Rolling Dance Partisans 2012

Hospital Records nights round my way get more ppl in than any other dance events I can think of

This is the thing, because round my way I hear of a lot of d'n'b (and garage) nights, and they seem ever-popular, but it's not something I read about much on RDP or on the "trendier" part of the web.

Been feeling these mixes today...

MikeQ Fact Mix #318
http://www.factmag.com/2012/02/27/fact-mix-318-mikeq/

Gremino Showcase Mix for Blackdown
http://blackdownsoundboy.blogspot.com/2012/02/gremino-showcase-mix.html

Champion Xlr8r Mix #236
http://www.xlr8r.com/podcast/2012/02/champion

Some tracks...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO-I_Et15dI

http://soundcloud.com/brey/brey-brasil-ep-sampler

Thats not related to the d'n'b Q mind, I really have no idea whats going on over that way bar the odd Non Plus+ or Jack Sparrow diversion to higher tempos. Rockwell & Untold did a track last year which wasn't bad: http://soundcloud.com/critical-music/rockwell-v-untold-rekohu-sunrise

i was going to say, drum and bass still seems really popular, given that every third or fourth fabric mix is still a drum and bass mix, but i haven't heard very much interesting stuff at the traditional 160 bpm tempo aside from ROCKWELL, who basically just sounds like an update on the classic certificate 18 steel-edged roller sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeYe2hhY-5w&feature=relmfu

d&b seems to be valued as an influence or element these days, but not as a genre

― 40oz of tears (Jordan), Tuesday, February 28, 2012 9:04 AM Bookmark

Yeah, this seems about right. Of course, dnb nights are still popular, but it hasn't really been considered on the cutting edge for about 15 years now. I did like the Rockwell EP from last year. I think getting away from the Amen break and taking influence from juke was a good look for him. I'm not really familiar with his background though.

I don't go to dnb nights, is it usually an older crowd there?

last year (or maybe even longer ago) i heard some new track that was based on uptempo live breaks and had this huge synth build, it sounded really fresh. i can remember what it sounds like but don't have the slightest clue who it was. almost want to say FaltyDL but i don't think that's right.

That Objekt track is a mad one to mix yeah. Its just swung, broken and fuck'd tho. Its all on one tempo and all that. You just have to catch it right.

In other news...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pm2DK4kLH8

Coki is still insane.

http://soundcloud.com/djrashadteklife/rashad-spinn-we-trippy-mane-12

i really can't wait to hear the footwork/shangaan remixes.

This is killing me: the song featured in last week's Dusk & Blackdown Rinse mix that samples The Breakfast Club - "Well, if you say you haven't, you're a prude. If you say you have you're a slut. It's a trap. You want to but you can't, and when you do you wish you didn't, right?" Anybody? Thanks.

I'm really enjoying that Scuba album but it seems to be pandering directly to the people who claimed dubstep was really just nu-skool breaks all along, the whole thing is so late 90s I keep expecting it to come with a subscription to Jockey Slut. Very enjoyable though.

i don't dislike the scuba album (certainly not as much as some seem to) but it's like, i heard and loved better big-room electrohouse the first time round so ehhhh

It feels more 90s maximalism than big room electrohouse to me, although that was borrowing pretty heavily from 90s maximalist crossover dance in the first place.

I've only heard 'Hope', and yeah I love it. I don't really care whether it's dubstep or whatever. It does have a bit of an Underworld (not sure, someone like that?) vibe, but I don't see it as a bad thing.

I was actually popping my head in to say that Burial's 'Kindred' was quietly soundtracking my weekend and boy, I'm pretty sure it's the most affecting thing he's ever done.

Scuba album is bad. Came at it overflowing with good faith but its done nothing for me. Prog breaks were manky in 2001, i dont want a rewind. Doesnt even have the production values that made some of it bearable.

i've never been too crazy about scuba - that album cover screams disaster, though. cross-reference with:

http://www.ifmusic.co.uk/images/product_images/guycelledgeraldtoallthings.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41JX2EeGMrL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

i don't even really like his mixes that much - the ostgut ton one is too subtle and grey, the dj kicks is somehow simultaneously hectic and bland, like "de9: closer to the edit" for the dubstep set

those first tracks, like "harpoon", were sort of brilliant in the pre-"midnight request line" era but since then it's been a whole lot of meh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDwKdRK9xCQ&feature=related

^^ this is what the new scuba sounds like to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrbptoCyhq0&feature=related

^^ lol even better

i mean he's not quite there yet with the acoustic guitar and the vocalists but give him time

ha. speaking of guitar, i'm glad to see some airhead stuff is getting released: http://www.randsrecords.com/airhead/wait-south-congress

although it's kind of weird/interesting that 'wait' is being presented as a regular track rather than a yeah yeah yeahs remix?

last year (or maybe even longer ago) i heard some new track that was based on uptempo live breaks and had this huge synth build, it sounded really fresh. i can remember what it sounds like but don't have the slightest clue who it was. almost want to say FaltyDL but i don't think that's right.

btw i think this might have been egyptrixx? still can't find the track though, so who knows.

Need some more big n bassy recommendations please. Basically the only music hitting the spot for me recently is stuff like Blawan, Kromestar, Burial, that Dub Phizix & Skeptical track I put up here earlier, Mala's recent one...

Would I liek the DVA album?

The DVA album suprised me, I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it is. Some killer stuff on there. There is a stream of it going around: http://www.xlr8r.com/news/2012/03/stream-dvas-forthcoming-album if you want a listen. Loads of nice vocal tracks.

I've been playing Brey a lot

http://vimeo.com/37531768

If you want something on that Blawan tip go for the last 12" on Punch Drunk by Tessela: http://punchdrunkmusic.com/products-page/featured-products/tessela-d-jane-channel-punch-drunk-12-free-mp3/ kinda like where Blawan left off with Fram/Iddy. Man I really wanna hear more of that from Blawan.

How about some Akkord for that deep vibe: http://soundcloud.com/akkordmusik/akkord001

New LHF EP just dropped an its quality, hold tight for the album its fucking brilliant.

I seem to be the only person on earth who likes that Photek album more than his jungle tracks.

Everybody knows that Scuba started out making breaks as Spectr right? It shouldn't come as a huge surprise that he's heading back that direction, his earliest mixes were all breaks mixed with dubstep back when Distance was writing his best stuff. I don't know, I like some of the Bristol breaks crew like 30hz and Baobinga. And I miss Toastyboy. Ils had his moments too.

Wish he'd try for something like those guys if he's going to head back into big room territory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN2azh0tM6E

Specifically he should be trying to sound like this.

Actually the Scuba album mostly just sounds like the Chemical Brothers. Or more to the point it sounds like the not-very-sure-footed albums that people like Paul Woolford would make in the mid-00s that ended up sounding like the Chemical Brothers. The Scuba record is better than that though, with the exception of the dnb track.

xxpost wait does that mean he's responsible for Spectr's "Dance 4 Me"? Because that's one of my absolute favourite tunes of the year...

He should make an entire album of stuff like that.

Yeah he did that one. Shame he doesn't go in that direction more often really.

Can't get into the new album at all it just gives me bad flashbacks to progy/electro/nu-skool breakz from my youth.

On another note...

Presk has been killing it of late, looking forward to this: http://soundcloud.com/presk/4th005-a-hesitate / http://soundcloud.com/presk/4th005-b-kook

i really like the single ("eye know") off the DVA record, is it all that r&b-ish?

(can't listen to the stream at work)

moratorium on tweaked vocal samples please

that was re: "dance 4 me"

i always wondered what shed was on about when he publicly dissed scuba on LWE but now i think i know what he was getting at

Have you ever played at Sub:stance?

No!

You think that wouldn’t work either?

Scuba is not… I’m waiting for a offer! He’s not asking me [all laugh]. I have to talk to him. I would love to play there.

Well he recently played as SCB at Panorama Bar, and based on the recording I imagine it’s what you might sound like DJing.

I don’t like it at all. This SCB. Some dubstep guys can’t make techno music. It’s impossible. And here’s an example. It’s not very good. The same way when house producers want to make dubstep, it’s impossible.

Guess he's still waiting for that offer

listening to DVA clips, forgot i already heard and like 'madness' and 'where i belong'. digging all the triplet feels. points off for calling your 5/4 for song "the big five" though.

Scuba is not… I’m waiting for a offer! He’s not asking me [all laugh]. I have to talk to him.

i inferred from this sentence that the antipathy predated the interview, which is why everyone laughed

moratorium on tweaked vocal samples please

― the late great, Friday, March 9, 2012 6:13 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that was re: "dance 4 me"

I agree with this general principle but (a) I think the track is about 2 years old actually (lol uk funky rips being even more of an outdated move for post-dubstep types than R&B cut-ups); and (b) what it does with the vocal really reflects that, it's coming from (aping?) a slightly different tradition.

i was really disappointed with the DVA album, had always been a big fan of his stuff (and his general aesthetic) but the album didn't seem to reflect it in any compelling way. i suspect people who care about complex rhythms might like it but i got bored. if you're gonna get vocalists that's a good move but maybe think of some hooks for them to sing.

It's never just about "complex rhythms" though. The problem with the DVA album is he misunderstands this, thinks making things as contorted as possible (less rhythmically than melodically, actually) is a noble end in itself. As a result there is no real tension to the grooves.

What are you both talking about? If you actually think its particularly rhythmically or melodically complex in a detracting way, then you are listening to another record. What is great about this record is the fact that the dissonance or diff time signatures never interfere with the functionality of the tracks at all.

And Lex, there are loads of hooks in the vocals. Perhaps not the pop ones you might like, but its clearly not aiming at that, is it?

It doesn't get much vocal hookier than 'What You Do' if that's what you're after. The rest don't rely purely on a repeated chorus to be hooky. I find myself singing along to the verses of Eye Know and the Zaki track as much as the chorus. I assume that is not a crime? Of the dancefloor tracks, there is none where it's rhythmically awkward, unless you are a rusty robot, or like metronomes. I think all the vocal tracks with the dissonant synths actually work really well. Its a really poised bitter/sweet balance. But if this is your idea of 'making things as contorted as possible' then there is probably no point discussing this any further, as we are on different aesthetic planets. Half of the DVA album probably belongs in that psych r&b thread.

The Zaki track is possibly my favourite. I actually quite like several of the tracks but as an album it seems like DVA has taken his starting polemic ("pretty ugly") and become so wrapped up in it that he loses sight of how and why complexity / dissonance etc. can work - which is that they imply the sense of order and functionalism that they don't exhibit openly. The problem is not that the rhythms / melodies / etc are "too difficult", it's that they're so impressed with their deviation from the norm that they only-occasionally invest any energy in thinking about how those deviations nonetheless can hit targets (i.e. actually grooving, for one). In fact the actual uk funky rhythms on the album aren't terribly complex (though I'm not saying they're too simple - they just don't feel like the focus). The exception that proves the rule is the excellent beat on "33rd Degree".

The fact that the album sounds so much like a broken beat album (DKD being closest I think) updated with Dilla/Flying Louts/Floating Point synths just underscores this, I think; my above argument is, if anything, even more true (or more obviously so) for broken beat than for funky. I'd love if the album had a more energetic tune that was as charming as "Future Rage".

"Why You Do" may have hooks but it's incredibly slight (deliberately so, I suspect). Though its lyrics are kind of lol in the way they literalise the album's sonic and thematic concerns.

I agree that the record owes more to broken beat side of uk funky than anything else, although I do think the idea that some of the tracks "are so impressed with their deviation" is a projection on your part that I don't hear in the music at all. Its strength it seems to me is that it exactly doesn't share that "impressed with itself"-ness of broken beat. I think he hits a great balance on the songs of teasing the vocals with the synths while not detracting from them. I agree 'Why You Do' is lol, but the chorus is totally infectious, even if the music itself isn't. My least favourite tracks are the more upbeat ones that don't hit as hard as some of his singles.

hahah well of course these are "projections" on my part, it's my interpretation of the music.

I'm not pretending i've got stone tablets from mount sinai with all this written on them.

Teeth - Vibrate

http://soundcloud.com/sgnlf/teeth-vibrate

Is coming out: http://www.sonicrouter.com/2012/03/signal-life-on-the-lookout-for-some-unorthodox-shit/

Been waiting a while for that one.

^ I like that a lot

"flying louts"

i like the kick/snare conversation on those signal life tracks, but the way the vocal samples are deployed seems kinda corny? it gives me an '80s electro vibe, maybe they're going for that.

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hahah well of course these are "projections" on my part, it's my interpretation of the music.

I'm not pretending i've got stone tablets from mount sinai with all this written on them.

― Tim F, Saturday, March 10, 2012 11:11 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
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I know, what I meant was that you were projecting your own self-impressedness with your own interpretation onto to his music.