Porter Robinson: The State (with SKisM remix)

My last post was the first in a two-part series on "dubstep," a series in which I will quickly clear my creative system of its residual wub-wubs and get back to classic alternative/indie/punk and the like. Normally, I don't post songs like this, but perhaps these ubiquitous sounds, nearly unavoidable over the last three years or so (though the sound dates back long before its mainstream explosion), have subconsciously influenced me. I said last time that this post would be about the first "dubstep" song I ever liked (and one of the four or five total tracks that I like), the track that remains by far my favorite from the scene.

This post spotlights Porter Robinson's brilliant track "The State," along with its subsequent remix by SKisM, the artist I featured in the last post. I stumbled on to this guy via a Facebook posting, probably from Judge Andrew Napolitano or someone similar, about a "libertarian dubstep" artist featured in an LA Weekly article. Naturally, this intrigued me, not because I was particularly fond of dubstep, but rather the "libertarian" modifier (not to get political, but I am a diehard little-L libertarian).

As it turned out, Robinson is perhaps more anarchic/anarcho-capitalist than the simple libertarian label originally suggested, but the story itself focuses on "The State" and the more basic politics of the track. This track is a darkly aggressive indictment of typical statist government policy, fueled by Austrian School and libertarian icon Murray Rothbard's writings. The vocal samples come from a Jeff Riggenbach reading of Rothbard's magnum opus, For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, read over rhythmic percussion and a melody that sounds more Arabic than Austrian. More reserved than much of its aggressive contemporaries, the song seems place heavy emphasis on the words, as if it were an exercise in the effective use of vocal samples, tending to be a bit on the repetitive side. Make no mistake, this is an excellent track, but if you're looking for a dub-driven adrenaline rush rather than an economics lesson, its remix counterpart may be more up your alley.

While Robinson's original version is ominous in its own right, SKisM's remix is downright horrific. In a good way. The remix ditches the agenda in favor of a pure musical assault. He saves only the most brutal parts of the vocal sample, tweaked even more than the original for maximum scare power, eschewing Austrian economics for a song that may be much more fitting in a horror movie's climax (provided that movie is set in a rave). In fact, every time I listen to this song, I can't help but think of those "horror" arcade games where players have to hold on to metal bars that "shock" them, while a skeleton/Uncle Fester/etc. "increases the voltage." See below.




Powerful wordless vocalizing in between Rothbard's writings only increases the dark feel of the Arabic melody. The high, Psycho-esque, synth notes over the drop create a scene of pure government-induced terror. By the way, this busy, dissonant drop is probably the best that I have ever heard, and it only gets better when the percussion changes up, sending the song into a sort of double time feel.

The more varied and music-driven remix is at times chilling, other times hypnotic, and sometimes even a harsh-yet-satisfying combination of the two. Both of the tracks are great in their own right. If political theory is your thing, you may be more drawn to the original; however, while the original is by no means chill, it sounds like lounge music in comparison to the brutal beat down of the remix.

And that's it. No more hip electro posts for me. Rest assured, the most danceable songs I post from here on out will all be older than I am.

Download Porter Robinson: The State (and SKisM remix)