Where's the drop?
June 7, 2011 7:13 AM   Subscribe

The BBC Philharmonic and Nero present A Dubstep Symphony.
posted by empath (35 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
In case you miss it, here's the page that links to the BBC iPlayer. This audio is only available for another 6 days.

Vaguely related: Goldie composed a piece for The Proms in UK in 2009.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:24 AM on June 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


David: I've always, I've always wanted to do a collection of my acoustic numbers with the London Philharmonic as you know.
Derek: We're lucky.
David: Yeah.
Derek: I mean people...people should be envying us. You know.
David: I envy us.
Derek: Yeah.
David: I do.
Derek: Me too.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:32 AM on June 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


Awesome, except for the "commentary"... which is really, really distracting.

Yeah, god, I wish they'd shut up, it's really jarring.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:34 AM on June 7, 2011


Blue Potential has no commentary.
posted by mkb at 7:43 AM on June 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


So I checked around, and I realize that I went to the wrong thing - that's 180 minutes of the radio program, this is the orchestrated part, which is also on YouTube: part 1, part 2.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:53 AM on June 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


If you are listening at home get yourself a cardigan or some kind of fleece because you are going to be covered in goosebumps

What
posted by londonmark at 7:56 AM on June 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


flf, the link i posted has the video at the top of the page.
posted by empath at 7:58 AM on June 7, 2011


I would rather like a copy of this recording in a non-terrible format. (By which I mean Flash Player.)
posted by public at 7:59 AM on June 7, 2011


Actually doesn't suck, but then I'm kinda partial to Nero's stuff. I wonder if audio with a better dynamic range will be available.
posted by nonliteral at 8:03 AM on June 7, 2011


no.. I can't... because of your fucking yapping.

Radio DJs would be SO much better if they would just do two things:

1) STFU, especially while a song is playing.

2) Tell me what fucking song I just heard.

Violation of these rules should be punishable by death.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:09 AM on June 7, 2011 [3 favorites]


empath: the link i posted has the video at the top of the page.

Indeed, sorry about this misleading links in my comments. I first viewed the site with scriptblocking, so the video wasn't apparent. I unblocked various BBC domains, and viola, there it is.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:18 AM on June 7, 2011


While I remain generally skeptical of the inherent value of these cross-genre adaptations, I do think it breathes new life into music I would have otherwise ignored. I get a similar feeling when a remix/cover overshadows the original.

Incidentally, I heart dubstep.
posted by stroke_count at 8:19 AM on June 7, 2011


This is my new driving music. Fantastic. Thanks!
posted by bayani at 8:47 AM on June 7, 2011


Did anyone else notice that the volume on that video goes to 11?
posted by jpziller at 9:12 AM on June 7, 2011 [3 favorites]


Awesome. I have never heard of Nero; can anyone recommend a list of other stuff of his that's worth listening to, if you like the symphonic piece? Either freely available or easily acquirable on Amazon MP3 or similar?

Though this may come across as damning with faint praise depending on what you think of the guy, I was reminded of recent Hans Zimmer work (I am a Zimmer fan but realize this is not universally shared), particularly parts of the Inception soundtrack.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:15 AM on June 7, 2011


Orchestra plus electronica wins, especially when Jeff Mills is in charge. That's a link just to The Bells. His whole colaboration with the Montpellier Symphony Orchestra is here if you have 84 minutes to enrich yourself.
posted by The Ultimate Olympian at 9:16 AM on June 7, 2011


where's the drop?

About 4:55? Now that we are here, can any expert patiently explain to me the difference between 2-step and dubstep?
posted by mrgrimm at 9:28 AM on June 7, 2011


If you enjoyed this, I'd recommend checking out Yanni: Live at the Acropolis (don't laugh). Or getting someone to remix Bernard Herrmann, Danny Elfman, and Philip Glass's film music with sampled beats.
posted by hanoixan at 9:40 AM on June 7, 2011


Dubstep is a LOT different than 2-step garage now, but it derived from 2step originally. I posted a quick tour of the history of garage here.
posted by empath at 9:40 AM on June 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


can anyone recommend a list of other stuff of his that's worth listening to,

The Nero Essential Mix, but fair warning, this is raw dubstep, and not much like this piece.
posted by empath at 9:42 AM on June 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Ok... there is about 120 seconds worth of material in this 18 minute piece that could actually be considered dubstep. The rest is a pretty decent score to a summer super hero movie.

And honestly some of this just gets so muddy when they try layering their sampled vocals on top of an entire symphony string section. Too much happening in the same mid-high levels. Whoever was running the board did a good job of dropping the violins way back during those moments, but they shouldn't have even been there.

DJ snarking over, it's fun to see these cross genre experiments, it just would have been more fun if it did more of what it says on the tin.

Everyone in the percussion section should have been making these faces.
posted by matt_od at 10:01 AM on June 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


Ok... there is about 120 seconds worth of material in this 18 minute piece that could actually be considered dubstep.

Yeah, I dunno, too much symphony not enough dubstep for me. If I want something with strings+beats, I'm partial to Rossz Csillag.
posted by juv3nal at 10:21 AM on June 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


Haha.. it's funny when they show close-ups of orchestra members playing this bullshit. They always look.. either:
a) bored
b) hungover (they probably are because who the fuck cares about these bullshit crossover gigs?)
c) tired (kinda tied in with the hungover part)
d) like they're counting their balls off because they are literally sight-reading this drivel for the first time and likely to forget it as soon as the session is over and they collect their paycheck.
posted by ReeMonster at 10:50 AM on June 7, 2011 [2 favorites]


ReeMonster: who the fuck cares about these bullshit crossover gigs

Counterpoint: Buck 65 with Symphony Nova Scotia (on YouTube with still images, split into tracks).
posted by filthy light thief at 11:15 AM on June 7, 2011


The volume control on the video player goes to 11. That is all.
posted by Gronk at 11:55 AM on June 7, 2011


I'm 9 minutes in and very disappointed that there haven't been any wubwubwubwubs out of the low brass section. Come on people the tuba is made for this sort of thing!
posted by tylermoody at 1:36 PM on June 7, 2011 [3 favorites]


On second thought I withdraw my criticism.

I wilt under the disapproving glare of MistaJam.
posted by tylermoody at 1:38 PM on June 7, 2011


Now this is a classical mashup of styles I can relate too !
I love that it could so easily be piece of a film score.
posted by Faintdreams at 3:16 PM on June 7, 2011


I posted a quick tour of the history of garage here.

I missed that one the first time. Thanks, empath.
posted by mrgrimm at 3:27 PM on June 7, 2011


Haha.. it's funny when they show close-ups of orchestra members playing this bullshit. They always look.. either:
a) bored
b) hungover (they probably are because who the fuck cares about these bullshit crossover gigs?)
c) tired (kinda tied in with the hungover part)
d) like they're counting their balls off because they are literally sight-reading this drivel for the first time and likely to forget it as soon as the session is over and they collect their paycheck.


e) pissed off that they have to play to a click track and that they have to count their balls off to figure out when to come in again as part of this arrhythmic monstrosity.
posted by zachlipton at 3:58 PM on June 7, 2011


This is better to listen to than to watch or really know anything about the production behind it.
posted by TheKM at 5:27 PM on June 7, 2011


too much orchestra, not enough dubstep, too long and not quite tight enough, in a compositional sense - i like it, but it's kind of tame for the concept
posted by pyramid termite at 8:50 PM on June 7, 2011


I like that the volume control in the BBC's video player widget goes to 11.
posted by pmugowsky at 10:30 PM on June 7, 2011


Where's the drop?

In the bucket.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:21 AM on June 8, 2011


It's a nice experiment but it's not good dubstep or classical. It's also ruined by being transcoded/compressed/fucked up by whatever digital crap they did to get it online. There's no BASS!
posted by chairface at 2:37 PM on June 10, 2011


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