Effing Ish(mat) Up

So basically - I was just thinking recently how BLARDY GOOD Shitmat's 'chopped & screwed' style dubstep remix of Ebola's Teledildonics was a few years back [I've put the link in further down for dramatic effect, don't watch], as well as how (apart from on that tune really) producers never really capitalised on the links between the more more f*cked up + ridiculously slow elements of harder bits of the two.

Then BAM - the track just pops up right at the end on this fantastic new Jerk'n'Jive mix from the man himself on mixcloud (by name at least - heads up to anyone trying to actually spot it inna mix...).

You'd have thought that the two sounds would have been perfect for cross-fertilisation (dubstep + chopped & screwed), and indeed, many people linked the deep south's post G-funky purple drankin crunkness with the massively popular purple trend in the UK circa '09 super trendy Joker and Gemmy shizzle.

But, let's be honest here, the link was really one of convenience / #trendspotting, and more in the name than anything else. UK purple stuff was really more Chronic 2001 than Swishahouse, don't you think?

Texan dubstep producer Parson put out a really good 12" on Planet Mu back in 2007 hybridizing the two sounds nicely, but it wasn't very screwed up, was it?

Shitmat's Ebola remix was, however.

It's got that all important near psychedelic element to it - just like with chopped & screwed hip-hop, the track doesn't just sound druggy, it sounds like drugs. The music sounds like you're on drugs (not that I would know obviously, just an educated guess), hard drugs; not rainbow chasing, but 'wtf is going on here,' 'i'm really confused' and 'is it just me, or is does that music sound really f*cked up?' Those pull ups that dive in and out of the mix, the twitchy skippy repetitive beat that plows through, all those pads bouncing about resembling a tune going through some sort of phasing flanger blender. It's ravey, in a really fucked up way. Just like how dubstep used to sound to the uninitiated ear back when it started.

All of this got me thinking about the current 'footwork influenced' trend amongst producers in the UK, where the US import chi-sound seems to be making far greater waves than its Southern counterpart ever did in an already very established dubstep scene back in 2007-2009 ish, despite such obvious links.

At that time there was a wealth of enthusiasm towards the purely UK music that was being produced (dubstep, grime, bassline). It's interesting to move from a time like that to a time like this, where cross pollination is not just ripe, it's almost the standard.

Is it just me, or is this inbetweeny, filling in the gap until the next big 'nuum' thing, looking all over the place for new influences (see kwaito, footwurk, drumstep, 90s dance, 808s, permaretro chique) phase that we're in in now not hugely similar to the post-garage pre-grime early '00s  - IDM, jump up d'n'b, electro breaks, breakcore, dark garage etc (I wasn't really 'on the ball' hipsterwise back then, so can't really say myself...).

Also - on the j(UK)e, Addison Groove buying an old roland drum machine instead of a car thing (google it) - despite writing some very sick 140 or less bpm "UK bass" tunes [h8 that ridiculously generic tag now], I do sort of get the feeling that these producers have deliberately left that all important spEEdy 'E' out 'jukE (lol).'
 
Just putting it out there...