It has been a bad few months for the powerful on this planet. From Tunisia to Egypt to Libya to Madison, Wisconsin, the underserved and underrepresented have been making their voices heard. These are not your parents' revolutions: information-driven, secular, and televised. It's been amazing to see entire societies cast off the yokes of fear and oppression armed with not much more than smart phones and social networks. History is writing itself as we speak, and it sure reads like a new chapter for millions of people on this planet.
It is against this backdrop that I put together my newest mix. I've been vibing HARD on the new "140bpm jungle" sound that's gripping the underground, harnessing the raw energy of amen madness with the wobble of dubstep and the surgical stutter of top-shelf breaks. This mix starts off with a call to revolution from Ghetto Priest (remixed by man-of-the-moment RackNRuin), which is quite fitting for all my brethren in the Middle East. Skull-cracking dubstep/140bpm flavors get it rinsed right up through Ed Solo's MONSTROUS version of "Egyptian Horns," which I included as a little nod to all my January 25th Massive, and because it's arguably one of the greatest "rave" anthems of all time (I first heard the original on a DJ Overload mixtape from 1995 and the rest is history). Then it's all 140bpm jungle/breaks tomfoolery up through to the last track, Hybrid's epic remix of FSOL's classic "Papua New Guinea."
A wise man once said "If you make nonviolent revolution impossible, you make violent revolution inevitable." Get up. Stand up. Word up.
I was going to do another post on the further escalations in the dubstep wars (commercial/brostep vs. deep/underground/"intelligent" dubstep), but I decided against it, because it seems like too much energy to spend focusing on things people don't like, on division, on negative energy. So the theme for this evening is: the glass is half full. Because, really, does the world need more cynicism? Negativity? Nah. Put some positive vibrations out there. Ponder what you LIKE...the glass is half full...
What do I like? I like bass music. All sorts. I like my bass music like I like my hallucinations: kaleidoscopic, dipped in chrome and neon, aurally expansive, and infectiously groovy. I like combining bass musics of different types to create interesting spectrums and combinations of bass music. Do you like bass music?
You know what else I like? Motown and soul music. I also like face-melting drops, and jump-up-and-grab-you builds. They're a blast (come on, admit it, they make you want to smile)....the glass is half full...
This mix combines elements of a bunch of things I like (bass music, soul music, melted faces, Foreigner, reggae, raves, and funky robots) into one chrome-dipped sonic hallucination. Can you dig it? If this mix makes you want to tap your feet, or nod your head, I am honored to have contributed to and/or assisted you in your sonic-kinetic vibrations. And fair enough if you don't like it, it's not for everyone (hallucinations rarely are). But either way, don't expend too much energy trying to categorize it or put it in a tiny little box: dubstep, brostep, chillout, wavestep, lovestep, future garage, post-dubstep, 2step, drugstep, soulstep, drumstep, sinestep, broken beat, broken heartstep, it's all sort of irrelevant.
A lion doesn't know the word "lion" but he still knows he's a lion...
The glass is half full.
Drink up....
mantisounds - this is a man's dub
1. James Brown - It's a Man's World (Regrooved by Parker)
2. Curtis Mayfield - Pusherman (Cutloose Remix)
3. Brenda Lee - I'm Sorry (Woodhead & Blenda Remix)
4. Gramaphonedzie - Why Don't You (High Rankin & Evolve or Die Remix)
5. Ashes - Dubvine
6. Bassnectar - Magical World ft. Nelly Furtado
7. Jean Jacques Smoothie - Two People (Jay Robinson's 1 Hour Bootleg)
8. Don Diablo ft. Dragonette - Animale (Datsik Dubstep Remix)
9. Bassbin Twins - Eat Em Up
10. SKisM - Power
11. Foreigner - Cold as Ice (Specimen A Remix)
12. Linton Brown - Horndog (Kinzy's Frisky Dog Remix)
13. Jinx in Dub ft. Rider Shafique - Meditate & Relate
14. Althea & Dona - Uptown Top Rankin (Hostage Remix)
15. Chop Shop 45 - Hyphy Gotta Learn Sometime
16. George Lenton vs. Mr. Little Jeans - On Repeat
delete delete delete. i have tried writing this post several times throughout the day and all i come up with is delete delete delete. im deleting lots in my life right now. from my job to where i live, tons of things are getting the backspace key. clearing the air for new things (i think)
...2011...
i keep telling myself that there is no way a year that starts off this tumultuous can possibly end the same way. and so i keep my eyes on the future. hopefully i will figure out a way to physically reunite with Mantisounds and get back to making sweet music in person, hopefully i get more gigs and spread the sound to a wider audience, hopefully i figure out why a grown man makes 3 to 4 mixtapes a week and gives them away for free... hopefully you'll stick around long enough to see how all this plays out.
from the first snippet of dialogue "prosperity for who, not for me not for you..." to its schizophrenic song selection, this mix deals in confusion, it doesnt know if it wants to be happy or melancholy. there's change in the air, but the mix..., the mix dont want nothing to do with that, it would just rather put its head down and pretend nothing is happening. the samples in this mix come from old movies dealing with factory life, and automation, and the oncoming future which at times looks as if it will have no room for the children of men...
So dubstep has arrived. Officially. I don't say that because it's being used to sell cereal and sneakers and electronics (it's not...yet). I don't say that because Diplo has finally slapped the Mad Decent stamp of approval on the genre with Blow Your Head: This is Dubstep (he has, and it's not bad). And I don't say that because Madonna's new album is all dubstep produced by Skream or Rusko or whoever else might be the go-to dubstep producer of the moment (though I will not be surprised if that's EXACTLY what Madge's new album eventually sounds like, given her flavor-of-the-month output of late).
Dubstep has arrived because it's beginning to eat itself. For all you drum n'bass heads out there who are a little long in the tooth (like me), what's happening in dubstep now is beginning to look an awful lot like what happened to jungle after its initial underground explosion in the late 90s. Jungle was starting to blow up, you started hearing it on main stages and peak-time slots, rather than side-rooms. Artists from different genres started "experimenting" with the sound (cynical interpretation: trying to cash in on a budding new market). The music press started trying to churn out endless sub-genres (jump up, ragga, trance & bass, darkstep, techstep, etc.). And then along came Roni Size and Reprazent: a stable of "old school" jungle cats performing dnb "live" with a drummer (Si Begg) and live vocals. Suddenly, jungle wasn't side-room niche drug music, it was "respectable." (BTW, I saw Reprazent twice live, both times they absolutley murdered it!).
With the rise of all of this "respectable" attention, and the need to compartmentalize everything for the music press, the genre began to split into different camps: the posers who heard the Aphrodite/Jungle Brothers single and decided they liked jungle and/or could sell it to lots of new fans, and the "intelligent drum n'bass"/intelectuals who were "pushing the genre forward" and who looked down on all the jump-up hip-hop sounds, the kids who loved them, and the producers who were making it.
(SIDEBAR: is there a descriptive term MORE obnoxious than "intelligent drum n' bass"? Like, not all that stupid UNINTELLIGENT shit, it's "intelligent." I always felt bad for LTJ Bukem, purveyor of that smoother, broken-beat/liquid/atmospheric jungle sound, because record stores and magazines would aways slap the "intelligent drum n' bass" sticker on his cds and make him seem like some pretentious asshole, which I'm sure he wasn't, and I'm also sure he didn't think his music was "smarter" than anyone else's)
I think that's about where we are with dubstep right now (seriously, google "dubstep" + "commercial" and take a gander at all those complainers!). You've got a lot of people making ear-scorching wobble tunes at 70 bpm that sound great on a soundsystem with hands in the air and pupils dilated, and then you've got a lot of people claiming that the "scene is changing" and the music is getting diluted because the sound is starting to be appropriated by other artists/genres. You've got folks trying to distinguish between "legit/underground/artistic" dubstep and the pervasive (and some would say formulaic) wobble of the more "commercial" stuff. And with the release of Magnetic Man's self titled debut, and the critical acclaim it's received (including from me, who loves me some Magnetic Man), it appears dubstep is having its "Reprazent" moment, and tribal boundaries are being drawn.
I mention all of this for a few reasons. One, I was around for the explosion and subsequent implosion (and rebirth/realignment) of drum n' bass, and I am very interested to see if dubstep follows the same trajectory. And two, this new mix would probably be considered a little more "underground" than previous dubstep sets, embracing artists and sounds that I've heard described as futurestep, future garage, lovestep, breakstep, junglebreaks, 140bpm jungle, etc. To me, it's all bass music, and there's a time and a place for all of it. Like, I generally enjoy microbrewed/homebrew beer, but apprecaite that there is a time and a place for a 30-rack of light domestic beer. Same with bass music in general. Some of it is all drops and builds and face-melting wobble bass designed to slay a dancefloor, and some of it is a little more subtle, a little more intricate, maybe appreciated more in your headphones or in your car. But it's ALL GOOD, homie.
Usually in my mixes I try to incorporate a little of everything (a splash of Anchor Steam, a dash of porter stout, maybe a pint of cider, and a can or two of Bud Light), though this mix is light on Bud Light and heavy on the microbrew. But that doesn't make it "intelligent" or "underground" or better than any other style or micro-genre or sub-category being pushed by the latest issue of Knowledge or Mixmag, because, really, in the end, this is DANCE music, people, not an anthropology class. Don't worry about how "commercial" something is, or how "underground" it sounds. Look around. Are people dancing? Are you? Isn't THAT what's important?
Mantisounds - Ender's Game
1. Liondub & Matt Shadetek - the General Riddim (OG Riddim instrumental) 2. BangaTang - Bashful 3. Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine (Indaskyes & Tracksmyth Remix) 4. Hunter Vaughan - High Hopes 5. Eric Hassle - Hurtful (George Lenton Remix) 6. Bertie Blackman - Peekaboo (Marco del Horno Remix) 7. Excision & Datsik - Swagga (Homegrown & Nils Jumpen Mondays Afternoon Mix) 8. I.D. - Flay 9. the S.K. - Bass 10. George Lenton - Cold Rocker 11. Nero - Something Else 12. Downlink - Moonrock Badman 13. Nero - Bad Trip 14. Excision - Obvious 15. Skool of Thought - Heart of the Hood 16. I.D. - Akusative 17. JSaxton - Kick Snare Ganja Buddha 18. Ludwig Coenen - Green Movement (XI Bas Vapour Dub) 19. Doorly - UK Geee 20. Ramadanman - Offal 21. Redlight - Rock the House ft. the Voodoos 22. Foamo - Centavo (Warrior One Remix) 23. BSD - We Are Elektro
P.S. All you sci-fi nerds out there might recognize the cover artwork appropriated above. "Ender's Game" was one of my favorite books growing up. It's the story of Ender Wiggin, a child prodigy recruited into Earth's "Battle School", a training camp orbiting the planet designed to develop the planet's next great generals and warmakers in the ongoing battle against the evil alien "bugger" race (kind of Harry Potter meets Starship Troopers with less campy bullshit and magic wands). If you have not read this book, cop it in paperback (or eBook like the kids on their Kindles) and get busy!
(this is an image that belongs to the graph writer FUNK1)(he's dope!)
...so MANTISOUNDS dropped the illest, sleaziest, funkiest, disco mix the other week... folks are still emailing us and faceboobing about it and causing a stir over how dope it is. and boy is it dope. it inspired me to try and get on his wavelength. so without further delay, here is my debut as PHATMOBERT the funk fatty. I hope you like the track selection, its a mix of all different styles of funk, from that r&b laced ish, to that hardcore horns and claps, mixed in with that crossed-over soul inflected groove.
"The freak with the top hat is leaving with the basketball. Cover the freak....Tell the men, it's time to shoot the moon!"
I've been promising a disco mix for a while, and this weekend I finally got it together and finished it up. This is 14 tracks of smoked out, dubby disco edits that put a smile on my face. Nice and slow, lots of spaced out effects, slow motion funk for Sgt. Stedenko and the freak in the top hat (mostly for the freak). I used a bunch of edits from Deep& Disco and Munga, who are all killing the disco reedit scene right now. Check their Soundclouds for serious midtempo disco damage.
You can stream the set below, or download the mp3 directly using the link below. Better yet, follow the instructions on the top right side of this page to sign up for the podcasts, which will beam all our sets right into your iTunes/iPod fresh out the oven!
(Ralph Bakshi's "Heavy Traffic" promo, 1973)
mantisounds - shoot the moon
1. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On (Cole Medina Remix) 2. Minnie Riperton - Inside my Love (Darren Daz Dalton's Inside my Filter Rework) 3. Ed Wizard & Disco Double Dee - This Joint 4. Kazino - Binary (Munga Rework) 5. Loleatta Holloway - Seconds (Deep&Disco's Once is Never Enough Rework) 6. Sister Sledge - Pretty Baby (Eyan's Deep Space Dub) 7. Sister Sledge - Lost in Music (The Revenge Rework) 8. Mona Raye - Do Me (And Munga Done Did It Rework) 9. Sharon Brown - Specialize in Love (Munga vs. Deep&Disco Edit) 10. Jamiroquai - Alright (Dan & Kris Re-Edit) 11. BeatFanatic - Something Better 12. Richard T Bear - Sunshine Hotel (Musica Hermosas Bounce Edit) 13. Stevie Wonder - Do I Do (U-Tern Edit) 14. Alpha Blondy - Jah Glory (Rhythm Plate's Disco Riddim Plate)
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It has been a bad few months for the powerful on this planet. From Tunisia to Egypt to Libya to Madison, Wisconsin, the underserved and underrepresented have been making their voices heard. These are not your parents' revolutions: information-driven, secular, and televised. It's been amazing to see entire societies cast off the yokes of fear and oppression armed with not much more than smart phones and social networks. History is writing itself as we speak, and it sure reads like a new chapter for millions of people on this planet. 
