It’s funny, because I’m going to say that this will be a year of unprecedented growth for bassmusic. And that’s funny because it has been said so many times. Through jungle, drum & bass, UKG, 2-step, breakstep, dubstep, futurebass and god knows what we’ve been used to, we’ve been enjoying a good, full bassbin for near two decades now. Where we used to be very proprietary about our particular brand of bass-enhanced music, we’re now being forced to see increased hybridization and crossover as the norm, and on the whole, it is a beautiful thing (minus brostep & fuck you Skrillex, you look like an ugly pre-teen goth girl). For me, the increased convergence of bassmusic and techno in particular has been something I’ve been watching with a hefty appetite. Two passionate styles of music with so many creative ideas brewing, and merging the two has unleashed a musical godzilla on more than one occasion of late and I’m excited to see what’s in store for us in 2012.
2012 is going to be a storming year, and I’m already seeing that in my record crate. For me, I’m going to be keeping an eye on the following artists that I think will continue to make a big splash: Randomer, Blawan, Untold, Objekt, Teeth, Kowton, Author, SCNTST, Martyn, Nightwave, 2652 and Pangaea amongst others. Equally, I’ll keep an eye on the Hemlock, Clone Basement Series, Daphne, Hessle Audio, Idle Hands and Ann Aimee labels, and I’d love to see more from Scrub a Dub, R&S and LoDubs because their output is, on the whole, amazing. Don’t get me wrong – Tempa and Tectonic are also some stalwarts to watch – their 2011 output has been consistent, just maybe not quite as inspiring on the whole. The Tri Angle label and the West Norwood Cassette Library both officially weird me out, but I’ll be seeing more of them too I hope.
Let’s go 2012 – it’s going to be wild.