Prang'd

How the funk do they do this to me? Even in my comfortable bedroom environment, Vex'd scare the shizzle out of me, no more so than during their remix of Toasty's Knowledge as featured on this week's Breezeblock show. For some reason, knowing the original Knowledge inside and out makes it all that much weirder; the Vex'd remix adding pure filth and horror, to the innocence and playfulness of the original Knowledge making it all that more twisted. Because of this the track pretty much brought me to tears- the shock of the darkness that they've given to Knowledge was all a bit much.

I remember catching the beginning of Vex'd's set at Bristols Subloaded night and after 20 minutes felt like I simply had to get out of the room due to the intensity of their basslines on a 10k soundsystem. Since then, they've grown on me thanks to the likes of Crusher dub which is a slightly softer tune that sounds a bit like someone trying to tune into a dub station on a crackley radio. I've been a quite a fan of Lion and Pop Pop since I heard Plasticman drop them a while back, but in many ways I feel Vex'd's music improves with age. Whether that's because it's ahead of it's time I don't know but interestingly I currently prefer the original Lion to the remix which I've heard a clip of via
Planet Mu, which has released their album Degenerate. Whilst I havent managed to get my hands on the album yet, the samples, bits and pieces I've heard on Rinse FM and the recent mix for Radio 1's Breezeblock show have made me very excited about doing so. Mary-Anne Hobbs often describes Vex'd as Dubstep pioneers, but I'd be inclined to describe them as Darkstep pioneers. Their music definitely incorporates the deep sub bass, ragga patterns and other styles that influence dubstep but the fury, overwhelming power and progressiveness makes for a sound that is truly individual.

Enough of my chatter though; here's the tracklisting for the Breezeblock show mix. Check for Distance's Fallen which is one of the most beautiful things I've heard for a while and provides a little space in which to be calm in the middle of Vex'd's extremely dark but addictive sound. Oh and watch out for the Knowledge remix if the Zombies in your garden aint buried deeply enough... they're coming to get you.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/dance/breezeblock/

Vex'd - Destruction
Vex'd - Bombardment Of Saturn
Vex'd - Thunder
Vex'd - Fire
Vex'd - Angels
Vex'd - Killing Floor
D1 - Crackbong (Loefah VIP Remix)
Distance - Fallen
Vex'd - Venus
Toasty - Knowledge (Vex'd Remix)
Vex'd - Gunman

Mix also available to download at www.dubstep.blogspot.com

www.vexd.blogspot.com