Misc. Reviews

In 1982, Afrika Bambaataa uncannily summarized the next two decades of DJ/producer struggle with his track "Looking for the Perfect Beat." Whenever it seems we've finally arrived at that ultimate groove, the cultural paradigm shifts. Drum 'n' bass is a prime example — at first, the genre sounded like some mad artificial intelligence program making accelerated breakbeat patterns. But it failed with its increasing aggressiveness and abstraction. Today every breakbeat-focused attempt — broken beat, Nu Skool breaks, etc. — sounds two-dimensional, in part because they're all derived from funk rhythms.

DJ Ripple steps it up.

Related Content

• Katy B: Show Preview
  January 18, 2012
• In Print: Extra Classic Gives White Reggae a Good Name, and More
  October 26, 2011
• Drop the Lime: Show Preview
  February 1, 2012
• Hip-Hop Legend Grand Wizard Theodore on His Three Favorite DJs
  June 16, 2011
• Afrika Bambaataa on the Origins of Hip-hop, the Perfect Beat, and His Most Treasured Record
  November 24, 2010

More About

• Afrika Bambaataa
• South London
• Lee "Scratch" Perry

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

In contrast, dubstep is a mostly South LondonÐemanating sub-subgenre that boldly rejects funk beats as its core rhythms. Built on the high-hat shuffles of U.K. two-step garage, but slowed to a resinous half-time tempo, dubstep achieves a sense of total otherness while comprising elements of larger genres. Jamaican dub fans will recognize claustrophobic echo chambers and phantom sub-basslines, but dubstep's few vocal samples don't preach Zionist optimism, and lilting island melodies don't soften its hard technical edge. Imagine dubstep as Lee "Scratch" Perry off his bipolar meds, driven to carry out Jah's vengeance on U.K. dance music for its frivolity.

Dubstep has yet to make a dent locally — and true, none of its producers currently hail from the States, but that situation didn't stop our embrace of drum 'n' bass in the '90s. Get in while the gettin's good: Catch local DJ Ripple weave a few tracks into his hybrid breakbeat sets (or available at www.subscience.org). For the purist hook-up, grab the three volumes of the mighty Dubstep Allstars import or download the weekly set on Australia's www.garagepressure.com and recordings of London pirate radio sessions at www.barefiles.com. The highest-profile broadcast is Mary Anne Hobb's Breezeblock on the BBC.

If you dig, bug your neighborhood promoter to take the next step and fly the cornerstone dubsteppers out — Britain's Skream, Digital Mystikz, Plasticman, and Slaughter Mob are pushing toward that elusive perfect beat and we deserve to hear 'em.