What is the first step to curing an addiction?
Wubaholics is exploding onto the scene with their first ever compilation album featuring 10 tracks with a total run time of just over 30 minutes. Wubaholics has hosted events for the likes of TVBOO, Champagne Drip, Ubur, Sumthin Sumthin, and Dubloadz. With over 30 guest mixes under their belt from artists such as ION, CVPTVGON, Sky Suite, Blurrd Vzn, shwiLLy, Psyoctave, WYLIN, and SLZRD, this album was highly anticipated to say the least. The Wubaholics team delivered 10 fresh tracks guaranteed to feed the addiction of any bass music fan.
The album starts off with 22 year old Tape B giving the people exactly what they came for. 70 seconds into the album and newcomers are already beginning to understand the concept of a Wubaholic. That first ~splat~ in the drop leads you into drums with a snare that will have you bouncing as low as the frequencies in the track. Followed by a smooth rumble in your ears, you soon find yourself immersed in a bubble of wubs. The Orlando native keeps the song unique with a refreshing distortion in the 2nd drop that scrambles your sense of reality. It’s a sound that would make any listener want to dive deep into the journey of becoming a Wubaholic.
Turner Rouse Jr, better known as n-OTA (formerly None of the Above) keeps the train rolling with his track “The Game.” Listeners might recognize the popular voice of British Philosopher Alan Watts in the songs build up. After hearing the first drop, one can see how the imagery created by Watts is reflected in the sounds that follow. A rolling bass sound fills the speaker and at :49 seconds a female voice sample fills the pocket in a way that contrasts the low rumble of bass perfectly. Right when you get familiar with the sounds of the 1st and 2nd drop, n-OTA hits you with a 3rd drop that is the epitome of experimental bass music. While the first two drops deliver somewhat of a similar sound. The 3rd drop is layered with laser-like sounds beaming all around paired with sirens that will leave the listener feeling like their brain has been blended into a smoothie of delicious wubs.
The 3rd song on the album is brought to us from Denver based artist KAINO. “Silent Partner” generates a fuzzy bass line with beeps that make you feel as though you are trapped in the artist’s computer as he’s making the song. Not an aggressive song at first, but when the vocal sample at :59 is abruptly cut-off by a brand new bass sound, listeners will find themselves reacting to this sound out-loud. The 2nd portion of the song is filled with faked out drops that get deeper and deeper until KAINO fully unleashes the chaos around the 2:19 mark leaving the listener fiending for more. Luckily for them, there are still 7 songs left to go.
All I see is all I see is. If that phrase is not stuck in your head by the end of this next song, I am sad to say that you are probably not in the right place. Wubaholics OG Thomas “Flozone” Burnett delivers a party anthem that unites headbangers and bassheads together as one. When the vocals isolate from the track at the 1:08 mark the muscles in your neck are bound to thrust themselves towards the floor before he can say the word hunnids. The Bassnectar influence in this track is clear and apparent and truly showcases the talent of the Florida producer. Although the track might leave your body sore, it stays true to the Wubaholics brand with a bassline that Flozone bends to his liking as if it was a piece of rubber. At 4 minutes long it is one of the longer tracks on the album but listeners will soon find that 4 minutes is nowhere near enough for this banger.
As the album hits the halfway point, John DelGiudice (Delli Loope) brings the wobbles to the party. Immediately after the first drop, one can feel the fun that Delli had in the studio when creating this track. Inspired by the not-so-good times, “Zoan'' allows the listener to escape their hardships by embracing their inner weirdness and getting down and dirty with the eliminate-esque wobbles provided by the Tampa producer. At a run time of 2 and a half minutes, Delli wastes no time and utilizes every second to the fullest. Lengthy buildups create a sense of anxiety that is instantly swept away by the rapid bouncing of bass sounds that get deeper and deeper as the song goes on.
Up next is “Time Shift” by Brian “Oli” Oliveros. While his edits have received endless praise from the likes of Left Coast Xtracts founders “Smoakland”, This is Oli’s first release on a label and he stepped up to the plate swinging for the fences. Recording his own vocals for the first time, The 23 year old teases the song’s melody right from the jump. Elements are added in as the song quickly builds up into the first drop. The same melody from the beginning is now “brought back” and layered beautifully with sounds of all different levels and frequencies. As soon as the listener gets comfortable on their cosmic journey, the 0:47 second mark hits, and Oli shifts time once again with a vocal sample that fills the silence perfectly. One truly comes to appreciate the sample when the second drop is kicked off with a spinback type sound at the 1:38 mark. Before that spinback, Oli keeps the 2nd drop fresh to the ears with a fake drop followed by a chopped up version of the melody we hear in the intro and first drop. Even chopping up the vocal sample as well, he leaves the listener struggling to predict what is coming next. Unpredictability is an essential component in the world of experimental bass music and Oli does a phenomenal job at capturing this aspect.
Sometimes in life, you need to just breathe. And Richard Rioles, better known as “DVVP” wants you to do just that. As the only melodic bass song on the album, “Ride” provides listeners with an opportunity to close their eyes and “get ready for a ride.” Over the past few months humans have seen a scary, unfamiliar world. “Ride” gives the chance for the listener to escape from all of their problems and struggles. Even if it is only for 4 minutes and 32 seconds, it is a breath of fresh air that we all desperately need during these unprecedented times. While DVVP took the approach of a melodic bass style for this track, it still delivers the low frequencies and hard hitting bass that Wubaholics everywhere crave. The Florida based producer combines wubs and vibes in a wonderful fashion that allows the listener to truly hear and appreciate the amount of emotion that was put into this song. In an album filled with high energy tracks, it is vital for there to be a track that slows down the brain, allowing it to reset itself as it shuts off the outside world, and this track does just that. So turn off the lights, lay down in bed, put on your headphones, and get ready for a ride.
As the “ride” nears the end, Boca Raton producer Reginald Simpson brings a unique aspect of fun to the album. The 20 seconds of slow guitar at the beginning of the track transitions the album beautifully out of the emotional track “Ride” and into the goofiness of “Pee & Ointment.” Is it ironic that the face you would make if you were to smell ointment and pee is the same exact face listeners find themselves making during the first drop? I think not. The first drop at :55 seconds absolutely SLAPS the listener as their ears are filled with a nasty, hard hitting bass. Liam likes to keep things fun and lighthearted with the Reginald project, and the sample from popular TV show Bob’s Burgers that he uses in this track is a perfect example of that. However, do not let the goofiness of the sample distract you from the talent of the 23 year old. Listeners go from laughing at Louise’s voice to wondering how the following sounds are even possible to make. One can only imagine the crowd reaction that this solidified banger would elicit from an audience at a live show. An instant classic for the Wubaholics family.
Coming in fresh off of his first Wubaholics release ‘Bounce it Like.’ Alec “Illoh” Hollingsworth delivers once again with his new song “gotdaflow.” Hollingsworth wastes absolutely no time with this one as the drop comes in just after the :12 second mark. A bouncing bassline filled with wubs that one might first mistake as a MeSo track. While in the first drop the bass seems to be bouncing up and down fairly quickly, as the track progresses, so do the wubs. Illoh starts stretching out that same wub sound and then proceeds to make it do a wiggling-type noise as the sound is smeared all across your brain leaving the listener dumbfounded. Even with a simple drum pattern, “gotdaflow” pushes boundaries with its extraordinary bass sounds that are uniquely crafted and delivered in a clean flowing rhythm. Illoh does a great job at proving that there are no rules in the world of experimental bass, and that with an open mind, the possibilities are endless. At only 21 years old, he is the youngest producer on the album and is on track to lead the next generation of producers as the genre progresses and continues to grow.
Finishing up the album is 22 year old Andrew Salcedo, better known as OptiK Sound. With a title like “Suspense” it is only right that the intro has a creepy, rezz-like melody. The suspense builds for 56 seconds before allowing the listener to be immersed in a smooth bassline with drums that grow with the track. When the drums disappear at the 1:19 mark, wubs bounce rapidly from ear to ear before the previous drum pattern is replaced with one of a higher tempo. OptiK uses this technique again at 2:15 when the track turns into a full blown DnB track filled with the perfect balance of wubs. The high, fast paced energy of the 2nd half of this track is the most immaculate way to end the album. The Wubaholics team could not have picked a better song to close out this album.
Unfortunately, that is the last track of “The First Step.” The Wubaholics crew has put together a masterpiece of an album and it is truly unbelievable that this is the Label’s first one. As the title of the album states, this is truly the first step on a long path that is heading to the top of the industry. It’s only up from here. Hats off to everybody involved in this and thank you for allowing me to be a part of this journey. Be sure to follow @Wubaholics on social media. Links to all of the artists streaming profiles will be listed below.
https://soundcloud.com/tape-b-official
https://soundcloud.com/notadubz
https://soundcloud.com/kainomusic
https://soundcloud.com/officialflozone
https://soundcloud.com/delliloope
https://soundcloud.com/soundsbyoli
https://soundcloud.com/dvvpbeats
https://soundcloud.com/reginald_simpson