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Favorite ThisNatty's Picks of the Week - Volume 4

Published: January 26, 2011

 

By: Natty Morrison

Well hello again, old friend! What a tickle of a coincidence, meeting here once more! How strange that we would again meet right here at The Untz.com. It’s been every Thursday for the past . . . Let’s see, four weeks? What peculiar luck! Truly marvelous! Say, this gives me a splendid idea: What say we embrace this strange bit of serendipity and agree to keep meeting here every week – every Thursday to be precise – for some rest, relaxation, and of course only the absolutely filthiest in electronic music today. This Saturday, I’ll be hunkered down mid-dance floor at the Kinetic Playground in Chicago for a set from my current favorite DJ, NiT GriT. But before my body is shattered by demonic bass tones, I’ll have a chance to catch four other outstanding acts throughout the night. This week, I thought I’d give you all a taste of what you might be missing out on this Saturday night.

1. “Rude Boy x Sweet Shop ATK RMX”- DJ Attack

There’s a lot of pressure to be huge when you name yourself DJ Attack. That pressure doesn’t seem to get to Zachary Bohm (aka Attack) too much. His music is exactly what his name promises: chaotic, pulsing and full of jagged-edged bass blasts that should keep you on your toes.

2. “Freakz Come out at Night” - The Car Thief and Hendrix

Next up on the evening’s program is Bandiit, a duo comprised of equal parts Chris Hemstreet (WSK) and Sean McCarthy (The Car Thief). Also the co-founders of Wolf Pack Records, the two specialize in arresting and what I’d call nerve-racking dubstep, (or nervestep, if you so please). Check out this remix of the Whodini classic, “The Freaks Come Out at Night,” and notice how every time a stutter or glitch hits your ears it feels like your heart skipping a beat.

3. Arcadia! - LoBounce

Listening to LoBounce, and his patented “drippy bass,” feels a lot like smoking PCP with Denzel in Training Day. Down-tempo, hip-hop and funk beats all get dropped, while LoBounce drizzles the track with drops of his shaky drippy bass. “I didn’t know you liked to get wet?” Me neither.

4. “Where’s Yo Head At? (HULKS Rave Monster Remix)” – Hulk

One of the biggest perks of being a DJ must be choosing your name. No one takes you less seriously if your name is absurd; if anything they respect you more for it. I have a vague level of disappointment because I know I can never rename myself after my favorite comic book character. If that were true, then everyone would already be calling me Natty “Archie and Jughead” Morrison and we’d be done with the whole ordeal. At any rate, Hulk (aka Claw and Richie August) has an almost perfect name, and you’ll see why when droning electro suddenly gets destroyed by angry, angry whomp. Notice I said “almost perfect” . . .that’s because I actually do love it when he’s angry.

5. “Relief” – Spankalicious

If you can find a way to get past the hypnotic bounce and sway of Spankalicious’ music, you’ll start to find strange bits of synth, stretched out and hung up all over the place. Because he (Kevin Moore) likes to move at a slow-but-steady tempo, it gives him plenty of space to fill it with glitch. It’s easy to pass it off as mere decoration, but a better guess would be calling it some sort of modern-day monument.

6. “Dimethyltryptamine” – NiT GriT

Oh come on now, did you really think I was going to leave out the master of dub, NiT GriT? That’s just foolish. You won’t find me breaking the pattern of “Top 5 list” very often, but I’m making an exception. I could rhapsodize about the understated genius of NiT for pages and pages without ever fully explaining my infatuation with his music. In a nutshell, he makes dubstep a true artform. This is no booty music; this is raw, visceral, intense and, above all, full of beauty. Here’s my favorite NiT track, a loving ode to a drug that has sparked so many incoherent ramblings.

If you’re an artist who’d like to be featured on Natty’s Picks of the Week, shoot me an email at natty@theuntz.com.


Tags: Dubstep