Meh, I really don't feel like reading all the posts in this thread, I'll just go on with what I want to say.

So, I just recently stumbled upon a dubstep track I really find SICK. Amazing. It just blew my brains out. The problem is, that it must have been the first complete dubstep track I really listened to. So I really don't know much about it all. I tried to get my hands on more stuff, and I did. The track I was talking about is by Cookie Monsta, and I listened to some Mount Kimbie, and Blackleg as well. Could any of you tell me what I am exactly listening to? Is this actually crap ? Am I missing out on the real good dubstep?
Maybe I should specify that what I like in this is the heavy bassdrops and subbass. I like that shit heavy, not melodic, not dreamy.

Gaddamnit dubstep. It seems like everyone and their mother listens to dubstep nowadays. Don't get me wrong, some of it's good, but it's best enjoyed in person at a rave while under the influence of some mind altering substance.

Written by Ilham on 08.12.2010 at 21:38

Meh, I really don't feel like reading all the posts in this thread, I'll just go on with what I want to say.

So, I just recently stumbled upon a dubstep track I really find SICK. Amazing. It just blew my brains out. The problem is, that it must have been the first complete dubstep track I really listened to. So I really don't know much about it all. I tried to get my hands on more stuff, and I did. The track I was talking about is by Cookie Monsta, and I listened to some Mount Kimbie, and Blackleg as well. Could any of you tell me what I am exactly listening to? Is this actually crap ? Am I missing out on the real good dubstep?
Maybe I should specify that what I like in this is the heavy bassdrops and subbass. I like that shit heavy, not melodic, not dreamy.

It's all dubstep. Just like Metal it has many different forms of expression. For myself the whole "totally filthy drop" stuff got really old really fast. It also seems to me that there are insane amounts of people now who are just creating generic, repetitive, bass heavy - melody lacking tracks because they know that someone in the massive audience suddenly interested in Dub will listen to them. In other words, modern Dubstep can be compared to the Black Metal scene in the early 1990's

Nowadays I prefer the artists who combine great drops without losing the sense of melody and actual artistic ability. Dagga, Rusko, Deadmau5, Doctor P (sometimes he gets it right...) , Caspa, Chrispy, etc

Big drops can work well with big melody!

Everybody's raving about James Blake and his "minimal dubstep" but I don't get it. It's slightly more listenable than most dubstep, but it's simply not appealing. The sound is very stuffy and amateurish, and the songswriting is lacking. I really like electronic music in general (the latest Baths is crazy, for example, and let's not even go into the orgasm that is Crystal Castles), but dubstep has none of the lush soundscapes, disturbing noises and plain great melodies that make electronica so sweet.

Written by IronAngel on 13.02.2011 at 00:26

Everybody's raving about James Blake and his "minimal dubstep" but I don't get it. It's slightly more listenable than most dubstep, but it's simply not appealing. The sound is very stuffy and amateurish, and the songswriting is lacking. I really like electronic music in general (the latest Baths is crazy, for example, and let's not even go into the orgasm that is Crystal Castles), but dubstep has none of the lush soundscapes, disturbing noises and plain great melodies that make electronica so sweet.

I'm actually looking for some really lush electronica. You reckon Crystal Castles is a good place to start? I prefer not too much 'pop vocals', I'm looking for something really easy and ecstacy/drug-like. Can you recommend anything?

Crystals Castles is punkish 8-bit electropop with some noise elements. Many people find them really annoying, not really chillout music. I usually go for more ambient stuff like M83, who have a great post-rockish synth/electronica album Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts. (Saturdays=Youth is great too, but it's more like 80s synth-laden dream pop.) Carbon Based Lifeforms are acid ambient or "psybient", pretty nice. I'd recommend the album Hydroponic Garden. And if you like ambient, Loscil and The Sight Below mix some dubby beats with moody soundscapes.

Then there's Flying Lotus, but you might already know them. Not a huge fan myself, but they're nice. Same goes for Four Tet who released a lauded album There Is Love In You last year. It's chill and pleasant, but didn't do much for me. But Pantha Du Prince are cool, pretty experimental. For something even stranger in the same vein, check out Venetian Snares.

A big and good name is Boards of Canada. I've only heard a little of them, but the Hi Scores EP is good. Really laid-back and diverse. If you like sample-based music, look up DJ Shadow's Endtroducing. The third classic name is Aphex Twin, especially the albums Drukqs and Select Ambient Works 85-92 (which isn't really ambient), but you've probably heard something from him already.

For some great, lush sounds I'd recommend Emeralds, maybe their latest album Does It Look Like I'm Here? It borrows a lot from krautrock, sounds retro but not lo-fi. The songwriting could be better, though. And 65daysofstatic released a really strange and likeable album of post-rock mixed with dance/techno last year, called We Were Exploding Anyway. But that's pretty far from what you were asking, I guess.

My favorite are The Knife, though. They're fairly straightforward but dark electropop, probably not what you're looking for. I love the vocals, I love the melodies, the whole package. Silent Shout is their darker album, Deep Cuts is more poppy but has excellent tracks too. The lead singer's solo project Fever Ray is even better, easily my favorite album of 2009. Dark, shamanistic electropop.

I'm really not an expert though. I mostly like electropop and electronic ambient, pure electronica and IDM aren't so much up my alley. I love stuff like Max Richter's neoclassical music he mixes with electronic influences etc.

I can second Boards of Canada (more or less my fave non-metal band/outfit, Music Has The Right To Children is where it's at), Venetian Snares for ace breakcore (he varies his music from album to album though, one minute you have classical breaks the next you have ragga drenched jungle - also seeing them in a week or so) and Carbon Based Lifeforms who I stumbled upon recently. Emeralds are also great but depends which Emeralds, there's a few of them around. The droning ambient one is ace.

[EDIT]

Just stumbled up Moon Wiring Club - very strange quirky music that I saw advertised on Paradigms Recordings' Facebook. It's a bit awesome. Might be a million miles away from what you like though. Reminiscent of Boards of Canada but with added weird and a chockful of strange.

Written by Guest on 13.02.2011 at 19:03

Emeralds are also great but depends which Emeralds, there's a few of them around. The droning ambient one is ace.

They're the ones, yeah. The latest album reminds me of the more hypnotic and ambient end of krautrock (sounds a lot like Faust or Tangerine Dream). It's not their best work, but it's probably the most accessible (I haven't heard their entire catalog, though). The drone sticks to the background for the most part. When it comes to drone and ambient (not necessarily electronic), I'm much more comfortable recommending stuff if anyone's into it. But I guess that should go into a different topic.

Thanks for the recommendation btw, I'll check them out. Sounds pretty good, though I'm not quite blown away.

Written by IronAngel on 13.02.2011 at 22:50

Written by Guest on 13.02.2011 at 19:03

Emeralds are also great but depends which Emeralds, there's a few of them around. The droning ambient one is ace.

They're the ones, yeah. The latest album reminds me of the more hypnotic and ambient end of krautrock (sounds a lot like Faust or Tangerine Dream). It's not their best work, but it's probably the most accessible (I haven't heard their entire catalog, though). The drone sticks to the background for the most part.

Thanks for the recommendation btw, I'll check them out. Sounds pretty good, though I'm not quite blown away.

That one track on its own doesn't really do much for them. I'd say have a listen through their Myspace tracks and their wonderful strangeness might become apparent.

Thanks for the recs. Btw, anybody heard Forest Swords? They're supposed to play Dronestep. I own the album, but I don't really know where it is.

I heard the Rattling Cage single, which also had Hjurt. I don't know what it is, but I liked it. Kinda reminded me of Grouper, who I really really love. Their style is different, but the approach of covering simple music with drones is similar. They're on my watchlist, should I ever find their album somewhere.

Dronestep? I've heard of Ghost Drone, which is another name for Witch House, a kind of minimalist offshoot of dubstep O.o

Written by IronAngel on 13.02.2011 at 23:39

I heard the Rattling Cage single, which also had Hjurt. I don't know what it is, but I liked it. Kinda reminded me of Grouper, who I really really love. Their style is different, but the approach of covering simple music with drones is similar. They're on my watchlist, should I ever find their album somewhere.

Acquirius Records has it.

Sorry for not reading the older posts.
Im new in this music and I like it very much, but the heavy and "complex" dubstep (if you can call this music complex lol) soooo i wanted to ask for some good heavy dubstep bands
i dont like the music that sounds like im going to a dance club.

thanks!

Don't get me wrong, there's some good Dubstep around, but I've been pondering something...

Would it be accurate to say that Hardcore is to Heavy Metal as Dubstep is to Electronica?

Not really, at least historically speaking. Dubstep is just a specific subgenre of electronica that's recently become massively popular for whatever reason. Hardcore punk is a genre and scene completely different from metal, with its seperate historical evolution.

I still haven't heard any good dubstep, and I don't understand why people are suddenly fawning over dubstep specifically, instead of good electronic music in general or some other specific subgenres. Dubstep is a fad and everyone suddenly think it's so special because they hear people talking about it. What's so good about it in comparison to other electronic music, like house, krautrock, electropop, psytrance, chiptune, ambient, let alone all sorts of experimental electronic compositions? I can't help but think most people raving about dubstep haven't actually listened to a lot of electronic music in general. (Don't get me wrong, I'm hardly an expert myself.)

I prefer Drum'n'bass to dubstep.

Written by IronAngel on 03.09.2011 at 01:04

Not really, at least historically speaking. Dubstep is just a specific subgenre of electronica that's recently become massively popular for whatever reason. Hardcore punk is a genre and scene completely different from metal, with its seperate historical evolution.

I still haven't heard any good dubstep, and I don't understand why people are suddenly fawning over dubstep specifically, instead of good electronic music in general or some other specific subgenres. Dubstep is a fad and everyone suddenly think it's so special because they hear people talking about it. What's so good about it in comparison to other electronic music, like house, krautrock, electropop, psytrance, chiptune, ambient, let alone all sorts of experimental electronic compositions? I can't help but think most people raving about dubstep haven't actually listened to a lot of electronic music in general. (Don't get me wrong, I'm hardly an expert myself.)

Yeah, I think you're right about Hardcore, I was just speaking from the music scene around here.

And, I don't understand the fad of it either. I mean, some Dubstep is interesting, but the rest just seems to be imitations of other tracks. If anything, I am more of a Trance listener myself. I would rather listen to Above & Beyond and Armin van Buuren over any Dubstep track any day, haha.

Yo dawg I heard you like dubstep so I -- posted a parody link. nbd

I thought I liked dubstep, but every time I say I listen to a bit of dubstep people talk of skrillex and stuff similar to that and thats definitely not what I like.

I do like some benga, burial, jazzsteppa, mount kimbie and zomby. I know squarepushers has more DnB, but I like them as well.
Is dubstep like progressive in the metal world? Coz if you can't categorise it they just throw the dubstep term at it?

I honestly don't know enough dubstep outside of the crap that's reprimanded online (kind of like how a lot of people only know the bad metalcore bands), but it does seem to be a generic term for anything wubwubwub, as prog is anything...progressive, I guess.

Written by Spirit Molecule on 24.11.2011 at 16:50

I thought I liked dubstep, but every time I say I listen to a bit of dubstep people talk of skrillex and stuff similar to that and thats definitely not what I like.

I do like some benga, burial, jazzsteppa, mount kimbie and zomby. I know squarepushers has more DnB, but I like them as well.
Is dubstep like progressive in the metal world? Coz if you can't categorise it they just throw the dubstep term at it?

Hmm, I guess there is something to it too, like, I don't know, many times I have talked to people who didn't know jack about electronica, they labelled stuff I've shown them (which was most often DnB) 'techno' because they thought techno was synonymous with electronica. I can find it possible that with dubstep's rising popularity, people who are not very knowledgeable in this field might label everything that sounds remotely similiar dubstep.

However, dubstep DOES refer to music with specific characteristics whereas prog does not. Or more like, characteristcs which cause them to be labelled prog do not really restrict its overall sound.

That is why you can have prog death, prog black, prog thrash, prog metalcore, you name it. So from this point of view dubstep is quite different.



In fact. I'd liken dubstep as it is now to metalcore.
Metalcore started out as 'metallic hardcore' and was essentially hardcore punk moving towards metal. I speak of bands like, let's say, Merauder, Integrity, Deadguy, Earth Crisis, Converge, Shai Hulud, Hatebreed, etc.
After that it moved towards the mainstream, and became different while also having some characteristics of its predecessors and being traceable back to the metallic hardcore. That is 'melodic metalcore' and and it is more like, hardcore punk and in some cases, emo, meets swedish melodeath (SotS-era At The Gates, especially). These include bands like As I Lay Dying, Zao (I guess it is a bit debateable where does this stand but I'd list it here) Killswitch Engage, The Black Dahlia Murder, Heaven Shall Burn, Shadows Fall, Protest The Hero, Chimaira, etc.

This is not at all bad at all, although it is getting a bit derivative and often too repetetive/bland. And then this type was carried even further into the mainstream with often other mainstream influences (mainstream electronica for example) and gave us 'wonderful' bands like Asking Alexandria, Attack Attack, Atreyu, The Devil Wears Prada, Bullet for my Valentine.
This subtype is not that all differentiable from the previous one (as I said they often use electronics but so do some other decent bands too like Horse the Band so it is not an argument) but it is much less in quality and much much more bland and derivative (even if they might have some decent songs buried under 2 kilometers of shit), with them becoming all stale and predictable.


Why am I saying this? Because, as I see it, the same thing is happening to dubstep. It started out without the characteristics of the modern washmachine sound of wubwubwub, however the two 'types' do have some common ground, like similiar bpm, similiar percussion, presence of bass drops in a dubstep fashion and some of the basslines are pretty similiar too.
The 'look & feel' of the music is totally different though. Distance, Burial, DMZ, early Skream etc. do not even sound similiar to the current trends in dubstep.
One of the most obvious changes is the emphasis on higher registers. Early dubstep was very sub-bass heavy with often very subtle or minimalistic synth lines above the bass (and indeed, early dubstep often has a quite grim atmosphere with a rather 'empty' and dark sound and a psychedelic vibe) and the mainstream brostep focusing mostly on washmachine sounds way above the bass (I don't mind noise music at all, my main problem with this, is the same with melodic metalcore, that lot of the bands/producers just sound all the same. (with that said I do like metalcore. Brostep - less, but there are some ok producers)) and they put the same oscillation effect on their bass with the same predictable drops.

This is yet another similiarity to metalcore, namely when compared to breakdowns. Some of the mainstream and bad metalcore bands focus way too much on breakdowns and it becomes predictable and adds nothing to the music, whereas they are fine if they actually complement the music. Modern dubstep is often all about the drops because it is heavy and I guess dance-able.

So, in conclusion, just like metalcore, dubstep now essentially refers to two distinct styles which time and the mainstream separated from a common ground and twisted one of them to be almost completely unlike the other.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 24.11.2011 at 20:40

I honestly don't know enough dubstep outside of the crap that's reprimanded online (kind of like how a lot of people only know the bad metalcore bands), but it does seem to be a generic term for anything wubwubwub, as prog is anything...progressive, I guess.

Considering how many times I have responded to various such discussions (sometimes including a list of nonmainstream tracks) which most of the time was either ignored or mocked I really don't know if you have listened any of them but if you want I can post a list which might give bit more insight.

Written by Uldreth on 03.12.2011 at 12:07

Considering how many times I have responded to various such discussions (sometimes including a list of nonmainstream tracks) which most of the time was either ignored or mocked I really don't know if you have listened any of them but if you want I can post a list which might give bit more insight.

So you've got any suggestions of good dubstep, maybe stuff similar to what I've listed above? Live dubstep would be quite interesting to me as well.

Written by Spirit Molecule on 03.12.2011 at 14:44

Written by Uldreth on 03.12.2011 at 12:07

Considering how many times I have responded to various such discussions (sometimes including a list of nonmainstream tracks) which most of the time was either ignored or mocked I really don't know if you have listened any of them but if you want I can post a list which might give bit more insight.

So you've got any suggestions of good dubstep, maybe stuff similar to what I've listed above? Live dubstep would be quite interesting to me as well.

Yarr, sorry for the delay. Well, I am not a fan of live stuff really so I can't help with that.

Suggestions, hmm. You've listed Burial, whom I really like (just he should stop sampling pop vocals imo, even if he manages to turn them much better than they were originally).

If you've liked him I would recommend Distance. His music is somewhat more 'conventional' than Burial's abstract tunes but still has that dark urban atmosphere.
Try these tracks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtquUMEsUVI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMz0skV9Nt0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvbrovEDXKE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugabf04Lx2A
He has two albums full of tracks like these.

Then there is Skream. One of his tracks was pretty much the most well known dubstep track before the genre became mainstream and it is pretty good indeed.
Speaking of Midnight Request Line of course.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNAC8APZymA
There are a few tracks like that on his first self-titled album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=908Gesl6N5Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRUT1xgzMi4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYbjen1P1nk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ejsBXP0iB0&feature=related
And this one from some EP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjcbUA2Qt2s&feature=related

I also like Synkro very much, I don't know much about that producer, but most of his stuff is pretty and wonderfully atmospheric:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iHJgP4Xj4I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jod2J5lBRQM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbTYzZy04Hg&feature=fvwrel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWFyzEhAiFI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGQ5Iy6UE9o&feature=related

That's it so far, can recommend even more if you want^^

Just heard of the term dubstep a few days ago so.....what is it????? sounds like some sort of techno trance hardcore trash

Written by arwestromen on 13.12.2011 at 12:36
Just heard of the term dubstep a few days ago so.....what is it?

I'm glad you fuckin' asked! WUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUB
Legit explanation:

Written by Troy Killjoy on 24.11.2011 at 09:36

Written by Troy Killjoy on 13.12.2011 at 21:20

Written by arwestromen on 13.12.2011 at 12:36
Just heard of the term dubstep a few days ago so.....what is it?

I'm glad you fuckin' asked! WUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUB
Legit explanation:

Written by Troy Killjoy on 24.11.2011 at 09:36

Thats sad disturbing and funny at the same time

I made a flow chart about my dubstep experience.





I listen> I hate> I go back to Dying fetus.

Written by Uldreth on 03.12.2011 at 12:07

Why am I saying this? Because, as I see it, the same thing is happening to dubstep. It started out without the characteristics of the modern washmachine sound of wubwubwub, however the two 'types' do have some common ground, like similiar bpm, similiar percussion, presence of bass drops in a dubstep fashion and some of the basslines are pretty similiar too.
The 'look & feel' of the music is totally different though. Distance, Burial, DMZ, early Skream etc. do not even sound similiar to the current trends in dubstep.
One of the most obvious changes is the emphasis on higher registers. Early dubstep was very sub-bass heavy with often very subtle or minimalistic synth lines above the bass (and indeed, early dubstep often has a quite grim atmosphere with a rather 'empty' and dark sound and a psychedelic vibe) and the mainstream brostep focusing mostly on washmachine sounds way above the bass (I don't mind noise music at all, my main problem with this, is the same with melodic metalcore, that lot of the bands/producers just sound all the same. (with that said I do like metalcore. Brostep - less, but there are some ok producers)) and they put the same oscillation effect on their bass with the same predictable drops.

This is yet another similiarity to metalcore, namely when compared to breakdowns. Some of the mainstream and bad metalcore bands focus way too much on breakdowns and it becomes predictable and adds nothing to the music, whereas they are fine if they actually complement the music. Modern dubstep is often all about the drops because it is heavy and I guess dance-able.

Thanks for that summary. Especially this part is what confuses me. When I've been introduced to dubstep it was Burial, Skream and Distance, bands that still were rooted in the 2step movement I've been into when I was younger. Later Mt Eden came along and slapped the Skream approach on The Prodigy and other samples, which, I have to admit, sounded awesome to my ears. And you could still tell dubstep and DnB apart. And then Skrillex appeared and people couldn't agree how to classify him. At first people were like "60% electro house, 30% dubstep, 10% glitch", which they called "complextro". Complextro didn't stick, so they just called him dubstep instead. And nowadays anything that sounds like wubwubwubwubwub is called dubstep with some fanbois even calling Skrillex the inventor of "tr00 dubstep". As you pointed out, we can still use the term metallic hardcore to describe Hatebreed, Earth Crisis, Integrity and the likes, but how do we differentiate between classic and modern dubstep? And are there still new artists that perform original dubstep?

Oh yeah, and rule 34 v2.0: if it exists, there is dubstep of it.

Written by Promonex on 06.01.2012 at 02:08


Thanks for that summary. Especially this part is what confuses me. When I've been introduced to dubstep it was Burial, Skream and Distance, bands that still were rooted in the 2step movement I've been into when I was younger. Later Mt Eden came along and slapped the Skream approach on The Prodigy and other samples, which, I have to admit, sounded awesome to my ears.

Well some of them is pretty good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQb99K6dI1k
This for example. It really is just how this genre became so saturated and plastic, but the actual style CAN be decent.

Quote:
And then Skrillex appeared and people couldn't agree how to classify him. At first people were like "60% electro house, 30% dubstep, 10% glitch", which they called "complextro". Complextro didn't stick, so they just called him dubstep instead. And nowadays anything that sounds like wubwubwubwubwub is called dubstep with some fanbois even calling Skrillex the inventor of "tr00 dubstep".

I don't even know why some people call him dubstep. He has a few dubstep-esque tracks but most of his materials use a four to the floor type beat as I remember and as a great general if one uses mostly that beat, it isn't dubstep since dubstep uses a much less "regular" beat (maybe even polyrhythmic I am not sure of that). I'd say he is a kind of electro house with a heavier bass really.

Quote:
As you pointed out, we can still use the term metallic hardcore to describe Hatebreed, Earth Crisis, Integrity and the likes, but how do we differentiate between classic and modern dubstep? And are there still new artists that perform original dubstep?

I call the new version brostep, quite often

As for your last question, I am not so sure. Finding artists is not so easy in this genre since most producers don't have large or consistent discographies. If I remember well, Synkro is a relatively newer one I think I posted a list of some of his tracks in an earlier response of mine in this thread.