It's Monday, and so time for a new BBB! 🗞️✨
ENJOY 💙💙
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NEWS
Varien shares AI Dubstep and says the genre ‘cannot be saved’
What an utterly odd sequence of events this was. A video started circulating on X showcasing someone mocking a pair of people doing outreach for TPUSA - Turning Point USA, the conservative-led organisation doing outreach at school and universities in America, founded by Charlie Kirk and Bill Montgomery. The mocker is out of picture, and doing purposefully comical beatboxing about “counting or not counting gang violence”. This is where it gets weird. Bass producer / DJ Varien then shared a clip of an AI-generated remix of that video, saying ‘how is this better than the majority of dubstep for the past 10 years’. From there, hell broke loose on the X app.
Varien clip: https://x.com/varien/status/2041882159040876805?s=20
Perhaps the biggest point of contention emerged through a reply to Varien’s clip from underground Dubstep producer Secrecy, who said ‘you were one of the producers i looked up to back when i first discovered dubstep … i am beyond disappointed’. Varien then quoted Secrecy’s tweet by sharing another clip, this time with the caption ‘this is what your reply would sound like if it was ai generated dubstep’. The clip was exactly as you’d imagine. Quite the way to respond to a long-term fan being sincere about a pressing, concerning issue within the scene, right?
It’s safe to say, most people did not like this post, which has garnered almost 500 likes since being shared last Thursday. A fellow underground Dubstep producer, MADCORE, said ‘let’s get you to bed gramps’. Another user said ‘This shit is garbage and defending Suno is embarrassing’. Varien herself went on a run of only replying ‘ok’ to any response highlighting the bad in what she was saying and sharing. Producer / DJ Kanaan said ‘replying “ok” to genuine fans of yours for calling u out on bs is actually insane … u were better off staying silent’. Depressingly, AI-generation fanatic BOOTOSHI was in the replies laughing about the entire exchange. Even weirder was the fact that Varien was talking down on AI music in some replies - ‘nah im not big on ai music tbh man im a boomer about sheet music and theory’ - but then responding warmly to all of the accounts lauding the AI-generated slop. She also proclaimed that ‘dubstep cannot be saved’, to which producer / DJ Dr. Ushuu said ‘y’all have the worst tastes ever to come up here and say dubstep cannot be saved’. Modestep replied to his tweet with a simple ‘dogshit take after dogshit take’.
I’m all for a bit of light-hearted confrontation, but when it’s concerning something as serious as AI-generated music, that form of discourse is gonna fall flat for a lot of people. But it’s clear some just don’t think about what they’re doing, or the repercussions of their actions and words. In Varien, we could very well have a new Deadmau5-level shithouser in our midst. Or maybe she’s been like this the entire time? I couldn’t tell you.
What are your thoughts on this exchange, and who was most in the wrong as the back-and-forths played out?
Bass Canyon 2026 lineup receives backlash
Another year, another Bass Canyon lineup receiving pushback. This year’s instalment of Excision’s Lost Lands sister event will feature many classic big names from the mainstream of Bass music, like VOYD (Svdden Death), Virtual Riot, Sullivan King, Ray Volpe, Dion Timmer and Barely Alive. There are some interesting additions in the larger-font section of the poster too, with artists such as Culture Shock, Sigma and Pegboard Nerds making an appearance. There are fascinating choices in the lower part of the graphic as well, from Otsukare to Crumb Pit and Dennett to Vaski, a 2010s modern Dubstep legend who it’s great to see included here.
Unsurprisingly, upon the lineup being revealed, many people took to X to share their thoughts on Ex’s latest Gorge Amphitheater event. There was a fair amount of good feedback, and people generally being excited for the festival. Amongst that though were some highlighting the fact that Excision always plays multiple sets at his own festivals, instead of giving those spots to other artists. One user said ‘Excision Presents: Excision’, whilst another said ‘damn this excision dude is really coming up! hope he plays some other fests soon’.
To go with that, people mentioned how repetitive the lineup rosters have gotten across both Lost Lands and Bass Canyon. One account highlighted this as the reason for not going to Bass shows at all anymore. Another user said ‘Can’t wait to hear the same songs for 3 days in a row’. Potentially weirdest of all, however, was the fact that DJs such as Badklaat, Hekler, Justin Hawkes and Flozone weren’t in the top half of the poster. I would’ve thought they were all historically significant-enough artists, whilst still being consistent music releasing today, to be in that top part; or have a solid-enough numbers game across all streaming platforms, like Flozone.
It is quite a boring, predictable lineup, but at the same it’s difficult to expect much else from a festival focused around the most mainstream modern Dubstep and Bass music. Plus, there’s a solid number of intriguing, eyebrow-raising inclusions on it. The formula is there - evidenced most perhaps by Excision’s multi-performance setup - and people always turn up in their tens of thousands. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it right?
Svdden Death, yvm3 and Nimda officially present S.Y.N.
After months of seeing the name appear on various lineup posters, Dubstep’s latest big-name trio is finally in official operation. Svdden Death, yvm3 and UK-based producer Nimda will be playing shows, and releasing music together, as S.Y.N.. Over the weekend just gone, Svdden Death played two shows at The Palladium in Los Angeles, the second of which had yvm3 and Nimda up alongside him. There’s a clip from the opening of that triumvirate performance, showing all 3 artists belting Sludge Metal-inspired vocals from backstage before emerging to get on the decks. I will link that below. Earlier last week, the group published their first press photos as S.Y.N. too.
Set opener clip: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXC8_GIDXBw/?igsh=NzE4ZnQ3bnNlczFs
I imagine we’ll see some significant festival slots for S.Y.N. this summer, whilst we can only hope their releases are more regular than what we’ve got from the Masterhand project so far! Get ready for some pretty forward-thinking Tear Out, I'd say.
MUSIC
Virtual Riot and Leotrix release new albums
In what was a huge week for lovers of melody-driven Bass music, both Virtual Riot and Leotrix released new, full-length studio LPs within a day of each other. For the former, it was his 3rd official long-form project, whilst for the latter it was his debut. Virtual Riot dropped under Monstercat again, and very much continued the fire theme that has stitched the vast majority of his musical output together for the last 2-3 years. And Leotrix gave fans what they had been yearning for for years with a 13-track, multi-genre outlay for the Gud Vibrations label.
As most of you know already, I’ve done First Listen coverage for both collections, which are now available on the YouTube channel. Do give them a watch if you’re yet to, and let me know what you’re making of each one in their respective comment sections. The discussion for both has been great so far, so do get involved!
Virtual Riot reaction: https://youtu.be/cfHSr026A1M?si=ttGGX04m4YStqH32
Leotrix reaction: https://youtu.be/FPPg3EP1D98?si=RmP5GmideFDO5xAU
Coffi to leave Gentlemens Club
I haven’t let out a more genuine “Awh” whilst looking at my phone in a long time. One third of legendary UK-based Bass trio Gentlemens Club, Coffi, will be leaving the group after a mammoth 14 years together. In the announcement post, the group’s other members 50 Carrot and Soloman wrote, ‘Coffi has been a huge part of this story … we know he’ll continue to do incredible things with his new artist management venture’. They went on to round off the post by saying, ‘Looking ahead we’re entering a new chapter for Gentlemens Club which we can’t wait to share with you’, so there’ll be no slowing down as the collective narrows from 3 artists to 2. This is of course sad, but also unsurprising given GC have been performing as just 50 Carrot and Soloman for a while now, as evidenced by their recent Instagram content.
If there was ever a chance I should take to celebrate these boys, let it be this bulletin right here. They’re without doubt some of the funniest people I’ve met whilst being involved in the Bass music industry, and Coffi was notably warm and welcoming to me at a point when I hadn’t been running the channel that long, and had no idea which artists actually knew about what I was doing with Nawtystep. To make it even more memorable, Soloman fake head-butted me in the chest while doing an impression of me saying “Waddup Nawtysteppers!” which just sums up how wild their energy was as a trio. So long live GC as we’ve known them up until now, but with equal good feeling I look forward to what they’ll be doing as a duo from here.
And if you aren’t too familiar with Gentlemens Club, do yourself a favour and play their NSD: Black Label EP Black Gold today from start to finish. Enjoy!
Baauer’s 3rd album to drop soon
A minimal, straightforward post, but a very powerful one all the same. Record label Lucky Me announced on X last week that world-renowned Bass artist Baauer - creator of one of the most streamed tracks in EDM history, ‘Harlem Shake’ - will be dropping his 3rd full-length album on the imprint soon. This upcoming LP will be a follow-up to May 2016’s Aa, and June 2020’s PLANET’S MAD, which I named as my no. 1 Bass album of that year. He’s continually proven himself to be one of the most experimental musicians in the scene, with his last collection launching us into a tribal, hyper-colourful world beautifully illustrated not only through the music, but through an entire visual world too. I’m hoping we’ll get the same level of ambition for this next project!
New G Jones & Eprom A/B
As the European leg of their world tour kicks into gear, G Jones and Eprom announced that they will be dropping a new couplet of tracks on April 14th - tomorrow, if you’re reading this on Monday - titled ‘Break of Dawn / The Real’. This A/B arrives as a quick follow-up to their Disk Utility EP, which came out last November. As ever, I’m very excited to see what the latest step these two take into industrial, acid-infused Bass music sounds like!
On the note of their world tour, an exciting thing to tell you all is that I will be supporting them for their Manchester show on April 24th, a week from this Friday. If you’re in the UK at that point, please do come along!
The big Bass releases of the week
Along with everything mentioned above, there were several other notable Bass releases from last week to bring to your attention. There were a few big-name EPs, including REZZ’s A Shift In Perspective on her very own HypnoVizion Records, Effin’s new EP of remixes titled Jukebox Vol. 3 and Erotic Cafe’’s multi-track debut for VISION. The other significant project of the week came from the underground, as labels Exobolt and Full Flex Audio teamed up for the Voyagers collab compilation. That’s sure to be oozing with creativity and innovation, so I’m very much looking forward to checking it out!
In terms of singles, I’m gonna point you in the direction of new cuts from KOAN Sound, Visages & Alix Perez, Ganja White Night & Hydraulix, Kai Wachi and HOL!, as well as a new A/B from Neddie titled ‘wherever I go + VIP’. Happy listening! 💙
DISCUSSION
Times are seriously tough for artists
Initially, I had 3/4 different discussion points to potentially go over this week, but I then quickly realised I could group them all into one larger topic. There was Dubstep legend Plastician talking about how being a musician these days is like busking online. MYTHM remarked on how sad it is that so many Bass artists are quitting at the moment. Underground artists NRVE and Deucez talked about how hard it is to maintain a project currently. And Notixx took to Instagram to talk about the modern homogenisation of art. All of these things point towards it being a tough time for electronic musicians at the moment, but more specifically those operating in the Bass scene. Let’s dig into these posts a little more, and broaden out again from there.
Full Notixx post: https://www.instagram.com/p/DW8_q7aFdR8/?img_index=1&igsh=ZWdpem1rNGE3Mmxv
I'm aware this is a lot of wording to take in, but I wanted to give as many varied examples of this as possible to reassure the producers on this Patreon, and lay bare to those that don't make music what musicians go through today. Plastician seeing the current content grind as online busking is very astute in my opinion, because whilst you're driven by something you love, you're having to force yourself in people's faces for bits of money where you can get it, just to keep you going. MUST DIE!'s evolution on MYTHM's tweet outlines the breadth of the problem, but also has a positive spin on it in its appeal to community, and championing new ideas. Deucez's tweet honestly makes me wanna reach out to him, coz that doesn't sound too healthy, which I'm sure he's aware of. I just hope he's alright, though you can feel the daily music-making struggle through that post. And Notixx simply details the relationship between the music you make, and where it gets you, which isn't easy to navigate or acknowledge at all at the moment.
All of this to say - it's exhausting enough thinking about these things, let alone living and breathing them, plus there's more strife as a modern musician to go with what's mentioned above. So, producers: be kind to yourselves, and try to establish - as much as you can - a position for your project where you're enjoying the artistic process, and aren't too focused on what it can give you beyond the simple love of creation. Of course, shows and money are nice, but getting to a point where you're not even liking making the music itself is no platform to proceed from. You've all got this!
FUNNIES // COOL STUFF
The ultimate wholesome Dubstep-related video
I'm not gonna ruin this coz it's worth watching without knowing what happens. But yes ... very cute and wholesome indeed.
Reel link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DW4iCV-FhB9/?igsh=MTQ0YXltb3h2emU2MA==
VISION Recordings x Project Hail Mary
I have to say, I'm still not entirely sure what it is that's shown in the film (a plugin?) - but nevertheless, a very cool link-up indeed!
Riddim Peter Griffin
I'll admit, I lol'd.
A genuine full-circle moment
In the wake of Porter Robinson and Ninajirachi's Coachella B2B, here we have one of the biggest full-circle moments in EDM history.
Does it get bigger than performing / making a track with your biggest musical inspiration?
Facts only
This era. This genre and style. The artworks. I entered new life dimensions with this music.
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Did I miss anything from the last week in Bass music? Let me know below! 😌