Soca and calypso influences in dubstep

intoccabile · Post by **intoccabile** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:59 am

Some time ago I played dubstep for the first time to some of my Trini friends who are into soca and calypso and they went NUTS !

And that got me thinking... my ! dubstep does borrow a lot from soca and calypso !

The groove, the swing... I wonder... how did the west indian / carribean influence infiltrate dubstep ? How did this happen ?

Listen to a track like " B ", for example... so many other tracks...

If you're familiar with soca and calypso, you can hear the similarities

What do you people think ?

blackdown · Post by **blackdown** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 8:12 am

in the early days of dubstep the soca beat was an alternative to the standard 2step kick-snare-kick-snare pattern. you can also hear the soca beat pattern in horsepower's 'classic delux' as well as Agent X's 2step garage anthem 'decoy'.

the soca beat still has kicks on the first and third beat, but has two other kicks three eights after the first and third beat. the snares are then both delayed by half a beat, falling on the second-and-a-half and fourth-and-a-half. this gives a lilting kinda skank to the track, rather than the stiffness of the kick-snare-kick-snare pattern.

as a further thought i'm glad halfstep came along. it opened up loads of other rhythmic posibilities. kick-snare-kick-snare was becoming a dead end.

dub boy · Post by **dub boy** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 9:54 am

I don't know the technicalities of it all, but I love soca and hear alot of similarities in the snares, tempos and beat patterns as dubstep. These days not many types of music make me brock out wildly, but soca definately does! Pure part music... it's there for no other reason imo

logos · Post by **logos** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 10:30 am

There certainly seemed to be a Soca influence when dubstep and garage were still a bit indistinct and styles were coalescing. In about 2002 you had tracks (as blackdown says) like Classic Deluxe. Also the Buck and Bury 12 on Ghost, and who remembers Hype's Pussy Trak - Socatastic!

joseph-j · Post by **joseph-j** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 10:50 am

Flip me, I'd forgotten about Pussy Track. That was a banger.

I think the double-kick thing was to create something a bit closer to dancehall etc than the american-style garage with its 4/4 beats.

dubmugga · Post by **dubmugga** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 6:49 pm

check out our trak "predator"...

...here's what a certain someone had to say a bout it a while ago

the tune is big
like Hype's Pussy track but with the funky skank of broken beat
big up
9
kode 9

r33lc4sh · Post by **r33lc4sh** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 8:39 am

soca beat is actually a typical west african beat which is also used in some north african folk music - i've used it in some of my tracks

minusdegree · Post by **minusdegree** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 4:25 pm

Steel drums have sucj a lovely sound, definately you'd hear ina skream tune...

dq · Post by dq » Mon Jan 16, 2006 5:15 pm

Logos wrote:and who remembers Hype's Pussy Trak - Socatastic!

Exactly! This was the first tune that came to mind when I saw the topic. What a piece of pure destruction this riddim was when it came out. I remember how excited Kode 9 was to play it on his Groovetech radio show back in the day

logos · Post by **logos** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 5:18 pm

dq wrote:
Logos wrote:and who remembers Hype's Pussy Trak - Socatastic!
Exactly! This was the first tune that came to mind when I saw the topic. What a piece of pure destruction this riddim was when it came out. I remember how excited Kode 9 was to play it on his Groovetech radio show back in the day

lol i remember tuning into the groovetech show on dial-up!

Soca and calypso influences in dubstep

Soca and calypso influences in dubstep

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