Q-BASE - SUBWAY UPDATE
With all of its bunkers, hangars, ammo depots and airstrips, Airport Weeze is big. Very big. For the past six years, it already hosted a musically deep festival, but for the seventh edition of Q-BASE, we are expanding the programme even further. Apart from Qlub Underground and Vage Gasten, there will be a third surprising area this year. Subway will shake the festival to its foundation with the deepest, lowest, filthiest music the dance scene has to offer: dubstep.
Over the past years, the deep basslines, atmospheric soundscapes and brutal synths this style is known for have gained more and more ground in the United Kingdom. And the dubstep virus, born in dark, damp English basements, is now spreading more and more rapidly round the world. Symptoms: loss of muscle control, leading to a complete inability to stand still and causing massive dancefloor pits. As the first Dutch label that started releasing this fresh, foreign sound, Subway is the ideal candidate to introduce the European mainland’s public to the underground hype called dubstep.
The man behind Subway’s success is called Geoffrey van der Tuuk, alias DJ Nicon. “Subway stands for the whole dubstep vibe. Hard, loose, deep, tight, everything is represented. We’re starting to gain more ground internationally, as pretty much all the A-list guys from the scene, like Skream, Benga, Ruska, Caspa and 16 Bit, play our tracks in most of their sets. After two years, we can say we’re one of the few Dutch labels who have been able to penetrate the English front.” As successful as the wide Subway-formula may be, at Q-BASE, Nicon will call upon the rest of his empire to make the separation between daylight and darkness. Tube10, run by Nicon and Chillum, will take care of the daytime programme with Geoffrey’s own S.C.U.M. making the noise at night.
“Tube10 is our experimental corner, where we can do whatever we want, as long as it doesn’t become too ‘mainstream’,” says Van der Tuuk. For that reason, the Subway area will start out with hazy, deep sounds and less hard, screaming synths than usual in contemporary dubstep. The afternoon will be opened by Strye, who will immediately have the bunker feel what dubstep is all about: bass. His atmospheric sound, which is - apart from some subtle strings and accents - mainly food for woofers, forms the ideal introduction to Plus (also known as ‘+’) & Piro, who will slightly raise the stakes. Their eclectic mix will cover a lot of ground: from ‘mainstream mellow’, to the most experimental, jungle-influenced tracks.
And then, just when you think that this music certainly cannot get any stranger, TMSV comes along to provide an enervating dj-set. With his Oriental, spacey yet eerily ominous music, he will take you to places so low you didn’t even know they existed. There is no time to reminisce over what the hell happened during that performance, however, because Chillum will take the wheel and push the pedal further towards the metal again. The ‘experimental boss’ of Tube10 will not only play his signature, spacey tracks, but also thrown in the first real bangers. Wrapping up the day, Shanodin will be the first to put the focus, which will have been inching towards its goal the whole day, completely on the dancefloor. Without losing track of the unique, deep sound of Tube10, the lady from Rotterdam – merits include a collaborative release with Noisia – is going to give the bunker a first taste of the harder side of dubstep.
Because hard dubstep is what S.C.U.M., taking over to fill in the night, is all about. As Nicon puts it himself: “S.C.U.M. basically says it all, it’s just scumbag music. Rock hard an without mercy. Hard kicks, hard bass, hard snares and the ultimate test for a PA system.” The first scumbag to take the stage is Akkachar, owner of Rwina Records from Amsterdam. His artist name means something like “big dangerous bald guy”, his label’s name means “neverending chaos”. In his ever unpredictable sets, he grinds up funk and 8-bit with awfully rude sunths and riffs. Nicon himself will take over that party spirit and do a gig full of uptempo beats and rolling basslines.
As soon as the bunker’s boss is done spinning, DJ Seven seizes the stage with his extremely explosive, danceable style. Even the scene’s biggest names recognize his technical DJ skills as exceptional, and whoever is standing still during his set might want to consider joining a Saturday night bridge club instead of being there. The Nero boys, possibly the greatest rising stars of the dubstep/drum ‘n bass scene at the moment, follow suit with their ‘poppy’, dancefloor-oriented but heavy productions. Making dubstep with electro and dnb influences causes them no trouble; then again, creating drum ‘n bass with dubstep and electro influences doesn’t either.
At 5 o’clock in the morning, S.C.U.M. will truly dive into the darkness for the first time with Chasing Shadows. These relatively new producers, signed to the English H.E.N.C.H imprint, have a knack for dragging the heaviest, most frightening sounds out of their equipment. Once they’re behind the decks, you start to ponder whether you should be rocking off your socks or curl up in a dark corner and pray for salvation. It is up to Sinister Souls to make you forget Chasing Shadow’s horrors with a violent closing set. Where their predecessors’ sound relies on slowly, but extremely heavily grinding beats, these young blokes from The Netherlands open the throttle that much further in order to make you lose yourself in a torrent off beats, bass and darkness.
With a line-up as varied as this one, no one who like bass, breaks, or music in general can afford not to show up. So be sure to take a look at the Subway bunker on the 11th of September and be blown away by the amazing sound of Tube10 and S.C.U.M.!
The Best of Q-BASE
This Sunday, August 8, at 8PM (GMT+1), The Best of Q-dance will transform into "The Best of Q-BASE".
This week with a broadcast of the Subway Dubstep podcast.
Make sure to tune in at Q-dance Radio, this Sunday at 8PM!
Check the website & line-up here and order your ticket for Q-BASE here.
