A few weeks ago, someone in one of our comment sections remarked that one of the only ways to hear interesting new music in Dallas these days is to go see a DJ set. Given the context, it seemed like the statement was made in jest, but when taken literally, there appears to be more than a bit of truth to it. Although there ARE talented musicians in Dallas making interesting original music right now (
Treewave,
Unconscious Collective,
The Frenz, various members of the
Laptop Deathmatch, etc.), many of them perform sparsely, and the majority of forward-looking, well attended and interesting local music events that have taken place in the city over the past six months have been DJ shows. The talented
Central Booking crew has played a major role in this development and have deservedly received most of the local coverage, but recently, a veteran local DJ named
Keith P released a free downloadable mix CD that is likely to garner him some attention of his own.
Keith P has been spinning around the city for several years as a long standing member of
Unit One, a DJ/design/marketing crew that is probably best known around town for its
Vice Records Run the Road release parties and
Dub Assembly, its rotating dubstep party currently happening once a month at the
Green Elephant. For the past few years, Keith's sets have focused mainly on 2-step, dubstep and grime, rapidly evolving genres that have started to gain popularity in American electronic underground circles over the past few years. These influences can certainly be heard all over
Bass Music, Keith P's latest collection of songs, but the mix happily finds the DJ branching out into a myriad of other highly relevant sounds while utilizing eclecticism, effective live mixing and a seemingly instinctive knack for track selection to create one of the most shrewdly contemporary, accessible and exhilarating party soundtracks we've heard all year.
Mixed completely live and clocking in at just over an hour,
Bass Music is a showcase of contemporary club-bangers that seem to rise, peak and fall at exactly the right times, demonstrating a utilitarian focus on dance floor movement propelled by a selection of highly tasteful tracks that will likely impress even the most knowledgeable vinyl hounds. The mix's main strength lies in the breadth of sounds and scenes that it touches on, shifting from tracks like the bouncy, ultra hyper collaboration between French hip hop act
TTC and
Bpitch Control's Modeselektor to the sugary r&b dance pop of
Jamelia's "Something About You," all with a seamless and casual confidence. Present through the duration of the mix are the influences of acid house, dubstep, hip hop, R&B and even a bit of synth pop, but none of these sounds ever truly shine through to dominate the mood. Instead, we get a virtual meet and greet with some of the most talked about DJs and producers in dance music today, including the glitchy, anthemic new house of
Sebastian's "Ross Ross Ross" and the red hot
Erol Alkan remix of
Justice's "Waters of Nazareth", as well as
Jesse Rose and
Sinden's hard hitting dub influenced "Me Mobile" and poppier songs from the likes of
Lilly Allen,
Basement Jaxx and
Sneaker Pimps, whom Keith uses to close out the mix with great effect. Balancing menacing, repetitive dub heavy tracks with pulsing bass, blip house hits and exclusive cuts from
Drop The Lime and
Curses, among others, Keith effectively whips together highly varying sounds and turns them into a unit in which not a single break or turn seems forced or out of place, which is a much more difficult feat than he makes it seem.
Essentially,
Bass Music has everything you would expect from a hip, competent mix CD, but the truly exciting thing is that Keith P is someone we have just started to hear things about even though he's been sitting in our backyard for years. You probably couldn't take a better snap shot of the current state of tasteful, quality electro than he has here, and its good to know that Keith is just one of several local DJs with a thumb firmly planted on the pulse of the international dance underground. And speaking of pulses, the cohesive mixing and dance floor appeal of
Bass Music make it truly accessible to anybody that has one.
(You can download Keith P's Bass music for free on his Myspace page. Rating is four stars out of a possible five) 
