I’ve got a few albums for you I bought this year, that are so good you should buy them too. So what do we have here? How about some hard-stepping drum’n’bass? Oh but that’s not all. It also has some, wait for it… dubstep influences! Or drumfunk, or whatever they call it these days.
Anyway, Peer to Peer Pressure by the duchies Eye-D and DJ Hidden is full of tunes with hard beats switching between tempo’s and genres making it one of the most original drum’n’bass/dark-electronic music albums I’ve heard in a while. When it comes to dnb they are certainly pushing the genre another notch up.

Not hectic enough for you that drum’n’bass stuff? How about turning up the tempo a notch or two, cut the breaks up into nice tiny slices and then stick them back together in a different order and use some non 4/4 patterns? Sounds good enough? Well, then you should check out the Frenchy called Ruby My Dear with his excellent Ginkgo album. Think bastard child of Venetian Snares and Mr. Oizo after a champagne orgy in the Moulin Rouge(*). If that doesn’t make sense (and it shouldn’t) you’ll just have to check out what it sounds like to find out.
This lad has released some equally sweet beats for free under the name of Doc Colibri btw.
(*) He’s French remember?

“What’s up with all the fast shit?” I hear you complain? Alright, here’s some good ear-dope to unwind after getting all souped up on the breakcore stylee. The first track I ever heard featuring Hecq was Spheres of Fury and it just blew me away. When I checked out his latest and debut album avenger, it did the very same thing. Calling this album dubstep would be insulting if you think of the typical wobbly bass-line stuff that gets pushed out by the ton these days. But this is a kick-ass album with tracks full of bass, growling and moaning synths, intricating chopped and stuttering beats which sounds quite dubsteppy at times. There, I’ve said it. But it’s a solid electronic piece of music here to stay.

Photo by hep, cc-licensed.