Mix Review: Dieselboy Ups The Ante, Revs The Tempo With ” The Destroyer”
–Written by Michael Hogan
Does anyone remember the brostep dance? One hand on your crotch, the other in the air, waving up and down more or less to the beat as you lunged your whole upper body along with it? Yeah, I’m glad that didn’t really stick. 2010 was an interesting year for EDM though – things were really starting to pick up steam in America, with crowds growing from hundreds to thousands seemingly overnight. And as the crowds got bigger and more unmanageable, so did the music; bigger, louder, and often incomprehensible. The result? A bunch of dissonant clusterfucks of songs that no one could quite figure out how to dance to – especially not the neon-clad frat bros that were sweating bullets and gnawing at their own cheeks. Then again, sometimes it seemed like they couldn’t even figure out why they were at the show at all.
Thankfully, the brostep movement was largely a flash in the pan, coming in fast and strong and leaving the same way. But its effects have continued to resonate for quite some time. By early 2012, the whole “robots fornicating” thing sort of petered out, but some of its energy remained – and that was honestly its most admirable trait, so I’m not really complaining. It was around this time, through all the bullshit, that one of my favorite mixes of all time came out: Dieselboy’s “Wake the Dead”mix. It was 87 tracks packed into 84 minutes, it was absolutely ridiculous, and it was a perfect fit for the moment in time it was released. It began with the perfect amount of not-too-offensive drumstep before leading into some really serious drum ‘n’ bass. It became my replacement for Red Bull for the better portion of that year. I had always been a Dieselboy fan, but this really sold me on him.
Since then I’ve calmed down a bit, although I still keep “Wake the Dead” on my iPod, and I still go check out Dieselboy every chance I get. If you’d asked anyone who really knew me who I was looking forward to seeing at Big Dub this year they would say Dieselboy, and Dieselboy only, and they would have been right. But I can’t really get down to the heavier, clashing drumstep like I used to, and with a name like “The Destroyer”, Dieselboy’s new mix didn’t really lend itself to a sense of restraint.
Thankfully those assumptions were incorrect. While “The Destroyer” is still an absolute banger of a mix, it had a sense of flow and a degree of consciousness to dynamics that “Wake the Dead” often ditched in favor of the brash wall of sound. “The Destroyer” feels more mature, calm, and collected – while in reality being neither of those things. In a subjective sense, it feels more cohesive and more grown up, but objectively it’s still one of the hardest hitting and aggressive drum ‘n’ bass mixes to come out in recent memory. This effort is a better example of true drum ‘n’ bass, but with a little bit of relatively subtle drumstep and the like thrown in to give it a real Dieselboy flair. In short, it’s something I can listen to at work to get me through the day, rather than something better suited as musical crack during my younger, stupider, brostep-loving days.
Not to downplay “Wake The Dead” at all – it’s still on my iPod to this day – but I think it’s about to be replaced. Dieselboy has raised the bar once again. This is exactly why I love him and why I’ll always go out to his shows; in hopes that he’ll play a set exactly like this mix. In a very real sense, he killed it again with this one, but not in a “sick drop bro” kinda way. Moreso in a subtly technical kind of way that few people can pull off quite like Dieselboy. This is a mix for all people, in all situations. It’s a mix with lasting power, one that a lot of people (myself included) will appreciate for a long time to come – or at least until his next mix.
Stream and download Dieselboy’s “The Destroyer” mix below via his Souncloud.