01. Flying Lotus – Clock Catcher / Broken Note – Meltdown
02. Boreta – Bubblin in the Cut
03. Two Fingers – Bad Girl (King Cannibal Remix)
04. EPROM – Shoplifter
05. Switchdubs – Who Are Those Guys
06. Caper – Poker Ghost
07. Crookers ft. Spank Rock – Park the Truck
08. Foreign Beggars ft. Noisia & Devlin – No Holds Barred (Goth Trad Remix)
09. Borgore – Foes (16bit Fuck Hoes Remix)
10. Liquid Stranger – Zero Hour
11. HD4000 – South Street (VIP Remix)
12. Reso – TikTak
13. Brackles – Rawkus
14. Kraddy – Godzilla (Son of the Electric Ghost Mix)
15. Milanese – So Malleable (Cold Mix)
16. The Qemists – Your Revolution (Reso Remix)
17. Rudi Zygadlo – The Udu and the Clave (Doshy Remix)
18. King Cannibal – Embrace the Minimum
19. Voodeux – Enter the Voo (Eskmo Remix)
20. Geiom & Dawntreader – Toscani
21. Roel Funcken – Martyrz
22. Meat Beat Manifesto – Less
23. Emalkay – When I Look at You
24. Starkey – Rain City
25. Tom Encore – Jig
26. Datsik – Retreat (Elite Force Remix)
27. Excision & Datsik – Calypso (Elite Force Remix)
28. Noisia – Machine Gun

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As far as progressive DJs in Philadelphia go, Starkey is at the top of the list. Unfortunately, our numbers have been dwindling ever since we lost Dieselboy to Brooklyn. Starkey’s latest releases, “Knob Twiddler,” “Rain City” and “Beatingz” are fluorescent dubstep stompers. The production is tight, the sound is huge and the melodies are dynamic and emotional. Don’t rely on earbuds for these tracks, put on some quality headphones and turn up the volume.  ~ tom

Starkey is currently on tour in the UK, Netherlands and Germany. Check him out if you get the chance—his sets are sick. To hear more, visit Starkey on iTunes.

MP3 1: Starkey – Knob Twiddler
MP3 2: Starkey – Rain City
MP3 3: Starkey – Beatingz

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We don’t normally post downloadable tracks but since this one is so huge, we had to. Emalkay absolutely kills it! It’s great to see a young producer breathing new life into such a classic band. The original “Sun to Me” was released on iTunes as a free download for one week in December, but the window has closed and it’s now only available in the UK. “Sun to Me” is a teaser single paving the way for the full return of Faithless in 2010.

Faithless – Sun to Me (Emalkay Remix) [click to download]

MP3 1: Faithless – Sun to Me (Emalkay Remix)
MP3 2: Faithless – Sun to Me

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This has been an interesting year for London based producer, Four Tet. He’s had an obsession with remixing Madlib tracks and collaborated on an acclaimed release with influential dubstep producer, Burial. Now at the culmination of this year, a new track, “Love Cry”, has been released. It’s a preview of the new Four Tet album coming out in January 2010.

“Love Cry” is an epic nine minutes long—however, the time flies by. At the top, we’re greeted by the trademark turning cymbals and fervently individual bleeps and synths. The track crescendos several minutes in with a devilishly subtle bassline that’s easy to miss without a heavy dose of low end pumping through your stereo. This bass alters the entire feel of the track and the listener is suddenly transported to an echoey dark place where the female vocals take on a whole new personality. This switch in mood and ambiance is quite large, yet the length of time taken to fully complete the ‘switch over’ is adequate enough as to not disrupt the flow.

Influences upon the track are house and chilled dubstep, of which remixer, Joy Orbison, is a pioneer. His condensed four minute remix seems very similar, but after side by side listens, both appear uniquely brilliant.  ~ Andy

Check fourtet.net for release info and upcoming tour dates—itunes for previous releases and remixes.

MP3: Four Tet – Love Cry

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This is a massive 12″ follow-up to One of Us, Kryptic Minds’ latest LP. The title track, “Life Continuum” is an atmospheric dark-step track with big bass and a heavy beat, something of which I missed on the LP. The flip side, “Wondering Why” is an extremely warm tune with plenty of depth, ricocheting beats and female vocals. It’s huge! —right up there with Emalkay’s “When I look at You” and Burial’s “Moth.” With this single and their September release, 768, Kryptic Minds have effortlessly been able to jump to the forefront of a new genre and smash its boundaries.  ~ tom

MP3: Kryptic Minds – Wondering Why

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Kryptic Minds, a production duo hailing from London, have contributed to the deep drum & bass scene since 2005, but It’s no surprise that they’ve slowed things down for their latest LP. One of Us is a welcome departure from the heavy hitting antics of songs like “More Like You” and “Blue Print,” in which Kryptic Minds have taken a minimal approach to dubstep—drawing influences from Burial, Headhunter, Loefah, Pinch and Tech Itch.

Although Kryptic Minds are new to the dubstep arena, they’ve managed to infuse the expected spacious half-step formula with their own dark brooding style, creating yet another unique offshoot of dubstep. Long-time fans will appreciate this smooth transition as the same elements and slick production that draws them to Kryptic Minds remain present on the record. The individual tracks are intelligent and dynamic—containing a good balance between thick walls of sound and sparse breathable rhythms, but the whole can be a bit arduous. The album lacks differentiating bpms and the energy of previous Kryptic Minds releases. Independently though, “One of Us,” “Six Degrees,” and “Secure Lost” will most definitely make their way into countless DJ sets and late night mixes.  ~ tom

Check out myspace.com/krypticminds1 for show info and release updates. Full albums and remixes are available at iTunes.

MP3 1: Kryptic Minds – One of Us
MP3 2: Kryptic Minds – Secure Lost
MP3 3: Kryptic Minds – Generation Dub

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Try and Imagine pure evil as a living force that feeds on life, death, murder and pain. This evil infiltrates a city, tainting the air, water and streets. As its power grows, so does fear, corruption, agony and hysteria. For all those unfortunate enough to live here, death is imminent. Let the Night Roar is the soundtrack to this story—down to the details of crime, punishment and the true face of evil—which is unmasked throughout this imaginatively dark and devastating debut LP from King Cannibal.

Let the Night Roar is hands down the hardest release from Ninja Tune Records to date. Trailing far behind are The Bug’s London Zoo and Amon Tobin’s 2004 release, Chaos Theory. LTNR is a seamless blend of dancehall, industrial, drum & bass and dubstep that continually builds with tension even when the beats slow down and drop out. The stage is set with an intro of eerie atmospheres and the words “You’ve got about one hour to think about what you’ve done to me.” Because of repeating sounds, themes and frequent movie samples—including the explosive speech by George C. Scott in Exorcist III—it’s hard to not think of this album as conceptual.

As cool as the hard beats and unrelenting bass lines are, the MCs steal the show. “Murder Us” features deep and dark vocals by Jahcoozi woven around train-like percussion, alarming synth stabs and gun shots. The layered rapid fire vocals by Face-A-Face on “Virgo,” are absolutely sick (this track is so dope). On the voodoo-like track, “Dirt,” legendary Ragga/Hip-Hop artist Daddy Freddy adds violence and fear with repetitive screams.

The intoxicating dubstep single, “So… Embrace the Minimum” is set close to the middle of the album to momentarily break the tension with warm bass effects and rhythms—but don’t let your guard down, it doesn’t last long. Other highlights include “Aragami Style” and “Colder Still,” which fuel the album with threatening beats, distorted bass, ghostly pads and unforgettable breaks. “Flower of Flesh and Blood” concludes the record with a battle between good and evil where the true face of the beast is revealed… 303-style acid bass! It’s heavy, dark and best heard from beginning to end. Definitely one of the best albums of the year.  ~ tom

Two unreleased tracks, “Downtime” and “Stone Tape Theory,” were recorded during the LTNR sessions but didn’t fit the feel of the record. This 2-track single will be released on November 16th. Check out myspace.com/kingcannibal for samples and tour dates. Let the Night Roar and a ton of other King Cannibal tracks and remixes are available now on iTunes.

MP3 1: King Cannibal – Virgo (Featuring Face-A-Face)
MP3 2: King Cannibal – Aragami Style
MP3 3: King Cannibal – So… Embrace The Minimum
MP3 4: King Cannibal – Flower Of Flesh And Blood
MP3 5: King Cannibal – Murder Us (Featuring Jahcoozi)

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After receiving over 1,000 unique hits on my previous Emalkay post, I figured a lot of people would appreciate finally hearing the entire track of “When I Look At You.”

Available now at iTunes/Emalkay.

MP3: Emalkay – When I Look At You

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The U.S. is getting a dose of some good, hard electronic music this fall and winter. DJ Destructo, aka Gary Richards, created HARD in 2007 to showcase the best in new electronic music. Destructo worked with Rick Rubin in the 90s, helping to launch The Lords of Acid, Basement Jaxx, Messiah, David Holmes, Dub Pistols and God Lives Underwater. Now HARD is coming to Los Angeles and New York for 4 nights of crunchy electronic madness.

HARD NYC is the first show on the list with a good blend of dubstep, electro and breakbeat artists. Crookers, Major Lazer, Rusko, Jack Beats and Destructo will be performing at Terminal 5 in NYC on 10/10/09.

The second event, HARD Haunted Mansion, is a 2-day festival in Los Angeles at The Shrine on October 30th and 31st. Artists include: Basement Jaxx, Crookers, Major Lazer, Modeselektor, Steve Aoki, Danger, Destructo, Deadmau5, 2 Many DJs, A-Trak, The Bloody Beetroots, Don Rimini, Mixhell, Harvard Bass, Staccato, Justice, Buraka Som Sistema, Shinichi Osawa, Zombie Nation, Classixx, and more!

The final event is HARD New Years Eve at the Palladium in Los Angeles on December 31st. Boys Noize is heading the event. I couldn’t find a list of other artists so be sure to check hardfest.com frequently for more info.  ~ tom

MP3: Basement Jaxx – Don’t Give Up

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Make no mistakes, in the world of dubstep, this track will be remembered alongside “Anti War Dub,” “Purple City” and “Midnight Request Line” as another track that helped move the underground genre ever closer to the mass audience that it inevitably will succumb to.

Though, it must be said, this is not selling out or watering down to sell records or to gain popularity. Joy Orbison, aka Peter O’Grady, claims to have written this track in a spate of boredom. Clearly there was no extensive studio time or laboring of love doted upon this creation. However, love will most certainly be doted upon it by those lucky enough within hearing distance.

Musically, the track fuses a dubstep half step rhythm with subtle hints of techno through it’s leaning synths and steadily introduced female vocals. When I first heard this track I expected just another run of the mill dubstep track. How wrong was I?  I now believe that this could be the crossover. It has been featured in the NME’s ‘Top Ten Tracks’ and has been heavily plugged on BBC 1Xtra and Pitchfork Media. This is not just another track. This may have a silly name, but this is “Hyph Mngo.”  ~ Andy Hill

MP3: Joy Orbison – Hyph Mngo

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