By: Anand Harsh
Who said dubstep is dead?
Plenty of top-notch acts tossed some originals and remixes into the dubstep hopper this year. The best and brightest from past year-end lists have continued to churn out some subsonic sunshine that melts our cold, robotic hearts.
Obviously, the game has changed. Trappy and trancy elements have insinuated themselves more and more into the dubstep framework, and the sound design has gotten cleaner and more refined. When the market was saturated, it was all you could hear, but more and more the stuff that lands on our plate is the best of the best.
We did have a lot of ground to cover. There are tracks that are very hip-hop oriented. Some stray closer towards brostep. Others are in that minimal groove, that we so desperately love. Still others are Top 40 soundscapes with a bit of a dark edge. Then there's the downright experimental. That's when things get interesting.
So what we did was ignore chart success, and went straight for the bass music that turned us on. The stuff that fired us up came from a lot of expected places, and some not-so expected places. Take it in, feel free to flame below, and enjoy the year in dubstep.
10. Moody Good ft Knytro - Hotplate
We kick it off with some straight up hip-hop thunder. Moody Good really blew the funk up this year. Classy remixes and fiery orginals. Out of the fire and onto the hotplate.
9. Poppa Doses - Ruff Up (The Widdler Remix)
This throwback bubbler has all those great dancehall vibes we love, and the ultra slick drums. The Widdler is a vet with no regrets. The true heads are on board. Time to ruff it up!
8. Tim Ismag - Supervillains
This guy came out of nowhere. We were absolutely blindsided by Tim Ismag a few weeks ago when we premiered his Supervillains EP. The recent Firepower Records release features a title track that screams video game soundtrack. If this is not the main theme for Call of Duty 11: Burn Your Grandparents' House Down, we'll be surprised.