Continuing with our REWIND! of 2007, here are the Top 10 Electronic Musings on ([HearingTest]) in 2007… All but “Lion” were released this year, and most of them can be found on BLEEP.com or Boomkat.com. 2007 was also a great year for watching the magic of electronic synthesis and we enjoyed watching loads of wonderful videos. I consider myself very lucky to have attended some of the Bay Area’s hottest live electronic music performances and somewhat capture them on video. It’s all here as we REWIND! 2007′s Greatest Hits! ([More →])

When asked to describe the sound of The Bug, Kevin Martin responds, “Beats, Bombs, Bass, Weapons, Congestion, Space, Concussion and Seduction.” !!Sounds Beautiful!! Martin [the man behind the bug] has refined an arsenal of tuff tunes (with Flowdan and Warrior Queen passing the mic) and wicked remixes (for Ghislain Poirier and Thom Yorke of Radiohead) into dangerous dubplate killahs! Perhaps the don of toxic dancehall finished construction on his urban-legendary soundsystem and now makes distorted ragga dubs on a barricade of bassbins instead of a pair of studio monitors! “Poison Dart” is The Bug’s most recent weapon of choice: a staggering riddim made razor-sharp by Warrior Queen’s defiant tongue. It’s a heavy tune that aches to be played BiG and LouD in an open space where the bass can unfurl into the wide wobbling synths that decay into long echoes.

HearingTest has the brand new video for “Poison Dart” and details on the remixes by Skream, South Rakkas Crew, Stereotyp and a Flowdan version that will accompany the originals to be released in December. I’ve even posted Warrior Queen’s lyrics for “Poison Dart” which aim Warrior’s wisdom at young shottas inna de dance. If your native tongue is more patio than patois, these subtitles might help. ([More →])

This week there have been a number of good interviews and articles posted online from stellar writers immersed in the UK music scene. Rather than rehash what’s already been said, I’ve decided to resurrect the Rewind! (Rewind! is simply a roundup of links to what’s good, what’s new, wha gwaan on the web, and it used to be a regular feature here on HearingTest.) This particular Rewind! features links to some great articles written by a few music journalists that I enjoy reading: there’s a T2 interview, a Durrty Goodz interview, Grimewatch, proof that Grime’s Not Dead, plus video of Skepta in the BBC radio studios with Mary Anne Hobbs, Wiley clashing Ghetto, and a dubstep documentary! ([More →])

Make a date with dubstep in December! Plastician, purveyor of fine dubstep music, announced a few US shows during the first two weeks of December! He also told Danny Walker in an interview for RWD Mag that his album has finally come back from the plant and will be available to the rest of us before the end of the year. ([More →])

Brit’s floor killers, Vex’d, stopped in SF and rocked a ridiculously packed house at Underground SF on Haight Street. It was bliss to hear Vex’d remixing their own music on the fly! This is just a lite review of their appearance in a room filled with old-school music heads from both sides of the Bay. It was a superb warm-up for the weekend of Halloween festivities still to come. ([More →])

Burial is such a unique artist and his music almost defies classification in any genre. His music hovers somewhere between dub, experimental electronica and psycho-acoustic phenomena. It leans more towards dub and dubstep, but often times sounds like dub played on a slow speed. Burial unearthed his sophomore album of experimental dubstep on Hyperdub last week, titled Untrue. His self-titled debut, released last year, was praised by music critics of all different tastes – even dubbed Album of the Year by The Wire magazine. ([More →])

This is the mix that Kode 9 made for Mary Anne Hobbs’ radio show featuring music from Burial’s new album Untrue.

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I just listened to the archive of the Mary Anne Hobbs show on BBC Radio 1 from last Thursday. It features a beautiful mix of exclusive tunes by Murcof. If you enjoy beautiful atmospheric electronica, definitely give this mix a listen. It will be available as streaming audio until the new show goes up late Thursday night/early Friday morning this week.

Mary Anne Hobbs page on BBC Radio 1

The show also includes plenty of other killer tunes by Terror Danjah & Durrty Goodz, Headhunter, Bola, Bob Marley and more. Tracklist for the entire show is also on that page.

Ninja Tune is planning another fantastic weekend of electronic mayhem for the Montreal area! On September 28th, they will have their Ninja Tune Clockout monthly with Ninja Tune artists from the UK vs. Ninja Tune artists from Montreal – plus “exceedingly special guests!” That’s all they are revealing at this time, but you can try to guess based on the following two days of festivities… ([More →])

XLR8R TV recorded an interview with the talented DJ Youngsta – one of London’s finest dubstep djs. He’s not only one of the hottest dubstep djs on the planet, he also knows a lot about the roots and progression of the genre. He spins on RinseFM as well as FWD parties and recently played in SF with our local dubstep superstar – DJ Ripple! ([More →])

DJ Geeneus comes up regularly on HearingTest, most recently when we reported the FWD + Rinse party being held in London. Geeneus is “station boss” at RinseFM and he put together the Rinse 01 compilation album that was launched at the FWD + Rinse event. Recently FACT Magazine had a chance to talk with Geeneus about dubstep, grime, the Rinse mixtape series and whole lot more. Anyone interested in UK electronica, Wiley, Logan Sama, grime and whatnot will enjoy hearing what Geeneus discusses. Find it on FACT Mag.

From all I have read on the web and in glossy magazines, few are able to decipher a complicated music subject and share it with the masses better than Martin Clark. Clark writes “The Month In:…” features for pitchf*#k, and I need to find out where else he gets published because I learn so much from each of his installments. I’ve mentioned his column before, usually in reference to grime, but I’ve never really drawn attention to the man and his writing abilities. I just wanted to point this out to you because I know some of you love to read and write about music yourselves. That, plus Clark’s gone and done it again – he’s written a fantastic article about what’s happening right now in dubstep and grime, how the music is beginning to draw from its rich cultural history, and how this will bode for the future. He weaves short stories together about the different musicians making moves right now, with commentary on the fresh and upcoming albums. He describes the hardships of urban youth in the UK and ties it into the music’s lineage, rooted in the UK Jamaican diaspora. ([More →])

What’s this? A good-old-fashioned soundclash for the betterment of humankind? It must be a Dubraizer! Thursday (tomorrow), Londoners get a chance to hear amazing dubstep while making a difference in the community. Corsica Studios is hosting Dubraizer! to benefit an urban youth group – CJ S Media Workz – that are working to build an arts and media academy for disadvantaged kids. Think Beat Street and get over there tomorrow to get down with your city. You won’t find such a lineup of professional bass scientists anywhere else for a mere £5! ([More →])

What What? Logan Sama has been hired by Kiss FM? Ok, so I’m behind the times, but what a loss for Rinse FM listeners! Well, Rinse can’t let that stand in the way of having a great time at the Rinse 01 Record Release party. It’s set for August 17th at The End and the party is a joint collab between Rinse and FWD>> to forward the release of Geeneus’ Rinse 01 compilation. ([More →])