micapam | j.l.b

I am not serious about the title - the last thing we need is another portmanteau name for a hybrid subgenre. But it seems to me that the most compelling new moves in music are happening at the margins: between dubstep and funky - F’s releases on 7even Recordings, say, which inject funky’s percussive element to dubstep. Or the very different, yet both extremely stripped-back takes on dubstep from Ramadanman and Shackleton. At the same time there’s fruitful collisions between JA bashment and UK funky, and minimal techno-inflected dubstep from the likes of Headhunter and Blue Daisy, and 2-step is making a return (Martyn and of course Burial). Not to mention all the wonderful sounds coming out of Bristol.

The common thread running through all this is that the exciting places in music are happening in one or another musical no-man’s land - not quite one sound, not the other. Kode9’s recent set in Sydney was a brilliant and eclectic demonstration of the swirling currents in today’s underground.

I agree 100% with Blackdown’s comment earlier this month:

I think it’s probably also pretty clear from my writing, which I’ve tried to keep positive, that I really can’t stand the direction the majority of dubstep is heading in. Mid range distorted heavy metal is a total betrayal of everything we tried to build as a scene, whether the DJs/producers in question invented it themselves or cloned it off someone else. I still believe deeply in what dubstep is and can be, but if that’s it, count me out.

I guess it’s become clearer to me recently where Dusk and I stand, musically summer ‘09, and that is some kind of intersection between dubstep, grime, funky, wonk and 2step…

This intersection is where great things are brewing. Check out Untrue’s recent mix for Fact Magazine, or the “Order of the Day” mix by my Inna Riddim compadre Slice.