Reggae Styles

Dubstep = Dub - Step = Dub to Step to. Dub originates from Dub Reggae and the Dubplate phenomenon. Dubstep has retained some of the reggae genre characteristics, as well as including some artists under it's umbrella to add to the ever expanding range of styles in this one exciting genre.

When you listen (and we hope you will) to the tracks below, you may just think that they are reggae, but by religiously sticking to a 140 BPM and including some bass wobbles and general dirt, they are indeed dubstep - I ensure you there may be a more scientific definition of dubstep, but that'll do for now.

The first track comes from 6Blocc, a collective who have been on the DJ tour circuit for a few years now, they fuse dubstep and reggae in an exciting and original way. The track here is fantastic, if you don't start skanking when the drums drop at 0:40 you clearly have no soul.

6Blocc - Never Scared

The next is an absolute classic, Coki gained mainstream popularity with his collaboration with Benga titled Night, but this remains his biggest tune. The vocals recall Iration Steppas and the 90s reggae groove, but still are brought forward to the 21st Century with a deeeeep bassline. Everyone with us now, "Burnin down the alley way."

Coki - Burning

Here at AbandonSilence we've had real trouble just keeping to the rigorous Blog Rule of just 3 mp3s per post, with so many tracks begging to be included here. Just as a reminder if any of you (you should be) want any more tracks like these, just request it with a Comment below.

Anywho, the final track we have chosen is the nearest to plain dubstep as opposed to reggae out of the three downloads. Flux Pavilion have been coming out with some absolute bangers recently, and with Voscillate they took it down a few notches. However, Roksonix have hit back with this jet powered remix that it is pretty hard to not headbang to. Please enjoy!

Flux Pavilion - Voscillate (Roksonix Remix)

Anyone interested by these artists, please check out Mungos Hi Fi, Warrior Queen and Doorly's remix of a Tinny track (yes, from the Cadburys advert)

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

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.

Fortnightly Mix 01

We at AbandonSilence have decreed that due to the mass of songs we receive weekly, we need an outlet to insure that every track reaches your precious eardrums. Thus, we have devised the idea of a fortnightly mix to get every track in.

This series will run alongside current concoctions like the monthly chilled mix and normal posts. Don't worry, all it is is even more music for the masses! Enjoy the inaugral AbandonSilence fortnightly mix here.

AbandonSilence - FortnightlyMix 12 - 26 Jan '10

Tracklist (Under 'Lyrics' if uploaded to iTunes)

Numan - Light

Untold - Never Went Away

Sub Focus - This Could be Real (Joker remix)

Calvin Harris - You Used to Hold Me (Nero Remix)

Flux Pavilion - Got 2 Know

Foreign Beggars & Noisia - Contact (Excision & Datsik remix)

Skream - Listening to the Records on my Wall

These tracks may be reviewed individually in the future, if you would like to see any in particular, comment below and we'll do that for you coz were nice like that.

The Redemption of Flux Pavilion

After the downright rude lambast Flux Pavilion received in a previous post for their track 'Digital Controller', I thought I'd rush out to assure you of this producer's quality. The track in question is titled 'Got2Know'.

The track is very similar to the works of Doctor P, the jump-up Prince to Rusko's King. The sound barrier breaking high shots pummel your eardrums, whilst a lowly drum pattern takes the rest of you with it. I fully recommend anyone serious about their live dubstep to take this, it'll never be on the Pitchfork top 100 but you can guarantee you'll be hearing this out and about in the near future.

Flux Pavilion - Got 2 Know

Bonus: Flux Pavilion & Doctor P - Air Raid

Tonight's Plans

AbandonSilence is now chilling in it's cushy apartment awaiting the evenings event.

Tonight were attending Playdub in Liverpol at The Kazimier. Ive never been to this location so should be an interesting night.

Coki, nu:tone, Cotti and Irration Steppas are playing. Hoping for a good night

DO THE DISHES

After a long few days I'm back with a set of new tunes for your pleasure.

Firstly, I have a new tune from Flux Pavilion, titled 'Digital Controller'. This track is similar to Chase and Status' White Lies remix and the works of Mt Eden Dubstep. The lyrical content is piss-poor, but the music is uplifting and wobbly. The whole rap can be summed up by the line, "Up on your profile page, how many hits can you get today." I am suprised that I would give it the time of day, but the track is so happy and just plain 'nice' that I can't ignore it.

Flux Pavilion - Digital Controller

Joining Flux Pavilion in this countdown will be one of the funniest tracks I've heard in a long time. The track in question is Borgore's 'Act Like a Ho'. The track rolls around with jumping synths accompanied by a light rap by a guy to his girl, and his demands for the bedroom. Then, from nowhere, the track breaks down and it is announced, "But first.. Do The Dishes!" Seriously funny, and also followed by a ridiculously heavy breakdown, which is becoming Borgore's trademark, after tracks like 'Cry me a River' and 'Ice Cream'

Borgore - Act Like a Ho

So now I will leave this post, not for today, just for now. The final track will be Emalkay's 'Angie Got Stoned'. This track is just another feather to Emalkay's very birdlike cap. It takes things a few notches down from 'When I Look At You' and 'Heroics' to a pulsating beat with some beautiful vocals. Give it a go, maybe partake in some activities similar to what happened to 'Angie', nice.

Emalkay - Angie Got Stoned

Potent Clunge

No, this isn't a vitriolic anti-feminist post, but instead a heavily bass-riddled post. I'm sure most of you will agree that that's for the best.

This track comes from SDUK, who first came to AbandonSilence's attention after remixing Emalkay's 'When I Look at You', possibly the original track of 2009. That remix included Ibiza steam guns and added gloss and sheen to a previously dirty and grimey track.

The track at hand is indeed called 'Clunge', I presume named after the Inbetweeners joke. Though without any vocals, it could be called anything I guess.

The track begins slowly, with house style jabbing synths leading off with hard hitting drums. After around a minute the track picks up pace and begins rolling around not too disimilar to Emalkay's track.

This is the first original SDUK track that I have come across and I must say I am quite nonplussed. SDUK clearly where's his influences on his sleeve, which isn't always a bad thing, but the lack of any individuality or anything new forces me to just feel the need to shrug at this track.

However, you may love this track, and you most definitely will enjoy the Emalkay remix (find the original if you don't already have it) so take these on the house, after finding SDUK on Beatport or iTunes of course...

Emalkay - When I Look at You (SDUK Remix)

SDUK - Clunge

Th Hngvr

Just been spending my morning recovering from a rather horrific hangover, so thought I'd take it down a few notches and give you lucky people a few new tunes designed for mornings like my current one...

Sbtrkt. No, it's not a typo, though he should really tell someone that some knob's robbed all his vowels. Anyway, this producer is crafting their own unique sound using old half-step, almost garage styles (a contradiction in terms, but stay with me). Their epic 7 minute remix of Goldie's Timeless has been on repeat for me throughout this painful morning.

The indispersed chopped vocal track recalls the works of the anonymous Burial for there sparse nature, and the drumtrack is also quite similar. However, Timeless is most unashamedly old school that this could've easily come out on an old garage dubplate in the late '90s, such is it's, ahem, Timeless nature.

Keeping it at 140bpm, Sbtrkt has created something that could be played at any time. The song is strikingly beautiful yet intimidatingly dark all at the same time, the vocal track gives extra dimensions to what is a quite simple but always evolving drum track.

I must send all my gratitude to Sbtrkt for helping to soothe my hellish headache ahead of a fun-filled day of lectures followed by a spontaneously planned but nevertheless sure-to-be-great trip into Wales later tonight.

(apologies for any made up words in this post, I really do have a horrible hangover and not really in the mood for spellchecking or dictionary searching.)

Sbtrkt - Timeless Edit

Chibuku Tickets Released

Just ordered Chibuku 10th Birthday tickets.

Despite the fact that no one has been announced I am relying solely upon past experiences.

I severely recommend anyone within walking, driving or flying distance of Liverpool on March 13th to head to www.chibuku.com/shop and get your cheaper Early Bird Ticket while they're available.

MIA vs Rusko

Exciting times, as AbandonSilence is proud to share new MIA material with you. The inaugral six posts on AbandonSilence were dubstep related, and this is no different, as the unexpected producer is... Rusko!

Did you see that coming? Well we most certainly didn't.

The track itself is very different from our man Rusko's previous efforts. He really appears to have adapted to the surroundings very well. The backing track is tribal, glitchy, grimey and bassy at the same time?!

This track will apparently be appearing on MIA's forthcoming currently untitled second album, and going by this MIA may have done the unthinkable task of actually topping Kala.

MIA - There's Space for Ol Dat I See (prod by Rusko)

Artist Profile: Eskmo

As we approach a new decade, it is important to analyse which new artists and producers will be taking a stake of the limelight over the coming months and years.

Eskmo, aka Brendan Angelides, hails from San Francisco and is a glitch and dubstep producer.

Eskmo’s rise to musical peerdom has taken a very similar path to that of the UK’s most popular dubstep demon; Skream. Both have been producing for just over 10 years and have inexhaustibly spread their musical wings over many different genres and styles before both falling into dubstep.

Eskmo's most high profile releases, as with most electronic music producers, is his collection of remixes. A body of work including mixes for Radiohead, Bar9 and Gella have helped to raise Eskmo’s profile.

Though, to really see the man’s personal style, you must experience his own original works. He has released four EP’s to date, with each release garnering more and more recognition. His most recent release, the “Let Them Sing” EP, is a fantastic summation of all that is fantastic about this young producer.

On the title track, a childish keyboard intro leads skilfully via an auto-tuned vocal into a distorted rumbling tribal beat. Eskmo’s influences are instantly recognisable, you could easily see this track fitting comfortably in the surroundings of “Los Angeles” or “Butter.”

Other Eskmo tracks such as “Agnus Dei” contain ruthless Bass distortions that spitfire along the low ends until you are feeling numb. However, light and fluorescence is abundant throughout Eskmo’s output, with vocals, synths and tribal patterns used to add depth and colour to his music.

Eskmo is available at www.myspace.com/eskmo and iTunes. Below are a few tracks for your listening pleasure. AbandonSilence severely recommend that you check out this producer while he’s still fresh.

Eskmo - Let Them Sing

Eskmo - Agnus Dei

Bar 9 - Murda Sound (Bar9 remix)

Zomby vs Skream... Finally?!

Ever since hearing this back in November when I saw Skream at Chibuku I have been scouring the web for this track. Finally through the magic of a 'Free mp3s but please buy a Ringtone' website, AbandonSilence have been able to bring this to you.

The combination of Skream and Zomby is just too good to be true. I absolutely love the original track, Float, and Skream's remix track record is unrivalled in the dubstep world. Skream's remix of La Roux's 'In For The Kill' went platinum, and fully rubber-stamped dubstep in the consciousness of the UK masses.

The original track, Float, is one of the highlights of Zomby's "Where Were U in '92" LP, so the task of adding to the song through a remix certainly is a tall one. Skream, at over 6 feet, is a tall man, so few worries. He adds even more piano, even more synths, even more high hats and adds a little extra tempo. There really is so much going on, but I guess you would call it Controlled Chaos.

I know this track was first heard in 2009, but at AbandonSilence it is our track of 2010 so far.

Zomby - Float
Zomby - Float (Skreamix) .. 128kbps sorry

Joker - City Hopper 12"

Bristolian Dubstep Icon Joker returns with the release of a new double A side, City Hopper/ Output 1-2.

City Hopper is another track to go alongside Digidesign, Grimey Princess and Purple City as Joker's best work. The steppin' drum beat is complemented by a trademark synth roll that is ridiculously infectious.

Output 1-2 is the Brother of an older Joker track, Zariak. For over a minute and a half the song seems to be going no where. A simple dubstep drumbeat is complemented by playfully spontaneous synths. Then from nowhere a subtly introduced extra synth rolls in, flitting in and out of the constant heavy bass synth-drumbeat to crescendo towards a the huge climax.

The songs on here are undoubtedly top quality, there is no doubting. Joker is one young producer to keep your eyes on, with rumours of an LP in the works, AbandonSilence predicts a very bright 2010 for this man.

AbandonSilence

AbandonSilence Jan '10 mix

Hello there,

As we see the never ending 'Big Freeze' take hold of the UK, I have created AbandonSilence to share my music and views with you.

Unless you hadn't noticed, this is AbandonSilence's first ever post. To set the ball rolling I'll share with you my own personal mix.

This mix was created last week for a personal project, though I have received such positive feedback that I felt it was right to share it with you.

AbandonSilence Chilled Mix Jan '10

Tracklist
Nosaj Thing - Fog
The XX - Intro (Quix remix)
Burial - Fostercare
Joy Orbison - Wet Look
Nosaj Thing - Forever (Drake Remix)
Pariah - Under the Sheets (Ellie Goulding Remix)
Burial - U Hurt Me
Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo