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Just what tha heck is a Superstep anysides?? ‘Purple’ – ‘wonky’ – ‘aquacrunk’ – ‘broken beat’ – ‘post-dilla-funk’ – ‘detroitism’ – ‘future RnB’ – ‘Superstep’ – ... these are some of the many names that have been attributed to the new movement in the vein of strange electronic music production.


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Apparently the daft tag ‘Superstep’ was originally in- tended as ‘soup-a-steppe’, like big boulders of gelati- nous gloop rolling around Ukrainian foothills. Twas later mis-heard as ‘supah-step’ [as in the Supah Bowl Sun- dae of old skool revivalist fame], until finally meeting its current happy settlement as the ‘Superstep’ we know & love today [zoinks]. Coined by an unknowable sauce in order to offer a fruity description for a record put out last year, ‘Superstep’ was an attempt – like so many before it – to branch out from the (no offence) dull-step that had dominated earwaves for seemingly every con- curent summer in recent memory. “It was supposed to be better than this:--” became the warcry for those forward-looking afficionerdos who felt a rugged resent- ment towards a genre that initially offered a great deal (n.b. Mala’s Digital Mystikz clubnight in Croydon), but quickly fell assunder to tha same pitfalls of novelty as arena [kiddy] drum’n’bass (n.b. Pendulum). In essence Superstep is really more-than-anything a reactionary move by boundary-defiers; a rallying rail against the fla- grantly mid-range [talking frequencies here.. there’s not much subbass to be had...] dance-filler that passes for the student-baiting DubStep™ these days. Don’t get me wrong – there’s a fair ol’ wedgey of luscious left- field-minded producers past & present in that field – yet still we find the soundsystems of the UK’s peripheral/ satellite towns barely pushing past the laptop-speaker- friendly fodder that frankly embarasses any landmark predecessors. Trust though: this is no elitist/trendy/fair- weatherfriendey/predictable backlash/apology – more a mere rejoicing in the shere facts of what came next [whether in spite of, despite of, or as a respite from..] ‘’’post-dubstep’’’. So, Superstep, shall we call it? Yeap. A for-the-


most-part instrumental beatmaking scene that has its tendrils pummelling & plummetting the soils of such in- explicably link-uppable cities as Glasgow, Bristol, LA, NYC; Superstep is bout to make its juddery presence known in tha L.i.v. v. verrrr soon... [See: Flying Lotus at the Masque] But how! – you say: What is it? Where it from? Whodunnit first?? Let me allow you to be re- convoluted down the wi-fi corridor of geeknowledge & beautific craftsmanship/visionary single-minded wibbly- widdley-break-based-meandererings.: Names like Hudson Mohawke and Rustie, of


the Glaswegian Legion, roll off the tongue all too easily; as does the Californian connect in all the post-J.Dilla/ FlyLo type fonk that actually has its roots in a cartoon channel’s jingles (aside from Cali’s Ras_G & Gonjasu- fi + friends, who one might feel have been doin’ they bisiness for decades a la Sun Rarkestra). When I last


checked J.Dilla was everyhead’s numero uno reference point as the first beat-breaker to really pick apart the swing & groove of a simple kick-snare-click track. Fly- ing Lotus was the first one to blow up, proper, with his infamously scratchy ‘L.A.’ record on Warp, great jazz family tree, and a predilection for between-show-noises on Adult Swim. Asides these twin killer pillars of our elusive genre’s influences and origins, one cannot be caught out forgetting the indelibly re-emerging and as- ever bassmusicbased Bristopolis [Joker, Gemmy..] nor what the U.S.’s East Coast has to offer in terms of ever- fresh, gutteral snare’slicing-&-splicing instincts [Falty DL et al]. Essentially a lot of what Mary Anne Hobbs cham- pioned until very recently [the world will wait/watch/lis- ten in on Benji B’s takeover of her Radio1 graveyard shift come October]. MJH’s only-just-expired tenure behind the boards on the Experimental show would certainly – nay, categorically – fall under the embrac- ing hypergenre of Superstep. Another go-to point for a 4corners style perspective on these things would have to be Bleep’s release ‘NorthSouthEastWest’. But don’t let this sense of location(s) cloud any judgements: the WWW has smashed any sense/semblance of geogra- phy for a compunity such as that of Superstep. On 1 finger we have the ‘wonky’, militantly fruitful wing from the far-fetched-and-flung’d nethereachers of Scotland; on the other - left the way across to devout next-gen sexxxstrimental hiphopheads out in the Mojave desert. Then there’s all the bits in between, with Vienna’s Dorian Concept, devonwho of Portland, Dem Hunger from what, Hampshire? And moist glisteningly rep’d on the aforementioned bleep comp – the incomparable Irish- man Mike Slott. If that’s the case then the North-Weezy of tha


UK must have something to offer, no? This armpit of so much of what the chinstrokes dub ‘electronica’ has got perty well kept audio secrets these days. So let’s take a little lookee at some of the heads bopping other folkses’ heads up around this place shall we? Starting from when I says so, am gonna shine a wee flashlight on a fistful of Merseyside’s gleaming jewels that be su- persteppin’ to perfection. The man obscured by the green mask: Binary


Toad. Although primarily fixated on his own landtrade- mark ‘Bino’ Electroad-Technoid stylings, the Holy Toad’s mid-career highlights are held up as bleeming examples of the super dee dooper in superstep. Be- ing une jouerer de bassplaying of the highest metallic pursuasion-et-order in his foresighthought, Bino knows his phat share of low end theory & exorcises it as much on Komputers. Revelantest jams topping Bino’s list of


Schindler’s Hits include ‘Afterwards Hurts’ thru to his eroginous ‘The Good Womb’ aaand notforgetting his banguptodate latest ‘Jumpsuit Zoot’. Check the sucka out on his internet outlets for an ever-mounting in-tray of bass music. Oh: his live show involves impractical hardback attire.. Zoiks, rude! Next is Isocore, (pron. ‘’’Ee-ssoo—khor-aeyy’’’):


a Roman digipilgrim whot moved his bobbinny bits to the N-Weezy fairly recentlike. Last summer he dropped one L8-defining ‘Sugna’ (Italo for ‘lard’) on Acroplane records – a slooshy, woozy flip/hop longplaya replete with the skittering drumachine pips & pops that have come to mean so much to the superstepper inside us all. Paolo’s liveset is a quadruple bypassed\unbiassed overflow of triplets & wellfed deep fried munch; his dee- jaying filled with tape-breakin’ folks along the lines of Devonwho (Who? dig). P*nut is also one of the charac- ters (alongside Upitup.com’padré Jacques Malchance – who does Barberos & has a solo record on Legowelt’s label....soon) responsible for some of L.i.v’s killer latter- day bookings. All those Rephlex-y nights with tha likes of DMX Krew, Global Goon, P.P.Roy - they’re the do- ing of Iso & his transcontinental extentions... vital man(s) thurr.. ;))


Where Bino & Iso take subtle key cues from


the ‘revenge of the mids’ type o’ french electro four- floor woomphers for their branch off liver’step, there’s the other Jacq – tha one they call Sporadic – who does ‘hings otherwise. Since remorselessly bequeathing hell- ish IDM extented-plays for netlabels based in Humber-


supah-step


side (Q: Is ‘Champagne Sociopath’ breakco-re-defin- ishing?) Jacq Sporadic now takes root in the dingle’est corner of Toxteth. ‘Pon these terraced side-streets J.S. + sibling MC Decoy Deluxe prepare a back-&-forth in- flected next-step (!!) hip-hop LP as ‘The Brothers King’. With only a couple of finished raps doing the e-rounds (plus occasional live performances), the Jacq & Decoy production duo are furnishing some frankly pretty num- bers that nod equally towards Gravediggaz and Boards of Canada. Now you try and tell me that ain’t gonn be super.. Get to steppin’ foooooooooo’


Check Binary Toad at myspace.com/binarytoad Pariah Qarey


Binary Toad 45 65 99 08 89


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