HYPERDUB 10.1 (2014)

In 2003, writer Steve Goodman, now known to keyed-in music nerds as the producer Kode9, was interviewing Kevin Martin, the mastermind behind the bombed-out dub project the Bug, for dance publication XLR8R. The conversation turned to dubstep, the roots of which were just starting to take hold in London; Martin heard a track of Goodman’s, who was just then cutting his teeth as a producer, and he encouraged him to start a label to release it, promising to help find a distributor. Less than a year later came HYP001, “Sign of the Dub” b/w “Stalker”, a collaborative release between Kode9 and UK rapper Spaceape (then credited as Daddy Gee).
For Hyperdub’s first four years, the label moved carefully when it came to releases. Most of their output from 2004–2006 was credited to Goodman and Spaceape, including the duo’s debut LP Memories of the Future, but they also worked with some guy named William Bevan, whose self-titled debut LP as Burial came in 2006, a year after Goodman put out the project’s wobbly first 12“, South London Boroughs. Burial was a modest record that initially attracted curiosity more than it did accolades, but in 2007 Bevan returned with the excellent Ghost Hardware 12” and the instant classic Untrue, a record that came to define dubstep for legions of new listeners seven years before Merriam Webster decided to define it themselves.
One of the most influential electronic records in recent memory, Untrue cemented Bevan as one of the decade’s most vital producers and introduced dubstep (more as a concept, less as a sound) to a much wider audience. So you can imagine what its success did for Hyperdub. A brief glance at the label’s chronological catalog resembles a dam about to burst, and Untrue was the low frequency that shook the firmament to the point of collapse. In 2008 came releases from up-and-coming names that, six years later, are familiar to anyone in the know: bass music basket case Zomby, abstracted pop outfit Darkstar (who at that point were working with a more explicitly dance-focused sound), dubstep-gone-freestyle queen Ikonika. Martin’s lover’s rock-focused King Midas Sound project even put out their first release for the label that year.
Hyperdub marked their fifth anniversary in 2009, but despite a half-decade of existence, the label’s creative surge had kicked into high gear only two years previous. So the excellent 5 Years of Hyperdub was as much an overview of where Hyperdub had been as it was a chance to draw on the increased exposure electronic music was receiving and define something approaching a “scene.” Ace cuts from Los Angeles hip-hop auteur Flying Lotus, Dutch dance producer Martyn, and dub-as-fuck mad scientist Mala appeared alongside catalog highlights from label regulars Kode9, LV, and yes, Burial.
5 Years of Hyperdub was the culmination of a series of five 12" releases collecting label highlights—5.1, 5.2, you get the idea—and the expanded approach Hyperdub’s taken to that concept for their 10-year anniversary is indicative of how quickly Goodman’s label has grown, both in size and influence. 10.1 is a two-CD set—the first in the series, no less—with one disc collecting tracks from the label’s last five years and one with entirely new material. Each compilation will have a theme, and 10.1 turns its focus towards dancefloor-centered cuts, so those waiting for a collection of Hyperdub’s stranger entries might have to wait a little longer.
That said, 10.1 is more proof that Hyperdub can’t help but embrace left-of-center even as it focuses on club fare. This is far from a bad thing: Hyperdub’s released some of the most appealingly odd and oddly prescient electronic music of the last 15 years, and the glaring omissions from this volume’s disc of catalog cuts—Terror Danjah’s fiery grime tune “Acid” from 2010, Ossie’s bubbly UK Funky cut “Set the Tone” from 2011, the jagged piano-house of Laurel Halo’s “Throw”, from last year's Behind the Green Door EP—only serve to highlight the wealth of material the label has released.
Dance music label comps serve a dual purpose: 1) provide an accessible way for non-collectors to obtain material that might’ve received limited release; 2) offer labels a way to define their legacy or current position in the music landscape. 10.1 fulfills the first function simply by existing, and effectively flips two middle fingers towards the second. One of the most intriguing elements of Hyperdub’s output is its sheer unpredictability and refusal of easy categorization. The closest thing to dubstep proper on the first disc is Burial and Spaceape’s Burial cut “Spaceape”, an obvious nod to Hyperdub’s humble beginnings; from there, we’re hit with variations on the breezy skip of Funky (Funkystepz’s “Hurricane Riddim”, Ill Blu’s “Clapper”), 8-bit fantasias (Ikonika’s “Idiot”, Walton’s “Aggy”), low-slung hip-hop (Mark Pritchard and Om’mas Keith’s “Wind It Up”), and effervescent grime (Kode9’s “Xingfu Lu”).
In addition to shining a light on the difficulty of categorizing Hyperdub, the old-stuff collection is further proof that the label’s vision is always trained forward. Appearances from regulars Ikonika and Cooly G are a reminder that, along with Laurel Halo and Canadian techno-pop architect Jessy Lanza, Hyperdub’s been one of the few of-the-moment dance labels to consistently showcase female artists. Stylistically, they’ve also found themselves ahead of the curve: Morgan Zarate’s as-of-yet-underappreciated “Hookid”, from 2011, is a tangled sigh of staircase tones, phased-out bass hits, and cascading synths ripped from Southern U.S. hip-hop. At the time, it was a curiosity; in 2014, it sounds like a trap precedent, if that sound’s basic elements were scrambled in a blender and poured all over some poor sap’s kitchen counter.
The new-stuff disc offers few hints as to where the label is headed next, which is unsurprising, but the variety on display is only matched by the quality of the tunes themselves. Detroit techno fiend Kyle Hall’s “Girl U So Strong” builds and breaks with wheezing tones and backbeats, a throaty diva shout occasionally popping up to offer an anchor; Zarate returns with the hard-hitting “Kaytsu”, a track even more explicitly trap than the genre-predicting “Hookid”, while the relatively quiet producer Kuedo (whose 2011 LP Severant still stands as an overlooked gem) returns with a track dubbed after his namesake and sporting his signature Vangelis-meets-Big Tymers style of aural hypnotism. Following the explicit reggae of his Essential Mix from last year, Mala delivers one of his meanest anthems to date with the stomping “Expected”, while Japanese producer and Hyperdub mainstay Quarta330 closes out the disc with the hyper-colorful “Hanabi”.
The “what’s to come” section takes up the back half of 10.1’s fresh-jams collection, in the form of a stretch of footwork primarily from the Teklife crew. Footwork continues to gain a greater presence in the electronic world, aided by fellow UK label Planet Mu’s scene-surveying Bangs & Works compilations and cemented by last year’s classic LP from the late DJ Rashad, Double Cup. Earlier this year, Goodman told The Japan Times that he was drawn to getting involved with the genre by way of Planet Mu founder Mike Paradinas: “Mike said to me, ‘Go on, release this stuff, because everyone thinks I’m crazy.’”
Paradinas had a point—footwork in its rawest form can be grating, and the stretch of brown-sound bass hits and repetitive vocal samples that mark the back half of the first disc of 10.1 may lead to a few headaches. But Hyperdub’s embrace of the genre was perfectly timed, and the cuts presented here showcase a scene that is further mutating and innovating as it gains more widespread attention. Taso & Djunya’s “Only the Strong Survive” pairs footwork’s intense focus with a starry-eyed sense of wonder, DJ Spinn“’s ”All My Teklife“ features synths that glisten so bright they threaten to overpower everything else around them, and DJ Earl’s ”I’m Gonna Get You" hammers its titular phrase home to the point of aggravation until the sample drops out with a sense of relief before revving up all over again.
Rashad appears posthumously on both discs of 10.1: along with DJ Taye, he had a hand in DJ Earl’s other cut on the new disc, the typically intense “Bombaklot”, and Rashad and Gant-Man further explore Double Cup’s acid techno flirtations on the enjoyable “Acid Life”. He also closes out the disc of catalog highlights—the comp was announced well before Rashad’s sudden and tragic death last month, so this is an unusual occurrence of timing above all else—with the epochal “Let It Go”. A titanic track that could be considered footwork’s own “Strings of Life”, “Let It Go” has a classic, immovable sound, as a lone drum machine kicks things off before meeting up with the endlessly, blissfully repeated vocal sample. Some warped strings enter, and for a second it seems like things are off—“Something doesn’t sound right” is, granted, an understandable reaction to most footwork—but then the vocal sample completes itself with a diva’s cry, “Baaa-by/ Bayyyyyy-beeeeee”, that hits like a gut-punch.
“Let It Go” was released on March 18, 2013, as part of Rashad’s excellent Rollin’ EP for Hyperdub; a year, one month, and eight days later, he was found dead at his home in Chicago’s West Side. Before his death, I must have personally listened to “Let It Go” at least eight or nine times a week, and every time I put it on, it took me places that only the most impressionistically beautiful pieces of music can go. I’ve listened to it while feeling sad, happy, unsure, frustrated, in love, out of place—basically, it’s music I put on when I want to feel something. After Rashad’s death, the urge to latch onto the track’s more melancholy aspects is there, but every time I reach for “Let It Go”, the flood of emotions remains rich and complex. Rashad touched a lot of people with his visionary, melodic approach to footwork, and the dance community has only begun feeling the effects of his legacy; amidst the incredible collection of tunes on 10.1, “Let It Go” is proof that, even in the ever-changing world of electronic music, it’s possible to create something that sounds absolutely timeless. - Source: PITCHFORK