Anyway, here are 5 of my favourite dubstep songs!
Scuba- Tense [Hotflush]
I first heard this song in Dubstep Allstars 7 and to be honest it didn't really jump out on me in the first few listens. The intro and first drop are very well produced but nothing special, the dub techno stabs combined with the half step rhythm and pulsing sub bass create a nice enough head nodding feel but does nothing to prepare you for the breakdown. The filter on the chords begins to rise as the drums drop out, playing two notes insistently with the atmosphere behind filling the frequencies creating a huge feeling of tension before the release as the drums come back in, helping produce an overwhelming feeling of euphoria- for me anyway..
Plaid- Bar Kimura (Vex'd Remix) [Planet Mu]
This was the song which made me want to actually get into dubstep. The string samples and heavy kick drum create a sense of foreboding, and the vocal floats dreamily over the top. It follows a very traditional dubstep structure, elements building gradually until the sub bass is added, yet to me it's one of the heaviest drops there is. The space created by the dropping out of the atmospheric strings leaves only the drums and the shattering, growling sub under a soaring violin melody. The contrast of the upper frequencies and lower is what drew me into dubstep and this is one of the greatest examples. A lot of dubstep is inspired by sci-fi styled post apocalyptic and along with the art for this album, I can definitely imagine wandering through a shattered, desolate city when I close my eyes to this tune.
Peverelist- Roll With The Punches [Punch Drunk]
More of a traditional pick with this one, I imagine that most dubstep fans have this in their top five. The tune starts with a simple melody before bringing in drums, a smooth saw wave bassline before a speaker destroying sub line comes in. The way these elements interplay is enough already for the tune to be a brilliant song, on a system and at home but what makes it a great song is the amazing switch in the melody at 3:16. These melodies are not as they first seem simply loops of the same pattern over and over either, the changes in incidentals added varies throughout the song, always in keeping with what the other elements are doing and really helping this to be a totally complete song. There also used to be a really great video with this song on youtube but it has since been taken down.
Toasty Boy- Skinny [Destructive]
Toasty was one of the best producers dubstep has seen, his tune "The Knowledge" is rated as one of the best the scene has produced. For me, however, Skinny is his best effort, mainly down to the fact that it was the first one I heard. Oneman played it in his xlr8r mix and I was hooked. The pad which comes in at the start is so warm, wide and full it pulls you into the song as lazy looping breaks flick over and through it, creating a dancable yet still very relaxed tone to the song, further increased by the clips of a Steve Martin stand up performance coming through. This song puts me at peace with the world, everything fits perfectly in its place, yet I would still be able to dance hard to it if I heard it out.
Pangaea- Memories [White Label/Hessle]
The one tune of the five which I do not actually own seeing as it was a white label and it came out before I was interested in dubstep, the song is dominated by the frankly beautiful vocal sample, which has poignancy with me for other reasons, but it is not the be all and end all of the tune. The bassline is very similar to some old skool garage songs, such as the ones which influenced the creation of dubstep and on a system the bass really is fantastic. Too much dubstep nowadays in my opinion has one note sub bass lines with little to no movement, all the interest created by the growls above it, and its nice to feel the frequencies change on your chest as the notes change.
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