It's already time to celebrate the best of 2009, and we start with a look at the top records in the worlds of dubstep, wonky, grime, and funky.
Dubstep (and overall) release of the year: Hyperdub: 5: Five Years of Hyperdub [Hyperdub]
Fifteen other essential dubstep / wonky / post-dubstep releases of 2009
Untold: "Stop What You're Doing [original and James Blake remix]" [Hemlock]
Darkstar: "Automating"/"Aidy's Girl is a Computer" [Hyperdub]
Joy Orbison: "Hyph Mngo" [Hotflush]
SP:MC: "Taiko Dub" [Tempa]
Kryptic Minds: One of Us [Swamp 81]
Silkie: "The Horizon" [Deep Medi]
D1: "Just Business" [forthcoming; Dub Police]
Joker: "Digidesign" [Hyperdub]
Skream: "Listening to the Records on My Wall" / "Give U Everything" [forthcoming; Tempa]
Zomby: "Float (Skream remix)" [unreleased Werk]
Instra:mental [ft. D Bridge]: "Watching You" [Nonplus]
Peverelist "Bluez" (Punch Drunk)
23hz & Numaestro: "Zumo (Sully remix)" [2nd Drop]
Tectonic Plates Vol. 2 mixed by Pinch [Tectonic]
Desto: "Disappearing Reappearing Ink" [Ramp]
No summary of the year in dubstep would be complete without the ever-expanding wobble side of the scene, recently hilariously and accurately renamed "brostep." In the UK, the wobble sound is now the default dubstep position for many fans, as the scene commands a increasing share of the Friday night/student/super club market. With the fanbase expanded far beyond any one core, complaints about deviations from South London circa 2005 or an overall loss of direction feel increasingly irrelevant. Many new dubstep fans neither know nor care about those issues, and complaining about glories past is futile. So fair play to all the brostep ravers 'aving it: Elsewhere, the myriad heads of the post-dubstep hydra moves on, often containing those who originally built the dubstep sound. And the higher profile has benefits: Rap stars from Eve to Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg to Pharrell embraced the sound, which would have seemed unimaginable five years ago when dubstep was confined to a tiny community who hung out in a small dark room in East London.
Fittingly, the creativity seemed to emerge from the edges of the scene as well, leaving only a few key players making dark, bass heavy 140ish beats of any level of quality. Two long players managed to typify the best of this tempo range, while sounding utterly different: Silkie's City Limits Vol. 1 and Kryptic Minds' One of Us. Silkie's debut album was the best and most high-profile release of the prolific Deep Medi imprint, run by Mala DMZ (who himself has two big surprises in store for 2010 releases-wise-- no, we’re not talking about an album.) Silkie specializes in melodic, rolling dubstep and with many of the Anti-Social camp affiliated to it and City Limits Vol. 1, it was coherent and focused, developing a collection of themes (instrumental arrangements, halfstep rhythmic propulsion, melodic color) while not over-reaching. The highlights were "The Horizon", an explosive burst of emotion that combined Joker-like synth touches with euphoric percussion, and "Purple Love", which, with it's ascending synths, wouldn't have been out of place on Hyperdub.
By contrast, the Kryptic Minds LP, released by another DMZ member Loefah, took a different approach to 140bpm halfstep, stripping it back to dark textures and unsettling urban soundscapes, underpinned by sub bass. The Kryptic Minds sound seemed perfect for Loefah's newly formed Swamp 81 label yet in a dubstep context it couldn't have been more different from the jump up wobble that surrounded it. Minimal, monochrome, dark, brooding, it seemed to divide people, not just those who wanted hype wobble but also those enamored with the bright technicolor of Hyperdub, Joker, or Joy Orbison. Personally the contrast was welcome, reminding fans how daring dubstep can be in a club context when it strips itself back to its skeleton. Yet if it was a step too far, the Tectonic Plates 2 mix CD by Pinch is strongly recommended. Equally special in this dark, percussive range is the SP single "Taiko" on Tempa.
In 2009 the darkness in dubstep's core increasingly felt dated: much of the creativity came from producers moving gradually into the light to be found around the edges of the scene. No one direction had a monopoly on creativity and this is was to their collective benefit. DJs like Oneman, Brackles, Bok Bok, Ben UFO, and other Rinse DJs began blending old garage records with new dubs, fresh funky with old grime, house and techno ideas at new tempos. Brackles and Shortstuff's Blunted Robots imprint garnered a lot of acclaim, the biggest riddim from which was Mickey Pearce's jungly "Innami" or Brackles' euphoric "I Love London remix."
The revival of 2-step continued, boosted by Burial's albums and The Roots of El-B compilation. Sbtrkt came out of nowhere to unleash a slew of great 2-step tracks, not least a refix of Goldie's "Timeless". VVV took it deep and spacious. Sully remixed 23hz & Numaestro's Zumo and the best is yet to come from him. Skream got in on the act with the infectious forthcoming album cut "Give U Everything". Zed Bias revived his Maddlinky moniker with great effect. Sub FM's Whistla coined the term "future garage" and even started a forum to bring it all under one umbrella. It feels like just the beginning for his direction.
There were countless other pockets of creativity that spun out of and beyond the dubstep sphere. D Bridge and Instra:mental took halfstep dubstep ideas and Burial-like textures and re-worked them at drum'n'bass tempo, but their cyberballad "Watching You" seemed to laterally connect with the work of Hotflush-signed Mount Kimbie's "Maybes" and "50 Mile View", and Subeena's single for Planet Mu "Solidify", in a new space for virtual love songs.
Jungle and rave returned, spearheaded by Skream's massive "Burning Up", which complemented the 1993-jungle-at-140bpm experiments of Clue Kid and LD. Skream also prepared a bomb for 2010 in the form of epic rave anthem "Listening to the Records on My Wall"-- his brother's old dubplates-- and his anthemic hardcore remix of Zomby's "Float". D1 wasn't to be out done: look out for his "The Wire"-sampling "Just Business" which treads the fine line between epic rave and bassy dubstep. Joy Orbison-- first brought to you by this column, now everywhere-- blew up with his euphoric, Ibiza-esque "Hyph Mngo". With people like Kowton and Jam City also using dubstep or grime ideas within a house context, the lines got gloriously blurred.
Eski was a flavor of the year as both Zomby and Untold looked back to Wiley's peerless grime experiments for inspiration. Untold's results were amazing: "Anaconda" and "Stop What You're Doing" are each exceptional records. The remix of the latter, by James Blake, also dropped jaws and turned heads. Desto stepped up to the plate on the impressive Ramp recordings with "Disapearing Reappearing Ink".
Yet in truth 2009 belonged to one label: Hyperdub. The wider world has moved past the two Burial albums to embrace Kode9's vision. So much has been written about it that casual readers could be forgiven for tuning out, yet the praise is justified. Hyperdub is in as rich form as Metalheadz in 1995, Tempa in 2003, DMZ in 2005/6, or any iconic imprint you wish to name.
The acts, while all individuals, cluster in three loose groupings. Ikonika, Quarta330, Darkstar, Zomby, Joker, and 2000F push what can be done with offkey synths and day-glow mid-range technicolour: "hyper grime" if you will. LD, Cooly G, Mala's "Level Nine", and Kode9's "Black Sun" pursue percussive possibilities, while LV and the Bug's project King Midas stay truest to the literal meaning of "hyper dub," investigating dark bass infusions. They were all brought together on the label's 5 Years of Hyperdub compilation.
With an uncompromising ethos and stellar quality control, watching Hyperdub is a masterclass in how to inspire and delight. Next year promises mouth-watering prospects from the label. Darkstar will soon take to the road as a live act to tour their album, exploding beyond their current fan base. An Ikonika or Zomby long player is an exciting possibility, as would be one from all the label's maverick visionaries. LV are the label's most underrated act and if Burial finishes off an album, well you know how that will go.
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Grime single of the year: Tempa T: "Next Hype" [No Hats No Hoods]
Nine other essential grime releases of 2009
Rapid [ft. Ghetts]: "One Way Road" [unreleased]
Durrty Goodz: Ultrasound [Ultrasound]
Shola Ama, Wiley, J2K and Devlin: "Trouble" [Aim High 4: The Revolution]
Ghetts: "Grime Activity" [Aim High 4: The Revolution]
Roll Deep: Street Anthems [Roll Deep]
DJ Magic: No Hats No Hood Edition 1 [No Hats No Hoods]
Terror Danjah: "Zumpi Hunter (Swindle Remix)" [Planet Mu]
Trim [ft. Wiley]: "Titans" [Soul Food Vol. 4]
P Money: "Fruits & Veg" [Avalanche Music]
It's been a strange year for grime, critically ignored yet focused and productive. From a vantage point the scene went three ways: the best MCs stayed inspirational, several of them became commercially successful in the UK, and a few stepped up from part players to A-list scene contenders.
When grime was emerging in 2003, a great deal of critical expectation was placed on grime becoming a new form of UK pop. Yet beyond the fascination with Dizzee Rascal's auteurship, the UK mainstream wasn't ready for grime's inner-city fury and many of the main MCs weren't ready to play the major label game.
The hype around grime faded and the scene got on with doing what it does best: spitting bars on pirate radio, writing mixtapes for UKRecordshop.com, and promoting them on Logan Sama's flagship show. Raves and vinyl singles became largely things of the past but from this platform in 2009 grime began to fulfil its pop expectations. Sure Dizzee's had number ones, but now so have Chipmunk and Tinchy Stryder. Lethal Bizzle and Wiley are no stranger to the charts, with his new single "Take That" combining mainstream club friendly dirty house with the lyrical fire grime fans have come to expect of him.
From a grime scene perspective the success provides hope that commercial careers can be forged but ultimately they're artistically tempered and distant from the scene itself. In general those MCs who left 2008 as A-list kept their status and quality levels high. Wiley's Race Against Time was one of his strongest CDs, Skepta's Microphone Champion was UKRecordshop.com's biggest-selling CD, despite lukewarm reviews. Durrty Goodz and Ghetts could both lay claim to be grime's greatest MC, yet only put out one CD between them, Goodz' Ultrasound in January. Ghetts appeared on Rapid's epic "One Way Road", and banger "Don't Phone Me", voiced 2-step ("Set You Free") and funky instrumentals ("Came in the Game") with incredible results, but neither his mixtape nor album emerged, though he did perform possibly the year's most enduring live set, back to back with Wretch 32 on Logan's show: download it here.
Mostly in 09, the A-list MCs released the usual good-but-not-exceptional mix CDs. Flow Dan's Original Dan, Frisco's Back 2 Da Lab Vol. III, Jammer's Are U Dumb Vol. 4, and Trim's Soul Food Vol. 4 all contained great tracks but also many that should have been left in the lab. Newham Generals dropped their long-awaited debut album Generally Speaking but you can only hope there's more releases due now this threshold has been crossed.
The producers, long since sick of taking a backseat to the MCs, launched their own instrumental CDs, with Silencer-- who had a massive year-- Nocturnal, Maniac, and Terror Danjah dropping them. The critical response to the latter, while well deserved, was laughable given the press hype to tracks often more than five years old.
The scene's best CD releases moved beyond individuals. Aim High 4: the Revolution and Roll Deep Street Anthems made late bids for mix CDs of the year. The former showcased the Movement (Ghetts, Scorcher, Wretch 32) in blistering form, going line for line, rhyme for rhyme. Ghetts destroyed Danny Weed's "Activity" rhythm, just reinforcing how talented he despite his limited output. "Trouble" ft Shola Ama, Wiley, J2K and Devlin dropped like an r&g mutation of Skream's "Midnight Request Line", near perfect in its execution. And as for Street Anthems, it could possibly the most important CD Roll Deep-- grime's greatest crew-- ever drop. If they'd only cut out their chart attempts, it would have been perfect. DJ Magic's No Hats No Hoods: Edition 1 was by far the best snapshot of the scene this year, knee deep in specials and certified gold bangers.
So that only leaves two highlights of 09 remaining: grime's most improved and most hype MCs. Most improved is OGs, primarily Little Dee, P Money, and (now ex-OG) Dot Rotten, whose mixtapes Once in a Blue, Money Over Everyone, and Something Out of Nothing gave the sense that grime's top ranks weren't closed and that new, high quality contenders could still break through. Probably the best track from the three CDs was "Fruits & Veg", on which P Money combined the concept flow (rhyme about as many fruit and vegetables as you can) with grime's new fascination with vocalling aggressive dubstep wobble tracks. If you didn't fine the results both furious and surreally funny, you must have been off your yam.
Yet no MC could top Tempa T in 2009 for hype. While most MCs dropped mixtapes, Tempa T topped the year with one track: "Next Hype". Built around a sinuous, Wu-Tang-esque beat, Tempa's ascending flow detonated all raves, be they dubstep, grime or beyond. He then starred in a hilarious video with Westwood, MCed at the Acropolis (!), MCed in the snow and even took time to outline the finer etiquette points of "some next bibbing" when on the road. With his mixtape due next year, sadly no longer called "Dun Know the Dun No", 2010 could be 20 and Tempz.
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Funky 2009
Funky single of the year: Scratcha DVA: "God Made Me Phunky" [Fantastic4]
Nine other essential funky releases of 2009
Crazy Cousinz [ft. Maxwell D]: "Industry Watching (Inflation)"
Cooly G: "Love Dub"
Geeneus [ft. Ms Dynamite]: "Get Low" / Sticky [ft. Ms. Dynamite] "Bad Gyal"
Donae'o: "Party Hard"
MJ Cole: "Volcano Riddim"
Grievous Angel: "Ice Rink refix"
Stush and Hard House Banton: "We Nuh Run"
Kode9: "Black Sun"
Fuzzy Logic [ft. Egypt]: "In the Morning"
Of all the London bass-infused hybrids, funky had a spectacular year, at once diversifying and also consolidating its position as a musical force to be reckoned with. The scene remains creative, diverse, and populated with polar opposites that have been both internally cross pollinating and externally mutating with other scenes.
It leaves funky looking like the natural successor to UK garage, a point that was only reinforced when several of said scene's heroes, from MJ Cole to Zed Bias, Sticky to Ms. Dynamite began making funky and many of UKG’s anthems got re-appropriated for 2009. One such anthem that was relicked was Zinc's "138 Trek", now "128 Trek", yet his trajectory is less the pirate funky scene, more his "crack house" sound of Jack Beats, Sinden, Annie Mac, and company.
The original, traditional UK funky sound, essentially UK and U.S. house adopted by urban Londoners, remains strong. Offshoots like Circle's "dubbage" sound appeared but with DJs like Supa D the sound continues to flow, acting as a valuable counterweight to the increasingly ruff and rude new hybrids that have emerged.
Those hybrids have been pioneered by the outspoken, undisputed king of UK funky, Marcus NASTY, whose Rinse FM show is a flagship for much that is musically distinct in the funky scene, compared to U.S. or UK house. Broken or ruff soca beats supported strong vocal anthems from the likes of Princess Nyah, Geeneus [ft. Ms Dynamite], Ill Blue produced Shystie riddim "Pull It". Crazy Cousins complete a slew of great vocal pop remixes but their best track was the original production "Inflation" as featured on Marcus' show. The weekly sesssion's key strength, beyond his force of personality, was the diversity of sounds: alongside said soca riddims were flailing tribal workouts, vocal jams, minimal electro beats and the odd MC tracks.
This diversity is symbolic of the strength of UK funky this year. A plateau was built where DJs could traverse from rude anthems to Euro tech stompers, vocal divas rubbed shoulders with ruff broken beats. Cooly G and Roska could explore dark, percussive textures. DVA could strip back funky to stumbling halfstep for his forthcoming Hyperdub single "Natty" and it could fit in the same set as questionable skank track, Ayia Napa anthem "R U Gonna Bang Doe?"
MCs proved controversial across the board in funky. Grime artist grabbed and vocaled instrumentals, not least proto-grime legend Maxwell D but also Ghetts and Doctor. Grievous Angel recontextualised one of grime's most shockingly abstract experiments, the Riko vocal of Wiley's "Ice Rink", re-imagining it as rude funky anthem. On the other side the funky club hosts were quick to jump on the bandwagon, starting the skank track trend with hits (and accompanying videos) like "Migriane Skank". And dancehall MCs weren't going to miss out on the action, with Rinse's Heatwave specialising in this new UK/JA dialog.
The trick for funky in 2010 will be to keep these diverse elements under one umbrella. As MC-lead 2-step became increasingly angry and hence unpalatable for trad.garage DJs, UKG fragmented. Funky producers, many of whom DJed through those times, are acutely aware of this, which in part explains the nervousness towards MCs within funky. While history can repeat itself, the difference in 2009 as to 2001 is that the grime scene exists: The grime MCs already have somewhere they call home.
Keysound recordings released some records in 2009 which are ineligible for the copy above. These include Starkey ft Durrty Goodz “Gutter Music,” DVA ft Riko, Badness, Killa P and Flowdan “Bullet A’Go Fly”, Grievous Angel’s VIP of “Soundclash 1,” Zomby’s mix of “Concrete Streets ft Durrty Goodz” and Kowton’s “Stasis (g mix)”. Grievous Angel’s mix of the entire Dusk + Blackdown album “Margins Music Redux” is out soon
