Justin Baum

Last week two nights dissipated into the bass/dubstep recommended releases section of Boomkat Records. The genre/sound had been on my periphery for the past few years but I finally fell down the rabbit hole when I started acquiring singles last week. I tracked back about 18months and listened to everything. The section is very nicely curated. Found piles of tunes I love. Seems the Boomkat camp has a new vehicle for their curatorial awesomeness in the form of 14tracks.com. The idea is take any musical thread, be it a genre, a time period or a theme and put together a playlist. Simple concept, but the magic is of course in their choice of the musical threads, and the subsequent selections of tunes. They have a handful of really interesting playlists up now, and just posted a new one called "The Bristol New School." The Bristol list represents what I feel is some of the best of dubstep/bass music after my short immersion last week. Im sure my pals Selector Moldy and Clever would have a thing or two to say about that though... ;)

"Bristol already left its mark on UK Bass culture back in the late 80's and early 90's via the Wild Bunch, Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky, but over the last few years a new wave of producers has once again placed the city right at the innovative heart of the underground. This week's selection focuses on some of these characters..."

Must give shout to Rob Rowe for facilitating this discovery lest he publicly humiliate me on Facebook. Related to this post - I just caught Kode9 here in SF last saturday. Quite an interesting set. This sound definitely has a different kind of impact in a club setting with serious low end representation. I was surprised at how rave-ed out the set was. Not in a genre or production sense... more so the vibes. Definitely different than most of the stuff I hear out.

Bass mix coming soon...