I was reading the New Yorker this week and came across an article by Sasha Frere-Jones in which he coined the term “lazer bass” to describe the music of Montreal-based party crew Megasoid. Ghislain Poirier used to call the genre “big asshole bass” or “big ass bass.” accurate descriptions but less likely to fly as an official term than lazer-bass.
Update
2 more contenders for the title: “raggaclash” and “wonky.” See the comments on this post for more ->
Turns out Sasha’s been writing about lazer-bass on the New Yorker blog too, and that piece is more in-depth; he also mentions LA’s Glitchmob and a crew from Scotland who I hadn’t heard of called LuckyMe.
He says lazer-bass is “a loose affiliation of musicians in California, Montreal, and Glasgow.” That seems true, but I would argue that the affiliation goes far beyond the 3 locals mentioned.
Vancouver, BC for example; check out the track She Lives in San Fransisco on the Myspace player of Max Ulis. He, along with Taal Mala and the Lighta Sound crew, has been rokin’ the sound for a while now. Meanwhile, over in Vienna there’s Stereotyp. He and the Al Haca posse kick out the big-dirty-bass riddims as well. Let’s not forget Philly’s Starkey supplying nuff bass hugeness. Then, across the pond there’s Toddla T outta Shefield U.K.. Down south in Austin, TX there’s Bird Perterson. And further down south in Caracas, Venezuela Pacheko and Cardopusher are shooting serious blasts of bass. There are many more in other parts of the world too.
Clearly some of these artist’s tunes could be said to fall into genres like dubstep, bloghouse, 
nu-dancehall, etc., but what ties them all together is what Sasha describes as “Menacing, bass-heavy productions with layers of electronic noise.”
One thing’s for sure; the Megasoid Thank Thong remix tape that Sasha advocates is awesome, so I’m reposting it here:
MP3 Download
Megasoid; Thank Thong Remix Tape
Tracklist
- Megasoid f. D-Shade - Tank Thong Intro.
- Thunderheist - Jerk It [Megasoid Demo Mix]
- Megasoid f. Zulu - Student Riot [Demo Mix]
- Bangers and Cash - BOOTAY [Megasoid Rmx]
- Justin Timberlake - My Love [Megasoid Rmx]
- Dr. Dre - Still DRE [Megasoid Dre Day Cover]
- Clipse f. Pharrell - Mr. Me Too [Megasoid Rmx]
- Master Ace - Jeep Ass Niguh [Megasoid Version]
- Blahzay Blahzay - Danger [Megasoid Re-Rmx]
- Busta Rhymes - Touch It [Megasoid Rmx]
- Slim Thug / BunB - Ain’t Heard Of That [Mgsd Rmx]
- Clipse - Monopoly [Megasoid Rmx]
- Missy Elliot - Get Your Freak On [Megasoid Rmx]
- Nas - Made You Look [Megasoid Rmx]
- Old Dirty Bastard - I Like it R.A.W. [Megasoid Rmx]
- Hot Dollar - Streets On Lock [Megasoid Rmx]
- Bonjay - Gimme Gimme [Megasoid Remix Rddm]
- Lazer Sword - Gucci Sweatshirt [Megasoid Rmx]
- Dead Prez - Hell Yeah [Megasoid Rmx]
- Megasoid f. Isaiah (T.T.T.) - Kick ‘em Outro
Proppers: Thanks to everyone that has come out to
/ played at our joints! rode with the dudes! Khiasma,
Tash Money, Deadbeat, Ghislain Poirier, Pursuit
Grooves, Mofomatronix, edIT, Boretta, Ooah, Holy
Fuck, Lorn, Daedelus, Young Lunice, Blingmod,
Nosaj Thing, Machinedrum, Zulu, Mouse on Mars,
Plastic Little, Max + The Philly Fam, Al Ripken,
Curtis V, White T’s, Thunderheist, Dana Diesel,
Drugmoney/TSMF’s, Fistfight, The Drake, The
Cool Kids, DowJones / South Rakkas Crew, Benzi,
Buddy Leezle + 215TFK, Mestizo, Isaiah, Miss B,
D-shade, Off The Hook Radio and any other shows
that bump our shit! Thanks for the support!
Bonjay, Hatchmatik + Peer Pressure, Goodlife Posse,
KOPS Crew, Skratch Bastid, Jokers of the Scene,
Tittsworth. Flosstradamus and the rest of Chicago,
Lazer Sword, Ghosts on Tape, Dev79, Dimlite,
Debruit, Free The Robots, Rustie, HudMo, Dom +
Lucky Me Duders, MattSoReal, Daddy Kev, Pasey,
Gaslamp + The Low End Duders, Cassette NYC,
The Mahngoose + Briefcase Rockers Team,
Ghostbeard + Ninjas, Cosmo and Ayers, Mean Red
Ladies, TDbank and Mtlien rooftop/poolraider crews.
Zoobizarre, Sergio, Stef + the rest of our friends.
Low-Bee & Soulstrut Fam’s
+ THE ENTIRE ISLAND OF MONTREAL.
TANK THONG PHILOSOPHY by BLINGMOD.
THIS IS A FREE MIX FOR PROMO ONLY.
Tank Thong is a collection/mix of our favorite
remix material compiled from ideas hashed out
and performed between April 2007 - Feb 2008.
For more info please peep :
WWW.WEAPONSHOUSE.COM
or www.myspace.com/megasoidkult
We have two monthly Turbo Crunk parties.
They don’t sucks.
THE CODA SOCIAL CLUB, Montreal.
+ THE DRAKE HOTEL, Toronto.
Podcast Feed
iTunes Podcast
Just came across this post on the Beat Poetry blog titled “Raggaclash”.
“I am getting quite excited by a few records at the moment that I believe are being placed under the umbrella term of raggaclash. It’s basically Jamaican techno but is being made by producers from Chicago to Sheffield.”
Read on ->
Here’s another one, this time from Martin Clark at Pitchfork:
“As summer 2008 approaches, a theme– not a genre– has emerged across many existing styles of music: the mid-range is being hijacked by off-kilter, unstable synths. Crossing hip-hop, hyphy, grime, chip tunes, dubstep, crunk, and electro, one flavor unites a network of exciting sounds. What do you call it? Wonky.”
Read on ->
wot u call it?
Lazer Bass? Thats just what we need, another genre defined from misreading an original take on an existing sound.
Good beats though.
Every time I see “wot you call it?” I think of that old song that song that says “Wot you call it .. Garrige? Wot you call it … 2-step? Y’all know what I’m talking about. Anyhow, I played a couple songs from Kraddy’s remixes from his Illegal Album (Capleton - Tek It Off, and Busta Rhymes - Dangerous) at a small BBQ party last weekend and people asked me what I call the Genre. Too bad I never heard of Lazer Bass until today. I just told them Glitch Hop because that’s how Kraddy tagged the MP3s. The amazing part is that everyone in the mixed crowd liked it — and the crowd included people who would “typically” listen to electro/ Nu Skool breaks, jungle/DnB, and house. This stuff seems to work better than grime and dubstep (my long time passion) in the mixed crowd.
Wonky makes me think of the DnB track “Wonkey Donkey” out on Ganja records.
I listened to this mix just before going to sleep last night. I ended up having some lazer-hyphy dreams. I really like track 2 “Jerk It”. It make me bounce in my seat on the train to work.
I’m not trying to really name what I’m doing, what we’re doing. The only explanation I have is to say that it have roots in : Hip-Hop, Reggae/Ragga and Electronic. That’s it.
An-ten-nae’s ‘Acid Crunk’ series on Muti Music is also very much along these lines too, next one has a Ghislain Poirier remix too, also Canada’s Ill Gates, the guys on bPitch Control in Germany like Modeselektor, Siriusmo, Phono, Colony Records in the UK and other USA artists mostly west coast based and many on Muti Music too, Kraddy, Nanda, Heyoka, Audiovoid, Vibesquad and more emerging all the time.
also check out Timonkey’s track ‘Aqua Legion’ and ‘Today’