Tomas Olesen dives into cosmic sounds from Philly dubstepper Starkey and his new album Ear Drums and Black Holes.
Starkey is a massive dubstep producer, but weirdly he comes from Philadelphia and not Plaistow. Proof then that dubstep has fully outgrown its grime and garage roots to become an international phenomenon. Starkey is probably best known for his 'Ephemeral Exhibits' album, on planet Mu, on which he gave the world his take on 'street bass' and took the dubstep world by storm when it was released in 2008. Two years is a long time in dance music, particularly dubstep, and since his last album, thanks in part to breakthrough smashes like Skream's mix of La Roux or Chase and Status' 'Eastern Jam' with Snoop on it, dubstep has cemented itself as part of not just the mainstream of dance music but UK music in general.
The thing that sets Starkey apart from much of the rest of dubstep is his focus on really good arrangement and song writing. At times this album puts me in mind of Goldie's 'Timeless': masses of space-age synths and most importantly space. 'Neck Snap', for instance, sounds like Kool and the Gang's 'Summer Madness' performed by a Martian jazz-funk band. 'Stars', featuring Anneka, seems a weird choice of first single: not poppy enough to do much chart-wise, not dubstep enough to do much club-wise, this is pretty music for headphone dreaming. It's not a bad tune by any means, but the other poppy track that features a female vocalist, 'New Cities' featuring Kiki Hitomi, is much stronger. The Japanese vocal combines with the perfectly understated tune to sound like pop music 20 years from now.
'OK Luv', 'Spacecraft', 'Capsule', and 'Fourth Dimension' are more in keeping with some of Starkey's club-orientated back catalogue: they still have the wall of synth vibe but with more bite. 'Spacecraft', in particular, has no nonsense bass drops that'll kill clubs everywhere. 'OK Luv' is included here as an instrumental which is a shame because the version with Badness on it was great and would maybe have tied into the rest of the album better. In fact, given that much of this album seems more aimed at a listening audience than a club full of ravers it would have been nice to have more vocal tracks on there.
Texan rapper Cerebral Vortex features on two tracks – 'Murderous Words' and 'Club Games' – and it's the two moments where the album seems to make most sense. The hip hop/dubstep crossover could well be what saves rap music from the clichéd formulas that're a million miles from its avant-garde roots, and possibly prevent dubstep from becoming equally hackneyed.
'Numb', featuring P-Money, is the stand-out track on the album. It's simplicity itself, with just the bare minimum of unwobbled, massive sweeping bass, big synth chords, and flying beeps and boops draped over a kick and snare. P-Money comes off really well on this track too – the vocal flow is just right and, sonically, sits snuggly in the middle of the mix, never quite being drowned out by the tune, but never dominating the sound.
Overall this is a solid release. It's perhaps let down by a few tunes that really shouldn't have made the cut – starkey himself autotune singing on 'Alienstyles' is particularly laughable. These days going autotune is a bit like admitting you've run out of ideas and people really need to stop already. A few duds aside, the album is good and those who are already fans of Starkey's production will love this album, while those yet to check out his style may find themselves opened up to other avenues of dubstep they hadn't previously explored.
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