Chris Reed's roots go deep. As Plasticman, he appeared on one of the first dubstep releases ever, a 2004 Rephlex compilation confusingly titled Grime. Since then, he's stuck with dubstep through all of its stylistic shifts and fits. His apparent preference for the more aggro side of things—you could say he's a disciple of Coki rather than Mala—also meant that he wasn't the most popular DJ outside of dubstep's core audience, especially once the brostep backlash began. Judging from the bills he ends up on these days, I (wrongly) assumed he was deep into that world of heavy metal machismo. Instead, Reed's Dubstep Allstars is a remarkably diverse, sometimes even sexy, look into the world of dubstep in its second decade of existence.
Like the last few in the series, this one is tried-and-true dubstep through-and-through. If the idea of an hour of that bores you, Dubstep Allstars 10 won't work too hard to change your mind. For the rest of us, however, it's a rewarding listen, especially because Plastician's hand moves a bit more slowly than some of his contemporaries. These are still fast mixes—each song gets about two minutes—but they breathe a little more easily, and they unfold more luxuriously. The smoother transitions even make the mood shifts hit harder. There's one unforgettable moment when the roughneck dubstep dips into sinuous g-funk with Mutated Mindz' "Valentine Dreams." It feels like a freefall into a pit of puffy satin pillows, before the mix picks itself up, dusts itself off and heads straight back into the fray with the thrashing of Stinkahbell's "Sunday Worries." Plastician wisely chooses to keep it brief, ending the mix after a digestible 54 minutes—enough to leave one satisfied, yet still a little hungry.
At this point, anything with the title like Dubstep Allstars is going to be a niche effort, and true enough the mix fails to excite in the same way many of his more adventurous peers have. But Plastician hasn't become a world-traveling mainstay by reinventing himself—just the opposite. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but that doesn't mean your old dog can't get really, really good at the tricks it does know.
Buy Plastician - Dubstep Allstars Vol. 10 at
Tracklist: Plastician - Dubstep Allstars Vol. 10
01. Cato feat. Doctor - Brap (Plastician VIP)
02. Nomine - Waves
03. Jaydrop - Blind Run
04. J:Kenzo - Contagion
05. Vicious Circle - Not Afraid
06. FNC - Prism
07. Commodo - Axis
08. LAXX & Walsh - LA Drift
09. Jaydrop - That’s How It Is
10. Kumarachi - Voyager
11. Merky Ace - Greaze (Pote’s Smash N Grab Remix)
12. Megalodon & Badklaat - Twisted Metal
13. J:Kenzo - Depth Charge
14. Moony - Close Enough
15. Mutated Mindz - Valentine Dreams
16. Stinkahbell - Sunday Worries
17. Dream - Desolate
18. J:Kenzo feat. Footsie - No Man’s Land
19. Korea - Submarine
20. Plastician - Alone Time
21. Teknian – Sorga
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