TAG: Kode 9

Apr12

Coachella 2011 Top 10 URB Picks

Here at URB HQ, if there’s one thing we know about, it’s Coachella. Having the ultimate music festival in our own backyard means we’ve had a front row seat to watch it grow from an ambitious gathering in the desert to a record-breaking sellout destination for music fans worldwide. People even still ask who’s playing the “URB Tent” this year, which is funny since there hasn’t been one of those since the early ’00s. But if there was an URB stage at Coachella 2011, here’s some of the acts we’d want to claim as our own. …MORE

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Oct07

Predicting What’s Next For Dubstep

New Film Focuses on Dubsteps Future 

A few weeks ago, while watching megastar DJ Z-Trip rock a tailgate party for a few UCLA Bruins fans, the jocked excitedly told me that a sweet freshman girl, big cheeks painted with yellow and blue team logos, requested he play some dubstep. As the crowd of clearly mainstream coolege football fans went bonkers to the low end beats, I was struck that this genre’s time in the “phenomenon” spotlight is almost up.

A new film, Bassweight, is coming out in the UK this month. With dubstep superstars Mary Anne Hobbs, Skream, Benga and Kode 9 all partipating, the film is doubtlessly a credible look at the music’s near decade-long history. But the angle being reported by The Guardian is that Bassweight focuses not on the past, but on the …

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Feb24

Sonic Router: Suburban Sine Wave Surfing (Video)

Long Playing Version of Upcoming Dubstep, Grime and UK Funky Releases 

Whilst February brings the shortest month, along with my personal annual growth and much merriment for me, it also breaks the omnipresent lull in the release schedule over Christmas and New Year’s. This coming year appears to be no exception with the simply astounding selection of full length projects and announcements starting to form like Dr Manhattan did, out of human tissue, thin air and matter.

As I’ve previously mentioned in earlier installments of this column, both Starkey and Scuba have long players ready for consumption, competently and simultaneously representing both ends of the dubstep spectrum. Scuba’s Triangulation positively floats in places, combating skeletal 85bpm tempos as much as the house tempo; whilst Starkey’s Ear Drums & Black Holes connects the dots between Philly swagger, his own deft compositional ear, and UK grime music featuring vocal appearances from P Money, Cerebral Vortex …

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Mar28

Dubstep: Calling for Reinforcements

Inside the scattered evolution and cross-Atlantic club nights of dubstep (by Brandon Ivers) 

It only takes five minutes inside Crash Mansion, the current host of NYC’s dubstep  party Dub War, to see the telltale signs of a new scene taking form. Everyone is learning to dance again; midair hand chops and a pseudo-skank bounce replace years of codified junglist head bobs. The music sounds rawer, more unpredictable than most of these people are used to; a sludged-out bass crawl one moment can flash into a bleepy synth arpeggio the next. Even the DJs seem as psyched as the crowd-when certain tracks drop, these grown men suddenly look like 10-year-olds with a PS3.

On this night, Dub War’s “FWD vs. Dub War” lineup represents a cross section of the success both the UK and U.S. dubstep scenes have experienced over the last year. Youngsta and Hatcha represent the UK’s FWD weekly, which, aside from the …

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