The Groove Thief

Indidginus’ Sab Kuch Milega EP takes a worldly approach to bass, featuring numerous vocal styles while letting the beats fiercely drop. The South African producer/performer starts with well-crafted claps-and-drums on the future-electro of “Arab Spring” before nicely twisting into drum-and-bass; haunting strings introduce the track, but once the beat begins, “Vajradanti” is hardly predictable tabla but rather huge subcontinental vocal hook atop thick dubstep; final full-length “Timewave Zero” is fresh-off-the-spaceship intergalactic digital-dubstep. Also available for your listening pleasure are the Friction Labs remix of “Fitteh Moo” along with several potent minimixes. Much more than Bollywood-gone-bass, this is what happens when the tribes unite:

An EP mix is also available:  

Dubbhism have released a remix EP, Inky Jack’s Under the Ground (Dubbhism Deluxe), that brings a lot of perspectives to the title track.  This is fast-paced layered dub: Process Rebel gets heady with drums and vocals, Helgeland 8-Bit Squad predictably but delicately drop digital dub vibes, Speakah Productions spaces the track out a bit, Soroka slows the vocals down before unleashing the mechanizations of dubstep, but the real gem here is the free d/l Dubshot Redubb - big and heavy with a nice techno-inspired groove.  The original, off of Inky Jack’s self-titled album, is definitely well-made and a standout on the LP, but Dubbhism shows production wisdom by selecting different styles of producers to remake the track with such variety.  Plenty of Mixx Cassettes are available from the label as well, complete with awesome cover art:

Turntable Dubbers have mixed and mashed some bass brilliance, melding together a truly eclectic smorgasbord of styles and influences to produce a high-pace reggae-tinged dancefest.  There are mashup DJs, and then there are professional audiophiles, like DJ Z-Trip and 2 Many DJs, that can effortlessly connect songs together regardless of genre.  This is an impressive mix comparable to the work of such vinyl exploiters, one that drops an insta-party and somehow doesn’t run out of energy by the end.  Listing genres will spoil the fun, so check out the responsibly-titled Mashed-up party -Festival mix 2012:

Concert Review: Tes La Rok & Heavy Hong Kong united under the banner of bass at Backstreet Live.  Drops and wobbles, covering the spectrum from sharp chest-assaults to deep dub-inspired thunderous booms, actually put the Heavy sound system in serious danger.  Openers Anadonic and N1D, with Rebearth MC spitting verses, dropped all shades of low-end theory, priming the audience for the Finnish headliner.  Starting with the “Bogle” riddim from Mungo’s Hi Fi, Tes La Rok included plenty of big bass tracks such as his own “Up In The Vip,” firing up the crowd with his melding of reggae vibes with overwhelming bass.  This then gave way to the machine-war soundtrack that is exclusively the sound of dubstep: pounding digital stutters over relentless bass-lines and the occasional break just to unleash full-power madness.  Blood Dunza continued his streak of super-late set-times, tragically at odds with this member of the Saturday-morning work force.  Overall a nice show despite the sound issues, which will hopefully be corrected for future heavy bass shows…

For plenty of tunes by Tes La Rok, please check out Heavy Hong Kong’s comprehensive artist feature.

Here are some tracks from the local/supporting artists, including a brand-new dubstep mix from Anadonic:
 

Representing DUBlin, Dirty Dubsters turn reggae into bass-heavy dance-floor music.  Their last few tracks have been horn-laden as well, creating a potent blend of melodies and beats that still incorporates dub style, albeit in a future-forward manner.  I first heard a DD remix on Blend Mishkin’s Mama Proud Riddim Remixes album and likewise their Outlook Festival 2012 Competition Entry is simply a banger.  A well-chosen vocal, those crucial horns, and the balance between light and heavy make this a winner.  Less than a day old is a remix of “Unity,” by Mikkim featuring Coyote, which is more digital and features nice techno (not dubstep) buildups and drops.  Plenty of other solid tracks, as in over 100, are featured on Soundcloud as well.

From MountBlood comes what can only be described as cheerleader-death-techno.  Yes, this is dark music with light vocals, but the blend of the two is quite unique, needing to be heard to be believed.  At times poppy, at times angry, but then also energetic, haunting and just pounding, this music is definitely blurring genre lines - is this techno, dubstep, trance… all, or none?  Here are the first two installments of the Blood Sessions Mix series via Soundcloud, go ahead and bombard some speakers with bass and leave those silly genres alone:

Blend Mishkin’s Mama Proud Remixed proves what talented producers are able to do: take a riddim and utterly reinvent it.  The original riddim is solid and balances the dancehall and dubstep aesthetics well, but these remixes stretch the boundaries and blur the genre lines, letting influences like drum n bass (Turntable Dubbers), glitchy electro (Jstar), rubadub (via Max Rubadub obviously), and digi-dancehall (Motagen Sound and Balkan’s Hi-Fi).  

Crizzly Presents Crunkstep is Southern hip-hop meets dubstep/electro/bass music.  In the world of ever-evolving genre flavors, this is a heavy aural assault, clearly designed to destroy speakers and unsuspecting eardrums.  Yes, this includes a Bird Peterson track (the excellent “Pimp Storm”) but goes louder, deeper, and harder than just trance beats meet crunk vocals.  Synths wail, machine-bass staggers, and then rappers get real angry when the beats decide to share the stage.  40k plays in one month - this is how underground EDM producers blow up, right?  After forty-three minutes of Crizzly’s apocalyptic bass-rap, your perspective on the lifetime of standard dubstep may have changed.  Like Dieselboy’s recent Wake The Dead mix, this mix has the potential to redefine and redirect an often stagnate genre by pushing the boundaries…