Various Fabriclive 37: Caspa & Rusko LP
2007 has been a strange year for Hip hop. Mutterings of ‘Hip hop is dead’ have become louder and more ubiquitous and rap record sales have plummeted, much like the industry in general may I hasten to add. Yet despite this rap remains as relevant and vibrant – Dizzee Rascal, Cadence Weapon, Kanye, Lil Wayne and even the latest Wu Tang opus – as ever.
English Hip hop may still be struggling to get the mainstream recognition and exposure it, sometimes, deserves but it’s darker, bassy musical cousin, Dubstep, certainly isn’t.
Dubstep was once the refuge for beard stroking Japanese cigarette smoking-types with fetishes for skull shuddering sub-bass, hardly accessible then. But ‘times are a changin’, and the Caspa & Rusco mixed ‘FabricLive 37’ is a good example of this. The Dubstep dons draw on many musical influences, from Hip hop, dub and jungle to techno. The result is a heady mix of paranoid, uplifting and unpretentious soundscapes that even the biggest skeptics could get down to, and like all the best Fabric mixes there is also a clear sense of narrative.
Though critics will point to an over reliance on their own in-your-face productions; Caspa’s ‘Cockney Violin’ with it’s wobbly reverb and violinist melancholy, Rusko’s out door rave, sun-rise affecting ‘Jahova’ and the large menacing din of ‘Cockney Thug’ all more than justify inclusion.
2007 has been a strange year for Hip hop.
- Kane
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