The Others - Flight Facilities [Dubstep.net Review]

Here is another great EP review by Dubstep.net's Mitch Buchanan.  This time Mitch takes on The Others' latest effort on Dub Police, and if the tracks are anything close to what Mitch describes them as...507 can't wait to hear them for ourselves.  Also, check out Dubstep.net's live Twitter interview with The Others.

Dubstep.net loves new things. Like, we seriously LOVE new stuff. We have a new website (check it out, it rocks), we listen to new music, and today we’re releasing a review for a new EP by Dub Police’s most released artist, The Others. That’s right. I said Dub Police. The Others has a brand new EP called First Flight, and it’s got 5 brand-new tracks set to be released on July 25 – each one a sign that The Others is, once again, pushing the limits of the dubstep sound.

Like I said, we love new stuff. Most of the time, this stuff is of our own world – music, websites, the usual. But sometimes the music takes us to new places that we’ve never seen. First Flight is one of those albums. Take a listen and imagine that you’re in the future – our world has depleted its resources, and we’re forced to move and colonize somewhere unknown. The beginning of this EP marks our discovery of a new world that will act as home for, hopefully, the rest of our lives. How things go from there can only be described through the music…

The first track on First Flight is also the title track. As you listen, close your eyes and imagine looking out the window of your spaceship at the first glimpses of your new planet. The brilliance of the planet and its suns, the smooth descent through its atmosphere - it’s that sort of excitement and exhilaration that really hits home on this track. The intro of the track imitates the thrusters of the spacecraft, panning from left to right and back again underneath crystal droplets that cascade down from the high end. 50 seconds in and the synths charge, sliding up and out of the way as the bass sends its first full blast. Just before the 2-minute mark, we get a dose of bubbly melody – floating above the music, almost carefree. The bass and synths carry it instead of fighting until it fades away, victim to other melodies eager to push through.

Planet X is like the first foray out onto the new planet – discovering what lives on (and under) the surface. The track starts off spacey, with ethereal synths floating on the solar winds. Soon, however, bass takes over with a funky riff that can only promise good things – and once the clapping comes in with the buildup, it’s almost impossible to stay still. The drop hits and keeps the bass’ funky theme, but with the addition of deep growls, laser fire, and metallic screeches. With the tribal drums comes the discovery of a civilization already established on the planet – a colony both far advanced, yet happily primitive. A break in the music typically slows the energy, but the crowd that’s listening in cheers The Others on to another energetic buildup – and another drop means another round of wild dancing from this futuristic tribe.

The energy from this dancing tribe seems to be depleted after the last track, because as Say To You starts spinning, everything has cooled down. We get some vocals overtop of the synth – somehow, they seem sad; in fact, the whole intro is filled with emotion. This drop isn’t as aggressive; it might be due to the fact that it’s synth-heavy and not bass-heavy. Soon afterwards, an alien piano plays a haunting melody over the low-end synths, and it refuses to go away even as the music switches up after the vocal clip. The track ends with a new melody, some staccato chords playing around near the high-end. One sweep of wind across the track and the music is gone, like writing on the beach after the water washes up over the sand.

Break Your Neck comes hot on the heels of Say To You, and as soon as the lasers fire at the beginning, you know that whatever sadness there was in the last track is gone. For this track, The Others has teamed up with Trolley Snatcha and Dread to signal the altercation between our “alien” colony and the tribes already on this new planet. The drums smash through and metallic sounds echo in time to the beat. A siren wails, vocals kick in, and a deep, wet bass accompanies the chant “break your neck!” as the drums shuffle alongside the fight. But this is just the first battle – soon afterwards, we get another siren, a slide-up of sounds, and the bass turns raspy as it coughs along to the beat. Bass and laser fire, piercing war drums, and panic alarms going off every which way, Break Your Neck shows no mercy to this colony determined to take control of the planet.

The final track is Skynet – the final chapter of this story. The atmosphere is dark and foreboding, and the low siren cries out, almost defeated. The drums shuffle, but there’s an urgency to the beat – almost as if our new colony realizes how close they were to being wiped out, and that they have to rebuild as quickly as possible to stay safe. This urgency carries through the drop into the sliced-up melody of the low-end synth. Another synth appears in the higher register, acting almost as an alarm to warn the colony’s citizens of another impending attack. This sort of dark, grim energy has a steady rhythm that seems to say “ignore everything around you, just do what has to be done.” Whether you’re trying desperately to make your planet safe from the unknown or dropping this track at a nightclub, it’s that sort of dark energy that makes this track dangerously danceable.

What more can I say? The fact that First Flight is being released on Dub Police pretty much sums it up right there. The Others continues to push forward in the dubstep scene, making original music that keeps on sounding original. Make sure to pick up a copy of his new EP on July 25 – try to control yourself until then. We understand if that’s hard.