Something happened to electronic music in May of 2006. The ripples of this event are still palpable, and we are yet to see what its full effects will come to be. Of course, I'm talking about the release of Burial’s self-titled debut album, which represents to my thinking the most conspicuous and forceful blossoming of a genre since grunge. The album was a vast one, whose intricacies are still being worked through even as the genre it epitomizes continues to branch out and gain a wider audience.
Since its release, dubstep has found homes in the playlists of many prominent British radio DJs, in articles (or in some cases full-fledged regular features) in major music publications such as The Wire and Pitchfork, and on the stages of major music festivals. I initially had mixed feelings about the collective ear-perking that Burial’s album demanded. It was so complex, so epiphanic, so weighty that I felt like those who hadn’t had at least some of their attention honed on the primordial ooze of dubstep that was late-’90s UK garage and grime would be missing a few important pieces of the puzzle. It would be like diving headlong into Finnegan’s Wake without ever reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man or Ulysses.
This brings me around to why I am so very excited about I Love Dubstep. This compilation is an aptly timed and remarkably accessible genealogy of dubstep that presents a more complete picture of what the genre has to offer. Over the course of two CDs, with flawless mixing and production courtesy of Youngsta and Geeneus on discs one and two respectively, the roots of the genre are roughly mapped out for us with tracks from pioneers like Horsepower Productions and Mala and Coki of Digital Mystikz, which provide missing links for those who, in the flurry of excitement and high-quality releases of the last year and a half, were left wondering where exactly all this was coming from. We are also given a type of “state of the genre” address that gives a thoroughgoing overview of some classic, archetypal tracks (Skream’s “Rottan,” Mala’s “Anti-War Dub,” and Burial’s “Archangel” are examples).
Of course, as any good compilation ought, this album offers up visions of possible futures for this still relatively nascent genre. In this particular crystal ball, we see newcomers (to dubstep at least) such as The Bug and 2562 injecting the genre with their own strains of the same virus, with some specialists, like Loefah, honing a certain sound with incredible patience and precision, taking dubstep as deep into itself as possible.
One problem, though, seems to be an arbitrary focus on a small number of artists. Skream alone lays claim to almost one-fifth of the 43 tracks, with Benga and the Digital Mystikz taking up 10 more. While these are certainly artists who need representation on any compilation claiming to deal with dubstep, I don’t see a good reason as to why we need eight Skream tracks while only getting one or two from other vital artists like Kode9, Burial, and Distance.
Aside from this minor gripe, which won’t lessen the power of this release in the slightest for people looking to broaden their dubstep horizons, this is a fantastic and necessary documentation of dubstep so far and will surely serve as a primer for many wide-eyed kids who are still drooling over Untrue and yearning for more. It’s not just for the uninitiated however; many of these tracks are unavailable outside of some hyper-rare vinyl releases, and some were commissioned specially for this comp. Fun for the whole head-nodding, bass-bombing, hi-hat tapping family.
Disc 1:
1. High Plains Drifter feat. Goldspot Productions-Sholay
2. Skream-Dutch Flowerz
3. Caspa-Rubber Chicken
4. Loefah-Mud
5. Skream-Rottan
6. D1-Malfunction
7. Benga-Flames
8. Skream-I (Loefah Remix)
9. Skream-Chest Boxing
10. Benga-Crunked Up
11. Massive Music-Find My Way (Kode9 Remix)
12. Distance-Traffic
13. Skream-Midnight Request Line
14. Benga-28 Basslines
15. Magnetic Man-Alright
16. Headhunter-Descent
17. Kromestar-Kalawanji
18. Coki-Tortured
19. Hijak-Dally
20. Pinch-Punisher
21. SP:MC-Trust Nobody
22. Mala-Left Leg Out
23. D1-Give It Back
Disc 2:
1. Shackleton-Blood On My Hands
2. Digital Mystikz-Give Jah Glory
3. TRG-Broken Heart (Martyn’s DCM Remix)
4. The Bug-Skeng
5. Digital Mystikz-Anti-War Dub
6. Horsepower Productions-Golden Nugget
7. Conquest-Hardfood
8. Skream-Oskillatah
9. Distance-V
10. Unkown-Burning
11. Skream-Make Me
12. Digital Mystikz-Haunted
13. Benga-E Trips
14. Fat Freddy’s Drop-Cay’s Crays (Digital Mystikz Remix)
15. Skream-2D
16. Benga & Coki-Night
17. Headhunter-Sushi Brain
18. 2562-Kameleon
19. Kode9-Babylon
20. DJ Abstract-Touch
21. TRG-Decisions
22. Burial-Archangel
More about: Various Artists: Rinse
