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.

On Saturday, we’ll be in an art show, for those of you that’ll be in Philly this weekend. I mean, $1 beer? You might as well take a Chinatown bus down, it’d probably be a cheaper night out. In addition to dozens of artists - including the man responsible for Downbeat Treaty’s cover - there will also be a number of performers and DJs.

We got a couple tracks for you for the Seclusiasis dudes that will be there. First, Dev79 hit us off with an MPFree of his new Raffertie remix. And we got the stream of a nasty Ghost joint that we can’t wait to see a certain rapper bless.

Raffertie, “Antisocial (Dev79 RMX)”

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Ghost, “Danger”

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The Powerstrip Circus Mixtape just dropped and you can now cop a free download. The Powerstrip launch party will light it up on June 4 at Greenpoint’s Coco 66. You can also find more Culture System posts over at the Powerstrip blog, since we contribute there frequently.

1 - Body Language, “Work This City”
2 - Skizofonics, “Breakfree”
3 - Robot Koch, “Killa (Robot Koch vs Addiquit)”
4 - MIA, “Bucky Dun Gun (Slouch Bootleg)”
5 - The Great Mundane, “Unicorns Have Feelings Too”
6 - Pursuit Grooves, “Nasty Gurl”
7 - Caural, “Sugar Cane Girlfriend”
8 - Tom Phonic, “Skizzer”
9 - Ki En Ra, “Golden Child”
10 - KRTS, “Doran Penny Roller”
11 - Melo-X, “Google Alerts (Nite n’ Day Melo-Eclipse)”
12 - City Rain, “This I will Remember (Aligning Minds and Mussck RMX)”
13 - Hand in Hand, “Island Eyes”
14 - Outlets (Inlets + He Can Jog), “Airplanes”

Friday is a special one in New York for all y’all bassheads fiendin’ for your fix.

Love lights it up with FIRE DRILL, featuring CS familam Slouch alongside Dore and Nebulla from Code of Arms.

Then across town, Le Poisson Rouge cooks it up with Sub City Sessions, featuring Glitch Mob and Sub Swara.

Over the East River in Brooklyn, the night keeps going.

Glasslands reups on the Dutty Artz tip with another New York Tropical, featuring Matt Shadetek, Uproot Andy and Geko Jones.

Not far away, Jungle Space is cracklin’ with Derty Derty Boom Box, featuring 77 Klash, Todo Santos, and Comerade.

Subscribe to the calendar to keep updated on your bass needs.

Quick post for y’all. Video of Boosted at Love from January. Videos from the club are usually terrible, but this isn’t bad. And it offers a good look at what goes on behind the boards there. 6blocc, Enkryption Projekt, Nebulla, Dore, Bisc 1, and Human (maybe).

This joint came out in ‘07, but Mars is mastering a full length as we speak, so we can expect more freshness soon come. In the past, he’s blessed wax with toasters on the scene like Dutty Artz’s Jahdan and Dub War’s Juakali. (Peep the Jahdan song, called “Above & Beyond Dem,” on SoundCloud.) Like so many other New York dubstep producers, black’s got a background in drum and bass, but he got his start in a hardcore band in upstate. Most recently, though, he remixed a song called “Master” by indie rock band The Press, and turned it into a tragic cliffhanger of a cut. (Record Label posted up the MP3 for free download.)

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Turbulence “Notorious,” (Nate Mars RMX)

Mars gwan a spin at the after party for the single’s 7″ release this Friday in Brooklyn at East River Bar. Peep the handy-dandy Culture System calendar post for more on that. (For all y’all that subscribed to the calendar’s RSS feed from the original post about it, this is the correct link for that. Sorry.)

His overall dubstep style is similar to Dub Gabriel, although less obsessive in its sound design with more of in an interest in composition. That may be due to his interest in live instruments, which he uses in his production. “I never stopped playing instruments to make electronic music, I still practice all the time,” He told The DJ List. “I’m trying to break the preconceived notion that instruments and circuits can not be integrated together successfully as one sound. I want to bridge the gap by flipping the crossfader on people’s brains and allowing them to see that all mediums of artistic expression should be embraced since it is the message that is really important.”

Aztec Calendar

We’re happy to announce a new feature on Culture System: The events calendar. You can subscribe to the feed here [fixed], or when you visit the blog just check the sidebar. You can scroll through by month and hover over the days that have events to see what’s going on, or you can look below the calendar for a list of upcoming events.

The new calendar is another step towards Culture System’s mission of being a portal, in addition to a publication. In the sidebar, you can also find links to other New York event listings, digital music stores, search engines for DRM-free MP3s, music glossaries, a gang of other New York music blogs, and more.

In Brazil, there are a number of rural communities called quilombos which were founded by escaped slaves or started on abandoned plantations. A new documentary called Quilombo Country, narrated by Chuck D, covers these communities in their contemporary state. The film is showing through Thu, Jan. 25, at Two Boots Pioneer Theater in the East Village, and again on Fri., Feb 6, at the Taller Latino Americano theater in Harlem.

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Proper Villains, Here Comes the Neighborhood Mix, (Tracklist after the jump)

What can we say about this, other than it’s a heavy bass mix from a New York DJ collective?

The mix starts off a bit random but its all connected by fat, dirty synths, sawtooth bass, and the wobbles. Next, it moves on to solid bassline territory then flirts with dubstep for a bit. Finally, the ’90s come hard for the last 10 minutes, starting with Proper Villains‘ song “Vampy,” which is available exclusively on this here mix [Fixed]. The mix isn’t very evil, though.

Catch Jon [S], one of the crew, at the Bowery Poetry Club on Jan. 25. Also, you can pick up their new album, Nightshifters Classics vol. 3.

Proper Villains, “Piggly Wiggly,” Nightshifters Classics vol. 3

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"Remaking the Night Sky," Graphite on paper. By Michael Schall. Show up now at Pierogi Brooklyn.

Long melodies written with sub-bass are generally the province of the bassline circuit. In a genre like this, where less attention is paid to sound design, that makes sense. It deals with a smaller sound palette and makes up for it with melody, similar to electro. But even in bassline, creating comprehensible melodies is an achievement, because wobbly sub-bass is such an unintuitive sound.

With a piano, for example, the notes are laid out in order; one related, subtlety different note after another. But wonky bass has such a wide variety of textures, pitches and speeds that putting them all together seems like it would be a daunting task. Even when successful on this front, however, bassline can leave more to be desired, since it has a tendency to lack depth of mood and tempo.

But now, such melodies in dubstep have begun showing up on on Culture System’s radar.

The most prominent label to push the sound is the young Sludge Records, situated in Brighton. Sludge was (presumably) birthed from Ed Solo’s "Sludge" dub from last year. Solo, who unsurprisingly is very comfortable with bassline, released this song which marked a distinct departure from the rest of his eclectic sound. Then recently, he released the "Age of Dub" on the new Sludge imprint and killed it. Next, Crissy Criss dropped "Don’t Mess About," arguably burning Solo.

Although it is hardly recognized at the moment, New York dubstep will not to be left out of this shift, thanks to DJ Dore. A couple weeks ago, Dore dropped "Dark Ecology (dubstep remix)," and it deserves a place alongside Sludge at all dance music distributors. Also notable among Dore’s portfolio are "Hidden Dub" and "Snowcone." Although loopier and simpler in composition, "Hidden" is a good listen. "Snow" also has a tendency to get loopy, but builds into an expansiveness of melody (albeit less rhythmic) that surpasses the aforementioned dubs, Sludge included. All these songs are on his MySpace page.

You can catch Dore, and the rest of the Code of Arms recruits at Synctank at Bar on A this Saturday, January 10th. The event, which we covered last time around, will again be hosted by Slouch. He released a new EP with The Great Mundane, which is available for free download at Mundane’s Web site. (It’s well worth your time.)

But they’ve got their competition cut out for them. London’s murderous Zomby will be performing has cancelled his appearance at Trouble & Bass’s show at Studio B the same night.