So is it all about the wobble?

lbolognini · Post by **lbolognini** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:42 pm

It was last year that i started hearing about dubstep. I can't remember how i came across it but the first so-called dubstep musician i heard was Burial and i instantly loved it. Mainly i was coming from a dark-idm (whatever idm means these days) background with deep sounds, echoes, good melodies, etc...

So i immediately set out to find more of stuff like Burial, but "instead" stumbled on the other dubstep producers of which i've learned to appreciate _some_ things: Skream, Benga, etc... and by saying "some" i want to explicitly exclude the songs that contain those straight-out-of-fruity-loops samples that are in Benga's "Diary of an Afro Warrior".

The thing is that the more i listen to this music the more i tend to think that it's all about the wobble. You put a wobble on a loop and there you have your dubstep tune ready to market.

Is Burial just an outsider or an incorrectly labeled musician or does he belong to dubstep? And if he does why do i have the impression that he's the only one who still isn't a victim of the wobble-fashion? Are there more musicians that try to produce that dark sound?

big_o · Post by **big_o** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:45 pm

Joker!!!

Stereotyping at all................???

noodle · Post by **noodle** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:49 pm

Take what like, ignore what you don't.
Simple as that.
Wobble, for some, including myself, is an element of the sound that I enjoy.
Yes, there are tracks that sort of trap themselves in the format of beats, wobble, build up sounds etc.
But why should it concern you so much? Just let music do what it wants and don't think too much about categories and pigeon-holing.

I'd go on more but I really don't have much of a brain.

slothrop · Post by **slothrop** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:50 pm

lbolognini wrote:Are there more musicians that try to produce that dark sound?

Yes, lots. Dig deeper.

Listen to eg Ruffage Sessions on SubFM or Dusk & Blackdown on Rinse, for starters.

ashley · Post by **ashley** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:50 pm

Chuck Norris once had a fight with wobble and won.

setspeed · Post by **setspeed** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:08 pm

if you're genuine here, then quick summary:

burial came up through the dubstep scene but, musically, moved towards the fringes i would say.

wobble is arguably (personally, i would say it's certainly) the dominant sound in dubstep....

.... but there is certainly a lot of other stuff to look out for. check the people mentioned in slothrop's post. check also: martyn, 2562, shackleton, appleblim, pinch, forsaken... probably best to look for DJ mixes including those people really, they would include other similar stuff.

the good thing about dubstep right now is that there are a lot of different sounds all grouped together under the one umbrella. it doesn't all sound like rusko, so get hunting!

blackdown · Post by **blackdown** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:16 pm

setspeed wrote:burial came up through the dubstep scene but, musically, moved towards the fringes i would say.

he didn't move towards the fringes, he's outsold every other dubstep artist on a single release, bar none i'd wager, and reached the heights of the Mercury Prize shortlist.

and he did it by taking inspiration from an earlier era of dubstep (primarily 2000-02) and the foundation influences of dubstep (like say jungle, garage, hardcore and detroit, amongst other things...)

ory · Post by **ory** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:27 pm

talking about nuum music, burial is as hardcore as it gets..

setspeed · Post by **setspeed** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:28 pm

Blackdown wrote:
setspeed wrote:burial came up through the dubstep scene but, musically, moved towards the fringes i would say.
he didn't move towards the fringes, he's outsold every other dubstep artist on a single release, bar none i'd wager, and reached the heights of the Mercury Prize shortlist.

and he did it by taking inspiration from an earlier era of dubstep (primarily 2000-02) and the foundation influences of dubstep (like say jungle, garage, hardcore and detroit, amongst other things...)

i don't disagree with a word of that!

but i mean musically... i bought South London Boroughs because I wanted to play it in my sets. It was a bit left of centre, but it was a roller, and broadly fitted into the spectrum of 'dancefloor' dubstep that was around at the time. I reckon, anyway.

I'd say that now, though that Burial's stuff has developed in a more chilled-out kind of way. The rest of dubstep, what's popular, is hype wobbley Caspa/Benga/Coki stuff, 2 steppy TRG stuff, jungle influenced Cluekid and Sully stuff..... etc etc. Burial's stuff has kind of gone the other way i'd say.

He's definitely the biggest seller in dubstep but stylistically i'd say he's moved away from the dancefloor bedrock of the sound. which is what i meant by 'fringe'

fearless · Post by **fearless** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:29 pm

great thread, welcome back to 2006..

slothrop · Post by **slothrop** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:32 pm

I'm always slightly suprised that there aren't millions of Burial knockoffs, actually. Also Mala. They both get a lot of love, and it shouldn't be much harder to produce a second rate Mala or Burial ripoff than it is to produce a second rate Rusko or Coki ripoff, but noone seems to do it...

kion · Post by **kion** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:38 pm

you can paint by numbers but when it comes to texture...

DFRNT · Post by **DFRNT** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:54 pm

I've always had a hard time putting Burial in the 'dubstep' category because I feel he is (as mentioned above) very much on the fringes of what most people see the genre as.

However there are plenty guys not doing the wobble thing. I for one try to produce without the wobble these days - I dipped in to it for my debut EP, but I'm drifting in to more chilled, synthy territory - leaving the wobble to those who do it best.

I love a bit of wub-wub at a rave/dance and even at home or on the mp3 player - but production wise, I like to try different sounds.

joe muggs · Post by **joe muggs** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:10 pm

I think this calls for a celebration - this is the two hundred and fiftieth time this thread has been started in the past 12 months!

kion · Post by **kion** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:12 pm

stephane?

dubsteptim · Post by **dubsteptim** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:27 pm

check martyn, headhunter, appleblim, trg, 2562, kode 9, etc

random trio · Post by **random trio** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:28 pm

more importantly .... me

djake · Post by **djake** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:31 pm

threads like these make me chuckle....

pure · Post by **pure** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:37 pm

wobble is for the rave

setspeed · Post by **setspeed** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:44 pm

Joe Muggs wrote:I think this calls for a celebration - this is the two hundred and fiftieth time this thread has been started in the past 12 months!

...and the second time it's been trolled in one page!

the guy seemed genuine enough, the responses have all been genuine enough... perhaps if you just want to rip the piss you could do it in the Welcome Back thread, keep it all in one place?

So is it all about the wobble?

So is it all about the wobble?

Re: So is it all about the wobble?

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