It's Monday, and time for a more discussion-heavy BBB than usual!
ENJOY 💙💙
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NEWS
Rampage festival 2026
The 7th edition of Drum & Bass legend Murdock's Rampage Weekend festival happened in the 15,000-capacity Sportpaleis arena in Antwerp, Belgium over the weekend. Amongst the headliners across the 2-day event were the likes of Zomboy, Mefjus B2B Simula, INFEKT and Dirtyphonics B2B Modestep, as well as performances from Sub Focus and Crankdat B2B Wooli as 'WANKDAT'. Other notable names included The Resistance and Nimda B2B yvm3, which unsurprisingly turned out to be one of the wildest sets of the weekend. Nimda's Instagram story yesterday was without question one of the craziest I've seen in a while, featuring tonnes of footage of a mammoth in-crowd wall-of-death. The Rampage account @rampage.international has a couple snippets of it, so be sure to check that before it disappears!
Across all of its events, Rampage continues to be mile-and-away the biggest organisation for Bass shows in Europe. I can't wait to go to Rampage Open Air in July for the first time since 2019, where the likes of Space Laces, Virtual Riot, Eptic, Fox Stevenson, IMANU, Barely Alive B2B Kompany and more will be strutting their stuff on the decks at the Kristalpark in Limburg, Belgium. I'll drop the lineup for that below - if you're planning on going let me know!
Oh and by the way, here's a clip of an upcoming INFEKT and Modal Nodes collab from the former's Rampage set: https://x.com/unreleasedfire_/status/2031040305584119987?s=46&t=TEbbHyZ3OlICtgts4_3J0g
MUSIC
Svdden Death - Born To Suffer VIP
New ID reel from the Moose Man! This one is sure to delight Dubstep fans the world over - a VIP version of one of his most renowned singles from the last few years, 'Born To Suffer'. This particular clip shows Mr. Danny Howland performing a Screamo-like vocal atop the instrumental, so this version should have some new features as an evolution on the original.
It seems like it could be a significant week for Svdden Death releases, with his Getter collab 'UNORTHODOX' coming out on Wednesday, and there could be other tracks to follow from there too. This is due to his manager Colin Dugger commenting 'danny music week' on an Instagram post, which could be me looking into it too much, but they aren't small words, so I'll allow my mind to wander with it. Let's see once Friday rolls around!
Reel link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVgrKJKDbTA/?igsh=MXVrcWJnMWUyczNrbA==
Barely Alive & Tisoki is a thing
Barely Alive are, indeed, on a bit of a collaboration tear. The latest bit of news from them on that front came in the shape of an Instagram story post from the microwave man himself, sharing a screenshot from Tisoki of a project file titled 'BARELY ALIVE TISOKI STEM MIX FINAL'. This should be quite the Brostep bonanza yet again, following the recent Zomboy tie-up 'Time Machine', and rumoured BA collabs to come with the likes of Kill The Noise and Edison Cole.
Tisoki's latest collaboration, 'FACEDOWN' with Kai Wachi, unfortunately flattered to deceive to the point where it could be one of the most disappointing Bass tracks of the entire year. Here's hoping, therefore, that this one alongside WATT will deliver - I'm confident it will!
LYNY's UK debut
Everybody was in his UK section? I tried to make that work. From last Thursday to Saturday, LYNY had his debut UK performances across London, Bristol and Manchester. The London show - which I was at - was particularly eventful, featuring surprise appearances from fellow Bass producer Hamdi, and legendary Grime vocalist D Double E. Another renowned UK vocalist, Big Narstie, was there, but he didn't get to perform either 'Spill' or 'VOLTZ' in the end as LYNY's set was cut short slightly.
It's always fantastic to see US producers get so gassed about playing in the UK - and rightly so I think, given where the music he makes started out. I'm equally gassed to have been there for his debut set! His recap post is worth giving a look, I'll link it below.
LYNY UK tour post: https://www.instagram.com/p/DVrFmNvCQHe/?igsh=MXFjZWV6MDJheXV2bw==
New Desembra??
Could one of Bass music's biggest cult figures actually be back this time? Underground Dubstep producer Altair took to X to highlight the fact that there've been some changes on the Swedish artist's Soundcloud page, with every artwork being turned to a black square. Perhaps even more significantly, his website is actually functioning now, when it apparently wasn't before. It looks extremely basic, but the fact is that it's alive and kicking, which is no small thing.
Desembra worked on Swedish House Mafia's second album Paradise Again, which dropped in April 2022, and it was thought that he'd press on from there as a solo artist and drop a load of music, but that never really happened in the end. Could the Stockholm native be back for good this time? We'll have to wait and see ...
Desembra website: https://desembra.com/
Big Bass releases of the week
It was another quiet week release-wise in the Bass scene to be honest! Singles-wise, I think the most notable solo drops came from Feed Me, Leotrix, Code: Pandorum and ATLiens. We also got collaborations from Hamdi & Casey Club, BOP & Chime and San Holo & Juelz - part of San Holo's new FOREVER, forever EP.
In terms of multi-track projects, it's worth shouting out the new grape milk album why do you grow distant white boy? - his second of 2026 already - as well as a new collection of remixes from Cyclops titled EGG DROPS - VOLUME ONE. New EPs from Azaleh and MYTHM are also worth pointing you in the direction of.
Happy listening! 💙
DISCUSSION
'Cultish' behaviour in the Bass scene
This is probably the most artists I've seen in the replies of another producer's tweet for a fair while! Just last night, predominantly-Dubstep musician Chef Boyarbeatz took to X to call out 'the cultish personality in the american bass scene, where unless your playing 100% dubstep all night people will whine in your dm’s'. MUST DIE!, Taiki Nulight, Phrva, Dr. Ushuu and more gave their thoughts in response. Let's discuss below.
Is cultish the right word to use in this context? I suppose in the sense that these fans are looking to have some sort of control over what DJs play, that word could work well. Or maybe the widespread nature of it makes it seem as if the people who do it are part of a cult? Regardless, I think it is a little odd to expect a Dubstep DJ to play solely Dubstep. If they're playing none of it, and they're very much renowned as a Dubstep musician, I think you have grounds for bringing it up. But if they're mostly playing Dubstep, and it's spread out over a set with the inclusion of a couple other genres here and there, complaining would require a wake up call of sorts I think. That is how underground Dubstep sets work for large parts - you want to show your versatility by playing other Bass styles, but also want the Dubstep to sound better by having breaks from it over the hour-or-so set. It's a thing that many people in the scene aren't prepared to try out new kinds of electronic music, as highlighted by two quote tweets for the original tweet shown below. To claim it's why Ternion Sound disbanded might be a bit of a stretch, but the main point definitely stands.
This isn't a Taylor Swift concert, where you know you're gonna get her songs and her songs only, this is DJ culture we're talking about. I understand that fans pay a fair bit to see their favourite artists these days - which isn't just the show ticket but the travel, drinks and more too - and they expect a certain vibe from them. But to question deviations from that seems a bit aloof and unknowing in a scene where playing a wide range of genres is the exact point.
Might the Bass fandom have collectively got to a place of entitlement, broadly speaking? Do they say these things because the artists aren't massive in the grand context of the music industry, and are therefore easily accessible? There are many questions that arise from this discussion, and I'd love your general thoughts on the topic below.
The 'post-Brostep' era
Brostep may be surging back into prominence now, but when did its first era draw to a close in your opinion, roughly speaking? I shared a post about Trilla's 'Playcard', calling it the most underrated modern Dubstep track of the post-Brostep era. Underground Dubstep producer / DJ Secrecy replied, saying 'this came out in 2018 wdym post-brostep era?' and a brief back-and-forth was had from there, as shown below.
Riddim was of course being made in 2016 and 2017, but was nowhere near as big as Brostep at that point. However, at the beginning of 2018 I distinctly remember being on Soundcloud and hearing far more Riddim than I had previously - a surprising amount. That was also the first year I went to Lost Lands, where I met Dubstep producer Myro, who was of course running Disciple alongside Dodge & Fuski. I asked him what they had lined up release-wise at the label, and all he said in response was "Riddim, Riddim, Riddim". I remember being taken aback by his answer, but the more I sat on it the less surprised I was. Riddim had, indeed, taken a stranglehold in the scene by then, as I mentioned in one of my replies to Secrecy (above). By the time 2018 rolled around, huge Brostep artists like Virtual Riot were trying out Riddim too, as I also mentioned in the conversation.
There's a lot that points to Riddim being a properly surging movement from 2018 onwards, though I'm aware I could be forgetting or missing something significant in my analysis. What do you guys think? When did Riddim overtake Brostep as the prominent mainstream Dubstep sub-genre?
What were the first 145 Dubstep tracks?
This is something I've never thought about in depth before, but it's an interesting question posed here by Flux Pavilion - what were the first 145BPM Dubstep tracks?
Brostep legend The Frim seemed startled by the question in the replies, unable to think of what the answers could possibly be as to who first popularised the 145 tempo in Dubstep, and when those tracks came out. The most detailed reply came from @HVYHTTRS, who shared a Rekordbox screenshot showing a selection of 2007-released Dubstep tracks at 145BPM, featuring artists such as Coki, Pinch, The Others and more. Someone else mentioned Shackleton's 'I Am Animal' from 2005, as well as Loefah's 'Sukkah' from 2007. Suffice to say, I think it's clear that 145BPM was popular in Dubstep music before the more modern iterations of it - popularised by the likes of Flux, Skrillex and more - came around in the 2010s and beyond. There has to be a playlist full of pre-2007 145BPM Dubstep somewhere - if you have it, send it my way!
FUNNIES // COOL STUFF
AI is cooked
Genuine lol - very good from electronic music producer / DJ Essenger.
Katie Koven & A.M.C are parents!
Very very wholesome and lovely. Wishing them all the best in their new life chapter! 👶🏻
Full Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/DVbQeHTjEV4/?img_index=1&igsh=c200aThzdzViZ3lo
REZZ in new KIA advert
This is so sick - a partnership between producer / DJ REZZ and car company KIA. I'm not entirely sure how this came about, but it's amazing to see all the same. There are two separate adverts linked below, both of which are definitely worth a watch!
Full advert: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVZOE36D6Ni/?igsh=bGh4MWZibTBseXNj
REZZ's acting debut shorter ad: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVZmwq0j9wD/?igsh=MnB6Y2F1bGVudmNi
Virtual Riot does mix for Car Radio
Another fantastic piece of content from last week - Virtual Riot's feature for @heds.world's Car Radio.
It's exactly as it sounds, by the way: Virtual Riot doing a Dubstep set in a moving car. Get your ears around this when you can!
Full set: https://youtu.be/4PlaApHEZbk?si=dmYwEd5h8IhFRzDB
Making friends in EDM
Some interesting thoughts and observations from Au5 on his 15-year position in the EDM scene and community, the friends he has within it, and his relationship with those more successful with him. Another piece of content from last week that's worth a watch!
Full reel: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVX5I36jsM1/?igsh=bzdzb3A5NzNmMm93
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Did I miss anything from the last week in Bass music? Let me know below! 😌