Archived entries for Benga

Skream if you want to go faster

Skream is on a roll, there is no other way to explain him #nowplaying four different times on 22tracks’ dubstep playlist. Two tracks are from his free downloadable Freeizm series of zip files, one is his current UK Top Ten hit with Magnetic Man, and the other is a jungle throwback taken from his new album Outside the Box.

I blogged about Magnetic Man a few weeks ago, so if you missed that go here. Suffice to say that “I Need Air” entered the UK chart at number ten last weekend, and that the album is coming out October 4. Besides Angela Hunte, who sings on “I Need Air”, the album features Ms Dynamite, Katy B and John Legend.

On Outside the Box, Skream’s second solo album coming out next week, you can hear Cali rapper Murs, UK synth pop star La Roux and a certain Sam Frank, who sings on the record’s potential chart hit, “Where You Should Be”. Skream is definitely pushing for a crossover on his new album, but more in a musical sense. Unlike other young dance producers, he is (thank goodness) not pursuing some kind of muso credibilty with jazz odysseys or out-of-place indie rock vocalists. He’s doing something more dangerous than that: Outside the Box sees Skream broadening dubstep’s sound to include more a melodic, European sensibility. You can even hear this is in “Listenin’ to the Records on My Wall”, a track that references the hardcore jungle sounds of Skream’s (early) youth.

Here’s a record young Oliver may have have heard as 9-year-old. Like “Listenin’…”, J Majik‘s classic “Your Sound” (1995) cuts up the famous “Amen” break. The track was included on Grooverider’s Hardstep Selection Vol. II, a compilation by pioneering jungle DJ Grooverider, who was friends with Skream’s older brother Hijak, also a DJ/producer.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5HifHi-eww

As much as I love dubstep, I don’t think it ever gets as devestating as this. And although I’m not interested in a revival, it is interesting to hear a young producer like Skream getting influences like these, as well as others, on board. If you want “proper’ dubstep, you can download his Freeizm collections. I’m looking forward to the Magnetic Man album. “The fear of selling out is always in the back of your mind but you grow up and get over it,” MM member Benga recently told Britain’s Metro newspaper. “Nothing stays underground forever. If we don’t do this, someone else will and they might not have done all the grafting and groundwork.”

Let’s stay outside the box.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WUZf0JmBsU

Magnetic Men + Woman

So far, dubstep hasn’t lend itself very well to a pop translation. Where its musical predecessor, 2-step/garage, dominated the UK charts for a brief while around the turn of the century, dubstep has largely remained moody and instrumental. That doesn’t get you very far on daytime radio and music television. I have a feeling this is going to change. UK dubstep supertrio Magnetic Man (made up of producers Skream, Benga and Artwork) is about to release “I Need Air” and as far as I’m concerned, it has the words “crossover smash” written all over it. It is #nowplaying on 22tracks’ pop playlist (!), and you can hear Redlight‘s remix on the electro playlist.

If there’s an immediate predecessor for “I Need Air”, it’s Skream’s “Lets Get Ravey Remix” of “In For The Kill” (2009), a mix that is almost as well-known as La Roux‘s original version. Like “I Need Air”, it features a high-pitched female vocal and a foreboding beat:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynq_DcwIxQ4

Skream and Benga are two of the best know DJs and producers in dubstep, so let’s talk about the other people involved in the making of “I Need Air”. First, Artwork, AKA London producer Arthur Smith. His name may not ring a bell, but he is one of the originators of the sound. Teaming up with Skream and Benga is like the teacher joining his pupils. Back in the day, Smith used to work in the Big Apple record shop in South-London, and operate a studio on the second floor. There has only ever been one Artwork release (the Red EP from 2002), but Smith has been involved in several seminal garage releases by D’n'D (“Diamond Rings“, 1999) and Menta (“Sounds of da Future“, 2001, and “Ramp“, 2002), amongst others.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TIj8ECzQgk

The featured singer on “I Need Air” is Angela Hunte. You think you don’t know her, but you do. Everybody does. She co-wrote and co-produced “Empire State of Mind” for Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. Even though she is a New Yorker, Hunte has strong links with the UK music scene, thanks to her longtime association with hip-hop producer Salaam Remi. He was called in to produce UK garage sensation Ms Dynamite‘s debut album A Little Deeper (2002), and brought her along. She stayed. A year later, Angela Hunte sang on three tracks from DJ Zinc‘s album Faster. I guess word travels.

This summer, Magnetic Man are playing festivals in Japan, England, Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2vWQFHP3D0

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