Aaron, meet dubstep

I had heard the name dubstep as genre, or subgroup of electronic music or whatever but never really had a good idea of the exact sound. My only real experience with something that has been labeled as such was the album I bought a little over a year ago, Untrue by Burial. I randomly came upon the album browing on AmazonMP3 and was really intrigued by the whole story. This album is apparently highly critically acclaimed and to my mind is quite unique. The best part though is that no one knows who the guy/girl is.

On first listen, I must say I thought the whole album kinda sounded all the same but man, after a few go rounds you start to love it. It's dark and haunting sometimes but subtle and uplifting at other points. It's cool, check it out. Hernan Catteneo, Argentinian super DJ, threw the track "Archangel" in one of his mixes a while ago. I like the nod but the original is better.

But that was a while ago. A few weeks ago, my interest was renewed when a friend recommended the ResidentAdvisor.net podcast by FaltyDL. When the bass dropped out on that first track I knew I had found something. If you wanna hear the song on it's own you can check out the MySpace page for the artist, Ultragamma. The song is "Stars Collapse". So good.

I should mention that up to this point I had never really gotten into podcasts for music. Besides "This American Life" I was basically ignorant of any good podcasts. After finding the ResidentAdvisor podcast though, that all changed. In the last couple weeks I've made an effort to find some more good ones. Just linking through the recommended ones in Itunes, I found the Cold Cut podcast. You know the founders of Ninja Tune records(artists include: Amon Tobin, Antibalas, Bus Driver, Diplo, and Cadence Weapon to name a few), are gonna put some good stuff together. Also, XLR8TR maginze has a pretty good one. And Radio 360 is worth checking out. KCRW has their daily top tune that I guess Jason Bentley picks and has great variety but often I'm not it. Still love KCRW though.

Along the lines of Ultragamma but with more hiphop in it is Bassnectar. I was fortunate enough to catch him playing an intermission for Soundtribe Sector 9 (personal favorite) at Red Rocks in Denver. If you ever have a chance, go see a show there. It's amazing. Anyway, I didn't realize but Bassnecter can have the dubstep label attached to some of his work. Along the lines of the podcast, he's got a mixes for download here. I really like a lot of it. He's playing an ACL aftershow that I can wait to see.

And not that it is dubstep, but now that I mentioned Soundtribe, I'm thinking about the label they're on, 1320 Records, and how I just got an email from them the other day with some new releases from their artists. Pnuma Trio might have been on their but the real news was a new guy, Emancipator. The stuff is a downtempo mix of subtle electronica with intsruments over top A little drum and bass feel here and there to spice it up. So so so good. You can listen to the whole album on his homepage. I was really blown away by how good I thought it was. You never get an email recommending a band and have the music actually be really really good but here, you do. It's great. If you're a fan I would highly recommend the album French Cuisine by Alif Tree that came out a few years ago. I don't know much about this type of music either but I know I like it.

Editor's Note: There is no editor. There is no proof reading. I understand a blog to be an unpolished work completed in the most expedient manner possible that still gets the message across. Comments and recommendations are greatly appreciated.