DJ Flack and I often reminisce about the era when 2-step garage was pop music in the U.K., and though many of the big hits there were on the R&B side of the fence, our faves were the ragga and dub influenced tracks like the ones on the 2001 compilation Garage Dubs — an obvious precursor to what would become dubstep.
As dubstep evolved it went deep and dark into atmospheric, minimalist territory that’s interesting as listening music, but can be challenging to booties on the dance-floor. More recently it seems that the reggae/dub influence in dubstep is coming back strong, most notably on many of Skream‘s tracks like Blue Eyez:
As it turns out, Flack’s been in the Beat Research labs cooking up some of his own dub(2-)step and he’s been so generous as to share his brand new track That Sound:
Mashit Exclusive Download
DJ Flack; That Sound
[audio:uggc://znfuvg.pbz/nhqvb/Gung%20Fbhaq.zc3]
“can be challenging to booties on the dance-floor”
Really? Not down here in OZ. Sydney’s regular Dubtep night, VOID has been jam packed the last couple of months. [Big ups Flack for coming to Sydney BTW!]
Warrt, Sydney but no Melbourne eeek. Oh well, Flack is on fine form none the less
Glad to hear dubstep is alive and well in Sidney. It is here in Chicago too. The monthly Bass Goes Boom night is usually packed out with enthusiastic dancing fans. One of the great things about the dubstep scene is that there’s a core following who are all about it no matter what.
Some booties can sway to even the most ploddingly slow and minimal beat but I’m thinking outside the box of the core dubstep contingent. When a music becomes too introverted and high on itself it can become overly intellectualized/structured/controlled and lose it’s exciting edge (see drum&bass). Thankfully that doesn’t seem to be happening in dubstep. For a while it was becoming more and more formulaic (minimal/atmospheric/plodding beat), but now it seems to be busting out in all directions, including the more dancey, less shoe-gazer one. I’m hearing elements of soca, house, reggae and other fun rhythms coming back in and it’s good.
Hey Ya’ll thanks for the comments – yeah that VOID night was sick! – that was one of my favorite shows ever – great open minded crowd who really knew how to get down. A slammin sound system never hurts either. I’ve heard that Melbourne is the sh*t – hope to make it there next time. I am also glad that the DubStep scene in general has shown that it can embrace different vibes from harsh minimalism to the fun bouncy garage beats that were its predecessor.