Benga retires

[Tekki]

At the risk of steering this thread into another thread about how the 'good old days were', I think Benga's direction is similar to other producers of that era in that they can no longer create something original within that template and that the expectations of the media and mainstream audiences lacks the patience and open mindedness that was characteristic of earlier dub step audiences (that I know of at least). Many other producers and DJs of early Dubstep have similarly diverged from the few defining characteristics of the genre (punishing sub bass, a minimal aesthetic punctuated by sharp percussion), because, IMHO the audiences on one hand came to expect simplistic themes whilst being largely ignorant to the detail. The result of this expectation can be seen in the rise of bro step from roughly 2007 onwards. Rather than risk kill a crowd the producer is then ever more confined with a structure that is in its self constrained (in terms of time signature, key and tempo). In an effort to side step the startlingly unimaginative offerings of North American producers and many British producers (who were simply carbon copying some of the basic aesthetics of early dub step whilst omitting important elements like mood, key, sound design and cinematics) many old and new UK producers alike ventured into house -bass hybrids that, stripped of soul from the former and dread from the latter, really felt experimental meanderings in IDM rather than an inspired shift in sound system music. Aside from this a few producers have remained consistent, but the burst of innovation and unflinching commitment to a powerful yet melancholic feeling has largely disappeared. What is left over is at best a tribute to a sound that was not so long ago the most genuine music to come out of the uk in a long time.

[DrGatineau]

people talk about so many of the original artists leaving, but aside from benga, skream, loefah, D1, headhunter, and some others, who do you consider to have "left"?

do you consider kode9 to have left? zomby? cluekid?


i just think in any musical genre that is now over a decade old, people are naturally gonna come and go. that's how the world works, especially in music. plenty of the original artists are still about - mala, coki, pinch, quest, kromestar, silkie, joker, distance, tunnidge, goth trad, n-type, youngsta..... dub war even released a 12" last month

seems like the majority are still at it, just a few of the big names peaced.

[nerve]

people talk about so many of the original artists leaving, but aside from benga, skream, loefah, D1, headhunter, and some others, who do you consider to have "left"?

LD. Where you at man???

[Tekki]

people talk about so many of the original artists leaving, but aside from benga, skream, loefah, D1, headhunter, and some others, who do you consider to have "left"?

do you consider kode9 to have left? zomby? cluekid?


i just think in any musical genre that is now over a decade old, people are naturally gonna come and go. that's how the world works, especially in music. plenty of the original artists are still about - mala, coki, pinch, quest, kromestar, silkie, joker, distance, tunnidge, goth trad, n-type, youngsta..... dub war even released a 12" last month

seems like the majority are still at it, just a few of the big names peaced.

Ez, yeah maybe I was on a negative tip there because it really did feel like the music back then was untainted by hype and ego (not that I'm saying those who are left and who are committed are full of hype or ego, but that the swathes of bandwagon jumpers who lasted about 2 minutes and left when all this new (old) trendy house re-emerged brought a transparent frenzied adulation for the frankly mindless side of 'dubstep'). You are right and there are many good producers/DJs who are making some incredible stuff (VIVEK, Gantz, Kromestar, Kahn, Mala, Mala, Mala, Goth Trad, Quest...etc etc). I think it pisses me off that many of the critics and audiences see Dubstep as just this one thing (i/e tear out mindless kak) when there is this huge range and vision even within singular producers back catalogue (e.g Jack Sparrow). Anyway, Back to BENGA. Yes he was (and probably still is) an amazing producer and it would be a blessing for 'the scene' if he harnessed his unique ability to re-energise Dubstep just when it is at risk of wallowing into a homogenous and mechanical genre rather than an inspired and organic one.

[Muncey]

people talk about so many of the original artists leaving, but aside from benga, skream, loefah, D1, headhunter, and some others, who do you consider to have "left"?

Toasty, Vex'd, Search & Destroy, Scuba, Oris Jay/Darqwan, Plastician, Horsepower (suppose to have something new coming?), Artwork (didn't release much but still.. like most, on a house tip now), Caspa, Rusko, LD, TRG, Sully, Appleblim, Shackleton, Ramadanman, Clouds.. although Peverelist still releases dubstep on his label he hasn't made anything dubstep related in a while.

Most, if not all, pre-2008 and pre-brostep.. some still making similar bits but yeah moved on quite a bit. Not that its a bad thing, you'd expect it considering most are coming up to a decade in the music biz.

[legend4ry]

I was digging through my record collection a few weeks ago and about 60% of my collection is from people who don't even make Dubstep anymore.

Addison groove did a Headhunter set at SXSW this year, so maybe hes got some new headhunter stuff ? That would be fucking exciting, him and Ramadanman are the only 2 producers who never had a duff release imo.

[cyclopian]

I heard that yougnsta has been rinsing some new Headhunter stuff, I never listen to Yunx's show anymore tho hah

[DrGatineau]

he has been

[OGLemon]

stand alone is noice

[legend4ry]

Thank fuck it isn't dungeon too!

[ultraspatial]

people talk about so many of the original artists leaving, but aside from benga, skream, loefah, D1, headhunter, and some others, who do you consider to have "left"?

Toasty, Vex'd, Search & Destroy, Scuba, Oris Jay/Darqwan, Plastician, Horsepower (suppose to have something new coming?), Artwork (didn't release much but still.. like most, on a house tip now), Caspa, Rusko, LD, TRG, Sully, Appleblim, Shackleton, Ramadanman, Clouds.. although Peverelist still releases dubstep on his label he hasn't made anything dubstep related in a while.

Most, if not all, pre-2008 and pre-brostep.. some still making similar bits but yeah moved on quite a bit. Not that its a bad thing, you'd expect it considering most are coming up to a decade in the music biz.

toasty has some new dubs
oris jay released an album like 2 years ago
s&d (or one of the guys) makes dungeon now
artwork did loads of other stuff besides dubstep
clouds released 2 albums last year
sully's still at it
as for shackleton, only thing that made even his early tunes "dubstep" was the tempo
caspa, rusko & plastician started playing shit, but still dubstep-related

[Muncey]

In terms of "left dubstep" though can you really say any of them are still active in the scene? Any of them still releasing on dubstep labels or pushing dubstep in DJ sets? Oris Jay has a house project now, couple people are doing the 130 thing (Sully & Toasty), Artwork did do other things but he was always active in the scene (Mag Man ect.), Clouds make techno. Shackletons productions yeah but I presume he was DJing dubstep and he ran a dubstep label.

Not saying its a bad thing but I'd consider most of them, maybe with the exception of the 130 guys, to have "left the scene".

[DrGatineau]

@muncey I'm talking about people who left dubstep for similar reasons to skream, loefah, benga, headhunter, etc. as in they were frustrated/bored with the state of dubstep and wanted to separate themselves from it. many of those names left for different reasons or stopped releasing dubstep before 2009.

caspa, rusko, scuba don't really apply for obvious reasons imo.

plastician, artwork.....i don't think they were fully into dubstep to say that they left

darqwan, toasty, search & destroy were a bit early to say it was for the same reasons.

the horsepower crew, as you said they've been putting out new stuff recently. they also stopped releasing (often) well before 2009.

appleblim, shackleton, ramadanman, trg, ld, etc admittedly i don't know enough about why they left, but fair play it was probably the same reasons for some of them.

sully, clouds, i guess they count. but it just seems like such small names to say "see, everyone's leaving dubstep" (not that you're making a generalization like that, but many others have).

[legend4ry]

appleblim, shackleton, ramadanman, trg, ld, etc admittedly i don't know enough about why they left, but fair play it was probably the same reasons for some of them.

I think they just started moving in different directions cause they was getting more love from house and techno then they was from Dubstep, honestly.

[soronery]

the money dried up once dubstep started sounding the same (minimal) so they jumped to more profitable genres.

market saturation of identical sounding tunes. market gets bored. market dries up. producers have to find a new sound to make money off.

same thing happened with drum & bass when neurofunk took over and it became more about sound design and mixdowns than it was about making tunes that were actually interesting.

look at spor. his last few tunes (kingdom, for example) were out and out neuro being dropped into an already neuro full scene. not surprising he fucked it off and started suckling at the teat of brolectrostep to pay his bills.

[ultraspatial]

In terms of "left dubstep" though can you really say any of them are still active in the scene? Any of them still releasing on dubstep labels or pushing dubstep in DJ sets? Oris Jay has a house project now, couple people are doing the 130 thing (Sully & Toasty), Artwork did do other things but he was always active in the scene (Mag Man ect.), Clouds make techno. Shackletons productions yeah but I presume he was DJing dubstep and he ran a dubstep label.

Not saying its a bad thing but I'd consider most of them, maybe with the exception of the 130 guys, to have "left the scene".

there's 2 different clouds. i was talking about the finnish guys.
the 130 thing isn't separate from dubstep/garage - it's still the same people making similar music

your criteria for "being involved in the scene" is unnecessarily rigid, if there's still a scene to speak of imo.

[nobody]

the 130 thing isn't separate from dubstep/garage - it's still the same people making similar music

lol this, dubstep at a slightly different speed NEW GENRE!!!!!!!

[rorz9992]

the 130 thing isn't separate from dubstep/garage - it's still the same people making similar music

lol this, dubstep at a slightly different speed NEW GENRE!!!!!!!

Yep 130 is pretty much dungeon slowed down. Most boring thing ever, I lol @ everyone here who laps it up because it's 'new'.

Thread's gone off-topic a bit lol...

[baddis98]

the 130 thing isn't separate from dubstep/garage - it's still the same people making similar music

lol this, dubstep at a slightly different speed NEW GENRE!!!!!!!

Yep 130 is pretty much dungeon slowed down. Most boring thing ever, I lol @ everyone here who laps it up because it's 'new'.

Thread's gone off-topic a bit lol...

bit too much generalization there. in some cases i can see the similarities to dubstep, but let's be honest - a lot of it is just simply house or techno.

[DrGatineau]

i think lots of ppl just heard Commotion and think that's what 130 is. lots of it does not sound like dubstep nevermind dungeon