This is a blatant reblogging of the breaking story over at Stoney Roads, but apparently…well, you can read the title of this post. The mix just dropped today, head over to the official site give Mad Decent some demographic info in exchange for a free download.


I’m not saying this is gonna be awesome. I’m not even saying that you’ll listen to it more than once. Diplo’s a great producer, but his mixtapes always fall flat for me – I thought “Piracy Funds Terrorism” sounded like a top 40 night. But something tells me this will at least be entertaining – maybe it’s the illustration of La Roux in an Iron Man suit? Or maybe it’s this track title: “In 4 The Kill Pon De Skream”. Either way, I’m downloading this now, and suggest you do the same. 

An appropriately titled mix, as this does grow and expand the contemporary notion of lovestep. I know the last thing we need is another subgenre (and this is not the time or place to rehash the brostep debate) but lovestep is an apt term, crystallizing something significant going on in music right now; a lush, flourescent corner of dubstep, awash in gorgeous mid-heavy synths and female vocals that yearn, nourish, challenge and engage a tender part of the listeners consciousness. In a space usually dominated by buzzsaw noises and disembowling bass-drops, it’s refreshing to hear producers using the tropes of dubstep to tell a more hopeful, emotionally resonant story with their music. Beating audio swords into plowshares, as it were. . .

Biscope – Let Your Love Grow Mix by biscope

Tracklist:
1. Joy Orbison – Hyph Mngo
2. Biscope – Dragonfly featuring Zaki Ibrahim
3. Biscope – Little Dragon Versus Burial Twice
4. Cosmin TRG – Strobe Lick
5. MJ Cole – Sincere (Nero Remix)
6. Biscope – Slip featuring Black Porcelain
7. Modeselektor – Let Your Love Grow featuring Paul St. Hillaire
8. Mala – Level Nine
9. Biscope – Lace featuring Black Porcelain
10.Breakage – Higher
11.Simian Mobile Disco – Bad Intentions (Joker Remix)
12.Cinnamon Chasers – Luv Deluxe (Scuba Remix)
13.Erykah Badu – Trying to Decide (Biscope Boot)
14.Efdemin – Acid Bells (Martyn’s Bittersweet Remix)

Udachi, one of the best damn producers in Brooklyn, quietly put up this slice of pure summer gold a few weeks ago as his submission for the Yeasayer Remix contest.  I don’t listen to Yeasayer, but I’ve been listening to this on repeat. Sounds like “Graceland”-era Paul Simon driving to a summer rave in LA, at sunset, with all the windows down. Luscious, jubilant mango music. Also check out Udachi’s super-fresh Spring 2010 mix, chock full of all dat good new shit you never heard. 


Yeasayer – O.N.E (Udachi remix) [Remix Contest] by udachi

My boys Mad Zach (aka Count Spankula) and R2 the Specialist have been killing it for a minute now with their uniquely west-coast sound. This is one of the most mashing tracks from their new album, “Wolfspiders”, out now on Muti Music. It hit #1 on the addictech charts the week it was released, so you’ll be hearing this stuff out. Look for them making a SUPER SPECIAL SECRET east coast appearance this summer – I’ll keep you guys posted.

subeater! by R2thespecialist

First thing in my ears this morning is a leak of the new Chali 2na single Feat. RUSKO! My favorite mc from middle school doing a track with the King of Brostep? It doesn’t disappoint folks – 2na rides the beat with dexterity, and Rusko brings the wobble, but tones down the chainsaw noises to keep things head noddin, not neck snapping. A surprisingly tempered affair, and a good sign of things to come – not just from 2na’s album, but also intelligent, well matched collabs between dubstep producers and emcees.

Check it over at DJ Cable’s blawg< (your resident authority on the intersection of hiphop/dubstep), or just go str8 for the download link.

You know what I hate? When a DJ is talking about how good a track is, while said track is playing, so that the listener can’t really hear it, enjoy it or come to their own conclusions. That being said, I don’t mind it in so much in this case: the track is “Feldspar”, by Bay Area homie EPROM, and the DJ is Philly’s Street Bass Don, Starkey. Starkey’s enthusiasm is just so effervescent and genuine, and it’s hard to be mad, given what great exposure this is for EPROM to get biggup’d from such a preeminent tastemaker as Starkey. Nice one bruva!!


Feldspar (Starkey SUBFM Radio Rip) by eprom

The Specials have always been a very special band to me. They were the first live show I ever saw, in LA at the Key Club, when I was maybe 10 or 11 (this was when they reunited in ’96). All nostalgia aside tho, they were one of the most forward thinking and influential groups with a predominantly dub sound. If you think you’ve never heard em, pick up a copy of their self-titled LP from 1979 and you’ll realize you probably know half the tracks.

So never have I been more thrilled to hear a cover, than when Ghetto Bassquake (whom you should be subscribed to, because they are amazing) dropped this little jewels in my ears last week: Fantasma’s incredibly excellent cumbia cover of “Ghost Town” – that cumbia shuffle just works so brilliantly over a reggae song performed by Londoners featuring an orientalized snakecharmer riff… this is a quintessentially postmodern jam, with musical roots on just about every continent.

Download HERE.

THURSDAY 5/6:

METROPOLIS at Love ft. RONI SIZE
Roni Size is pretty much the godfather of Drum n Bass. If you’re reading this blog, you’ve heard his shit. Go see him rip it up on Love’s uber soundsystem with the whole Bass Fueled Mischief crew – Hellfire Machina (who have been absolutely crushing it with their Headspace parties), Code of Arms, Odi and Morphous – holding it down.

Git yr tix here. This is TONIGHT!!!!

FRIDAY 5/7:

CATURDAY 5/8:

CASSETTENYC at the Paul Robeson Theatre
Cassette is a uniquely awesome party. Pseudo-monthly, and held at a different unsexy Brooklyn venue each time, the residents include big names like Machine Drum,  Lando Kal (of LazerSword), Eliot Lipp and Praveen (who isn’t a big name afaik but deserves his props cuz he holds it down with the crew).

This time around, they have the very savvy addition of Mike Slott and FaltyDL –   who’ve both put out music on such uberhip labels as Planet Mu, Ramp and Hotflush.

What makes Cassette really awesome, though, is how all the DJs tag team, song after song. There’s usually 2 tables with 3 or 4 DJs with laptops and a gaggle of midi controllers and cables – from this techy stew arises a relentlessly danceable mash of original productions, exclusive shit, big tchunes and throwback jamz. Bring your outta-town friends, and tell them you’re takin em to the coolest party in Brooklyn – because you are.

SUNDAY 5/9

Shakey’s Record Fair at Public Assembly
Take a day off from partying and wobble, and go check out this record fair and party. 7PM to 2AM, so you 9-5ers can come too!

They wrote it up pretty damn good over at the Dubspot Blog, so I’m just gonna quote them:
“Dubspot friend, veteran NYC DJ, and founder of theWarper Party, Julie Covello, aka DJ Shakey, is hosting one of her renowned record fairs on May 9th.  Be sure to stop by, roll up your sleeves, and dig through some dog-eared gems, just like those hero’s of yours did before all this DVS digital-DJing craziness.

Sponsored by Dubspot, Wax Poetics, Turntable Lab,Cine Noir Film Society“

MONDAY 5/10: 

First lady of Bass on a Funktion 1 system? Jesus christ on a bicycle, this one is a fucking no-brainer before I even mention that it’s FREE and there’s a FREE OPEN BAR. And the legendary astral-traveler Francois K will be on decks as well, as it is Deep Space.