Offshore: Bake Haus
While most people are just figuring out what dubstep is, the press release for Offshore‘s Bake Haus proclaims it a “post-dubstep” album. What does that even mean? Well, read on and I’ll try to walk you through it.
First of all, it is important to note that Offshore is British. That means when the press release says “post-dubstep,” it means the British form of dubstep which is characterized by its quick shuffling beat and not necessarily by its overuse of wobble bass. So one of the characterizations of Offshore’s brand of post-dubstep is the still present shuffling beat.
What separates post-dubstep from its pre-brother is the wider use of live instruments. When I say live instruments, I mean a couple of different things. There are tracks like “Black Bun” which features a live electric guitar riff over stripped down, shuffling beat. On the other hand, there are tracks like the album’s opener, “Breeze” which features keyboard over what almost sounds like a trap beat. While a keyboard is not necessarily a live instrument, the keyboard loop sounds like it was played live; it is not perfectly synched to the beat artificially so it lets the listener know a man–not a machine–made the track.
Machine make music perfectly but that is not the case for humans so for many EDM listeners, Bake Haus may at times be a challenging listen. “Fraser” sees Offshore experiment with slide electric guitar over a reggaeton-esque beat. The guitar is not perfect; it is sometimes out of time with the beat and many notes are missed but that is the human element that Offshore strives to inject into his music.
If the injection of humanity into EDM was Offshore’s goal, then Bake Haus is fairly successful. Although it may not connect with the larger EDM audience like some of his dubstep counterparts, his brand of post-dubstep should connect with those who complain about dance music repetitiveness.
Rating: 7.2/10
MP3: Offshore “Fraser”
Buy: iTunes or Insound! vinyl
