It's Monday, which means new BBB time - enjoy! 🗞️✨
(P.S. First Listen coming up on here tomorrow, Extra Nawties roundup after that. Look out for those!)
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NEWS
Electric Forest and The Untz festival lineups received well
The lineups for two of the US's biggest Bass festivals dropped last week, and both were lauded in different ways. Electric Forest's 2026 event - which will happen in Rothbury, Michigan on June 25th-28th - was praised for its diversity across not only mainstream kinds of electronic music, but indie fusions too with the likes of Passion Pit and Frost Children adorning the lineup alongside big hitters like Madeon, Kaskade and Chris Lake. It's also impressive on the Bass front, with huge names like Excision, GRiZ and DJ Diesel (SHAQ) B2B T-Pain - yes, you read that right - sitting alongside fan favourites like ISOxo, Nitepunk, Alleycvt and many more. There were some saying it wasn't worth the $600 ticket price, and others saying it was a bit basic as a lineup, but I think it's solid as a mix of well-known artists, fantastic lesser-knowns, headlinde-grabbers of different kinds and a wealth of variety in between. I'll be trying to see if I can go myself!
The other festival drop to get the plaudits was The Untz festival, which will be taking place May 8th-10th in Browns Valley, California. This one is a far less mainstream affair, but is just as packed with good across the poster. Headlining is LYNY (HEADLYNYNG??), Ivy Lab, Simula, Zero, borne and what I think is a festival debut for Richard Finger. There will also be a LYNY B2B Zero Garage set, which I really hope is recorded somewhere with both audio and visual. Beyond that you have a load of fantastic names from the Bass underground, from Combine to Chmura, Untitld to Mindset, BOSTN B2B POP THA TRUNK and many more. Whether DMVU will be bringing something light or heavy to proceedings I'm not sure, but that's another notable set to look out for. There will also be label takeovers from some of the most significant imprints in that realm of Bass music, including Wormhole Music Group, The Gradient Perspective and Lost Dogz. Many are seeing this as the festival's best lineup ever on what will be their 10th year running. I would also love to be at this one - if only money were infinite for us all!
Also, both of these flyers look fantastic, I think we can all agree on that?
Will any of you guys be hitting up either of these festivals next year?
LSDREAM & CloZee's project LSZEE to end
One of the most significant team-ups of the last few years in Bass music, LSZEE, will be ending definitively next summer. The project, comprised of electronic legends LSDREAM and CloZee, was due to have its final hurrah with a show last Friday, but will end up having one more performance at Bonnarroo next summer, after their set this year got cancelled due to bad weather. They've each cited the need to get back to work on their own, individual aliases as the main reason for ending LSZEE. It has constituted as one of the most successful duos in recent mainstream electronic memory, as they've had their own tour, multiple festival headline slots and also put out a self-titled debut album in September 2024. The track 'Mother Earth' is my personal pick from that LP - a stunner if you haven't heard it yet!
From what I've heard, their sets were some of the most magical from the last few years in their fusions of Bass and world music, as well as their incredible level of chemistry on stage in creating a perfectly shared sound.
Did you get to see them live at any point? If so, how was it?
MUSIC
Dodge & Fuski's comeback EP
Last Monday, Dodge & Fuski dropped his first EP since 2020, a 4-tracker for Monstercat titled 'Washed Up'. The project features no collaborations, but does have writing credits on every tune from Virtual Riot. I've yet to check the collection myself, but I might record a First Listen without streaming to go up on the channel at some point early this week. I haven't been massively enamoured with what I've heard from Dodge so far since his return this year, but things might be different over the course of a whole EP, who knows?
Stream the EP: https://soundcloud.com/monstercat/sets/dodge-fuski-washed-up
Have you heard this comeback EP yet? If so, what are you making of it?
Nitepunk & Hamdi are collaborating
Well, this sounds sick! Hamdi played at the legendary FABRIC club in London last Friday, and brought out Nitepunk during it to play a new ID that they've been cooking up together. And you know when you get producers working together that you maybe wouldn't expect to, and you fear it won't work but it ends up really working? That was slightly convoluted and over-worded, but that's exactly what's happened here! This is top.
Show / ID clip: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSMJqDuiPhI/?igsh=MTZyaGg3b3NxNHh0dw==
Having the usually punchy Dubstep beat of Hamdi mixed with the gnarly sound usage of Nitepunk was always going to be a winner really, wasn't it? I've often felt like Hamdi's structure with that bit more bite to the overall design would sound incredible, and from what I can hear that's what we have here. It's genuinely one of those where I'm questioning how it didn't happen sooner, but now it's a thing and I can't wait for its release.
Are you looking forward to this collab dropping?
Ganja White Night's new festival
Fan favourite duo Ganja White Night are launching their own festival called Cloud City, which will be happening at Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre in Denver, Colorado on the 17th and 18th of April next year - 4/20 weekend, unsurprisingly! The event will feature a raft of performances from the underground of Dubstep, more Wakaan-style Wook Bass and beyond. There are big names such as Coki, Boogie T, Truth and of course two sets from Ganja White Night themselves, as well as a collection of exciting lesser-known names like Wraz, Don Jamal, Packet Loss and many more.
I just know this will be one of the most colourful, visually stimulating events of the year given who's running it, even if it's just the start of the festival's journey. There are some great names across the lineup, so I'm jealous once more of anyone that's able to make it!
runThis reaches 100k monthly Spotify listeners
This is impressive! One of the most talented artists in the Bass underground, runThis - formerly known as splitter - has reached 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. I'm often surprised seeing the monthly listener counts of some artists who you'd imagine would easily have six figures in that regard because of their general fanbase level, but don't. It isn't easy getting to this number, so assuming this has been done completely organically - and not through buying listeners, which is possible and has been discussed a lot in the last couple of weeks - it is an extremely commendable feat, especially for an artist as lesser-known generally as he is.
I don't think I'm quite at the level yet of preferring the runThis project to the splitter one, but regardless it's great to see him thriving with this new venture, coz it's never easy taking a leap of faith and shifting one's motive like that. I'm excited to hear what he puts out next!
DISCUSSION
How close is Riddim to 140?
Just one brief DISCUSSION point I found and wanted to highlight this week - how genuinely far apart are Riddim and 140 as different Dubstep styles?
I'm not sure if I'm completely off base here, but by 'horseshoe' does DJ / producer Finnuh mean that all the Dubstep genres are actually quite alike, and not polar opposite in the way that a horizontal line spectrum would suggest? I think I'm right with that, but do tell me if I'm not. A basic take would be that Riddim and 140 are made at mostly the same BPM, and involve gruesome, dark sounds to give them the 'Dubstep' label. But what would the more developed, refined take be in highlighting the clear similarities between the two sub-genres? I'm not sure I actually know, so this segment is more one of opening a conversation up than definitively saying what I think.
Beyond BPM and general, loose aesthetic, what would you say are the main similarities between Riddim / Trench Dubstep and 140 Dubstep? I would love to hear your thoughts on this!
FUNNIES // COOL STUFF
The best electronic music from 2000-2025
These are absolute musts to check out. There isn't much in the way of mainstream Bass music on these lists, but they're an absolute treasure trove for finding game-changing material from the last quarter century of electronic music.
Best 200 tracks of 2000-2025: https://ra.co/features/4481
Best 100 records of 2000-2025: https://ra.co/features/4482
Big ups to Resident Advisor always!
The history of Dubstep
Another great piece of history-related content! This is Part 2, Part 1 was posted at the end of October. It's an absolute must-watch, and linked below.
Reel: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSF6XhFDKgq/?igsh=a21qeWI3dWh6MDQz
Big up to @ukdistinction on IG!
Svdden Death's awful beat
I don't know how much I agree with the original tweet, but there definitely is something impressive to this hilarious example provided by none other than Svdden Death.
Clip: https://x.com/svddendeath/status/1999957546266923083?s=20
Big ups to Neonix for the tunage, I think.
TYNAN's MAMAde it!
It's always nice, I think, to see the music we love from our little community get recognised at this kind of level. It makes me wonder if the scene and community is actually that small after all.
Clip: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSIy8y3gdVB/?igsh=MTdkdmR0Z3lvcWdqdA==
Love to TYNAN, always!
I'm glad this was made
I did think about this when I saw the track title during the First Listen, but then it left my mind immediately. So I'm very glad that KAIFU went ahead and did this, it's perfect.
Clip: https://x.com/kaifuaudio/status/2000298044810797445?s=20
Big up Pegboard Nerds btw!
How to make it as a DJ
I'd say this is a pretty decent read, all in all. I could've put this in the DISCUSSION section, but I don't think it was meant to be taken that seriously.
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Did I miss anything from the last week in Bass music? Let me know below! 😌