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
to more info about the artists, tracks, and labels.
My friends over at 
house, rave, etc, in addition to a new sound out of Baltimore that they called 
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