Christchurch based producer Epoch has been building a loyal following in the local and international dubstep community for a couple of years now, and when you listen to his tunes, it's easy to see why he counts people like Blackdown amongst his supporters.
I have a complicated relationship with Dubstep. In its earlier incarnations, listening to producers like Digital Mystikz, Kode 9 and Loefah was a revelatory experience, they were like nothing I'd ever heard. I'd grown tired of the monotony of the House and Breakbeat orthodoxies that dominated the club scene. Raving had become a dead end, and Dubstep seemed to provide an alternative, a third choice, if you will.
I was pretty actively involved in the first wave of Dubstep to hit New Zealand, happy to play my small part in promoting something fresh. Pretty soon the whole thing took on a life of its own and I saw an exponential increase in the audiences at the parties, the younger deejays and producers coming through.
Post 2007, though, there was also a dramatic change in the direction of the sound, Producers began pushing a harder edged, more upbeat angle that took some of Dubsteps common denominators (wobble bass, half time drum patterns) and dramatically exaggerated them, pushing themselves to create the 'sickest' wobble, the 'hardest' beat. The crowds were younger, bored with House and Drum'n'Bass and looking for a new sound to latch onto and identify with. They still wanted the pay off, however: the rush.
The end result? Dubstep created it's own orthodoxies. Between DJs who began to play to the crowds expectations, the crowds themselves and the endless train of bandwagon jumpers who came through to fill the gaps with Hard Wobble remixes of practically any lame piece of shit tune you could be pained to name, Dubstep lost its sense of freedom, it's experimentation.
Producers like Epoch go a long way toward renewing my faith in what Dubstep represented: sound system focused music that is fearless in it's commitment to innovation, that honours it's foundations, that looks to the future. His label, Egyptian Avenue, likewise has a small catalogue and roster of Artists at present, but has already distinguished itself from the herd. Producers like Wen and Filter Dread are making waves in their own right, and Epochs own productions stand up there with the best of them, effortlessly evoking the spirit of early Dubstep innovators such as Vex'd and Loefah, as well as recalling the fertile crossover point between Dubstep and Grime.
It's the dynamics of an Epoch tune that characterise his sound, drums that switch up in the 8 bar tradition, or dispensed with altogether in favour of a spare percussive rattle or lone reverb drenched conga. His beats are frequently coloured by odd chromatic effects or saturated in distortion. He frequently cites Hip hop as a formative influence, snatches of MC chatter haunt his mixes, proverbial ghosts in the machine. His approach to bass is a return to the intense subharmonic pressure of early dubstep, eschewing the grating midrange popular with post crossover producers for the spare LFO reductionism of early Loefah, Skull Disco or Kode 9s groundbreaking Hyperdub 10"s. Melodies, if they appear, recall the skewed, sour sonics of grime. In the current dubstep climate, where most producers chase Burials post UK garage ghosts or attempt to capitalise on Skrillex style crowdpleasing maximalism, Epochs odd, broken grime is anomalous, and I for one am truly grateful for this.
Epochs next release on Egyptian Avenue, Bodywash b/w Gun Talk, is available from May 24th on digital format exclusively from Juno Download.
The Avenue is available for free download from the Egyptian Avenue soundcloud.
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