Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken beat, grime, and drum and bass. In the United Kingdom, the origins of the genre can be traced back to the growth of the Jamaican sound system party scene in the early 1980s.
Mount Kimbie is an English electronic music duo consisting of Dominic Maker and Kai Campos. Formed in 2008, the duo expanded on the musical template of the UK dubstep scene, releasing early EPs Maybes and Sketch on Glass to critical praise the following year. Their debut album Crooks & Lovers in 2010 received further acclaim and was listed as one of the defining albums of the decade by DJ Mag.
Insides is the third studio album by English musician and producer Jon Hopkins. Released on 5 May 2009, it reached No. 15 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Album Chart in 2009. PopMatters listed the album as one of the top ten electronic albums of 2009.
James Ferraro is an American experimental musician, producer, composer and contemporary artist. He has been credited as a pioneer of the 21st century genres hypnagogic pop and vaporwave, with his work exploring themes related to hyperreality and consumer culture. His music has drawn on diverse styles such as 1980s electronic music, easy listening, drone, lo-fi, sound collage, and R&B.
My Teenage Dream Ended is the title of both the debut autobiographical book and the accompanying album by American reality television personality, singer, and writer Farrah Abraham. The latter was released on August 1, 2012, and the former was published 13 days later.
Far Side Virtual is a studio album by American electronic musician James Ferraro, released on October 25, 2011 by Hippos in Tanks. Conceived as a series of ringtones, the album marked Ferraro's transition from his previous lo-fi recording approach to a sharply produced, electronic aesthetic that deliberately evokes sources such as elevator music, corporate mood music, easy listening, and early computer sound design. The album has been interpreted as engaging with themes such as hyperreality, disposable consumer culture, 1990s retrofuturism, advertising, and musical kitsch.
Cut 4 Me is the debut mixtape by American singer and songwriter Kelela. It was released on October 1, 2013, by Fade to Mind for free download on SoundCloud. Seeking to make the mixtape sound like a remix album, Kelela sang over instrumental tracks by producers from the Fade to Mind and Night Slugs record labels, whose sound has been described as "one of the most distinctive sounds in UK dance music, a mutable hybrid of grime, house, electro, R&B, techno, hip hop, and dubstep."
Roy Chukwuemeka Nnawuchi, better known by his pseudonym Dean Blunt, is a British singer-songwriter, musician and contemporary artist. He is best known for his current solo work as well as his previous work as part of avant-garde duo Hype Williams, and more recently, the hip hop group Babyfather. Blunt was also the founder of London rock band Graffiti Island. He has been described as "a prolific, category-rejecting artist" and "an art-pop provocateur."
Hypnagogic pop is pop or psychedelic music that evokes cultural memory and nostalgia for the popular entertainment of the past. It emerged in the mid to late 2000s as American lo-fi and noise musicians began adopting retro aesthetics remembered from their childhood, such as radio rock, new wave pop, light rock, video game music, synth-pop, and R&B. Recordings circulated on cassette or Internet blogs and were typically marked by the use of outmoded analog equipment and DIY experimentation.
Street Sects is an American experimental band from Austin, Texas formed in 2013, composed of vocalist Leo Ashline and multi-instrumentalist Shaun Ringsmuth. Their style is extremely abrasive, characterised by industrial rhythms, use of screamed vocals, samples of both noise and synthesizers, and nihilistic lyrics. Following two EPs released in 2014, the duo's debut album End Position came out on September 16, 2016, on The Flenser to generally positive reviews.
Sushi is a studio album by the American electronic musician James Ferraro, released on November 7, 2012, by the independent record label Hippos in Tanks. The electronica dance-pop record has a much more mainstream sound than Ferraro's past albums, continuing some of the trap, R&B and hip-hop underpinnings that were a part of Ferraro's two mixtapes Inhale C-4 $$$$$ (2012) and Silica Gel (2012), released under his Bebetune$ and Bodyguard monikers, respectively. Sushi garnered mixed to positive reviews upon its release, a common criticism being its lack of depth or indication of a main concept.
NYC, Hell 3:00 AM is a studio album by American musician James Ferraro, released digitally and physically on October 15, 2013 by the label Hippos in Tanks. The album, stylistically exploring a combination of R&B and avant-garde music, was Ferraro's first album recorded with studio instrumentation. It began as a conceptual project, described by Ferraro as "a surreal psychological sculpture of American decay and confusion", for him to only record at or around midnight, and the album's material was "realized" instead of structured and planned out.
Skid Row is a studio album by American electronic musician James Ferraro, released on November 13, 2015 by Break World Records. Lyrically, it had previously existed as a series of poems before it turned into a set of lyrics for an album named after the crime-and-poverty-heavy Los Angeles area Skid Row. It is the Los Angeles counterpart to Ferraro's previous studio effort NYC, Hell 3:00 AM (2013). Its sound palette includes elements of funk, news reports, new jack swing, film scores, smooth jazz and 1980s rock and hip-hop. The album garnered generally positive reviews upon its release.
Human Story 3 is a studio album by American electronic musician James Ferraro, self-released on June 14, 2016. Displaying a turn towards the style and aesthetic of modern classical, the album's concept revolves philosophically and structurally on how technology that can be used meaningfully is often used less usefully for commerce and, as a result, how the technology may eventually end up subverting humanness. The record garnered critical acclaim and landed at number seven on Tiny Mix Tapes' year-end list of the best albums of 2016.
James Leusink, better known by his alias Ephixa, is a Canadian electronic music producer who lives in Ontario, Canada. He is best known for his viral "Charlie Sheen Bi-Winning" dubstep remix, remixes of music from the Legend of Zelda franchise as well as various other remixes and original electronic music. Leusink peaked at #11 on Billboard's Next Big Sound chart in November 2011.
Suki Girlz is a mixtape by producer James Ferraro, self-released under the moniker user703918785 on SoundCloud on July 2, 2014. The concept of the trap mixtape is symbolized through both its sound and its marketing; all of the tracks are low-quality and borrow tropes common in music self-released on sites like SoundCloud, and it was released with the name user703918785, which spoofs the spambots of these services, thus making it symbolically disposable. It garnered favorable opinions from music journalists, landing at number one on a list of the best mixtapes of 2014 by Pretty Much Amazing.
Inhale C-4 $$$$$ is a mixtape by American electronic musician James Ferraro under the alias BEBETUNE$, released for free on December 14, 2011. Parodying the tropes of contemporary American hip hop music and its culture, it marks the first time in Ferraro's career that he approached such a style. Reviews of the mixtape were mostly positive, and it appeared in the top 20 of Tiny Mix Tapes' list of the best releases of 2012.
Number 1 Angel is the third mixtape by British singer Charli XCX, released on 10 March 2017 by Asylum Records. The mixtape contains ten tracks and was created in Los Angeles as a collaboration with producer A. G. Cook, the founder of PC Music. Several other producers associated with the label also contributed to the mixtape, including Sophie who previously produced Charli XCX's extended play Vroom Vroom. Musically, it has been labeled as avant-pop and electropop.
Playboi Carti is the debut mixtape by American rapper Playboi Carti. It was released on April 14, 2017, by AWGE Label and Interscope Records. The mixtape features production from Pi'erre Bourne, Southside and others, and guest appearances from American rappers Lil Uzi Vert, ASAP Rocky, and Dutch singer Leven Kali. The physical version of the mixtape was released on October 6, 2017, and a vinyl edition was released on November 17, 2017.
Chaz Hall, better known by his stage name Elucid, is an American rapper and record producer from New York City. He has been a member of Armand Hammer, Cult Favorite, Lessondary, Nostrum Grocers, and Small Bills.
