on the occasion of comfortnoise podcast 023-0911, which was also new.com's 100th radio show at all, guyus talks about dubstep, bass music and the idea behind dubexmachina:
(picture by alain szerdahelyi)
hi guy, nice to meet you! could you explain the idea behind dubexmachina?
dubexmachina is the name of our clubnight that has been running since 2007 and is resident at zürich’s cabaret club since 2009. we focus on dubstep and the so called “bass music” that has developed around the dubstep scene more recently. every time we invite some of our favorite producers/djs from the dubstep-scene. for example our upcoming night will be a deep medi special with mala and vivek on september 30th, after that…
we'll host a hessle audio night with ramadanman, ben ufo and pangaea on november 18th.
we try to present a very broad spectrum of uk-based electronic music but at the same time we always focus on the deeper and bassheavy side of things. we feel that the roots of the dubstep are reggae-dub and uk-garage in a very broad sense, that is why we move around music that is influenced by those two. i also think that the music needs to keep evolving and always be able to surprise listeners. the surprise element is also more or less part of our name “dubexmachina”.
what is dubexmachina soundsystem?
under the name dubexmachina soundsystem you [new.com] and i recently started to play back-2-back. in our sets we try to represent what dubexmachina is about. i think our record collections fit together very well and i’m looking forward to play b2b in quite a number of events in the upcoming weeks!
are you also involved into other projects?
i used to run a night in basel called “dubaholics”, which was all about dubstep. now i’ve decided to start a new club night called “lockd” at hinterhof, where it’s not strictly about dubstep, but also about newer musical developments that came from the dubstep scene, often called “bass music”.
why “bass music”? what happened to dubstep in the last 2 years?
the dubstep scene itself went from a small underground scene to a worldwide thing of which some parts have had big commercial success. i think no one would have expected that a few years ago. at the same time, because of certain musical developments there has been an increasing division of the scene into different movements, which haven’t got much to do with eachother anymore. simply put, on the one side you have a kind of noisy “wobble-”dubstep which is made for maximum impact on dancefloors and big raves, and on the other side you have the more traditional, deeper sounds of dubstep that stick to the original idea of “bass and space”.
but I think in general that nowadays many people have a much narrower definition of what dubstep is and what not. in earlier years dubstep was mainly about exploring new sounds between dub and garage, anything at 140 bpm that somehow combined those main influences was considered as dubstep. nowadays a lot of dubstep instead is made by a basic formula, and many people tend to think that only music with specific drum-patterns and wobble basslines is dubstep.
at the same time, a very exciting new sound developed from within the dubstep scene, which is often called “bass music” or “future bass”. here a lot of great producers and musicians are experimenting with various influences from the uk's electronic music history. they are creating an undefinable hybrid sound, mostly around 130 bpm and with a lot of bass: bass music. like in early dubstep, there are no rules at all about how to make music, in fact it isn’t even possible to speak of one particular kind of music. it’s more various kinds of new music by related producers with similar influences. some of it could be called house or acid, other things could fit under grime, jungle or garage, or sound like something totally different, but i think everything is sounding really fresh and new. people also try to avoid giving names to it, because they don’t want to narrow it down. it’s a very interesting development which we are following very closely.
what can we expect from dubexmachina in the future?
we're looking forward to continue doing our nights like the last 4 years, and organize events for people with open ears, where we try to present dubstep in a broad sense, as well as a variety of bass music, and related sounds. just like this year, we plan to bring our favorite djs and producers to zürich, hope to celebrate some great partys with a mixed crowd and to get more people interested in the music that we love.
so watch out… you can catch new.com & guyus playing back 2 back as dubexmachina soundsystem at a number of upcoming events.
thank you mate! (interview by new.com)
>>> listen to the dubexmachina sound in comfortnoise podcast 023-0911
>>> join the dubexmachina group on facebook
very good interview!
can’t wait for the future!
I actually shot this picture in Berlin. :))
Great look man!