come meditate on bass weight

The last forty-eight hours have been pretty surreal, let’s put it that way. But I’ve got to tell you about how good DMZ was on Saturday, and I have to tell you about my mystery mix tomorrow.

For those not into their (relatively) obscure south London grime sounds,  DMZ is the dubstep collective of Mala, Coki and Loefah, also known as Digital Mystikz (I think I’ve got that right) – all three of whom are DJs and producers – and the bi-monthly night, held at Brixton’s Mass club, that they run. I think it’s fair to say it’s the biggest dubstep night in London at the moment; Plastic People’s FWD>> is weekly, and it’s a great venue, but I think DMZ wins in terms of size and – partly because it’s only every other month – excitement. As an enthusiastic punter I’m certainly loathe to pass up an opportunity to meditate on bass weight at DMZ. Of course it helps that it’s just up the road from my flat.

The thing about dubstep is that, because of the sub-bass, it’s music that isn’t designed to be listened to at home, or on your mp3 player. You have to listen to it played out on a big rig, really, really loud. It has to make the hairs on your arms vibrate, your feet buzz, and your trousers flap around. Or else it’s just not loud enough. So really, DMZ has become, for me, somewhat of an essential event; listening to dubstep mixes (good as they are) at home just doesn’t cut it.  Saturday certainly didn’t disappoint. We got there pretty early; the first DJ wasn’t anything amazing, but then Gothtrad stepped up. Gothtrad sounds so hilariously like the least dubstep name for a DJ you could possibly dream of, but he totally ripped it up. It was very, very dark, really quite fast (getting to jungle speed, maybe faster) and a lot fuller, maybe slightly techno-y sounding, than the quite sparse dubby sound that characterises a lot of the dubstep I’ve heard. I’m not brilliant at describing how music sounds, and I’m only an enthusiastic punter so don’t really know what I’m talking about, but it was really quite a ferocious brand of dubstep. I totally loved it. There was a really good vibe to the night: a lot more of a party than I remember the last one being. Our (relatively small) crew stuck to the back, where there’s more space to dance and plenty of opportunity to actually stick your head into the bassbins should you feel you’re not getting enough. Brilliant. And my current favourite tune, as yet unreleased but (I think) called ‘Spongebob’ (by Coki) got a couple of plays. You can download it here, although 1: you have to sign up (though it’s free) to get it and 2: as it’s been ripped from a Rinse FM show you have to listen to some guy chatting excitably (and inanely) over it the whole way through. That’s dubstep for you. It’s worth it though: it’s truly an immense tune.

If the whole concept of dubstep mystifies you, you might want to check out some of these links: wikipedia’s entry is pretty good I reckon; this BBC documentary gives you a little bit of a taste of the scene; Pitchfork’s ‘the month in grime and dubstep’ columns are are a good primer; and then you can check out various myspace pages for little snippets of what’s going on. Just remember, you’re not going to get it by listening to it on your headphones or through your crappy little PC speakers. At some point you’re going to have to get yourself to a night and listened to it played really, really loudly, so you can feel the sub-bass as much as you can hear it.

What is it about girls and bass anyway?

And now for something completely different. Tomorrow night sees the airing of my mystery mix, as described briefly in this post, on the Big Chill forum. Sadly I can’t be online to tell people they’re wrong/right (and as it’s not got anything obscure on it it’ll probably be the latter), which is a shame as that’s half the fun, but you can join in the guessing here. The mix will be streamed live at 10pm here, but if you miss it, you can download it after 11pm tomorrow evening here (though you have to create an account first). Look for a file called ‘WPGR’s misery mix’ by Wee Papa Girl Rapper. Got it? It’s a pretty downtempo mix, put together back in June when things were a bit wobbly, but I’m really rather pleased with it. I’d love it if you gave it a listen, tried to guess the tracklisting, and tell me what you think. I’ll happily burn a copy and post it to anyone who asks.