Freq Nasty

After a politically-charged intro and the requisite drop of Santogold's "Creator" (which Freq Nasty co-produced with the ever-prolific Switch), Mr. Nasty's latest Fabriclive 42 mix gets straight the point. There's no arc, no 9 p.m. to midnight to 4 a.m. progression and no journey. Unless, of course, that journey is a trip to the skull-shattering core of low-end frequencies, where religious beatheads will discover the meaning of bass.

Once the dirty-ass wobbly bass and ragga twang of Freq Nasty vs. Propa Tings's "Peacemaker" kicks in, it's clear that this mix drops you right into peak hour mayhem. To say it never lets up would be a misnomer, because he pulls it back a few times for some grimy, Brit-style hip-hop or a straight reggae dub jam.

Make no mistake, however, this is not for those with paper eardrums. This is not music that you chill to. This is what you throw on when the only passengers in your car are two recently emptied cans of Red Bull and a woofer. And probably a roll of paper towels because this shit is unabashedly dirty.

Freq Nasty displays not only his ear for quality tracks that walk the fine line between banging and annoying without a single misstep, but also his ability to flip the fader at the perfect bridge moment—mix after mix. This mix fits nicely into the resurgence of breakbeats in completely new, UK grime, garage, and dingy dubstep digs. Standout tracks include Rusko's Granny Smasher's grinding remix of Leon Jean-Marie's "Bring it On," Cadence Weapon's booty-house, Baltimore-twanged "House Music" and Reso's tech-stomper remix of Rob Sparx's "2 Faced Rasta," among a list of 24 consistently stellar programming choices.

Freq Nasty strings together quite possibly the most lethal collections of basslines ever with the trio of his own remix of his own collab with Heavyweight Dub Champion on "Snared," TRG's "Oi Killa!" and an edit of a Freq Nasty vs. Bassnectar track named "Viva Tibet." You'll need to take a shower after making it through those three, filth guaranteed.

Many people would likely dismiss this mix as noisy rubbish, but they just can't recognize the true art of crafting a peak time dance floor mix when they hear it. This set would absolutely crush live on a club system, but it'll keep you going just fine provided you have some bass in your listening setup.

—Chris Nelson
10.29.08

It's getting harder and harder to keep track of the constantly shifting, splitting, and re-emerging genre distinctions in the breakbeat-based London DJ scene -- but really, would you want it any other way? It's fun not knowing exactly what's going to come next, how soon it's going to emerge, or what it's going to be called when it does. Freq Nasty has staked out a unique blend of breakbeat, dubstep, garage, and even reggaeton elements that is too wildly kaleidoscopic to be called a style. His contribution to the Fabriclive series is exactly what you'd expect from him, which is to say that each track comes across as fairly unexpected: you know it's going to be funky, you know the beats are probably going to lurch around crazily with lots of squelchy synth and frequent reggae vocal samples, but beyond that there's no telling what's going to happen. At its best, the result is thrilling: Leon Jean-Marie's "Bring It On (Rusko's Granny Smasher Remix)" and Lee "Scratch" Perry's "God Smiled (Remix)" are brilliant, as is the stagger-step groove of Epydemix's "Thunder Gutter (Dub)"." At its worst, this stuff can be just a bit tiring: Madox's "Duckalicious (Baobinga's Thugalicious Remix)" goes on a bit too long without any shift in energy or texture, and "Not in Our Name" is a tiresome political screed that starts the proceedings off on a facile and self-righteous note. But for the most part this is great stuff. ~ Rick Anderson, All Music Guide