One of the things I personally find extremely appealing about the rising Dubstep movement is its immediacy. Whistful simplicity still rules over ingeniously conceived complexity and you know if a track is going to work in a club without sporting a degree in rocket science. This, of course, raises the question of where the genre will go once the well of imposing Bass lines has run dry. Much more than trying to establish a new genre of its own, the “Mutant Dubstep” series on Greek label Spectraliquid can be seen as contributing to this debate - while having the time of its life digging for answers.

You can certainly always expect the fun-factor to be high when Ebola’s around: This, after all, is a producer who draws as much inspirational juice from his effects pedals as from a Fisher Price Tape Recorder and a “Speak and Read” toy computer. Skip the opening tune for a second and zoom straight into second track “Teledildonics” and you will get my drift: A wobbly, bubbly, trigger-happy, jump-for-joy bassline shifts through series of puny permutations and futuristic timbral telekineses, while a slow n steady Drum machine dances with an electric accordeon melody and quirky quotes in an alien tongue. It is a world of happy hypnoticism not entirely devoid of hints at humour: “Everytime you moan, I pay close attention” a voice mumbles, as the track lifts off inside an edgey vacuum.

Now, flipp back to six-minute introduction “Painkillers” and you will find the same approach, only inversed. Soft outlines have been replaced with sharp, gnarling and gnawing monster teeth, frolicking sounds morphing into terrifying noises and aggressive metallic drum rolls hammering into the music’s fabric in intermittant intervals. Two remixes, a mindshattering industrial breakbeat attack by Enduser and a mixed-up and mangled vision courtesy of Shitmat, convey a similarly bleak yet entrancing outlook. It is as if you’re watching the world go under but your feet just can’t stop moving.

Having said that, this is by no means mere club fodder. A both powerful and subtle production, which awards equal importance to the focal bass boom as to the textural layers adorning it, allows one to sit back and enjoy the impredictable interaction and surreally organic paths of the different elements in action. The variety in ambiance, the music’s level of deepness and relative distances between individual mix-tracks have immensely increased, creating additional space for future sound artists to fill. And yet, the immediacy of the genre has remained. “Mutant Dubstep” is not seeking to revolutionise Dubstep per se – it is trying to keep its freshly flavoured spirit alive by gently refining what makes it most appealing.

By Tobias Fischer

Homepage: Ebola
Homepage: Spectraliquid Records