Skream is an artist best known for tough Dubstep. Here he’s toying with House and 2-Step with floorshaking results. His track ‘One For The Heads’ has Summer Anthem potential!
UK artist Skream is increasingly veering off the beaten Dubstep track and this collection of his most recent dubplates makes a knowing nod towards the current trend of adding some House flavours to the mix.
The list of Dubstep artists exploring common ground between their bass heavy, punctuated styles and the mellower more flowing sounds of House is getting longer. Early Chicago House, Deep House and the more soulful end of Detroit Techno make up the pool that the more experimental Dubsteppers are dipping into.
The key artists are people like Martyn and Scuba, even veteran Dubstep producer Kode 9 has added a touch of House to his latest 12″ ‘Bad’. So it’s pretty much touted as the sound for 2009 at the moment.
Skream is pretty hard core when it comes to Dubstep. His trademark sounds are basslines that are so mashed up they are a mere sub-frequency wobble around metallic percussion and precise, almost surgical cuts and edits. He is also extremely prolific and turns out dubplates, test pressings of tunes for the scene’s most in demand DJs, at a high rate.
The ‘Skreamizm’ series of compilations picks the most popular dubplates and makes them available to a wider audience. Volume V has its usual share of Skream’s in-your-face Dubstep tracks that will sound better in a club than at home - But it also features three new cuts that sound completely different and totally fresh.
The three standout tracks on ‘Skreamizm 5′ are ‘One For The Heads Who Remember’, ‘Rimz’ and ‘If You Know’.
The Deep House flavoured ‘If You Know’ explores the hypnotic repetition of old skool Chicago. But Skream being Skream, there are new touches here that update the house formula and bring it firmly into the here and now. ‘If You Know’ manages to be both House-y and in-your-face at the same time. There’s a hint of the Baltimore sound about it - sweaty party music that pushes all the right buttons - but Skream stops short of the typical B-more cheesyness.
‘Rimz’ explores a similar territory. Skream is definitely in party mode here and when the break hits you two thirds into the track it’s almost like one of those Trance moments were all hands shoot into the air and you gnash your teeth waiting for the bassline to come back in.
But the real killer is ‘One For The Heads Who Remember’, a shuffling 2-Step track that goes all the way back to the short-lived UK scene circa 1998. If you’re one of the heads Skream’s dedicating the tune to, you may recall MJ Cole, the Artful Dodger or Craig David. ’nuff said. For a year or so 2-Step, or Speed Garage as it was also sometimes called, with its fast, shuffling rhythm and smooth vocal hooks looked like it might break into the mainstream as the UK’s answer to US R&B. It didn’t. But it was fun while it lasted.
Skream’s tune is immense. Not just because nobody has revisited 2-Step with any remarkable results in a good while, but also because Skream’s got a really strong tune here. Smooth and solid, ‘One For The Heads Who Remember’ has got summer anthem potential.
Check out the Skreamizm 5 Mini-Mix on Skream’s My Space page.
[Rating 4/5]
Please note: ‘Skreamizm 5′ is currently only available on triple 12″ vinyl on Tempa Records from any good record shop stocking Dubstep or via mailorder. E-mail us at editor@tuneraker.com or leave a comment below if you would like help in locating a copy.
