Deepside wrote:Halfstep...hmmmh???
It's clear to see that the style has been imitated thousands of times by unimaginative producers world wide that have little creative ability or true talent,all striving for a place in a "scene" - leave it to the pioneers and veterans that started it back when it was fresh...come with something original that you can call your own.
Imo most (not all) dances these days are suffering from a distinct lack of any real rhythm because of the over use of that format - a large number of tracks you'll hear are composed of basic percussion structures that lack complexity,feeling or diversity. I started raving in the days of Jungle and Garage and the interaction between the music,Dj and crowd we're on a different level from what i've experienced at most Dubstep nights - which yes have enegy,but that which i can best describe as a crowd of Halfstepping zombies,nodding to a metronome of wobble and chainsaw.
Is there too much Halfstep? I think the original date of this post and how relevant it still is answers the question.
Rant over ...
However on the positive there's a whole lot of groundbreaking music being produced at the heart of the underground if you look for it and I think "Dubstep" may be going through a significant transitional period in it's musicality as a scene.
Big up the pioneers of the future!
Theres is alot of sick halfstep about still, its just most of the shit stuff that you see happens to use a halfstep pattern.
Look at Kryptic Minds, Seven, Breakage, Distance, SP:MC, Cyrus, Verse etc. etc. and then tell me theres "a distinct lack of any real rhythm".
People relying on varying LFO rates to give there tunes movement and rhythm and then dropping a boring-as-fuck kick...snare...kick...snare over the top is the problem.
Interesting percussion is very important, but halfstep and interesting percussion are not mutually exclusive!