Brand New MIA vs Rusko. Again!

Despite a horrible piece of misleading advertising - "make sure you get here at 10 so you don't miss out", even though Rusko wasn't playing til 2am?! - Rusko was excellent last night, playing new tracks from his forthcoming OMG LP along with a few other tasty surprises.

One of these surprises, which was a genuine one, was the playing of a BRAND NEW MIA TRACK. Rusko announced that this had never been played before last night, AbandonSilence recorded it on our communal mobile phone and it's now on YouTube...

The track is untitled, and the video isn't the best quality, but from what we can remember the track had a tribal feel and was incredibly bassy.

Sounded good to us, see for yourself here...

Me Nan Loves... Rusko

Apologies to all involved... AbandonSilence today received it's first DMCA for copyright breach :s Oh deary me! Well, offending materials have been removed, it was on an old post anyway - I'm not allowed to say what individual post the material was on, but you can probably work out what's missing.

Anywho.. today! Well, rather unfortunately for me, after the messiness of last night's horribly generic student night, I have further pressing matters this fair evening - Rusko is heading to Liverpool! The man is playing at the Liverpool Barfly, and we will be there.

However, the gig is pay-in only, rather oddly, so we have to get there early-doors to guarantee entry. Bit frustrating.

So, to celebrate this fine evening of dirty DJing and ugly beats, I will give you some fresh Rusko, alongisde a classic remix. The Jahova VIP first came to our notice on Caspa's Essential Mix, but we've heard it alot since then, classic.

Rusko - Jahova VIP

The Prodigy Remix is the biggest signifier of what Rusko live gig is like, you can almost hear the destruction occuring while the bass flies every which way possible.

Prodigy - Take Me to the Hospital (Rusko Remix)

Finally, a rare remix of an Attacca (don't know?) track. This is an interesting track as it is the most recent, and is also in a more electro direction, which Rusko has spoke about as an influence upon his forthcoming LP. Also, it's a tune!

Attacca - Make it Funk for Me (Rusko Remix)

Stenchman vs Outkast

After Stenchman's mutilation of the Liverpool Barfly, I feel like sharing huge tune of his with you good people.

His set was pretty safe, including classics from Doctor P and Bassline Smith to name a few, but still did enough on a d'n'b orientated night to take the prize for me! Also, with a mask like that (picture) he did enough to linger long in the memory.

Firstly we have his remix of Outkast's Bombs Over Baghad. The original was voted Pitchfork's track of the last decade, and by adding a dubstep beat along with a few devilish drops, Stenchman has recreated a new perverted classic

Outkast - B.O.B (Stenchman Remix)

As a bonus, we have Killabitt's latest remix. The Toronto-based producer has been creating some ridiculous remixes for months now, and I'm sure this was dropped on Saturday night. This horribly wobbly track is a remix of a Louis La Roche track and has some great drops intervened with cries of 'MALFUNCTION'. Please check this out if you like the dirty stuff...

Louis La Roche - Malfunction (Killabitts Remix)

The XX vs Untold

The XX's debut album was, on par with Animal Collective and The Horrors, my favourite LP of 2009. As their name and reputation continues to grow they release a new single, Islands, with an EP solely containing remixes.

The remixers on duty are Untold, Blue Nile, Nosaj Thing, FaltyDL and Delorean.

The Nosaj Thing remix surfaced a few months ago, so is not really newsworthy. However, to AbandonSilence's knowledge, the other four are new and fresh.

In our considerable opinion, Untold's remix exceeds any of the others. The remix is similar to Untold's most popular original production, Stop What You're Doing. The thumping drum beat leads into a cascading bass wobble that leads into the playful male v female vocal battle.

The remix is brilliant, and we thoroughly recommend that you get the whole EP from your local shop or of course the usual internet suspects.

The XX - Islands (Untold Remix)

Chibuku feat Zinc

After the last two Saturday's sell-out shows Chibuku returns to the Liverpool Barfly this weekend with another stellar cast to bring in another messy evening of unregulated debauchery.

Zinc will be bringing his Crack House to Liverpool for the first time, alongside Radio One's Annie Mac in the Theatre, whilst up in The Loft we can find some of the most exciting names in dubstep and drum and bass. Stenchman will be making his Chibuku debut, bringing some well needed filth to proceedings - he will be followed by the mainstream d'n'b heavyweights Sub Focus and the ever present Friction.

It will be an absolute beeeast of a night, I hope you all get down there. If not, I hope you find yourself a cheeky session to attend near you.

For a break from the dubstep love in this blog has become, I will give you a couple of tracks from Zinc. He has attempted to create a genre single-handedly, titled Crack House, with some incredible creations. The music is similar to the bassline movement in the Midlands. However whereas bassline is utter shit (cannot express how bad it really is. Take my word for it. It really is) Zinc uses innovative synths and drum patterns to create tracks that a dubstep-head like myself can enjoy alongside your typical David Guetta fans. It really is some great music.

Wile Out is the most well known song, featuring Ms Dynamite(ee-hee) on the vocals. The track begins with Dynamite's vocals, and sounds very similar to Zinc's previous work on dubstep (after his d'n'b phase, before Crack House) before dropping into some brilliantly light choral vocals and synths.

As a bonus I will also give you a link to find an RAR of the Killa Sound EP, which incidentally was the original pressing that Zinc used as a carrion call for his genre.

Zinc - Wile Out ft. Ms Dynamite

Zinc - Killa Sound

FabricLive 50: D:Bridge & Instra:Mental

After a nice day shopping in Manchester I popped into HMV as I was heading back to my car, I am so glad I did! As per, I headed to the 'Dance' section and sorted through the shitheap of old Tiesto, David Guetta and Paul Okenfold records to find some decent original pressings. Unfortunately there weren't any new albums to my taste so I plundered upon D:Bridge and Instra:Mental's FabricLive mix.

The tracklist was intriguing, I only knew a handful of the 31 individual tracks fused together within the steel casing, so I gave it a go.

The CD is the 50th in the FabricLive series, and as with number 37 - Caspa & Rusko - Fabric find themselves on the cutting edge of dubstep. Like Caspa & Rusko's CD two years earlier, the mix is defying another genre of dubstep.

The less accessible genre of two-step, dubstep and chilled fusions has slowly eased itself into the musical consciousness. From Joy Orbison to Scuba to Instra:Mental we have seen swarms of similar artists propping up across the board. There are many different theories as to why this has happened, I would speculate the success of the Four Tet/Burial collaboration last year, Moth, that showed that two step and dubstep can be aligned (with a side order of quality production values) to create some beautiful music.

The CD is available from iTunes, Beatport and all the usual suspects. I thoroughly encourage you to check it out. We will offer you Instra:Mental's 'Watching You' as a treat, this track is a stand out from the CD and will hopefully go towards persuading you to part with your hard earned cash for this brilliant mixtape.

Instra:Mental - Watching You

Comment!

This post is in response to 'Hawaii Dan' who commented on the Chilled Mix post asking for an individual mp3.

AbandonSilence are trying to boost this interactive style, where the viewer asks for the music. We like that, it also makes our job a lot easier.

The track 'Hawaii Dan' asked for was 12th Planet's remix of Portishead's Hunter. The track comes from Portishead's 2008 album, Third. The original is a quality track in it's own right, and 12th Planet's remix vamps it up into an eerie dubstep song.

The track, as previously mentioned, was in AbandonSilence's Chilled Mix, so as you could guess, it's not a banger. However, it is beautiful and epic, with a very dark undertone.

I recommend you take this from us, and be assertive! Tell us what you want

Portishead - Hunter (12th Planet Remix)

Introducing: Naiive Dubstarz

As a tasty addition to the previous Avatar baiting post, AbandonSilence is proud to introduce you to Naiive Dubstarz.

The crew come from Manchester in the North West of England. Their Facebook page claims that their, "Subs will soon destroy us all." Definitely a good statement of intent I'm sure you'll agree. We have two tracks from the crew to discuss and share with you.

The first track is titled, "Root", and comes from KillahurtZ. The track itself is similar to the works of jump up producers like Flux Pavilion, Doctor P and Cookie Monsta.

A revolving bassline hits you within seconds, and the track builds and climaxes around this simple repeated bassline. Flames of purple style synths greet the listener at interludes and inaudible vocals are introduced at seemingly random moments.

This controlled chaos is an excellent mix, and comes together to create a well crafted track. KillaHurtz is most certainly one for the future.

KillaHurtz - Root

We also have a track titled, "PornDub", by another Naiive Dubstarz producer, NVision. The track uses, ahem, porn noises to compliment it's own dubstep beat. The combination is an interesting blend, and certainly grows with every listen. It is really an intriguing listen, give it a go...

PornDub - NVision

Check out Naiive Dubstarz at their Facebook page.

Avatahontas. With added Benga

I am one of the millions of people that have seen Avatar, and like most of them thought it was the best thing to ever happen to cinema (Im of that generation)..... First time.

Then you have the mandatory second viewing when you realise that it really isn't that good. Don't get me wrong the effects are mind blowing, and I was one of the countless Avatar preachers. However, as AbandonSilence's very attentive and beautiful girlfriend pointed out, it's a mish mash of several stories, not least Pocahontas (see above).

To say that Avatar is better than The Hurt Locker, District 9, In the Loop (why no Oscar nod?), Up, or indeed Up In The Air is beyond me. I hope the Oscar panel reads this above image and makes the correct choice. (For us, it's got to be Hurt Locker or Up, though to say the Oscars didn't give it to WallE a few years back, there's no chance of an animated film winning.)

Anyways, back to the music. This Benga behemoth came across my path nearly three months ago. It has languished in the bargain basement of my iTunes, until suddenly earlier today it emerged via shuffle to drag itself straight onto this post. The track has a heavy rock riff repeated throughout, that supplemented by the mandatory heavy dubstep bassline creates an epic song.

Benga - Rockstar

Rusko is Coming

Two weeks today, the city of Liverpool will be graced by the presence of one hell of a dirty man. No not Gary Glitter, Rusko! In support of his horrifically titled debut album, OMG, Rusko is playing at the Liverpool Barfly on the 25th February. Support will come from local DJs Rich Furness and Eat Your Greens' Jonas.

Today we link you to the download of an interview Rusko did with Diplo, head of his label Mad Decent, to chat about his future plans, the album and other interesting things like his influences.

Its a very good listen for anyone wondering how to get into DJing and just how one of the UK's best DJs got to where he is.

Rusko - Mad Decent Podcast 45

AbandonSilence Feb '10 mix

Another month, another chilled mix!

After the undoubted success of last month's mix, which we can reveal has been the most visited individual post of all, we return with February's Chilled Mix.

Granted, a few of these tracks come from 2009, but we have attempted to include new material, and hopefully some gems that you don't already know. By the way if anyone wants mp3s of individual tracks, PLEASE COMMENT at the bottom of the post. Thanks.

So, to the mix. The tracks included are some nice chilled tunes for you to kick back and relax to. There's new Joy Orbison, new Floating Points and a fresh cut of Pangaea's recent EP. Also The XXs remix of Florence, a rare Portishead remix and some very old school Rusko production. AbandonSilence cannot stress enough the importance of getting this mix in your life, and to track down every individual track.

AbandonSilence - February Chilled Mix

Tracklist (Under Lyrics if using iTunes)

Burial & Four Tet - Moth (AbandonSilence Refix)

Florence & The Machine - You've Got The Love (The XX Remix)

Portishead - The Hunter (12th Planet Remix)

16Bit - SkyLine

Untold - Stop What You're Doing (James Blake Remix)

Joy Orbison - So Derobe

Floating Points - J & W

Rusko - Love is Real

Pangaea - Why

Goldie - Inner City Life (Sbtrkt Edit)

Chibuku 6th Feb

Another week, another night. Chibuku this time down at the good old Liverpool Barfly. Crookers are playing, but AbandonSilence is more interested in The Others and Emalkay playing at the same time in a different room.... AND.... They're followed by the Original Nuttah, Shy FX! Sounds like a good night to us.

Hope as many of you viewers as possible will be going, or if not going to a similar night tonight. Let's get on it.

Flying Lotus vs Lil Wayne

The don of glitch and instrumental hip hop, Flying Lotus, has returned with a new remix of Lil Wayne's track 'I Feel Like Dying'. The track comes from Weezy's new album, the long gestated 'Rebirth', his rock-rap album. The album has been lambasted universally in every review I have read of it, but this remix can restore some of my faith in the man. Well, we can at least pretend that this is an original cut.

The track is very different to the original, with glitchy steps following by drawn out bass that adds layers and depth to Wayne's rap, which is restricted here to just a few bars. The track is brilliant and I really beg you, if you like this, which you will, to check out Flying Lotus' back catalogue, he is peerless in his field.

Lil Wayne - I Feel Like Dying (Flying Lotus Remix)

One to Watch: Tinie Tempah

Today AbandonSilence gives you the newest and best bright star rising in Urban music. Tinie Tempah may be a name familiar to many of you, and I know I am slow on the uptake. To be perfectly honest, I had the indignity of finding out him by hearing him on Sarah Cox's Radio One show. Shameful.

Despite this rather odd introduction to Tinie Tempah, I was blown away by the track on first listen, and straight away summoned the Gods of Blogosphere to get me this track. The single itself is being officially released on March 1st in the UK.

The song isn't anything that new, though the fact that this single is being primed for the mainstream is very interesting. The production sounds like Rustie, Raffertie or Joker could've created it, and the final climax sounds like a track coming from Shy FX or Friction. The mish mash of dubstep, glitch, rap, pop and grime is a hell of a lot for one song to handle, and it certainly copes.

The pounding bassline smashes in early on, the low end nearly broke my monitors when I heard it, with Zomby style skittly synths accompanying the rap. The rap isn't that great to be honest, just plain grime vocals; but when joined with this track, it is exhilarating.

AbandonSilence will make a bold claim and at least guarantee a Top 10 position for this track in the UK Charts, and would be suprised if it doesn't reach number One.

With the UK mainstream's current obsession with just (horribly) shit artists like nDubz and 3Oh3 ruining any music lover's faith in the British Public, this will make a welcome change - some actual quality in the charts for a change?!

Tinie Tempah - Pass Out

Four Tet: There is Love in You

2009 was an interesting year for London based producer Four Tet, aka Kieran Hebden; from his obsession with remixing Madlib tracks to his (fantastic) collaboration with dubstep producer Burial. Now at the beginning of a new decade, we are greeted with Four Tet's first LP of original work in five years.

Four Tet has progressively driven electronic musics lighter side away from the cliched 'chill out' furore that sprung from 90s success stories like Portishead. That scene lead to the illumination of such bore-tronica like Zero 7. In this LP, titled 'There is Love in You', Four Tet moves up and away from this image, by drawing influence from other artists that he has collaborated with and remixed.

The most obvious influence upon 'There is Love in You' appear to be that of his collaborator, Burial, and his remixer, Joy Orbison, their restrained strands of dubstep have markings across the LP. Urban disillusion and sparse landscapes are Burial's calling cards, and within this LP there are signs that Four Tet has drawn upon these points and attempted to recreate them on his own original work.

The best track on the LP is (in my opinion) undoubtedly Love Cry, which is an epic nine minutes long. However, the time flies by. We are greeted by the trademark turning cymbals and fervently individual bleeps and synths. The track crescendos several minutes in with a devilishly subtle acid bassline that is extremely easy to miss without the bass on your stereo pumped up.

Around five minutes into the track, when the bassline does enter, the feel of the whole track is altered. The listener is suddenly transported to an echoey dark place where the female vocals take on a whole new personality. This switch in mood and ambience are quite large, but the length of time taken to fully complete the ‘switch over’ is so long that the listener has enough time to adapt without being surprised

Another track, Angel Echoes, is also subtly brilliant. from the chopped vocals to the simplistic drum roll that leads the track towards it's beautiful climax involving, of all things, a xylophone riff. It recalls Bloc Party's Biko, not just for the use of xylophone, but the sparseness involved in combining simple instruments and a repeated vocals to great effect.

There is Love In You was released this past Monday and I recommend any readers to go out and buy the album. For now I will just give you 'Love Cry', though if you like what you hear, please get it, it is brilliant.

Four Tet - Love Cry

AbandonSilence Fan Page

Hey there!

As AbandonSilence creeps it's way into a few too few many people's conscious, we have created a fun filled Facebook page. This includes exciting messageboards and regular updates as to the goings on at AbandonSilence HQ.

Join the debate at AbandonSilence Fan Page

EXCLUSIVE free mp3

The second post of the day is a brief artist profile and exclusive mp3 from producer Secondguess. Real name Graeme Thomson, SecondGuess is a music student from Southport, England, and today exclusively released his latest production, Tic Tac Ten Bag, to AbandonSilence. A name full of Northern English slang, the track is probably the opposite of what you would expect.

Created at his home studio, Graeme Thomson said that this track was created in a “spate of creativity”. The track does seem half finished but I am sure that as it is currently only held on his MySpace page it will be developed.

So, the track itself. The instrumental track is just over three minutes long, though it does feel like it is longer. The basis of the song is a rising beat/piano combination that are continuously chopping and changing throughout to add effect and build crescendos.

In honesty, this song sounds like a beat to be given to an MC. The track does pass by without much happening, though, it’s sparse beats would work brilliantly with Madlib or Doom over it. That is a compliment, this is hopefully a sign of things to come.

I recommend that you take this free mp3, and also check Graeme Thomson's full time band, WeWereAllMadeInChina at myspace.com/wewereallmadeinchina

SecondGuess - Tic Tac Ten Bag

Jakwob 30 Minute Mix

Jakwob is a name that has mysteriously appeared in the dubstep world, and through a hard graft of multiple remixes of relatively well known artists, he has built a repertoire and a fanbase.

However, very little is actually known about this guy. As per, he is a Londoner, but not much else is known. Last week on Mistajam (prick) 's BBC Radio 1Xtra show, he showcased a 30 minute mix. The tracklist is very interesting, including some original works, some of his remixes and some hip hop.

In 30 minutes Jakwob crams in Ellie Goulding, Jurassic 5, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dead Prez and Skream, just to name a few. This is a mean set list, and is a brilliant showcase for Mr Jakwob's style and tastes.

Check it out for free at Mistajam's BBC site.