RUSKO in retrospective: today, tomorrow

2010 was a big year for Christopher Mercer, the devilish UK dubstep producer known to the masses as RUSKO.

And I know what you’re probably thinking: Is Quip really writing about dubstep? That seemingly nonsensical genre that has flat out dominated the North American scene for the better part of a year? Isn’t it time to move past this shit? Well, yes. And also no. Instead of an attempt at lauding the merits of the newest crop of punk-ass DJ Heroes, we are here to celebrate the return of RUSKO, one of dub’s UK pioneers.

Though the stepping of the dub has become an ubiquitous form in today’s musical landscape, one slyly creeping all the way into commercial media and even movie trailers, we need to remember that this phenomenon is a recent development on the timeline of womp.

Growing from UK dancehall in the mid-2000s, dubstep has had a relatively organic rise to prominence. The genre was only one step away its first big break in the North American scene, requiring a record label with the artistic foresight and creative fortitude to make it happen. Mad Decent was that label.

In 2010, at a time when the dub was still playing little brother to the bigger names of the European-inspired beats, the folks at Mad Decent unleashed RUSKO’s first major release, O.M.G.!, to an unsuspecting, receptive base of electronic fans.

Almost instantaneously,  RUSKO’s single “Woo Boost” became the North American anthem for the dubstep movement that follows us into the present day. And here we are,  2012,  sitting on the cusp of RUSKO’s follow-up to the almost impossibly successful O.M.G.!  Who would have guessed? Well, apparently Jasper Goggins and Diplo.

Like a toddler with a beard, two years under the belt makes RUSKO a grizzled veteran of the wobble-wobble-sample-build-wobble-drop game. This rare company makes his sophomore release SONGS an almost unprecedented occurrence, so it will be interesting to see how this record is received by this new crop of dub enthusiasts.

To kick off his return to the airwaves, RUSKO is releasing “Somebody to Love,” the first single off his forthcoming SONGS LP. One of the first things you will notice is the stark differences between RUSKO’s brand of UK wobble when compared to the metal-inspired dub from the United States. While Americans construct riff structures and breakdowns akin to nu-metal arpeggios, RUSKO sticks to the more traditional (as traditional as this fledgling genre can be) sound palette, complete with synthesized 80s horns and bit-ridden drops.

Stay tuned for coverage from RUSKO’s Friday show in Guelph.

For more RUSKO visit: ruskoonfire.com