(thanks for the nice words about Gutterbreakz, too), who's latest post concerns Dubstep meastros Digital Mystikz playing live on Radio 1 next week. This is the blog that gave us a Kode 9 interview recently, and I see that they also interviewed the Mystikz way back in August. Excellent work! Where else are you gonna find such incites into the development of the 'Croydon' scene? Not the press, that's for sure. As Kode 9 pointed out, "the electronic music press is fucked".
Anyway, of all the Dubstep artists that I've heard, I think Digital Mystiks are one of the most exciting. Although it's not so evident on the "Grime 2" compilation, several of the tracks I've heard from their more low-profile 12 inches have a dark energy; a barely suppressed mood of anxiety and dread, rivaled only by Slaughter Mob. Perhaps we need a new catchphrase for this sort of vibe. I think it was Reynolds who came up with 'Grim'. I quite like Dreadstep myself.
MP3:
This is the title-track from a fairly recent EP ("DMZ002"), which I 'acquired' recently on one of my regular trawls through P2P world (apparently Loefah is involved with this release too). I'm almost tempted to put the whole EP up, it's that good. But I'd feel uncomfortable about doing that. I'm not in the business of giving away someone's entire release, especially when you consider that these are hard-working people. If you read the interview you'll see that the Mystikz are holding down full-time jobs and raising families, just like everybody else. They're cutting-back on sleep to work on this music (which might explain why tracks like this have such a hollow-eyed, 'walking-dead' feel about them!). Their commitment should be rewarded, but apart from a few WMA clips, there's no way to support this music online yet. I like to collect full-length MP3s at a reasonably high KB rate, so have to dig around a bit on Soulseek to find them. I'd like to buy them legitimately, but until Bleep get into this scene, or Black Market Records get their MP3 store up-and-running, I'm left with no alternative. Why don't I buy the 12 inches? Fair point, but that's a format I'm just not into buying anymore. I want to hear high-quality MP3s direct from the master 'tapes'. Surely that's not such a difficult request?
The least I can do for now is let everyone know that the vinyl release is available to order from Warpmart and Boomkat.
More power to the Mystikz...if they ever play here in Bristol I'll buy 'em a pint or something.
