“Rusko!…Rusko!…Rusko!” – the audience simultaneously chants. On Sat, April 10th, The Metro was jam-packed with dub-step lovers from Chicago. Rusko is a high energy, fun dub-step Dj who’s music has been sampled by renowned artists like Diplo and Caspa. You could feel the suspense as the bass-hungry people impatiently waited for Rusko to drop that beat. At last, Rusko opens up the night and is pumpin’ out beats. A mix of high frequency melodies above BB Gun could be heard. There were lazer sounding beats that went along quite well with Rusko’s high intensity jumping, thrusting, flailing – as he is pointing his hand-gun gesture towards the crowd and shooting it with every punch. The griminess of the womp was leveled out by some pop-female-trance vocals that were faded in and out. Finally, Rusko resorts back to the familiar by remixing Kid Cudi’s “Day N’ Night and Skreams’ Dutch Flowers.”

Major Lazer foam hands are bobbing up and down in the audience before flashes of multicolored lasers skim the heads in the audience. Major Lazer is Diplo and Switch’s side project with a Jamaican commando hype-man. Unexpectedly, two big bootied’, half naked women appear on stage shaking their bodies like mashed potato’s as one wild white-mo-hawked man yells random obscenities into the microphone. Apparently, the respected Diplo and Switch were mixing in the background, yet all of this pretend screwing on stage, and mow-hawk mans’ dropping his pants the floor became a bit of a distraction to the music. Diplo was mixing such an eclectic underground and versatile mix of music that included almost every track from ”Guns Don’t Kill People Lazers Do”. What really got the audience excited though, was when he hit us with “All That She Wants” – from the now-antiquated Ace of Base. Major Lazer’s entire performance undoubtedly had shock value and wasn’t your typical DJ set, however, it could have been accomplished in a bit more classy manner. Overall, the night was pumped full of high energy with blends of different music styles, new & old, that really gave it a provocative touch in the end.

Dark and eerie, with plumes of smoke lingering on the floor to mask the mass amounts of dancing feet that filled up Smart Bar for their weekly Dubstep/heavy Bass Thursday lineup the Chicago underground music scene has grown to know and love. This week, March 25th was a special day. Although the other events are growing in numbers as the popularity for the bass driven music genre is growing, this week in specific had a special guest. Coming all the way from the UK to blow the speakers and minds of local music enthusiasts, the dubstep DJ, DubPolice and Dubsoldiers founder, Caspa arrived ready to impress.
Spinning some old school classics, along with his personal favorites that he has grown to be known for, the dubstep DJ was a force to be reckoned with. Having done tracks with multiple worldwide artists such as Rusko and Deadmou5. Local favorite, Kid Sister was in the mix adding a guest appearance and vocals to an already mind blowing experience that would not be soon forgotten.
With the twirling of glow sticks, dancing of the full crowd, and sea of smiling faces, its amazing how quickly the new genre that is known for the skull crushing bass, wobble that makes the weak of heart dizzy, and overall mood of the songs, attract the most diverse crowd, from a multitude of different genres of music. All one can truly say is that each and every show is a great experience, accompanied by great people just looking to be moved by music like they have never been moved before. Welcome to the world of Dubstep.

Story by, Chris Hemstreet

Check out the rest of Caspa’s tunes at:
myspace.com/caspadubstep

as well as the local openers and residents for the Smart Bar event at:
Phaded:
myspace.com/sosophaded

Special Guest, MC Zulu:
myspace.com/zulumusic

Loyal Divide (one of the bands playing at chicago.com/music’s sxsw showcase) took to the stage of Chicago’s celebrated Metro theater sometime after 8 pm on a warmer than usual January evening. The show wasn’t theirs as they were opening for Felix Culpa, nonetheless it was the first time this up-and-coming band took to the Metro’s stage and you could tell they were excited to do it.

Loyal Divide is a band that really is best understood live, or at least until you see them live once. The five musicians, who all seem to be able to play each other instruments (aside from the drummer, of course), coalesce their talents into a morphing, textured, spacey-yet-determined, quasi-electric, quasi-rock music that just beacons you to listen and dares you to not enjoy it. However, if one takes in just their albums the complexity and nature of their sound might lead one to assume the supplementation of computerization is used, in which one would be in error, and therein lies one of their most impressive traits.

The band started off with “Lights” from their first, self-titled, release. I believe this was a good choice for an opener in front of the substantial crowd of new ears that was present within the Metro that evening. It showcased their ability to groove, as well as to move from a mellow-rock-feelings into a noisy crescendo and back again. Afterward the band moved into a couple tracks from their more recent release, “Labrador” and “Vision Vision,” which I believe are more accurate descriptions of where this band is musically headed.

These songs employ briskly syncopated digital beats, reinforced by the actual drummer, and pivot around hallucinatory-synthesized sounds instead of the electric guitar. Throw in groovy bass lines and harmonized vocals and you have a complete party for your ears. Yes, they are making music that is in step with the current electrification of psychedelic music, but its more than that because their sounds are being created by individuals and because they employ a dynamism within their songs that completely computerized music just can’t cope with. They may use similar ingredients as their contemporaries, but the product just tastes different, and damn good.

The highlight for this author was their 4^th song of the evening, a new one that used this unchanging, awesomely-pounding bass line that had this subtle funk to it (like as if you could rap over the beat, if you wanted to), before the band put their instrumented, danceable, psychedelic highlights over it. It reminded me of the new material from the Brian Jonestown Massacre (which was just released, so there is no way the band heard it before writing the song), which to me means this band is substantially ahead of their genre’s curve.

The only bummer about the Loyal Divide’s performance was it’s brevity, but I won’t hold that against them as it was an understandable let-down, as they were an opening act. But rest assured the next time they play a full set I will be there, eager to hear some more of their new material, and if you enjoy either electronic or psychedelic music of any kind… you should be there too!

by sean brna