The Top 5 EPs of This (1/3) Year

These are never easy. Besides dealing with the inevitable bickering that occurs between the Rager crew members, I get a lot of shit from my sixty year old mother actually. She likes that super grimy shit, you know? The kind of music you get down and ultra dirty to. She’s really into free love these days. Look her up.

However, I’m probably going to get a frying pan upside the head for this next list…maybe the LAXX will save me.

5. LAXX – Step One [Never Say Die]

Going hard in the paint, err…I mean studio.

4. Various Artists – Prophication Remix EP [Mau5trap]

Giant remixes to an even bigger EP from last year.

3. Kill Paris – Foreplay EP [OWSLA]

Thank you for another awkward music boner KP.

2. Seven Lions – Worlds Apart [Casablanca Records]

You kidding me, Seven Lions? You’re not of this Earth.

1. Galantis – Galantis EP [Big Beat Records]

Christian Karlsson of Miike Snow and Linus Eklow aka Style Of Eye = Galantis

Honorable Mention: Barely Alive – Lost In The Internet EP [Disciple]

Just about every producer and their mother have attempted to remix a piece of Barely Alive’s latest masterpiece.

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
FB: www.facebook.com/dirtmonkeymusic
Twitter: twitter.com/dirtmonkeymusic

 

 

 

 

Stonebank – Eagle Eyes (feat. Emel) [MONSTERCAT]

When it comes to producing melodic dubstep, living in the shadow of an artist like Seven Lions is certainly no walk in the park. In order for an emerging artist to grab the attention of the electronic dance world, they must offer up a track that is truly a work of art, something rather special. Unfortunately, it is the inherent predisposition we all share as human beings that clouds our judgement when listening to new music. We are more willing to accept or enjoy a production from an artist in which we are already acquainted with (call it a bias if you will). We want their music to be good because we have already invested time in the artist(s) in question.

Fortunately for this next producer, he picked the right platform in which to springboard his euphonic genius onto our collective ears. It’s not even a contest any more, Monstercat = good music. It is as simple as that. Word up to our Canadian brethren pumping out wildly enjoyable EDM tunes day in and day out.

With the help of our feline friends, Stonebank brings us his first discernible release to date. “Eagle Eyes” (featuring vocals by EMEL) will warp the listener on a journey through a dense, dynamically shifting melodic dubstep landscape eloquently crafted by this up and coming producer hailing from, you guessed it, the UK.