.

r33lc4sh · Post by **r33lc4sh** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:33 pm

Rich_c90 wrote: No, its not toss. If you talk to anyone who works on aesthetics they'll tell you that its standard aesthetic theory to think that every music has its 'ideal conditions' whereby you really need to hear it those conditions in order to really appreciate it properly. You really can't appreciate Mozart properly unless you've heard it in a proper concert hall and you can't really appreciate a Loefah tune until you've heard it on a big system.

it's only a technical/production side - the other side is music and music should be music whereever u hear it
it shouldn't be only a 'a bassy rollercoaster ride' as shonky mentioned

corpsey · Post by **corpsey** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:34 pm

Not if the bass is one of the main musical elements in the track.

dub boy · Post by **dub boy** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:35 pm

Chef wrote:Right now it's the healthist it's been, I remember when I could count the amount of people pushing/supporting dubstep on my hand.

.

Bang on Chefal

Couple of years ago in Bristol when I was going to Context (RIP) there were usually about 20 of us.

Tbh, from my perspective (as a dubstep promoter and longish time fan) I love seeing so many people now digging the sound and coming out to the nights. Yeah some of the tunes are average these days, but remember, couple of years ago it was one release a month!! I'd rather have the selection now than hardly being able to buy anything.

And would you prefer a packed club of people skanking, or 20 people? I know which I'd prefer (both from a ravers & promoters perspective)

r33lc4sh · Post by **r33lc4sh** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:39 pm

Corpsey wrote:Not if the bass is one of the main musical elements in the track.

and maybe that's the problem?;)

protocolx · Post by **protocolx** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:55 pm

Chef wrote:you can't blame Coki for making and a big big like Haunted and then a load of other people blatently cating the sound.

this is too true.. man like DMZ , loefah etc will push things to a new level. others will copy(badly) and the fanboys on here will moan 6 months later that everything sounds the same..

its muppets that are blatently ripping other peoples style need sortin out.. i dont want to hear 3 haunted rip offs.. or 6 badly done honour kill rip offs..

bedward · Post by **bedward** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:02 pm

Shonky wrote:...Good music should sound good anywhere.
... it doesn't become a better tune because it's really loud - just louder.

not too sure about that.
reminds me of ppl who say "it aint a real song unless u can play it on guitar."

how much instrumental music sounds good on a phone?
that's more grime's thing really. and commercial pop etc.

it's fair enough in principal, it'd be nice if everyone everywhere could enjoy this music.
but artistic reasons have put (a lot of) dubstep outside of that accessabilty bracket.
ppl want to write tunes with critical content below 50-60hz and that means it's only fully exposed in certain situations.
not just "loudness" but full frequency response is key. you wouldn't want to view a full colour artwork only under a dim green light, unless it was made that way.

what this means is that the full experience of (most) dubstep music only happens in a reasonable sized room with a decent sound system. which for most ppl means going to an event, mingling with other cru, having fun and maybe even getting a bit of exercise.
it also makes it harder for mainstream culture to run off with it, cos it doesn't sound that good coming out of the radio at work, or on tv.
this is not an especially common situation in modern music, pop's dominant ideology has informed us for generations and we take its tropes for granted sometimes.

i like soundsystem culture, it gets me out and about instead of just nodding in my hutch.
and it makes the "real" experience a bit more special (unique).

all this just affirms my belief that anyone on the scene who can, should be investing in a specialist sound-system (accompanied by a talented engineer or 2) so that the best delivery always comes from the folks who've built this scene up.

but i do agree that a boring tune isn't made interesting purely cos it's got a sub-bass-line in it. and the wobble thing is getting a bit long.
but there's still plenty of material that hits me good and proper.
i like half-steppers a lot, the space/tension/voluptuousness of that approach still bowls me over. tho i do think it depends on a bit of twitchy swing to offset/unravel/deepen it. that's levels.
not into flat 2d beats that sound like "slow rock" presets.

yib yab, pls excuse the rambling on.

kion · Post by **kion** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:07 pm

Shonky wrote:
Fascinating though it is to feel 20Hz through your chest and your teeth vibrating, if the tunes aren't doing it, it's not much more than a bassy rollercoaster ride, thrilling for a bit then over and then not much to say about it afterwards.

I'd rather have a thrilling rollercoaster ride that left me speechless than a long and arduous carrousel horseride where I got to talk about the aesthetics of the twisting supports.

shonky · Post by **shonky** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:08 pm

Would just like to clear up that I don't actually have a laptop and am generally hearing dubstep on some pretty bassy monitors at home. I can hear it boom into other rooms, it vibrates anything not glued down, I can feel it in the floor - it's not DMZ granted, but I can feel it. The tunes I like sound good at home and feel good in a club.

I agree that dubstep should be fully appreciated on a capable rig, but this isn't going to be the only place you hear it. You might want to listen to some after the club, on your i-pod, at work, in the car and if the music's good you'll appreciate it and connect to it regardless. If it's designed to ONLY sound good in a club, you're going to hear the tune out, buy it, listen to it at home and wonder why it doesn't sound so good, and why you might never hear it again the same way unless it acheives classic status. Or unless you have a massive fuck off rig in your crib of course.

Personally speaking, if it's just new things to do with bass, but no emotional content then I don't really connect with it - that to me is what happened to dnb - production grandstanding but not much content. If it's bass and soul then all the better. Think Blackdown has a very good point there.

kion · Post by **kion** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:17 pm

ok, on a deeper level, isn't part of the emotional connection (when listening to it on an ipod) the memory of hearing it on a big rig or at a good night out?

Thats how it works for me. I build that reference for myself, and it gives me a buzz listening to it. But if I don't have that original reference (of hearing a tune out) I don't tend to feel it in the same way until I hear it in its natural surroundings. And then everything changes!!

plastician · Post by **plastician** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:24 pm

Its so strong right now I find it hard to keep up with the big tunes.

Unless you can get down to every dubstep night going its very difficult!

bedward · Post by **bedward** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:25 pm

kion, i was considering posting the same point.
reminds me of that kode9-associated idea about the complex rhythms that aren't "there" but you still know about them.
although i don't think that's a new phenomenon, hiphop has a lot of that, and r&b. and much older stuff.

(to use another annoying visual metaphor) a photo of a place means a lot more to someone who's been there. u know what's outside the frame, and u know about the scale of it as it relates to you.

shonky, sorry to bang on at u. while i was writing that, others made similar points, without taking best part of an hour over it (!) maybe i'm a bit caned...

kion · Post by **kion** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:25 pm

And in answer ot the original statement. There's a long way to go just yet. The copycats will rinse a style, then the innovators just move on and do their job.

barefiles maybe makes the music too accessible. Too much sugar rots your teeth yana!

fubar · Post by **fubar** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:26 pm

el sub sta · Post by **el sub sta** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:26 pm

The best stuff is on Deapoh's Sub Fm show.

bagelator · Post by **bagelator** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:29 pm

KION wrote: Too much sugar rots your teeth

and cross polination makes for stronger babies

DUBSTEP LOSING INTEREST...

Who is online