Kode9 - Memories of the Future: my viewpoint and Boomkat's

Okay, so I really do love Boomkat. They're an indispensible resource for following new releases, as well as listening to these releases through the ample sound samples they provide. Their reviewers are clearly ardent fans of music and I appreciate that. I wanted to mention this before quoting an excerpt from their review of Kode9's new album:

Indeed the album seems to relish the idea of the community splintering and refracting through a basscone prism . . . .

What?

[Kode9 is] attempting to create a quietly euphoric torque of rampant breakbeat science . . . .

Huh?

I don't know what it means to relish the idea of a community splintering and refracting. I'm not sure what a basscone prism is, or how it relates to what Kode9 is doing. I certainly don't know what a quietly euphoric torque is. Isn't torque rotational force? Que?

My view of Memories of the Future is somewhat different. I agree with Boomkat: Kode9 is trying to do something new within the often-formulaic dubstep template. However, he fails as much as he succeeds on this record. Unfortunately he doesn't avoid the standard dubstep formula of establishing a minimalist rhythm and simple melody and then running it into the ground over the course of a 5 minute track. Most of Memories of the Future could really do with being fleshed out further; instead, on tracks like "Backward" and "Curious," Kode9 is content to establish a basic idea and repeat it over and over throughout the track. The previously-released "Kingstown" is also a repetitive disappointment. Furthermore, the beatless vignettes that pop up over the course of the album don't add much; they're static and not forward-moving enough.

These failures are a shame, because when Kode9 succeeds in conveying his idea of a newly stripped-down and cinematic dubstep aesthetic the results are impressive. Unsurprisingly, the best tracks are the shorter ones. "Portal" is a good track: a lopsided rhythm and sideways melody satisfyingly compete with the Spaceape's musings. "Quantum" carves out a cavernous space that points to one possible future direction of dubstep.

And Kode9 acheives greatness once on this record, with the fantastic production "9 Samurai" (which was already heard on Dubstep Allstars, Vol. 3). On this track, Kode9 mixes together an uncharacteristic horn riff, a well-chosen vocal sample, and the skeleton of a breakbeat and keeps it all concise, clocking in under 4 minutes. It's a wonderful performance and indeed makes a step towards validating Kode9's press as the Next Big Thing in dubstep. Too bad the rest of the album doesn't follow suit.

Contrarian Views on Vinyl

So once upon a time (or currently, if you're Steve Albini), the fans of vinyl records kind of sort of maybe had a point. The argument went: Well, I'm recording all of my instruments onto analog tape, so let's keep the analog signal chain intact and put stuff out on 7" and 12" instead of CDs, because someone told me once that analog can reproduce some sounds with more fidelity than digital or something like that.

I always thought this was stupid, but whatever. At least the indie labels also put their music out on CDs, so I could ignore the sneering hipsters with their old-school technology.

Jump to the present. Electronic music production is now almost completely digital. Digital synths, digital recording technology, everything computerized. Songs are also mastered digitally. Even the rare artist who uses analog equipment records it using digital media. So then -- why do electronic musicians still put music out on vinyl?! And why is dubstep almost completely vinyl-based?

You see, the argument that it sounds better on analog than digital is patently stupid, given that the music started as digital sound files in the first place. I can't emphasize this enough. It is impossible for a digital sound file to miraculously sound better when it's transferred to vinyl. A basic rule of audio recording is that sound quality does not spontaneously improve as it moves through the signal chain. Yes, encoding MP3s at lower bitrates does reduce quality, but a lossless digital file absolutely does not have lower sound quality than vinyl. I doubt that even the most ardent analog-head would be able to tell the difference between a 320kbps MP3 and a 12".

But wait! you might say. What about DJs? Don't they use vinyl for DJing? And indeed they do. But this is an astoundingly outdated technology. Computer-based DJing is much more powerful and indeed easier to do than DJing on vinyl, and I suspect that's why many DJs turn their noses up at it: After having spent so much time to learn the pointless trade of living in the 1960's and scratchin' it up on the wheels of steel, how dare these noobs come along and use a computer program like Traktor that can create mixes so much more seamlessly? Arrogance is the only explanation. It's hard to change those entrenched ways.

Now, none of this would matter that much if dubstep labels also put their releases out on CD or -- preferably -- as downloadable MP3s from sites like Bleep. But most labels don't, which means that I can't get most of the new dubstep singles (not to mention that most dubstep labels don't have US distribution), which are often released only on vinyl. Yes, I could download them from soulseek; but I really do want to pay the artists for their labors. I listen to music only on my computer or iPod, and I'm not going to buy a turntable simply because many dubstep labels want to resolutely stare into the past rather than look at the future.

I want to point out that some labels are really great about making their releases available digitally through Bleep; fantastic labels such as Planet Mu and Hotflush are an example of what the other labels should be doing.

So, unless you're a dubstep producer recording your analog synths and 909 into your tape-based 8-track, let's please update our technological thinking to, oh, perhaps the mid-80's? Thanks.

The state of dubstep

Is dubstep already starting to stagnate?

As a viable full-on genre it really isn't even that old yet. Although its roots are years old, I wouldn't consider it to have reached some sort of fruition until recently, when genuine subgenres began to assert themselves. Certainly dubstep is moving into some sort of early maturity, where IDM-styled artists like Boxcutter can rub shoulders with old-reliables such as the DMZ crew. Yet it isn't maturing enough. Or rather, it's already starting to eat its own tail, with genre "purists" demanding output that sounds a lot like most of the dubstep singles that are already out there.

Now, certainly there are plenty of people taking dubstep in fresh new directions. Along with the aforementioned Boxcutter, there's the brainy aggrostep of Milanese; the brilliant breaks subgenre practiced by the Hotflush crew; the spartan, cinematic minimalism of Kode9 (whose new album Memories of the Future I've only gotten around to listening to once so far -- more on that soon); and, perhaps most excitingly, the fantastic efforts of Various Production. I'm clearly the only person who doesn't love the new Burial record, but at least he's expanding the dubstep sound in a new direction.

But for every pathbreaking artist, there's a new artist eager to
sound exactly like a bunch of the other bog-standard guys, or an established artist happy to recreate more versions of his past singles. There's already a well-established Casio dubstep preset: start with some swirling ambient sounds, throw in some subbass and a desultory rhythm, perhaps add a suitably aggro vocal sample, and repeat for 6 minutes.

This is what happened with drum 'n' bass. There were plenty of innovations but in the end it seemed all that most producers wanted to do was play the Amen break for 8 minutes. There's still some vital music being made in the scene -- check out Exile's LP on Planet Mu -- but people moved on. And with good reason.

So, at the very least, can I declare a moratorium on Rutger Hauer samples from Sin City and the constant homages to the old school? There's some life left in the old-school styles, as DJ Pinch has devastatingly shown with the one-two punch of Qawwali and Punisher, but let's look forward instead of backwards.