It's Monday, so time for another BBB! 🗞️✨
ENJOY 💙💙
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NEWS
New Skrillex EP
A birthday EP from the legend himself! Last Tuesday, the eagle-eyed Skrillex fans amongst us noticed that the main picture on his Spotify profile had changed. Gone was the ... well to be honest can't remember which picture was there before; and in its place was a ghostly, low-resolution image that honestly looks like something from Lord of the Rings. Regardless, excitement instantly built and fans readied themselves for another Skrillex release just as his 15th January birthday rolled around. This is the post Atlantic Records freedom that Mr. Sonny Moore now has. Random EP drop on a Thursday? Why the hell not.
The EP is called Kora and consists of 3 tracks: 'Yo Yan', 'Someone Said' and a title track to close. Featuring on the EP are several recognisable names for those familiar with Skrillex's 2025 mixtape F**K U SKRILLEX ... such as swedm, Eurohead and Varg. I've yet to check the EP as I've been away for the last few days, but from what I've heard these tracks are full versions of certain snippets that we got on the FUS mixtape. So along with the hit me where it hurts x EP it seems like he's getting into a rhythm of FUS rounding-off, so to speak. I've also heard the Kora EP is without drums. I will likely be filming my reaction to it and uploading to the channel tomorrow, so look out for that!
I mentioned it in a previous BBB, but I do think Moore needs to watch the frequency of his releasing just a little bit. Him dropping a collection of tunes on his birthday is a lovely thing to do, but if he keeps releasing at this rate I fear the novelty of his project will diminish somewhat, and people will ultimately be less excited with each drop. However, I do trust him and his team to manage this next phase of his career, away from Atlantic Records, in the right way.
Have you heard the EP yet? If so, what are you making of it?
Ninajirachi to tour the UK and Europe
This is great news! One of the most celebrated electronic artists of 2025, Ninajirachi, will be undergoing her first tour of the United Kingdom and Europe in March of this year, just a couple of months from now. The tour includes dates in London and Manchester (yay for me!) as well as shows further afield in cities like Glasgow, Dublin and Paris. The 'I Love My Computer' tour will also feature performances from KAVARI and Laces. An extra, earlier London date on the same day has already been added after the pre-sale for that particular gig sold out.
The more I've heard her I Love My Computer album, the more I've appreciated her riveting, computerised Electro sound, and wondered from there how it will sound in a live environment. Hopefully I'll be able to realise that fully now! I imagine I'll be going to the Manchester date for anyone else that's thinking of going. Do join me if you can!
The Dubstep 'heaviness' clash
This got slightly spicy, and generated some good conversation. It's pretty simple really - Hamdi shared a clip of him playing out a new ISOxo & Dryden ID, then Reverend shared that clip and said 'I love when people outside of tear out or tear out adjacent dubstep stuff use the word heavy to describe music'. He then followed up that tweet with another to say 'I just think its funny the difference in what id call heavy vs someone not in my niche'.
It's funny that he had to clarify he wasn't 'shit talking', coz his original tweet is a perfectly fine and normal thing to say. Predictably though, people got offended, defensive and rude to Reverend as a result of what he said. People took to X in their droves to say things like 'Only tearout = heavy, got it' and 'pretty one dimensional take man. also pretty corny man'. Is it even a take? Why are people happy to be so publicly reactionary? Thankfully there were also some sense-talkers in the replies who got the nuance that it's just a relative thing - people having different interpretations of 'heaviness'.
That went on for a few hours and was worth mentioning in this bulletin because I think it is genuinely interesting what Bass fans from different sectors of the scene find to be 'heavy'. What Hamdi's playing there is, I think, an extreme form of heaviness, with a booming breakbeat and screechy synth combination. At the same time, Tear Out music is almost always incredibly loud, and can be overbearing with it. Though if you don't really listen to Tear Out, you might not even be aware of that level of heavy. What a lot of my friends outside of the Bass community find to be intense music is even more interesting!
What's the heaviest track you've heard recently?
MUSIC
The Peekaboo, Nitepunk and LYNY collaboration is finally here
One of the most highly-anticipated Bass collaborations of recent times is finally here. Leading up to the release of his sophomore album Are We Dreaming?, Peekaboo dropped his new three-way tie-up with Nitepunk and LYNY, titled 'Answer All My Prayers', on Friday last week. The track also features SAYAK DAS, as well as Nick Smith on vocal duty. I have not yet heard the cut, and will likely wait until the full album is out this Friday, so I can hear it within the full album. I will likely be streaming on Friday, my first one of 2026 which I'm very excited for! Please do tune in if you can.
Have you heard this collab yet? And are you looking forward to the release of Peekaboo's second LP?
Debut TYNAN album
The rollout for TYNAN's debut album is underway. On January 7th, TYNAN took to social media to let fans know that his debut album will be coming out on February 13th this year, including that the first single would be dropped the following week. Said first single has turned out to be 'home', featuring Dani King on vocals, which came out last Wednesday. Similarly to the new Peekaboo collab, I will not be listening to this until the full album is out, when I will absolutely be streaming my reaction to the entire project front-to-back as per.
Over 10 years, TYNAN has proven himself to be one of the most diverse, multi-genre artists in the mainstream of Bass music. Which genres do you think will end up on this LP?
Barely Alive's 'Cinema' remix
DAYM this sounds sick! It's a Barely Alive take on Skrillex's classic Benny Benassi 'Cinema' remix, and more than anything it just highlights the incredible consistency of this duo once again. Is there another pairing from the Brostep era with their level of longevity, and that quality of production and idea generation? I'd be surprised if you could name anyone remotely close. To go with this clip, just a couple of hours ago today they also shared a reel of a 'Still Getting It' remix they're doing, the original of course coming from Skrillex and Foreign Beggars. The reworking of the original concepts on both snippets is very good. I can't wait to hear how these remixes turn out in full!
Cinema clip: https://x.com/BARELYALIVEUS/status/2012273729833681332?s=20
Still Getting It clip: https://x.com/BARELYALIVEUS/status/2013328261233750216?s=20
Brostep is so back. Which clip do you prefer? Let me know in the comments!
Last week's notable Bass releases
I think I'll make this a regular feature on the BBB from now on - noting on the biggest Bass names that drop on a given week, whether it be a single, EP, album, mix, compilation, whatever.
Last week, KLAXX dropped what is I think his debut full-length album. He's put out some of my favourite Bass music of the last couple of years, and had my no. 6 EP of 2024, so that's definitely a project worth checking out! There's also a new compilation of tracks from voljum called - hilariously - knobhead vol. 1, which are tunes he made from 2024-2025, arranged in no particular order. They are tracks 'born from a habit of unconditional creation', in his words. There's a new Casey Club EP too that's just dropped on Deadbeats, as well as singles from Crankdat (self-release) and Pegboard Nerds (Monstercat). And this is all to go with the releases mentioned above in this BBB, of course. Happy listening!
DISCUSSION
Doubling tracks 'just because'
This was refreshing to see from someone that loves playing doubles. Personally, more often than not I hear doubles and can't really grasp how people think playing those two tracks at the same time sounds good at all. And it's an experience I've had multiple times at Riddim sets in particular, where the clashing of metallic sounds just leaves my mind spiralling a bit. I think with so much Riddim music having such a similar format too, often two tracks are playing but you can't tell that's the case. So that's very much bemoaning doubling tracks 'just because' as SweetTooth tweeted (below) in two different ways. The abrasiveness of the colliding sounds can become unbearable, but also the two tracks playing together are often doing practically the same thing.
That being said, I do love the culture of it, and the fact that it's become such a common thing for Dubstep DJs especially to do. The way that artists try to find new ways to double, triple or even quadruple tracks is genuinely awesome. But has it got to that point of saturation where people are now just doing it for doing it's sake? It's likely, and that does unfortunately take away from the general class of the practise. With matching keys, two noticeably different ideas, and genuine harmony between everything going on, there's arguably little better than a double in a set. But when, as SweetTooth says, 'the tunes aren't enhancing each other', the art of doubling gets somewhat disrespected, and a musical mess becomes inevitable. And we don't want that, do we?
FUNNIES // COOL STUFF
2016 Dubstep was a TIME
Last week, a trend emerged out of nowhere where people were reminiscing on the year 2016 in the modern Dubstep scene, what with it being 10 years since that time. My favourite posts to come out of it arrived from fellow label heads Skism and Dodge from Dodge & Fuski, about Never Say Die and Disciple respectively.
How similar do those pictures look? Pretty crazy!
I also enjoyed Kill The Noise's post about the energy of Dubstep crowds at that time, which seemed to be getting into headbanging without engaging the full rail-riding technique just yet. It's interesting stuff!
RamonPang does it again
Annoyingly. I can't remember which EP the original 2011 Facebook post is about. I initially thought it might be Skrillex's Leaving EP, but that was a 2013 release of course. Regardless, RamonPang putting the Kora EP's artwork over the artwork of the original post - after all the 'drumless' discussion surrounding that collection - is sensational stuff.
When it hits you
It's an absolute classic, and I'm so happy people are still having this realisation in 2026.
Music promotion is silly
This is a fantastically hilarious mini-take on the state of music promotion right now, and well worth a watch when you have a minute. Link below!
Clip: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DR0Y03QjMTt/?igsh=MWE2YWtteXd4bmJpYQ==
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Did I miss anything from the last week in Bass music? Let me know below! 😌