Matthew Levinson

Coiled spring coiling ever tighter

Published on 02/05/07
by matt

I was a sucker for the tougher end of 2step and UK/speed garage in the ’90s. So I’ve been expecting dubstep/grime (so many things about these two sounds overlap, even if purists don’t want to recognise) to explode since I heard my first Tempa release. I think it was ‘Sholay.’ It could have been any one of a handful of white label 12″s that found their way into Sydney six or seven years ago with little to no fanfare. There’s been a lot of hype/discussion since Burial’s record crossed over last year. With Skream, and some big events in Australia, it’s changed the game for the people involved here. It’s also got old hands struggling to articulate opinions.

(I have no idea what those two guys are doing to Wiley’s beat in that video, but I can’t look away.)

Burial’s album-ness seemed to be the convincing factor for a lot of the indie kids working at taste-making mags and websites. The unfortunate other side of the coin is that the non-album producing heads get dismissed out of hand, or if they do mistakenly try their hands at the long play format, they get slated for filler.

I think this misses the point, dubstep (and grime) makes sense on 12″s and DJ mixes. It’s club music. Heavy bass sound system music. It’s much closer to techno in that respect, and like techno, there are very few great albums – it’s all about the tracks. It’s not the emotion-charged electronic music that connects when you’re tuning in on the lounge chair; it’s stripped right back, dub pressure, but with techno’s coiled spring coiling ever tighter without release.

All music has antecedents – dubstep’s might be jungle, speed garage, techno, dub, Leftfield, Techno Animal/Scorn/The Bug, Stereotyp, Massive Attack/Tricky and dancehall; grime’s might include many of dubstep’s with UK hip hop thrown in the mix – but the amalgam’s now become a whole new sound. The heaviness and pressure of it just overwhelms me at times, and the flow of some grime MCs is thrilling. And, incredibly, they keeps evolving.

This month’s issue of The Wire tackles dubstep headlong with a Derek Walmsley dubstep primer – one major difference between the step-siblings is that like techno, dubstep’s abstraction gives academic music observers so much to discuss, as distinct from grime’s literal voice. Also in the next Wire is Emmy Hennings’s first contribution, a DVD review, which I for one am looking forward to reading.

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