Dubs Gone By

A while ago I was sifting through my dubstep collection, it's mostly older stuff before the whole 'brostep' thing happened, and listening to them again I found they are still quality tracks. This was meant to be a mixtapey type deal, but it decided to crap out and delete half of itself right before I went to post it. That and I'd like to revisit the old type of posting for this one to talk more about the tracks themselves. I've mentioned before how the 'step pays homage to its reggae roots, there's no shortage of it flying around within the genre. The couple I've posted before put a more modern spin on the Dub sound, like replacing the organ melodies with bass rumbles instead. This one however, stays fairly true to the source material and is all the better for it.



And with that out of the way I'm gonna give a rundown of some gems I found during the making of the ultimately failed mixtape, first up is Caspa with the charmingly named Custard Chucker with some lovely wobbles suiting that title. And it actually DOES have a reggae style organ in it!

CASPAofficial · Custard Chucker (feat. Rusko)

More reggae stylings to come as we pay a trip to Benga's neck of the woods have a gander at the couple of fine examples he has for us for us on his album Newstep. That main hook is damn catchy, and it manages to stay fresh throughout, especially when it starts to get cut up around 1:50.



Joker has gotten more popular in recent years, I have a spattering of his tracks here and there, and this is one f my favourites along with his remix of Snake Eater from MGS3. Following a similar path to Dubstep Dreams, this track is centered around a single hook and variations upon it, and like Dubstep Dreams it's incredibly catchy and overall just good dub



Rusko was one of my favourite producers way back in '08. That all changed around the release of his first album, and now the tracks he makes these days are geared towards the mainstream and just don't have that same vibe that his early productions had, and they remain quality examples even to this day. The evolution from Garage (the UK Garage that is, stuff like this track) is clear on this one, which is the kinda tunes I grew up with, and is something I'd like to see the scene revisit one day.



I can't really jive with much of the new dubstep scene, it's so far gone from the original sound that it's not even the same anymore. Saying that there are a few producers who stick to the old sound and do it well, or have evolved their sound in a way that makes it more modern, but also y'know, good. You can find quality in dubstep, you just have to look, or sometimes go backwards.

A Rainy Day,
- Claude Van Foxbat