Benga/Skream & my love affair w/ dubstep
Benga and Skream killed it last night in SF. This was my first dubstep show, and as someone who's been a rabid fan of this music for the last few years, I have a few things to say about the experience.
-- The sound at Mighty is well, mighty... but also very echo-ey... which is particularly exacerbated by the bass-heavy nature of dubstep. Earplugs were a must of course and the mids sounded pretty washed out, but still, good enough to be enjoyable. Seeing them at RML would be fantastic, but then you'd lose the party vibe. Maybe Funktion One could do the trick?
-- Openers weren't too memorable... although, one of them did play a dubstep version of "The Percolator," which I must get my hands on.
-- I wasn't sure what to expect as for the Benga/Skream performance... I assumed they'd be DJ'ing, but didn't know with what or in what order they'd go in. They came on together at midnight and tag-teamed every other song for a good two hours with nothing but vinyl.
-- This format was excellent for the genre because they were constantly trying to out-mix and out-track-select one another. I told a friend "It's like they're having a competition!" and her response was "Why not a cooperation?"... which is definitely the right way to think about it in retrospect. They seem like best buddies up there, totally egging each other on and going crazy along with the rest of the crowd each time a new beat or baseline kicked in.
-- It's clear that they live, eat, and breathe this music... I absolutely love it when you see excitement and enthusiasm in performers and these guys definitely had it. This rubbed off onto the crowd as well. Each time a new track came into the mix (which was often), I'd see people turn to each other and go "DAYUUUUUM!"... or "WTF IS THIS?!?!". I think this is a key facet of dubstep. Sure, other genres of electronic music have these moments too, but dubstep seems especially designed for this phenomonon. Because of the rather rigid constraints that constitute a dubstep track, they have to get really creative in order to make each track memorable and to maximize the "wow" factor. One track will have the most insane baseline, the next a particularly clever use of a vocal sample, another a catchy synth line that's reminiscent of something from "War Games" or Vangelis.
-- The only annoying thing about this style of DJ'ing (and a carry-over from drum n' bass culture) are the constant rewinds.
Sure, I like a good rewind every now and then, but every other song?? It's really hard to build dancing momentum when the song you want to go apeshit for cuts out abrubtly and now you have to hear the track with it's 2 minute long intro again... although, this time without it being mixed into anything else. This is kinda cool because you get to actually hear the intro, but it does ruin the flow for dancing.
-- We split around 1:30ish while they were still going strong... I had to be up early today for a manual labor volunteer thing and didn't want to be too cracked out. Would've been great to have this show on Saturday instead!
-- As for track selection, I was worried that I'd hear a lot of songs I already knew since dubstep is still pretty small in terms of output... but boy, did these guys have some tricks up their sleeves. Check this out from a Flavorpill mail about Skream's show tonight (yeah, he's playing again, but I can't make it)...
Tonight, Skream returns to SF to rattle some more chestplates. The bwoy from Croydon has introduced elements of house, jazz, and electro to dubstep's huge bass weight and brought his sound around the world. A laundry list of releases on Tempa, Big Apple, and Soul Jazz, combined with his claimed 1,500 unreleased dubs, ensure that his set list is packed with surprises...
1500 unreleased dubs!!! I don't doubt it... I really hope the stuff he was playing sees the light of day in some form... maybe they'll be an 18 disc Skream box set in time for Christmas :)
Another thought I had during the show was how much I miss London. When I was there in '99, drum n' bass and idm were still going strong and had big followings in the clubs. You'd get to hear all this music that hadn't come out yet in the states and people would go crazy for it. Benga and Skream definitely brought that vibe with them last night! I can only imagine what seeing them on their home turf must be like.
This video is the closest thing I could find amongst a sea of badly recorded Skream/Benga live clips on YouTube... the bass practically renders any camera's microphone useless for capturing the sound...
All in all, dubstep is awesome, Benga and Skream are awesome, and Kode 9 in July will be awesome!
And one more thing... if you haven't heard Benga's full length, "Diary of an Afro-Warrior," definitely check it out! It'll be in my top 10 for 2008 for sure.
-- The sound at Mighty is well, mighty... but also very echo-ey... which is particularly exacerbated by the bass-heavy nature of dubstep. Earplugs were a must of course and the mids sounded pretty washed out, but still, good enough to be enjoyable. Seeing them at RML would be fantastic, but then you'd lose the party vibe. Maybe Funktion One could do the trick?
-- Openers weren't too memorable... although, one of them did play a dubstep version of "The Percolator," which I must get my hands on.
-- I wasn't sure what to expect as for the Benga/Skream performance... I assumed they'd be DJ'ing, but didn't know with what or in what order they'd go in. They came on together at midnight and tag-teamed every other song for a good two hours with nothing but vinyl.
-- This format was excellent for the genre because they were constantly trying to out-mix and out-track-select one another. I told a friend "It's like they're having a competition!" and her response was "Why not a cooperation?"... which is definitely the right way to think about it in retrospect. They seem like best buddies up there, totally egging each other on and going crazy along with the rest of the crowd each time a new beat or baseline kicked in.
-- It's clear that they live, eat, and breathe this music... I absolutely love it when you see excitement and enthusiasm in performers and these guys definitely had it. This rubbed off onto the crowd as well. Each time a new track came into the mix (which was often), I'd see people turn to each other and go "DAYUUUUUM!"... or "WTF IS THIS?!?!". I think this is a key facet of dubstep. Sure, other genres of electronic music have these moments too, but dubstep seems especially designed for this phenomonon. Because of the rather rigid constraints that constitute a dubstep track, they have to get really creative in order to make each track memorable and to maximize the "wow" factor. One track will have the most insane baseline, the next a particularly clever use of a vocal sample, another a catchy synth line that's reminiscent of something from "War Games" or Vangelis.
-- The only annoying thing about this style of DJ'ing (and a carry-over from drum n' bass culture) are the constant rewinds.
Sure, I like a good rewind every now and then, but every other song?? It's really hard to build dancing momentum when the song you want to go apeshit for cuts out abrubtly and now you have to hear the track with it's 2 minute long intro again... although, this time without it being mixed into anything else. This is kinda cool because you get to actually hear the intro, but it does ruin the flow for dancing.
-- We split around 1:30ish while they were still going strong... I had to be up early today for a manual labor volunteer thing and didn't want to be too cracked out. Would've been great to have this show on Saturday instead!
-- As for track selection, I was worried that I'd hear a lot of songs I already knew since dubstep is still pretty small in terms of output... but boy, did these guys have some tricks up their sleeves. Check this out from a Flavorpill mail about Skream's show tonight (yeah, he's playing again, but I can't make it)...
Tonight, Skream returns to SF to rattle some more chestplates. The bwoy from Croydon has introduced elements of house, jazz, and electro to dubstep's huge bass weight and brought his sound around the world. A laundry list of releases on Tempa, Big Apple, and Soul Jazz, combined with his claimed 1,500 unreleased dubs, ensure that his set list is packed with surprises...
1500 unreleased dubs!!! I don't doubt it... I really hope the stuff he was playing sees the light of day in some form... maybe they'll be an 18 disc Skream box set in time for Christmas :)
Another thought I had during the show was how much I miss London. When I was there in '99, drum n' bass and idm were still going strong and had big followings in the clubs. You'd get to hear all this music that hadn't come out yet in the states and people would go crazy for it. Benga and Skream definitely brought that vibe with them last night! I can only imagine what seeing them on their home turf must be like.
This video is the closest thing I could find amongst a sea of badly recorded Skream/Benga live clips on YouTube... the bass practically renders any camera's microphone useless for capturing the sound...
Click to viewAll in all, dubstep is awesome, Benga and Skream are awesome, and Kode 9 in July will be awesome!
And one more thing... if you haven't heard Benga's full length, "Diary of an Afro-Warrior," definitely check it out! It'll be in my top 10 for 2008 for sure.