A WAY AROUND THE BRIDGE

13 thoughts on “A WAY AROUND THE BRIDGE”

1. Unfortunately for Droid/Kromestar this “remix” just makes the original Subnation/Ray Keith versions 93/94 sound that much more amazingly prescient!

2. Kromestars grimey 1s are ill – like a less focussed Spyro or Shotz. ‘oldstep’ off the Platinum EP is alot.

3. Alex is OTM. Another limp remix of ’13 year old jungle anthem is not what the world needs right now. Derivative sampling seems to be a big thing in dubstep…

   OK bassline though.

4. ‘droid’ – you are right. dubstep is the land of diminishing historical returns, a kind of geriatric last-gasp of London’s jungle/garage. but it has some brilliant ideas — the way Droid’s work (& several others) places the *speed* & movement of a song in the bassline itself, this is amazing to me, & quite powerful when it’s successful, esp. if you hear in on a proper soundsystem when the bass’s massive central presence can be heard & felt.

5. Im not debating the power of dubstep at all. Im not a fanatic, but I have been perusing the scene and buying the odd record for the last four years, so I am somewhat aware of the potential of the music.

   My issue is with the somewhat contrived attempts to make connections with jungle – to bridge the gap between 95/96 and today, to me derivitave sampling smacks a little bit of laziness, going over old ground for the sake of it. If an artist does something new and creative with an old sample (ala Amen Andrews for example), then great, if hes just going through the motions then whats the point other than self consciously referencing a cultural/musical landmark? I prefer to hear NEW samples in dubstep (take ‘ancient memories’ or request line’ as very obvious examples) – that way there is at least a chance of creating new vibes with the music. Theres a world of sounds out there waiting to be sampled and incorporated into dubstep – a canon and a vibe waiting to be created.

   BTW – i like the way I get the ”s round my name. I guess us DJ’s just have to accept the primacy of producers – we’re just renting a title until someone comes along with a few MP3’s to claim it… no matter how long we’ve been around… 🙁

6. droid, i put ”s around your name b/c it seems like you are *not* the droid (aka kromestar) whose music i posted & discussed on this blog entry. pls don’t read into it!

   this happens a ton, esp in UK, where artist from similar scenes chance upon the same name (like Kano & Kano, Spooky & Spooky, Plasticman & Plasticman, Droid & Droid, etc)

7. Ha! Sorry for being tetchy so. I’ve had to deal with a lot of confusion about this lately.

8. C’mon…this tune is absolutely heavy. Claims about retro-referencing annoy me because there is little evidence for it – there actually isn’t a lot of old jungle sampling in dubstep, the claim just doesn’t stand up. You’d start to worry if people started making ‘Jonny’ and ‘Ricky’ tunes but its just not happening.

   What you have to understand about this tune in the dance is that its fundamentally a very weighty, rushy tune, the sort of thing which when dropped (like I’ve heard it by Chef or N-Type at fwd) kicks the dance into another gear. The sample is absolutely crucial, its a engine for increased intensity because of the shared cultural memories it triggers and the tune wouldn’t have the impact it does without it.

   Its a simple tune and not making any claims to world-shaking greatness, the sort of thing which should be mixed out after 2 mins but in the ebb and flow of the DJ set it finds a power which it probably doesn’t have on its own.

9. thanks, Logos. i agree. this sample usage = ‘shared cultural memories’, its not about nostalgia here, its about drawing on that & referencing (& creating) a history, playing with it. (and, of course, its about the bass.)

   it’s really cool that its just a tiny sample of someone saying ‘Scotty’ but to those of us who’ve heard that sample before, it brings in all these other associations & connotations. maybe it repeats a bit too much in the tune, but that’s no problem a DJ can’t fix….

   when i knock dubstep for being derivative of d&b, i’m rarely thinking about samples, its more of the sonic feel of statis that turned me off of most of the 2-step type drum&bass, when its very techy.

10. Fair enough Logos. We’ll have to agree to disagree. It looks (and sounds) different from outside the scene. To me this seems like a by-the-numbers dubstep tune with an OK bassline. Its the simplicity that I find so boring – the only thing that lifts it up a notch is that sample – and as we know that ‘rush’ is imported from the original context in which it was sampled – he doesnt do anything new with the vocal either – in fact it almost sounds like it was sampled from the Subnation record and not from Evil Dead.

    RE: Jungle referencing – what about ‘Bloodclot artattack’? hasnt that been used more than once recently? I know Ive heard a good few more on mixes as well, so i think there is some evidence to suggest its a factor. Plus – how do you know there isnt a ‘ricky’ or a ‘johnny’ on the way? 😉

11. There probably is lol…

    Now where’s my copy of Marked for Death? 😉

12. dubstep is not a “geriatric last gasp” thats a load of balls. this tune is not typical of dubstep anyway. listen to mala, benga, kode 9, skream. there’s a lot of innovation there not least in the particular vibe and feel of it live. like deep head music you can skank to.

    this tune is unusually dry and simple and is a bit derivative. however, it has a special something when dropped in a mix for a little while due to its excellent dub-funkiness and sheer FATNESS. its not designed to be sat and home and listened to in isolation anyway.

13. Dj Hype uses this in dreamscape 7.. fucking tune!