The week in bangers

Here we have another serving of three radical dubstep tracks up this week, and it’s time to give ’em a listen, perfect your moves in front of the mirror and hear talented DJs in the know drop them at the club. Dubstep is still continuing to reign supreme across the charts and all over the dance clubs of the world. It seems as though on every new track I hear, the bass is getting filthier, the leads are getting heavier and the overall sound is achieving new heights I didn’t think was possible. New tracks are doing all this and still easily surpassing releases from years ago!

 

Datsik – “Firepower”

“I got the wild style, always been a foul child,” touts the late Big L as this tune opens up. The sample continues looping for a minute, with some obligatory gun cocking sounds. Just shy of 30 seconds the bass quite literally slams in. The drums are well done with nice high-hat syncopation throughout the track. The bass then takes the lead here while a whistling synth line begins to swirl up. All of this is definitely readying you for the breakdown. With little warning right at about two minutes and 17 seconds, a nice filtered bass hit rolls down, the Big L sample kicks back of with a heavy filter sweep and BLADOW: the bass is definitely back. The bass continues to wobble on and on until the track drops down to just a drum loop. Then with a quick screech of a car coming to a halt and glass breaking, the track ends. This one definitely lives up to its title.

5:09, 70 BPM, Rottun Recordings, 2011

 

Emalkay – “Transpose”

Emalkay just dropped his first full-length album after years of singles and EPs. The whole album is hands down fire, featuring some really grand straight dubstep tracks as well as very heavy traditional styled drum ‘n’ bass tunes. “Transpose” is definitely one of the heaviest bangers on this entire release. A few snappy laser shots sound off and the listener is quickly whisked away to an epic plane. A couple beeps fire off, and a sampled voice elates, “Play that beat. That beat.” The bass begins to fire off right between some very old school rave leads on the synthesizer. As the wet shaky bass, classic rave synth and standard drumbeat with a filtered twist continues to fire off, the vocal sample returns, commanding you once again to, “Play that beat!” A simple yet effective break comes at two minutes and 13 seconds to ease you down a little bit, getting you ready for the journey to the end of the track. By the time this one closes out, the scratchy rave lead is well down, takes the high road and gracefully steps out of the picture. The entire track very easily drifts into an 8-bit crash and finally nothingness.

3:57, 70 BPM, Dub Police Records, 2011

 

Doctor P – “Watch Out”

Shaun Brockhurst has recorded everything from drum ‘n’ bass to dubstep under many monikers but is best known as Doctor P. He truly does a little bit of everything, including remixes for Caspa, Plan B and 12th Planet. This track is all dubstep but some drum ‘n’ bass elements do creep in as an added plus. A classic dub feel starts this one out with a killer organ synth. A nice bass drum roll cracks off and for a spilt second you’re anticipating the bass.  When said bass hits you almost don’t expect it to be so juicy AND robust. Bit crushed, heavily distorted leads begin to enter in, a high-powered voice sample juggles along and all the while the bass rides the center stage. The breakbeat-styled lead starts to really step up by about two minutes in. By this time the vocal sample has taken a very dim backseat but rest assured it returns after a nice short breakdown and drum roll to build the beat back up. The last ending seconds of the song however are pure gold: the final 16 bar loop alone could easily run for more than a mere 13 seconds!

3:50, 72 BPM, Circus UKf, 2011 ?