The latest Culture System mixtape seems like it would make a good soundtrack for “Lord of the Flies.” Full of driving and deep dubstep oriented tracks, it starts off with a final pleasant sunset as Warnings already creep up in the background. Immediately, it jumps into a Chase in the Woods and from there carries a quick-on-the-feet tempo amongst the darkness. Although there’s moments of rest where there’s a chance to reflect on the evil that men do, the pace constantly excels throughout the mix until the island is finally burning with the Cosmetics remix. You can listen to it over on Bass Music Blog and get the tracklist there. Out to ID for posting it! (Original cover painting by Cern YMI.)
Heinali’s diverse mix of self produced music, loosely tethered together by dubstep, is so deep it resides underground the lowest layers of the ocean. The variety of rhythms, eclectic percussive choices, and scope of instrumentation are evident in the ever changing stalagmite soundwave that floats by so swiftly. The warm basslines powering this trip ripple in the underwater river. An infusion of organic elements in the sound palette glows in the background with an otherworldliness. The second half of this mix is our favorite, but standout cuts are “Blame You”, “Spivanochka” and “Ghost of a Chance“. You can download most of this mix for free at his bandcamp page. He also composes contemporary classical music, and makes a blend of electronic and classical music called classitronic. (Photo by Ian Sewell).
A collection of mostly unreleased and new bass music from New York. From dubstep and dub to boom bap and garage. This mix is not comprehensive, it’s more of a snapshot. There’s quite a few more artists we’re really feelin’ out here.
Got a few mixes here y’all might want to check. Follow the links for tracklistings.
First up is Crooked Clef’s Mittelschmerz. We’re not sure why he named this mix after pain related to the menstrual cycle, but dude reaps a mood of havoc on this one. Rooted in dubstep, the mix evokes a mysteriously idle clear cutting operation in the rainforest, where tractors sit vacant but the sound of their action still stains the air. Rather than straying into bassline bangers or the mid range wobblery that so often draws comparisons to rock, Clef chooses to explore the sonic relations of atmospheric industrial. Most of the tracks strike a mood and ride it, but the mix rarely lingers on a song longer than two minutes, which keeps it interesting.
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Next up is a shuffle-filled dance mix by Saputotime. Dude played much of this mix at the last Turrbotax party, where he’s a resident. It’s impossible not to move to this sound. Although some of the breakdowns were a bit long and there were strained stretches of loopyness, his selection was a refreshing perspective on what makes a New York dance floor raise the roof. Download here.
Finally, we just want to make sure no one slept on Douster’s XLR8R mix. Since it’s untitled, we’ll call it Tropical Storm Douster. We’re a bit late posting it, but this is a gem. It’s a hype blend of hip hop with European club and tropical dance styles that will leave you covered in sweat like you got caught in the downpour. (Sorry, we can’t stream the mixes hosted at XLR8R.) Photo by Marcus Mumbach.
This carnival haunted house ride is a sort of Frankenstein beat, it’s mold poured from some sinister melting pot. Picture Jack-o-lanterns with slide whistles, calacas with accordions and zombie horn players. (It jumps off at about 40 seconds in.) Suckafish released this joint on the free Phantasmatica! EP with the Barcelona-based label Disboot. The label devotes itself mainly to open-minded dubstep. Ourreaders might remember them as the label that put out Cauto’s “Despertar.” Speaking of Cauto, he just dropped this crispy little mixtape over at Mr. Gasprov. (Creepy) image by Fedora, via (You)Enoch.
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Downbeat in mood and tempo, Dourbeat is centered around trip hop with a strong, narrative composition and a broad array of instrumentation. But it also features a selection of similarly themed tracks with a focus on quality rather than genre. Moving beyond its roots in instrumental hip hop, Dourbeat includes leftfield dubbiness, classical, drum n’ bass, turbo dub and other hard to categorize songs. The mix also refuses to get too dogmatic in terms of speed, mood and vocals; occasionally dipping into mid-tempo electronica, uplifting lover’s rock, and rap.
In case you haven’theardityet, Lamin flipped a new mixtape called Fatama Was Here. Overall, it paints a mood of chaos paused mid-shatter. Shrapnel glitters suspended mid air, allowing for closer reflection on root causes. The mix offers some tuff track selection, featuring the full-fledged consciousness of Blu’s verse; the rusted knife’s edginess of Dred Man-Gi; and the Portishead cool of Hyperdub’s King Midas Sound. But it also features lots of snippets and layers, he explains. “I feel as if this is two mixes in one. There are multiple narrative structures: there is the actual mix and then a sub-mix… something below the surface that rises up in between the cracks and breaks/transitions.” Fatama was named after Lamin’s aunt, who recently passed away in Sierra Leone. (Ingredients list below.) Photo by Photama’s World.
Lamin’s crew, Dutty Artz, is getting ready to drop a big gem this month with Jahdan Blakkamoore’s album. To hold you over, they recently leaked a Jahdan mix called Bazooka Shot, which you can download free as a ZIP or as one single MP3. Below are two of the tracks from that mix that we’re really feelin’. Another fresh one from Bazooka is Nate Mar’s “Rise,” but only two verses of it are featured on the mix. If you want to hear the whole joint before the album drops, Mars included it on a recent mix of his own, Whomp Wobble Whomp.
Run Riot Records is about to rush the interwebs with a new sampler called Motion Sickness, which drops August 1st. These sympathizers of the digital revolution were nice enough to lace us with a preview, and we got a couple streams from the 17 song mix for y’all. First, there’s label founder Kitimat’s nearly percussionless “AMSND.” It sounds like the soundtrack for an obsolete artificial intelligence freakshow made up of wards from a hospital for the criminally insane. Next, you’ll snap your neck from nodding your head so hard to Chip Chop’s “Launch Blank,” you might as well start headbanging. Start growing your hair long now, because you’ll lose that flat brimmed cap listening to this one. Go cop a mini-mix preview from the RRR blog (which you shouldn’t be sleepin’ on anyway). You can also grab another little people mix from Chip Chop from over there. Image of Banksy’s show at the Bristol Museum.
Kitimat — “AMSND”
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Chip Chop — “Launch Blank”
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