Artist Spotlight | Dirt Monkey – Dubstep is What?

Sadly, due to various circumstances, one of which includes an increase in the accessibility of production related materials (DAWs, plug-ins, YouTube training videos, etc.) and thusly a spike in the number of unqualified producers flooding the scene, we now find the unfortunate phrase “dubstep is dead” appearing in much higher frequencies, from all corners of the EDM-o-sphere. With an over-saturated market producing less that average tunes, we certainly understand the frustration coming from current and former fans of this perhaps “endangered” production method.

Despite the fact that I will unabashedly admit to being a tremendous fan of this particular genre, in all honestly, dubstep has assuredly lost part of its former attractive luster that had previously captivated me so. When Skrillex infused his own concoction of punk-rocking, face-melting bass modulation into the originally underground, 2-step garage motif, and introduced it to America, it was a goddamn fucking revolution.

Sorry for the language ladies and Ned Flanders, but it emphasizes my point.

Okalie dokalie Ragerrinos?

Now, four years and about a trillion releases later, dubstep has all but exhausted the transient stranglehold and warm welcome it had once possessed in the American electronic dance music market. On the other, more positive hand however, the genre has indeed given rise to a panoply of increasingly popular spinoff styles like drumstep, melodic dubstep, and lovestep, spawning game-changing producers like Figure, Seven Lions and Kill Paris.

Personally, I firmly believe that instead of immediately writing off any future attempts at dubstep production, we as fans must re-think the way we find and critique music in general. Dig deeper. The good stuff, the original stuff, is usually at the bottom, or in the last place you’d think to find it. And sure, we’ve heard a lot of the same samples and instrumental arrangements over and over, but lets focus more so on the talent involved in developing a song’s chord progression or the crispness, vividness and fullness obtained in an artist’s mastering of their work.

However, setting all cynical premonitions aside, to this day we still manage to find dubstep producers creating unique, mind-blowing music that raises a similar set of goose bumps on our skin to the ones initially produced by our knight in shining armor, the champion of “brostep,” Sonny Moore.

Holy shit, I was supposed to introduce this next artist wasn’t I?

Whoops.

Dirt Monkey, his name says it all frankly. As usual, below we have included a smattering of the dankness from this Boulder, Colorado-based rager named Patrick Megeath. It will be all you need.

Want more? You got eyeballs, a mouse and half a brain right?

SoundCloud: @dirtmonkey
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We Got Mad Love for Monstercat: Pegboard Nerds & Tristam – Razor Sharp [HAPPY, HEAVY, FRESH]

We know a banger when we hear one. Apparently, so does Monstercat.

As you may have noticed, Monstercat Media has opened the proverbial flood gates when it comes to releasing new music. Day after day, week after week, this relatively new record label continues to pump out fresh EDM releases. Monstercat Records has proven that independent record labels can reshape the landscape of the music industry, and for the better.

The best part about this jam is the juxtaposition of genres that Pegboard Nerds and Tristam have created. The song begins to build with sort of an old-school, electro-house vibe. Queue those stratospheric, glitchy synthesizers and drop the bass. Where are we now? A glitched out, feel-good house track. Pegboard Nerds and Tristam switch up the style throughout the track to form a darker, ‘Razor Sharp’ drop.

Wait, your telling me that’s the name of the song? No way!

The team of producers have slapped a label of Moombahcore onto this new hit. Whats that you ask?

We’ll according to our friends at Wikipedia, aka the source of knowledge on the mysterious place known as the Internet, Moombahcore is a style of house music deviating from Moombahton. It can range to include elements of Dutch House, Reggaeton, Breakcore, Dubstep and Brostep as well. Typical Moombahcore tracks feature “wobble bass, FM synthesis, distorted basses, violent snares and leads, and complex drum patterns.”

The more you know.