Let’s not split hairs here: Datsik is a heavy hitter of the most reviled genre on earth right now: dubstep. Although movie trailers have recently been filled with the stuff, the days of dubstep’s widespread mainstream integration seem long gone.
Let’s not split hairs here: Datsik is a heavy hitter of the most reviled genre on earth right now: dubstep. Although movie trailers have recently been filled with the stuff, the days of dubstep’s widespread mainstream integration seem long gone.
Still, before a real revolution comes several mini-revolutions, and consider Datsik’s Vitamin D to be one of those miniature revolutions—not big enough to be “the one” but certainly an endearing effort.
Vitamin D was released on Dim Mak Records, a label that used to house indie rock mainstays such as Battles, Bloc Party and The Kills. In recent days, founder Steve Aoki has revamped the label into a listening party for his contemporaries, as he is an electronic music producer himself.
The label is filled to the brim with EDM acts and reads like an electronic music roll sheet. These days, only a small handful of Dim Mak’s former sound remains, and it almost seems like Datsik is trying to steer his music into the Dim Mak records of yesteryear.
While it is commendable that Datsik actually cut a full record in a genre with a notoriously dismal attention span, did the record really need to be made?
Unfortunately, Vitamin D is so scatterbrained that it sounds like each track could serve as two songs. Datsik would have done well to harvest the like parts from each track and make two or three records out of this mess.
Tracks like “Need You” perfectly represent this unfortunate state of affairs. It’s an intermittent mess of a track that, at best, begs for a 30-second spot in a club set. In fact, the track is so all over the place that it makes Skrillex—widely recognized as the figure responsible for giving dubstep an Adderall requirement—look focused by comparison.
Another track, “Fully Blown,” already has a legion of remixes out for it, and most of them (especially the Frim’s and Ghost’s) are wonderful. This almost makes one think that the original track is laid bare and worth remixing. Not a chance; the original is only slightly less convoluted and sonically pretzeled as “Need You.” Don’t be fooled by the sheer quantity of remixes. If you absolutely need your Datsik fix with name credentials intact, check out The Frim’s remix instead.
Datsik steps a little bit out of his comfort zone on the album’s last track, “Double Trouble,” employing the efforts of yet another producer jumping aboard the dubstep gravy train: Z-Trip.
The track in itself is strictly C material because it’s an awkward collaboration to begin with, but the track never quite figures out exactly what it wants to be—a drumstep (slightly faster dubstep) track, an exercise in turntablism (which in no way stems from Datsik himself) or a slapped-together hip-hop track.
While the execution is passable, it seems like more of a fizzle instead of what should have been a blowout to end it, the elusive dubstep full-length.
Another track features Jonathan Davis of Korn. I feel like just the mention of that should be a detractor, and I realize that Korn just put out a dubstep record. Just say ‘no’ to washed-up nu metal stars.
This isn’t to say that the record is a complete ADD-addled failure. Longtime Datsik collaborator Downlink attempts to reel in Datsik’s madness on the incredible track “Punisher.” The track embodies everything Datsik is known for—grinding, funky, head-destroying bass lines that force your legs to do something, anything.
In light of Skrillex winning his Grammys, it would appear that some unfair pressure has been put on his down-since-day-one peers. Artists like Datsik, along with Downlink, Excision and other pioneers of the North American dubstep sound have a lot to prove after clamoring to the Skrillex playbook.
However, while Downlink and Excision have refined their sound to a level unimaginable when one compares old and new side by side, Datsik appears to have gone on a treasure hunt instead. He chose to keep his eyes on the prize, eschewing refinery and following the paper trail to Skrillex’s madcap synthesizer presets.
Vitamin D begs the one pressing question that dubstep producers have needed answers to: Does a dubstep record work better as an impossibly schizophrenic maelstrom of sounds while being consistent enough with that pathos to warrant a full-length? Or is dubstep a genre whose records work better as a short and sweet focused blast of bass? As far as Vitamin D is concerned—thanks, Datsik, for ending the debate.
