Nathan Navarro- Dubstep bassist.

[Meddle]

Pretty extreme level of close-mindedness happening in this thread...it's surprising. If it's not your bag, fine, but that doesn't give you reason to dismiss it entirely.

Listen to Chris Hargreaves, who is another Dubstep Bassist in the band Submotion Orchestra, and his use of effects for texture all the way down to the wobbly suboctave tones are nothing short of inspiring.

Hope I am not covered under your umbrella of 'close-mindedness'. I stated my reasons as to why I didn't like his playing. Hope this meets with your approval.

 

[punkjazzben]

I like the idea that this guy has heard what's going on in a lot of popular music (in terms of bass) and has had the guts to take it on board and keep 'real bass' relevant. I'm betting if this were the 80s, he'd be the guy working out the best way to emulate synth bass.

That said, brostep/jockstep is a mountainous turd on the landscape of electronic music.

 

[peledog]

Nathan is a great bassist. I don't dig the genre they call dubstep. As some people said, it's missing the 'dub' as in reggae dub. Whatever you want to call Nathan's genre is cool I guess. His technique and use of effects opens up a new approach to playing, that's for sure.

Here's a little off-topic discussion on dubstep.

Link Removed

 

[Meddle]

As some people said, it's missing the 'dub' as in reggae dub

+10000000

But it didn't used to. As I said earlier in this thread, the only time I used to hear it was at a club. Not even a regular club, but a dingy pit of a club with netting on the walls and a generally dysfunctional/trustafarian vibe. They started the night on King Tunny and Augustus Pablo stuff, then moved onto the wobbly electronics as the night progressed. The music was not ideal for any other situation, but it worked in the 'bomb shelter' atmosphere of the club.

Now you can purchase plugin packages and full blown software to make brostep remixes of 128kb .mp3s of the Simpsons theme tune.

I saw Taylor Swift "singing" on a TV show here a couple of weeks back. Instead of doing the loud-quite Pixies/Nirvana chorus trick she had these horrible dubstep breakdowns for each chorus. I'm trying not to sound archaic or elitist, but I think the genre has been mined for its full potential.

 

[Ian Perge]

As someone who's also "not really into" Dubstep (especially since my favorite "Electronic" artist threw around Dubstep sonics all over his latest release ) Invalid Link Removed when I hear a discussion about its merits...

( )

...but I also think Nathan's a killer player who has managed to "adapt" the Real Instrument into a genre that typically doesn't use all that many non-synths in both its creation as well as the "live" presentation.

 

[plong123]

I give up on figuring out of this is "real" dubstep or not, but this video is amazing. What cool technique!

 

[bootsox]

I've been following the guy for a while, he's seriously talented. I've never really been a fan of electronic music in general, but when there's this much talent behind the noise I can deal with almost any genre.

 

[pbass2]

Shame so many of these guys forget the 'dub' part of dubstep. The only time I used to listen to dubstep was in a club that would begin the night with King Tubby stuff and move onto dubstep as the night progressed. Crushing bass and all, but a good understanding of space and ambience.

This new stuff is cheesy buzzy crap, even Taylor Swift uses it. It has become an academic exercise for skinny white nerds who want to make a bunch of noise.

I agree--I really wish much of what people call "dubstep" now had a different name. Grime would be a better name but it's already been used (for music that is actually waay more soulful and funky than most current "dubstep"!). "Brostep" is the most fitting name for much of the new crap....
I've been involved in electronic music AND reggae and dub for going on 25 years, and got into dubstep ever since XLR8R mag had Horsepower Productions on the cover and the term had just recently been coined (like around 2000-2001 I think). The early stuff really was dubby, and had soul, and space, even when it was more Garage-flavored. 80% of the new stuff I hear is just a bunch of presets from NI's Massive and some generic loops. No dub in it, no soul, and usually no swing at all. A cheesily distorted, tackily wobbly, over-side-chained, corny drop-filled, soul-less, stupidly brick-walled, cartoony load of rubbish.

BTW, I'm not dissing the artist the OP pointed to--this is just my "dubstep" rant about the newer commercial stuff in general

 

[Mark Nye]

I give this guy props for doing something so unconventional with a bass guitar. This is how you make a name for yourself in the digital age. This dude stuck his neck out there and did something different with the instrument we know and love in a hypercritical society, and guess what, we're all sitting here talking about it on a message board. Sure, he's got more chops than a butcher shop, but so do lots of other people (and no one gives a sh*t). Like the genre(s) or not, this dude will have gigs as long as he wants them.

 

[Psychbass]