What up peepz and welcome back to another edition of Blogging Bass. This week I'm going to cover DZ's The Proliferation Sequence Part 2. The second part of his album showcases a more mature, versatile side of DZ. The first part of his album showed us the DZ we've all grown to love but I believe the second part of his album shows us the DZ that is coming to be. Alright, let's step right into it...
The first track "Serenity Now" has elements of Nu-Jazz and is reminiscent of the work of Guardians of Dalliance. The trumpets and strings on this track start the album off nice and mellow and give us a side of DZ that we've never seen before. "I Love You" keeps with the mellow vibes and shows you the soulful side of Dubstep. "Magatu" moves back into some more "stepworthy" sounds. It has a nice grinding bassline and even has some hints of electro house randomly thrown in. "2 da 4" moves into some glitchy, electro driven sounds. This one is for fans of the MOB. "Synthay" reminds me a lot of early dubstep. Very minimal but not minimum I assure you. "Chalet" also had a very minimal, almost dark sound. This track also shows us a more mature side of DZ. "Fuster Cluck" has a very nice old-school Rave synth and the video game samples also gave us a bit of Rave "nostalgia" if you will. Back to the basics with this one. "Stupid Crunk" is a party track which is sure to move the dancefloor. The vocal samples in here are provided to hype you up into a frenzy. "Hearing Things" has a very driving sound that utilizes a variety of sounds to make you think you were actually hearing things. The track was absolutely bonkers and is recommended for fans of 16bit. "Tighten Up" is a wonky display of vocoder tricks. "Quake 89" is a rough display of DZ's power. The broken amen track that you hear throughout is very appealing to an oldschool junglist. This track has some very eerie, spooky sounding keys that break down into a wicked sweeping bassline. "Content" has a very gritty sound with a very interesting atmoshperic background. A little bit of piano adds an epic layer to this track. "Blackout" had a very dark breakdown filled with keys straight out of a horror flick and moved right into a psychedelic masterpiece. An absolute banger!!!
Part 2 flies right past Part 1 with more quality and variety of sound. Because of that I'm going to give this one 8 out of 10 bumps on the Bassometer.
Tune in next week as I bring you the work of 2562. I'll also include an exclusive mix by yours truly that compiles their best tracks. Thanks for reading!
Blogging Bass (DZ - The Proliferation Sequence Part 1)
Hello people of the internet and welcome to the first installment of Blogging Bass where I'll take on all genres of music that specialize in shaking the dancefloor. As a self-proclaimed bass genius I assure you I will only be bringing you info on the hardest hitting artists and tracks for your speakers. For my first blog I'm going to cover DZ, one of the biggest names in Dubstep right now. DZ has just had a 2 part album release entitled The Proliferation Sequence. I'm going to thoroughly review his album track by track but first let's get you caught up to speed on exactly who the bad man behind Bad Man Press is...
Hailing from Ontario, Canada, DZ began making a name for his self in the Dubstep world back in 2007 with releases on Hotflush Recordings and Dubkraft Records. It wasn't until his release "Down" on True Tiger's Around the World E.P. that DZ received the attention this talented producer deserved. "Down" was a huge hit and set the bar for the new and evolving sound of Dubstep in 2008. Shortly after the success of this release DZ formed a new label to showcase all of his work appropriately named Badman Press. The first tracks to come were Break it Down/How we Do which showed the world that DZ was here to stay. Since then he has had a number of releases come off of his own Badman Press as well as a large number of remixes and collaborations on other various big name labels.
Which now brings me to this momentous first LP from the Bad Man DZ : The Proliferation Sequence
The first track "Bounty Love" acts as a perfect intro to the album and the artist DZ. Vocal samples in the background echo the words "gangsta" and "selecta" which represent DZ's trademark urban sound. "No Gunman" is very dubby and breaks down into an almost symphonic melody with a rudebwoy vocal sample that clashes back into a heavy tribal drum beat with various scratch samples. "Midnight Run" is a techy almost industrial sounding track that seems to be the first to get me really moving. The vocal sample from NAS - "Now get up off your ass like your seat's hot" was a nice addition to the track. Fans of the WOBBLE will love "Shake That". It has a very nice intro and erupts into an absolutely dirty bassline. "Killin Em Softly" does just that with a very familiar vocal sample from you guessed it - The Fugees "Killing em Softly". The track has a subtle almost Uk garage bass feel to it. I especially like how the vocal was slowed down and stretched to give it an almost "screwed" effect. "Head Cold" has a lot of nice trippy effects and a solid bassline and beat. "Outrun" had an apocalyptic sound to it and reminded me of a chase scene from Mad Max for some reason. The piano in the breakdown was a nice and different addition to "Starchaser". This track was very spacey and contained synths that were reminiscent of some synth lines in various PsyTrance songs I've heard over the years. "The Jump Off" was an ultra digital track which contained a very nice reece line that reminded me of some of my favorite Drum N Bass songs. "Amped" seemed a little suspenseful but really didn't build up to anything. I personally thought the song was too repetitive and was the least captivating on the album. "The Technique" gets my attention back quickly with a nice broken amen that builds up to a crisp filtered bassline. The pitch distortion in this track is awesome and kind of reminds me a little of clownstep...but that's not a bad thing I assure you. "Machinery" has all the wobbly basslines you could possibly need. This track is absolutely filthy! "Juxta" seemed a little bit out of place on this album and seemed more like filler than killer to me. It was just a little too everywhere and it seems to me like he could have better closed the album with "Machinery". It reminded me a lot of clownstep...in a bad way this time.
I give this album 6 out of 10 bumps on the Bassometer.
Tune into Blogging Bass next week for my review of DZ's The Proliferation Sequence Part 2.
