Album of the Week - SBTRKT by SBTRKT

You know what's a trend I can totally get behind? Gentrified dubstep. Allow me to qualify that. Of course, I'm not referring to race, income, et al., but rather the mainstream re-modification of this rather specific genre of electronic music.

Dubstep has by now developed a relatively concrete template--it may be hard to describe to friends in one sentence, but you know it when you hear it--so much so that if one departs from its standards, they must be re-labeled "post-dubstep" or "witch-house" or some other genre that the collective press has yet to stupidly* name.

But as dubstep continues to grow up and out of the underground, artists like Jamie Woon and SBTRKT are co-opting its styles and praxes, stripping away all the warble, murkiness and grime and re-purposing said conventions for mass, pop appeal.

"Is 2011 turning out to be the year UK bass music goes semi-mainstream?" asked Pitchfork's Jess Harvell in an April review of Jamie Woon's Mirrorwriting. With the release of SBTRKT's self-titled debut right around the corner (June 28th), alongside Woon's output and the championing of James Blake, she may be onto something.

SBTRKT's record, which I've already spun several times between Sunday night and now, runs all over the place stylistically speaking; there's something for everyone. And while the LP is delivered in broad strokes, it's more than "generic UK garage."

Don't get me wrong, the lo-fi output of Burial, Zomby, Benga, Mount Kimbie or Kode9 define dubstep, but not everyone has an ear for a track like "Endorphin." Even if you do, do you always have the patience/appreciation for it? Wouldn't you rather just dance? Honestly, it's refreshing to hear London bass in a much more glossy, digestable form and SBTRKT delivers just that.

I could complicate things further by throwing around genre terms like funky, 2-step, drum & bass, four-on-the-floor, grime, ambient, or breakbeat, but the takeaway here is to cheers an album that captures UK electronic music in an easy-to-swallow 40 minutes, not to pick SBTRKT apart influence-by-influence; its originality exists in its straightforward delivery.

*Can we honestly not do any better than "Chillwave" or "Witch-house"?

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SBTRKT - SBTRKT

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SBTRKT - Wildfire
SBTRKT - Something Goes Right
SBTRKT - Right Thing to Do

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MP3: Holiday Shores' "Spells" Sounds Like Summer

The debut LP from Florida's Holiday Shores doesn't drop 'til September, but the record's first single, "Spells," is all kinds of summer-night goodness. Reminds me of Neon Indian-meets-The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. Put this one on next time you take your baby to the boardwalk.

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Holiday Shores - Spells

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Tensnake Want's Everybody to Dance... Now

For those of you who have their fingers on the pulse of electronic music trends, this recent 90s resurgence isn't something new. But for the rest of you, it may come as a surprise that ancient 90s house jams are becoming pretty chic.

Even if #90sDance wasn't already trending, this new Tensnake remix is hot.

The German producer has already thrown some original works into the revivalism pile (see his Coma Cat EP), but his remix of Azari & III's "Reckless (With Your Love)" is better than everything you've heard on any Jock Jam CD.

Taking cues from Snap! and La Bouche, Tensnake's remix brings back everything you remember about the electro-dance boom -- For me that's turning up the radio in my mom's Chrysler Town & Country, wearing a pair of L.A. Lights and a Charlotte Hornet's Starter jacket.

Re: The ending... Yes, that familiar sample jogging your childhood dance memory is C+C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now."

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Reckless (With Your Love) [Tensnake Remix] - Azari & III

Coma Cat - Tensnake

Need Your Lovin' - Tensnake

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