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Engine · 03-06-2010, 02:09 PM

The past decade has been pretty rough. It was full of in-your-face wars, natural disasters, economic crises and bland Canadian indie-rock bands. But it’s well-known that great art comes from bad times. Out of the darkness of the 00s emerged an exciting new musical form: Dubstep.

Tempa is one of the best established Dubstep record labels having released work by some of the most prominent artists in the genre. The label began in 2000 and is still releasing some of the best shit around. In 2009 the label released two 12” singles that have turned out to be some of my favorite music from last year.

The producer Data released Doors of Perception which features the blissful track, ‘Leaves’. It opens with a dark ambience that is somehow uplifting. It’s like the best Blues; a melancholy celebration of deep sadness. Halfway through the track enters a sample of a nerdy-sounding Brit talking about some kind of mystical, possibly drug induced ideas. Maybe it’s Aldous Huxley himself – I don’t know but whatever he’s talking about reflects the theme of Huxley’s book of the same title of single. After that, more drum layers are added giving the track some weight in the latter half. The 2nd song is the title track and it features all the ambiance of ‘Leaves’ and continues it’s theme with more of the philosophizing vocals. It also adds a lot of lush instrumentation including live guitar work by Cell.

Also in 2009 Tempa released Kingstep / Damn It by Horsepower Productions. Some Dubstep is really, really dubby and these two songs are in that category. ‘Kingstep’ opens with pitch-shifted vocals that sound like Sufi music. Other sounds from the sub-continent are thrown in there (Bollywood?) before the bass kicks in hard. This is classic Dubstep of the more chaotic variety. The other track is ‘Damn It’ which is about as authentically Dub as I’ve heard Dubstep be. It opens with a Reggae guitar line and quickly gets filled up with samples of gunshots, police sirens and there’s even some Mellotron thrown in there. The latter half is full of vocal samples of angry sounding Jamaicans talking about bumbaclots.

This music may help you sort out the confusion and paranoia that you felt in the last decade. Or maybe it’ll intensify it. For me it does both and that’s why I love it.

Leaves

Damn It

03-06-2010, 02:09 PM	#5 (permalink)
Engine air quote Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: pollen & mold Posts: 3,108	4 Dubstep tracks from Tempa The past decade has been pretty rough. It was full of in-your-face wars, natural disasters, economic crises and bland Canadian indie-rock bands. But it’s well-known that great art comes from bad times. Out of the darkness of the 00s emerged an exciting new musical form: Dubstep. Tempa is one of the best established Dubstep record labels having released work by some of the most prominent artists in the genre. The label began in 2000 and is still releasing some of the best shit around. In 2009 the label released two 12” singles that have turned out to be some of my favorite music from last year. The producer Data released Doors of Perception which features the blissful track, ‘Leaves’. It opens with a dark ambience that is somehow uplifting. It’s like the best Blues; a melancholy celebration of deep sadness. Halfway through the track enters a sample of a nerdy-sounding Brit talking about some kind of mystical, possibly drug induced ideas. Maybe it’s Aldous Huxley himself – I don’t know but whatever he’s talking about reflects the theme of Huxley’s book of the same title of single. After that, more drum layers are added giving the track some weight in the latter half. The 2nd song is the title track and it features all the ambiance of ‘Leaves’ and continues it’s theme with more of the philosophizing vocals. It also adds a lot of lush instrumentation including live guitar work by Cell. Also in 2009 Tempa released Kingstep / Damn It by Horsepower Productions. Some Dubstep is really, really dubby and these two songs are in that category. ‘Kingstep’ opens with pitch-shifted vocals that sound like Sufi music. Other sounds from the sub-continent are thrown in there (Bollywood?) before the bass kicks in hard. This is classic Dubstep of the more chaotic variety. The other track is ‘Damn It’ which is about as authentically Dub as I’ve heard Dubstep be. It opens with a Reggae guitar line and quickly gets filled up with samples of gunshots, police sirens and there’s even some Mellotron thrown in there. The latter half is full of vocal samples of angry sounding Jamaicans talking about bumbaclots. This music may help you sort out the confusion and paranoia that you felt in the last decade. Or maybe it’ll intensify it. For me it does both and that’s why I love it. *Leaves* *Damn It* __________________ Like an arrow, I was only passing through.