Rusko

with an upcoming collaboration EP with Cypress Hill on the horizon (the lead track of which can be yours, in exchange for your email address) i thought that now would be a perfect time to take a closer look at the musical output of Rusko.

fans of throbbing basslines will already be well aware of the impact Rusko has had on the musical landscape of dance over the last few years, yet even i was surprised quite how far reaching his influence had been.

firing up raves and hype-raising blogs with the harder edged dubstep that superseded the sparse atmospherics pioneered by the likes of Burial, Rusko was part of the charge that forged the fledgling niche genre into wider territories and onto wider recognition.

with a full length album released on Diplo's Mad Decent label in 2010, which was bolstered by the likes of the squelching, bass-heavy Woo Boost and 2-step flavoured Hold On and a follow up album, Songs, being preceded by current single Somebody To Love, Rusko has proved himself to be an in demand producer and remixer, as evidenced on a 16 track remix collection that is available to download guilt free.

having tackled and retooled heavyweight dance acts like Basement Jaxx and The Prodigy, releasing a single that splices old skool jungle with the current incarnation of dubstep, and with the first taste of the Cypress Hill team-up already upon us, i was slightly bemused to find that there was one other collaboration that had slipped under my radar.

little did i know that Rusko had taken himself completely out of his comfort zone to give girl-next-door turned sex-kitten Pixie Lott a top ten hit in November of last year, shrugging off all expectations with a far funkier affair than we are used to that proves that he is certainly an adaptable beast that can even handle pop in his stride.

the unlikely return of Nu-Metal

these are strange, uncertain and occasionally exciting times for the music industry.

the market growth and profits of major labels is not the issue at hand as far as i am concerned right now.

more so, it is the cross pollination of genres that sparks my interest.


although the liberal borrowing from a thriving genre is certainly not a new idea, it is certainly churning out some polarising efforts and unlikely collaborations from those striving to remain relevant.

riding on the coattails of the inescapable wave of dubstep that swallowed whole continents in 2011, we now see bloggers' favourites turning their hands to production duties for returning icons from a bygone musical age.

writing this specifically with Korn's most recent effort in mind, their tenth studio album most prominently featured collaborations with flavour of the month Skrillex, as well as a number of other electronic producers in an attempt to re-tool a tried and tested formula for a new generation.

and now it is the turn of Cypress Hill to foray into the realms of pulsating bass as they team up with Mad Decent alumni Rusko for a dubstep EP due out in April, having found their way from Hip Hop and through the other side of Nu-Metal, an incredible 21 years since their breakthrough single 'How Could I Just Kill A Man' was released in 1991.

i am still yet to cast aspersions on the whole of the new Korn album and whether all this band wagon jumping is manipulated by shady puppetmasters wanting to sink their teeth into new trends, or whether this is genuine re-invention spurned on by a passion for dabbling in exciting genres that are now growing out of their infancy.

but with the rap-metal fusion that both influenced and was influenced by Nu-Metal some ten years behind us, and given the cyclical nature of music trends that keep coming back around, will these collaborations inspire another attempt at returning to the mainstream by the floundering Limp Bizkit, this time on an album helmed by Caspa, or perhaps even Papa Roach teaming up with the filthy warped bass monster Borgore.

while at first the very idea of it sounded unlikely and a rather desperate attempt to be 'down with the kids', personally, i feel that Korn's  Narcissistic Cannibal is something of a revelation for me from a band that has been drifting slowly out of favour and has also created something new that is infused with the ever-more integrated dubstep sound, creating a hybrid Nu-Step which is just as abrasive as the first parent-upsetting and face-shredding riffs of Nu-Metal that hit our shores over a decade ago.