Dubstep Recommendations May 2016

Review: Dom Tarasek aka Commodo has already appeared on perhaps the biggest dubstep labels around, and he made his name from the string of releases on Mala's Deep Medi Muzik - not exactly a bad place to start your career, that's for sure. However, he's now branching out to other quality households, and this new LP on Black Acre feels just right in every single way. Right because his deep, brooding sound fits ever so well with the rest of the label, and right because How What Time flows perfectly as an album unit. There are three tunes on each side of the two slabs of wav, and they work as perfect, tidy trios that carry the same sort of leftward bass sound, one that never goes to deep as to become abstract, but also never gets too violent as to become silly. All in all, it is masterfully executed dubstep for the 2016 palate. Killer.

Review: Fresh from his #DontFreakOut mixtape, the Darqman returns with another cavalcade of fusions. "Hallucinate" says it all; crisp layers of synths twinkling and flexing over swaggering beats and groaning reese, it's all of rave's many nuances smelted down into a smoking 140 mould. "Flabbergasted" continues the theme with evocative synth lines that rise and rise like a delicately composed horror movie score while "2CI" pays respect to the hippy massive with a deeply trippy-borderline-paranoid spike-jam. Drawing to a close the south Londoner unleashes more poison with the frenetic, hornets-nest riffage of "Mosquito Bite" and the widescreen, jungle-referencing breakbeat anthemity of "Venom". Truly unique.

Review: Kiwi bass head Epoch usually likes to dish out new material through his own Egyptian Avenue imprint, but he's been called up to serve his duties on Blacklist, and who could blame him for delivering the goods? Badminded, categorised on our system as 'deep dubstep', should actually be seen as the doorway between, or rather the key, between the distant planes that are electronica, new age and dubstep. Right, so we know what you're thinking, that's weird, right? But if you listen to the depth and richness of these eight slices of brain dynamite, you'll surely agree with us that Epoch's music goes way beyond the tight barriers of dubstep, and lands the listener into a wholly new sort of planet. You have to give it a go for yourself, what we can say is that it's warmly recommended.

Review: Having announced this in September 2015, San Diego's Banana Stand South have eked out a dangerously long lead time on delivery on this. But, as those who've been pensively waiting will attest, the wait is worth it: Fill Spectre's "Battle For Spice" shakes with both a funky percussion and a devilish detuned bassline. Complete with a peppering of surprises and twists in the tales, this battle is of war-like proportions. Krome's "Distinct Motive" is slightly more conventional with its halftime beat but the crying bass groans that spiral further and further into paranoid chaos create a unique character. Especially when the added sub comes in at the last minute. Freaky.