Life of grime

The Bay gets its first dose of darkside UK breakbeat.

By Tomas Palermo

ARE YOU AS sick as I am of going to clubs, festivals, even the supposedly radically inclusive Burning Man, and hearing the same monotonous trance and breakbeat music almost everywhere? Ready for a little technical innovation, heavier bass lines, and a dash of urban British attitude?

One party this weekend promises to wage an epic battle to vanquish the creeping dance-music mediocrity in our region. I asked local mix master and promoter DJ Ripple (birth name: Lorin Stol) to describe the music of the two UK electronic artists he's flying out to San Francisco for his Superheroes and Supervillains party Oct. 15, and he resorted to a slew of subgenres to place their sounds on the map.

Plasticman's music is considered dubstep, the bastard child of UK garage and broken beat, he says, and it consists of post-2-step swung beats, heavy atmospherics, and warped, distorted bass lines. True, the records that both Chris "Plasticman" Reed (not to be confused with techno artist Plastikman, né Richie Hawtin) and fellow English lads Vex'd (Jamie Teasdale and Roly Porter) make are an obscure mélange of choppy drum breaks; wobbly, earthquake sub-bass; and video game-worthy noises. But Plasticman and Vex'd are also creating some of the most exciting club music since drum 'n' bass first dropped its pounding science, in the early '90s.

But for those listeners just getting their heads around the new school of Brit rap, including Dizzee Rascal, M.I.A., the Streets, and Lady Sovereign, all this talk of post-this and swung-that might sound a little nerdy. As it turns out, the new wave of British stars owes its sound to the underground's ever-morphing party music.

What's the difference between dubstep and its close cousin grime, a sound attributed to the aforementioned new stars? Grime came out of dubstep and UK garage when some of the garage MCs started flowing over the tracks. A lot of people consider dubstep a derivative of instrumental grime now, although that notion's not really true. What is true, however, is the increasing popularity of dubstep and grime with Bay Area DJs who hear the parallels between grime's slow 'n' low slang and Dirty South (not to mention hyphie Bay) rap, as well as between dubstep and homegrown funky breaks and electro music.

But the Bay didn't exactly embrace these new tea-bag genres overnight.

When UK garage first broke in Europe, around 2000, its glossy, champagne-fueled sound didn't resonate with Bay Area club-goers. When local DJs tried out the sound in San Francisco, it blew through town with the faintest flurry of fashionable parties and upswinging high hats and was gone. Time passed, and UK garage stripped down to its Jamaican soundsystem and Cockney slang roots, just as the Lil Jon and 50 Cent revolution kicked off in the States. Somehow, the two styles met in a middle ground of garage-influenced dubstep records and more rap-friendly grime beats. Following a series of pioneering weekly San Francisco parties in 2005, including Future Primitive Sound's Grind at Element Lounge, and the B.I.G. crew's Grime City at Nickie's BBQ, Bay Area DJs of all stripes began to reveal their love of British breakbeat-garage hybrids.

Now, cruising on a wave of new energy following sold-out shows by M.I.A. and Dizzee Rascal, Ripple and his Subscience crew (Misha, Maebyn La Fey, t he Hitmen) have joined forces for Superheroes and Supervillains with B.I.G.'s Jamin, Megatron, Subtek, and the ONE; breakcore DJs Kid Kameleon and Ripley; and a host of MCs to bring the Bay Area its first real taste of underground dubstep and assorted breakbeat offshoots. With all this killer local talent, why the need for British DJs at all?

Plasticman is one of dubstep's founders and still one of the prime purveyors of the sound, Ripple explains. Actually working somewhere between grime and dubstep, he does the main Saturday-night show on the UK pirate station Rinse FM and has released music on tastemaker labels like Soulja and Aphex Twin's Rephlex. Quite a pedigree for an artist rumored to be celebrating his 23rd birthday this month.

Slightly older, at 26, are the duo Vex'd, who are responsible for a darker, more aggressive form of breakbeat madness. Vex'd has been putting out singles for a while now, Ripple says – tracks like "Pop Pop," "One Lion," "Function," and wicked remixes of groups on the Vertical Sound label. They just came out with a devastating full-length on Planet Mu, titled Degenerate. "Absolutely fresh-sounding, next-level stuff," Ripple enthuses.

When in doubt about introducing a new sound to a San Francisco audience, simply add a costume component and the party is on. Yes, we're a city that likes to don devil horns on St. Patri ck's Day and cross-dress, well, pretty much every day. Hence, Subscience dubbed their event Superheroes and Supervillains, an apt choice for dubstep's bounding, dancehall-influenced sound and grime's muddy, up-to-no-good sonic terror. "The name Plasticman fits perfectly," Ripple explains. "He represents the superhero, and Vex'd, with all their electronic-induced mayhem, represents the supervillain!" (Further, all partygoers are encouraged to dress up as their favorite superheroes or supervillains.)

So the stage is set for an epic battle, and the test of a new, foreign dance genre on traditionally open-minded Bay Area ears. But with the recent trance breaks domination of large-scale events like Love Parade and Burning Man, I wonder if the new breakbeat hybrids will inspire dancers.

Ripple isn't worried: "What I love about most dubstep and grime is it doesn't reference any of the old styles of breakbeat. I do still play and enjoy tear-out, nu-skool breaks. But I also like to keep it heav y , propulsive, and fresh." And fresh is what we'll get from Plasticman and Vex'd, with a measure of rude British pirate-radio attitude as well. It could be just the thing the Bay Area's clogged club arteries need to bypass trance and get our scene flowing in healthy, expansive directions once again.

Superheroes and Supervillains takes place Sat/15, 9 p.m.-6 a.m., 1598 Custer, SF. All ages. $10, $8 in costume. www.subscience.org.