Episode 158: I Can’t Stop

This episode begins with a spate of SttM’s fabled “random left turns,” from indie rock to house to club to grime to Latinx trap and back around again. The second half settles into a more predictable groove, full of d****** and instrumental grime, with just one quick (very melodic) Hard Drum detour around the thirty minute mark.

Which is not to say things are monotone. Before it became an umbrella term for “crap the kids listen to these days,” the sound of South London was a magnet for all manner of weirdos throwing whatever they could think of at a 140 BPM half-time frame to see what would stick. Like D’n’B before it, it encouraged countless mutations… and like D’n’B before it, it fell victim to its own most popular/populist innovation. For D’n’B, that was the two-step beat, for d******, it was the mid-range wobble. Both devastated the Galapagos-level of diversity and left the surviving monoculture brittle and susceptible to parasites and blight.

Not so the contributions to this mix. Whether relics from before the Great Smoothing Out or survivors of it, artists like Shackleton, 2562, Sky H1, Silkie, Pinch, Commodo, and Gantz produce tunes with a unique voice and feel.

OK, enough apologia! Give it a listen if you don’t believe me.

• Imperial Teen – The Girl [Now We Are Timeless]
• Howitt – I Can’t Stop [Sounds Like A Good Time II]
• Ase Manual – Senzu [Senzu]
• Skepta featuring BBK – Detox [Konnichiwa]
• Sango – Dime lo que Quieres (La Habana Trap) [Otra Vez EP]
• Ariel Zetina– Putamaria w/ MORENXXX [Organism EP]
• Kave Jonson – B.I.S.H. [Peace Pipe]
• Shackleton – Tin Foil Sky [Soundboy Punishments]
• Fanu – Jumitus [Serendipity]
• 2562 – Basin Dub [Aerial]
• CYPHR – Sirena [Ekleipsis]
• Spooky & Boylan – DarkKnight [Slimzos 014]
• Sky H1 – Tell Me [Motion]
• Gantz – Fugazi (feat. Elif Dikec) [Dying On Acid]
• Pinch – Battered (feat. yolanda) [Underwater Dancehall]
• Commodo – Surveillance [Commodo EP]
• Skream – Phatty Drummer [Gritty / Phatty Drummer]
• Silkie – Hooby [DEEP MEDi Releases (Vol. 2)]
• Seven – Grey Matter [Evolution]
• Sirpixalot – Easter Dub [Tonight EP]
• J-E-T-S – TEAM EFFORT [ZOOSPA]

BPM: 140