Dubstep is always going to be one of those genres that you either love or hate. It’s the Marmite of the current music world so to speak. One of it’s main complaints is that it’s too slow and never dance worthy. But is that really what music should be about? I wouldn’t consider it so. Many times I’ve listened to a piece of music that I’ve loved, chilled with and never been able to dance along. Dancing and music never always need to go hand-in-hand with each other.

I’ve never been with the dubstep scene, it has never been in my interest to be so. But that doesn’t stop me from enjoying it. Despite it being a fairly new genre, my problem with dubstep, has always been the pure cheese that makes me think I’m listening to something from the 80’s, and same old tracks you find in almost every dubstep album. There is never anything different or attention grabbing. I tried listening to a various amount of artists, usually due to recommendations by others (mainly friend and DJ, Oli Faulkner), but I’ve never found anything to take a grip of my balls and drag me right in there. Wobbling basslines are over used in dubstep and I’d love to see it take a seat in the back row for once.

Skream, at the risk of gaining a lynching, despite being the scene favourite has never released anything I’d consider ground breaking, nor is it interesting enough keep hold of. I got bored of Skream quite easily due to the afore-mentioned basslines. Burial came close enough, I had the selftitled ‘Burial’ and ‘Untrue’ playing on repeat for many weeks, but there was always something missing. And Boxcutter was another favourite, I’ll never be able to let go of ‘ Oneiric’ due to the track Brood. Of course I’ve listened to alot of other artists work but nothing comes to mind that come as close to being as bad or good as the previous. Now I am aware of many other artists producing dubstep tracks but alot of their work has usually put me off from expanding my hearing.

I was a bit skeptical when hearing about Benga’s latest release, but I bit the bullet and went to a record store and purchased the album. Getting home I took the celephane wrapping off the album and slid the case out of its sleeve. I sat there looking at it for awhile at my own reflection in the pure blackness then finally opened it up to find a black disk and black sleeve with a minimal amount of writing. I absolutely loved this design work from the moment I laid eyes on it, which is vary rare for me to do with album design such as this. So I put the cd in a cd player, cranked up the volume a bit along with the bass. I figured something with a design this dark and bleek needed alot of bass and how I was right.

The opening track waits for over almost a minute before the deep basslines really kick in, instead your given what sounds like a jazz-esque bass guitar. When they do kick in your greeted with something thick and dirty. The rest of the album follows this method with breaks from the bass at certain points of the track. ‘Diary of an Afro Warrior’ doesn’t rely on those same old wobbling basslines but they can still be heard in there, and it’s forgiveable. Why? They don’t take control of every track for it’s whole duration. Instead you find yourself with various sounds, nice beats and atmospherics to take over. There isn’t much there in terms of melody but it’s more evident than you may find elsewhere within dubstep.

The Jazz element is heard through out and was obviously a big influence to Benga during the production of the album. And as a Jazz lover I’m greatful for this inclusion. There isn’t much there in terms of having a full jazz band backing up the dubstep elements, but rather keeping to the typical minimal amount of notes and sounds. It may not sound much in writing but it brings something vastly different to the genre and is fused perfectly. I don’t even think Boxcutter, an artist known for trying to fuse dubstep with other genres, could of pulled this off.

Dispite still having some elements that put alot of people off dubstep, this album is by far the next step the genre as a whole should be taking to help make it’s evolution and development alot smoother. Benga, may have just helped turn all my views on dubstep around, lets just hope artists follow his lead.

1. Zero M2
2. Night
3. B4 The Dual
4. E Trips
5. Someone 20
6. Light Bulb
7. Crunked Up
8. Go Tell Them
9. The Cut
10. Emotions
11. 3 Minutes
12. Pleasure
13. 26 Basslines
14. Loose Synths

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 8:34 pm and is filed under Music, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.