Operatives :: ScanOne / Blackmass Plastics / the wee djs
release :: 2006
format :: digital & vinyl

(Click on PLAY button to listen)

A1: Dark Dub VIP

A2: Dubwise

B1: Kik It (the wee djs remix)

B2: Kik It (Blackmass Plastics vs. the wee djs)

Spurred on by the need for fierce rhythms and bassline pressure, the past 2 years has seen the fringes of grime, electro and dubstep converging to give forward-thinking DJs a vicious, mutant new sound that’s intricate, spacious and colossally bass-heavy. This EP unites these different schools of thought once and for all, over 4 tracks of surgically precise, monstrous bass-weapons honed to perfection by the Combat clan.

Dark Horse Dubs’ 2nd track Dubwise was previewed as a VIP track on Radio One’s Breezeblock show May 2006, while the wee DJ’s remix of Kik It was previewed in July 2006, introduced in hushed tones as being “something very dark indeed”

A 1 ScanOne > [ Dark Dub VIP ]

Sounding like a gigantic killing machine stalking across some barren, apocalyptic landscape, side A begins with Dark Dub, a beast of a track with a rudeboy bassline snarling barely inches from your face like a restrained Rottweiler. Incorporating a hint of an old skool Photek-style drum break amid smouldering, spacious atmospheres reminiscent of Scorn’s isolationist headspaces, Dark Dub moves with a warrior’s trained, measured grace that belies it’s sheer intimidating bulk and strength. Leaning toward the Vex’d and Scorn schools of production, ScanOne’s succinctly programmed thunderous half-step rhythms send shockwaves that leave you reeling with each colossal beat. Wait for the drop into bass-mangled hell… and expect no survivors.

A 2 ScanOne > [ Dubwise ]

Less brutal but no less evil, Dubwise took form after ScanOne’s electro and dubstep influences mingled, allowing his long-time influences like Basic Channel and King Tubby to re-emerge across the years, all teched-up in a post-apocalyptic Bladerunner style.

Requested and played by Mary Anne Hobbs on the Breezeblock, it’s a delicate work of skittering dub-delayed rhythms, dizzying heights and cavernous, wide-open spaces. Yet beneath this seemingly fragile exterior lies a core of solid steel – razor sharp snares lash out over a thundering dub bass-roller that calls to mind standing next to the speaker stack at Aba-Shanti-I soundsystem, where the low frequencies nearly cause flesh to fall off your bones. Sombre, majestically sad strings rise from the depths mid track, placing the track in a unique timespan between it’s old dub roots and ScanOne’s futuristic sci-fi vision.

B 1 ScanOne > [ Kik It – the wee djs remix ]

Better known for his nightmarish electro assaults on Gassoline Records, ScSi AV and Touchin Bass imprints, Edinbugh’s wee djs have long been involved in the deep, experimental side of electro, with heavy dub influences providing space and texture unique within their field.

Presented with the challenge of re-working ScanOne’s grime/electro hybrid “Kik It” (from COMBAT01), they tore down the original and rebuilt it totally to give a charging behemoth that’s so vicious already destroyed a few bassbins here and abroad during sound-testing. Starting off with lopsided 2-step rhythms, intricate bleeps and skittering, razor sharp electro elements creep into the mix. The soundsystem influence becomes evident right from the beginning, with a constant earth-shaking low end that pushes out of the speakers and crushes the very air in the room.

B 2 ScanOne > [ Kik It – Blackmass Plastics vs. the wee djs remix ]

A special 2-stage remix, this one. After taking ScanOne’s original Kik It through the wee djs mutation process, Thorn Industries’ head honcho Blackmass Plastics steps up to mangle and reinforce the track even further in his trademark style.

Sounding like something out of a south London gutter in the year 2020, it’s an articulate, violent bass beast, casually prowling with angular dubstep rhythms through a menacing sci-fi atmosphere, brandishing it’s distorted bass blasts like a sharpened Stanley knife, ready to lunge at the slightest provocation.