Sepalcure Take the Cake @ Dub War NYC, Release on Hot Flush

photo by Seze Devres

Sepalcure played the Bass Mutations gig at New York's Unsound Festival, and to be quite honest it came and went for me. There was something that I didn't quite get about the two Brooklyn musicians until last night when they made their Dub War debut. While both crowds were the two best you could legitimately ask for in a six-month period, the harmony between club Love's pure soundsystem, a midnight time slot and the perfection of their set after many hard months working on their upcoming Hot Flush release all came together in tune.

'Love Pressure' is an EP that shows the softer side of Hot Flush, a predominantly dubstep label run by Scuba and Alex Incyde. Saturated with female vocals in a sort of classic house music fashion, the rolling bass lines are a blanket of punches to keep you swaying back and forth. "It's unreal that anyone could be this good," was exclaimed within my crew, and I couldn't agree more. The ingredients include a unique blend of tribal dub, two-step and soulful rhythms peppered with their love for 90s house a cappellas.

And character goes a long way. Take Praveen Sharma, one half of the duo. He helps run Percussion Lab, and absorbs music like a sponge, but also has one of the warmest and most inviting personalities in the scene. Always positive, he is by far the most enthusiastic performer you will ever see behind the decks, and the chemistry between him and Travis Stewart (Machinedrum), his musical partner-in-crime, is all part of the force that moves you.

"Every Day of My Life" and the EP's title track are bouncy and fun, and closing track "The Warning" is gorgeous and goosebump-inducing. It's some of the most emotive bass-heavy music you'll ever hear, and whether or not it carves out a new subgenre from hereon in, 'Love Pressure' will definitely stand out on its own.

HF025 will be available June 7th 2010 on 12” vinyl, and digitally at Beatport.

Added // a comment from Matty Steppo, a Providence dubstep DJ: "That was the best hour of electronic music I've seen live for a while."

The Exotic Appetizer: Unsound With Vladislav Delay & Sebastian Meissner

Sebastian Meissner

It'd be no surprise to say, two weeks from now, that the New York installment of Poland's Unsound Festival blew my mind. But the fact is that it already did so tonight, and in such an unconventional manner, comes as a shock. Month after month, the Bunker parties as well as my few but favorably attended Wordless Music events have consistently impressed and enlightened me. Unsound's opening reception - featuring Vladislav Delay + visual artist Lillevan as well as Sebastian Meissner leading the Kwartludium quartet - was a deconstruction of established ideas, and left my American mindset feeling completely mindfucked. While it was happening, I couldn't understand, but as both performances came to an end and a few discussions were had, the mission to blow apart expectation, regimentation and perception was coming in to focus.

Sebastian Meissner's conduction of a four musicians set against a handful of SST classics was far from a cover band. In all honestly, I went into the event believing I had no preconceived notions about how this "modern classical interpretation" was going to unravel. I was wrong...I think. I had expected, perhaps, to hear as much as one riff or one famous vocal line translated through the violin or piano atop a dubby whirl of live samples and loops, but it wasn't the case. This was not an ambient filtering of punk, but a complete deconstruction (there's that word again) of some of the simplest sonic structures. It was best commented on after the event by a friend, who acknowledged the difference between a city of, say, New York and those that make up the cultural backgrounds of Unsound's Eastern European lineup. Poland. Romania. Belarus. Ukraine... These countries are vast and far more ancient than most of North America's development, and their cities and roads were developed on anything but a grid system.

One other amazing comparison made by such friend was that of going to a fine restaurant and trying something new. The chef takes one exotic element and piles one or two other exotic elements on top, but it's so small and you taste it and in an instant it's over and you say, "Well, what the hell was that?!" After about seven or eight courses, though, you begin to understand the purpose of that first course in the big picture, and it all ties together and harmonizes the palette somehow. Ultimately, this could be the genius that lies ahead at the close of the Unsound Festival...let's see.