Metadub

Kode9 and Spaceape, ’9 Samurai’ (2006)

Part of the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of The Wire magazine, this event was given the name ‘Metadub’. Aptly, since all of the acts here organize their sound around dub’s bass-heavy derangement of time.

The evening began with the two main artists from the Skull Disco label, Appleblim and Shackleton. Skull Disco’s releases – best sampled on the brilliant compilation LP Skull Disco Soundboy Punishments – are at the most atmospheric end of dubstep. Appleblim’s DJ set is smeary and psychedelic, straying far beyond the narrow confines of dubstep, while Shackleton’s sound is so eccentric and exotic that it barely seems to belong to the genre at all. His excellent laptop set is minimalist to begin with: unadorned, abstract bass pulses build, swelling to the point of immersive 3D tactility in which the distinctive element of his sound – its slinky, sinuous 4th World percussion – seems to crawl out of the speakers to dominate the club space.

Shackleton’s seductiveness couldn’t be more different to the assault and battery of The Bug. Like all of the musical projects Kevin Martin has been involved in designing – God, Techno Animal – The Bug is a superbly-realised sound concept, a ferocious mutant crossbred from elements of dancehall, noise and dub. (Next year, Kode9’s record label Hyperdub will be releasing the first LP by Kevin Martin’s newest project, King Midas Sound, whose languid, opiated sensuality contrasts markedly with The Bug’s uncompromising aggression.) Live, any element of subtlety or nuance in The Bug’s sound is brutally repressed. That repression is initially invigorating and for a while there is an exhilaration to be derived from submitting oneself to the force of the sound. But, in my case at least, this masochistic jouissance soon subsided, to be replaced by a heavy lassitude. Overwhelmed by screaming stimuli, my organism retreated into a shell and refused to respond.

It is coaxed out again by Kode9 and the Spaceape, playing live – or rather unlive – for the first time in the UK. ‘Unlive’ in the sense that it involves the real time manipulation of sound loops and samples, over which the Burroughsian MC Spaceape adds his echo-wreathed incantations.

It was the combination of Kode9’s abstract, metallic dub with Spaceape’s science-fictional prophecies that made their Memories of the Future album one of the best of 2006. The use of an MC sets Kode9 apart from much of the dubstep scene, which has disdained vocals in favour of pursuing an austere instrumental purity. But, with the two albums by Burial on Hyperdub, and his own records and mixes – he irritated purists with his extensive use of Spaceape on his Dubstep Allstars Volume 3 mix – Kode9 has pioneered the return of the voice to dubstep. The genre’s vice is its tendency towards glowering male moodiness and uncommunicative withdrawal. Spaceape has a brooding presence, but he is both too otherworldly, too angsty and angry, to ever lapse into a skunked-out skulk. His perspective is cosmic rather than streetbound: a vision of a universe divided between slave masters and fugitives.

Using a mixture of analogue and digital equipment, Kode9 brewed up a controlled maelstrom of a set that seethed rather than pummelled, more like some synthetic jazz than dubstep – there were no beats at all for the first ten minutes. (Kode9 said that he wanted to dispense with beats altogether in his live sets, and rely on sub-bass instead, but he found that too many PA systems weren’t up to it.) We eventually realise that we’re listening a version of the pair’s take on The Specials’ ‘Ghost Town’; the track is even more desolate and distended than it is on the record. As the set develops, a few familiar lyrics float up, flotsam and jetsam you can cling to, but what is beguiling about the circulation of basslines, FX and chants is its deviation from recognizable tracks, the unpredictability of its improvised flow.

In 2006, the underground belonged to dubstep. But, as tonight’s show demonstrates, the best acts on the scene are those who are willing to challenge the limitations of the genre. How will dubstep continue to mutate in 2008?