2022-11-14 (All-Star Series: Excision Edition Pt. 1)

What the fuck is up, perverrrrrts?! Emo-muthafuckin’-clew to the muthafuckin’ Excision edition of the All-Star Series, right the fuck here on Monday Morning Aural muthafuckin’ Sex! Boy fuckin’ howdy, have we got a podcast ahead of us this week. As you may have noticed, this is coming to you in 2 parts. Know why? ‘Cause this motherfucker is over 6½ muthafuckin’ hours long! I literally cannot bounce a podcast that long. Pro Tools will essentially be like, nah bruh, try again. Seriously, I tried it with the 5th volume of the Psychopathic Family Edition. That shit was something like 7½ hours, and yeah, Pro Tools straight up refused to make a file that big. No idea why, but yeah, that’s why it’s 2 parts. I could have easily made a number of my other All-Star editions multiple parts. Shit, Mike Patton alone could be like 5 to 10, same goes for Henry Rollins.

 

Any-fuckin’-way, I should probably talk about Excision at some point, eh? So… imagine a world consumed by earth-shattering bass vibrations. An apocalypse of twisting and morphing sounds that melt minds and make bodies thrash. The spectacular audiovisual experience of an Excision show has the capacity to transport fans to another dimension where Headbangers rule the land. His current touring stage production The Evolution is his most captivating and impressive to date. Equipped with an absurd amount of lights, lasers, subwoofers, and massive immersive visuals, it’s guaranteed to blow the minds of all in attendance. Excision continuously pushes the boundaries on heavy Bass Music and production, championing an unmatched dedication to his craft and fan experience within the genre.

 

Hailing from Kelowna, British Columbia, Excision has spent his career dedicated to the Bass Music scene, leading and innovating in the creation of a massive, passionate Dubstep community. Within the last five years, Excision has launched multiple large-scale festival productions that over 100,000 dedicated fans call “home.” Excision’s dedication to touring is unheralded as he’s headlined well over 1000 shows in the last decade of touring, including at his major branded events like Thunderdome, The Coliseum, and many more.

Excision’s expansive discography spans five full-length studio albums, countless EPs and singles, 15 annual fan-favorite mixes, all of which have collectively amassed over 2 billion streams globally. His new record label Subsidia was birthed in 2020 following in the footsteps of his previous imprint Rottun Records, and it released over 400 tracks in its first year alone.

 

Excision’s influence can be felt in every facet of the industry, and though he’s already established a legendary brand, he’s continually striving to help the community grow. As he says, “Everything I do is focused around the mission of helping Bass Music grow, while still staying true to itself, constantly innovative and fresh. We have such a caring and loving group of people involved within this scene, and I hope the music will help more people find their home within it.” The preceding 3 paragraphs were from his website, and now lemme say a bit about my experience of Excision.

 

First of all, I’m fairly certain that I’ve been down with Excision since before I even started this fuckin’ podcast in January of 2012. He was one of the first dubstep artists I ever heard of, and it was actually Sunny who drove me to look into dubstep in the first place. It’s since become one of my all-time favorite genres because in a lot of ways, it feels like the heavy metal of EDM. Metal is another genre that blew me away back when I was but a wee lad of 7. It was Metallica’s, “Enter Sandman,” specifically, and note to self, I should totally do an All-Star edition for them as a low key troll. Anyway, there are other subgenres of EDM that could be considered heavy-metal-adjacent as well. Shit, plenty of drum’n’bass, gabber, speedcore and such sample metal riffs pretty frequently too.

 

I digress, which I know is so bizarre for a magnificent fuckhead such as myself. If you need any qualifying examples of my assertion of dubstep being like the heavy metal of EDM, I humbly direct your attention to the classic Excision track, “Headbanga.” As far as I’m aware, headbanging started because of metal, so Excision and most other modern dubstep artists are merely carrying the euphoric tradition into the future. I should note here that “dubstep,” is now just as broad a genre as heavy metal. When it started, it was far more minimalistic, spookier, more throbbing bass lines (I’m talkin’, like, the deepest of wubs), and barely any erratically arranged distorted synths. The unfairly cursory glances of dubstep’s harsher critics say that it all sounds the same, or it’s too abrasive, shit like that. Obviously, when you’re not actually paying attention, of course it’s all going to sound similar or the same.

 

The fact remains that Excision has run the dubstep gamut from the more original sound created by UK artists in the early aughts (possibly even the 90s, but I’m not 100% sure), to the more abrasive variation known as riddim; from the Skrillex-style brostep, to tenderly melodic and emotional, Excision has proven himself exceptional through and through in his evolution and experimentation. Finally, let me say a few things about all the phenomenal fuckin’ shit we’re about to have crammed in our ears.

 

As with every All-Star edition, I do a super deep dive into the career of the artists I feature. I found tracks that Excision himself probably fuckin’ forgot about. “The Village?” Yeah, that was lurking on a lonely little record label compilation (I think) called DUBLINE010. I only found that ‘cause I thoroughly combed through his Discogs page, and much to my great delight, it was actually on Spotify. Certainly wasn’t anywhere on his profile. “That Girl,” from Dubstep Meditations? Another track I had no idea existed. That one’s gorgeously chill right there. I could have thrown in a track or two that isn’t available on Spotify, but I didn’t want to differ too greatly from the playlist that I compiled. Speaking of which, let me just say here that I love my past self so much for saving my present self hours and hours and fucking HOURS of work.

 

Ya see, I used to acquire music at a much greater rate than I do these days, and many moons ago, I found a collection of Rottun Records’ singles and EPs. I didn’t really know most of the artists on there, but my curiosity was (and continues to be) such that it didn’t matter. If/whenever I got around to listening to it, if I didn’t care for it, oh fuckin’ well. If I did care for it, well then lucky fuckin’ me, right? Yeah, well, all that high-quality and high-frequency acquisition ended up saving me tons of hours I would have otherwise spent cutting, optimizing, tagging and bouncing 6½ hours worth of goddamn tracks. Anyway, yeah, very pleased with my past self for the first time in fuck knows how long. I’m seemingly notorious for all my poor decisions in life, but at least I did one thing right. Yay.

 

Speaking of poor decisions, you most acutely observant perverts might notice Datsik’s name on a number of these tracks. Yeah, without going too far into it, I don’t at all condone the actions he was accused of, and I do think his apology could have been better. That said, Excision worked with him on so much shit that I would be forced to exclude a ton of absolute bangers from this edition. I already excluded Vindicate, and that was one of my favorites from back when I first heard it on Saints Row IV. I think I even saw Datsik live before I got the chance to see Excision. Speaking of which, if you get the chance to see Excision live and you haven’t yet, do yourself a favor and check out his show. Even if you plug your ears through the whole thing, it’s an absolute audiovisual extravaganza. But yeah, Datsik… I don’t know if there’s any coming back for him or not. Certainly not without an apology that addresses the issues specifically, but that might never happen considering the legal jeopardy that’d land him in.

 

All that said, the tracks with his name on them are not at all being included because of his contribution. I would just hate for this edition to be less than it could have been simply because one shithead made some terrible life decisions. Anyway, enough about him. You probably noticed there are a number of remixes here, some included and arranged along with the original for convenient A/B comparison whenever possible. I mean, I don’t know if any of y’all will appreciate that or find it annoying, but it’s something I would definitely appreciate as a listener, so there ya fuckin’ go. I’ve always been a bit on the fence about including remixes in All-Star editions because some of the best remixes ever made are damn near entirely new tracks, and they’re more indicative of the remixer’s talent than the original artist. That is true of some of these, but not all. There are a metric fuckton of remixes that people have done of Excision’s tracks, and only a handful of them are worth a second listen. Only an even smaller handful are actually better than the original tracks, in my opinion. Those are the remixes present here without the accompanying original track.

 

Mind you, I pretty much listened through Excision’s entire career for this edition. Excision doesn’t have any bad tracks in my opinion, some are just less memorable than others. Shit, that’s bound to happen in a career that spans 15 fuckin’ years. Speaking of which, I’m pretty sure I’ve included the very first track he ever released here called, “No Escape,” waaaay back in ’07. Feels like a goddamn eternity ago; I was such a profoundly different person back then. Time makes fools of us all, right? Yeah, yeah, I know. “Wrap this fucking intro up already, will ya?” I know this might come as a surprise to y’all, but ya see, I’m really just too fuckin’ much. I also threw all these tracks into Mixed In Key so I could organize the tracks to flow well harmonically, just like one would do with a legit DJ mix. Not that such an effort would even be appreciable to anyone without exceptionally trained ears, but yeah, I did that too. It’s not gonna be perfect, of course, but the effort was indeed made.

 

At long last, let me just say that virtually all of the artists featured in this edition, from the collaborators to the remixers and vocalists, you should look further into all of them and their material. Seriously, this is like a crème de la crème of All-Star editions, at least as far as dubstep goes. I should have done this edition ages ago, but Excision has the honor of being the first ever dubstep artist in the All-Star Series, and ever so well-deserved. With all that done did and muthafuckin’ said…

 

a-yojne.

 

 

01 Excision - System Check (from Aftermatch EP) [00:07:09]

 

02 Excision - Exterminate (from Apex) [00:08:11]

 

03 Excision, Downlink - Headbanga (from Headbanga) [00:11:38]

 

04 Excision, Downlink - Resistance (from Resistance) [00:15:32]

 

05 Destroid - Annihilate (from Destroid - The Invasion) [00:19:52]

 

06 Excision, Subvert - Darkness (from Rude Symphony / Darkness) [00:24:55]

 

07 Excision, Kai Wachi - Demisaur (from Demisaur) [00:28:32]

 

08 Excision, Downlink - Existence VIP (from Existence EP) [00:32:00]

 

09 Destroid - Get Stupid (from Excision 2014 Mix Compilation) [00:35:54]

 

10 Destroid - Wasteland (from Destroid - The Invasion) [00:40:05]

 

11 Destroid - Wasteland (Barely Alive Remix) (from Destroid: The Invasion Remixes) [00:44:17]

 

12 Excision - Warning (from The Launch EP Part 6) [00:48:09]

 

13 Excision, Wooli - Evolution (feat. Sam King) (from Evolution EP) [00:53:21]

 

14 Excision, Datsik - 8-Bit Superhero (from X-Rated) [00:56:59]

 

15 Excision - Back to Life (feat. Sarah de Warren) (from Onyx) [01:01:50]

 

16 Excision, Datsik - 8-Bit Superhero (Eptic Remix) (from X-Rated (The Remixes)) [01:05:03]

 

17 Excision - Death Wish (feat. Sam King) (from Virus) [01:09:41]

 

18 Excision, Wooli - Erase You (feat. HALIENE) (from Subsidia Dawn: Vol. 1) [01:12:26]

 

19 Excision, Dion Timmer - Time Stood Still (from Breaking Through) [01:16:03]

 

20 Excision - Wake Up (feat. Sullivan King) (from Apex) [01:20:01]

 

21 Excision - Home (feat. Dion Timmer) (from Apex) [01:25:38]

 

22 Excision, Dion Timmer - Africa (from Virus) [01:29:28]

 

23 Excision - The Paradox (from Virus) [01:33:25]

 

24 Excision - The Paradox (Seven Lions & Dimibo Remix) (from Virus: The Remixes) [01:38:12]

 

25 Illenium, Excision - Feel Something (feat. I Prevail) (from Feel Something (feat. I Prevail)) [01:42:54]

 

26 Excision - G Shit (feat. Sam King) (from Virus) [01:46:31]

 

27 Band of Horses - The Funeral (Excision Remix) (from The Funeral (Excision Remix)) [01:50:09]

 

28 Excision - Drowning (feat. Akylla) (from Virus) [01:54:55]

 

29 Excision, Dion Timmer - End Of The World (feat. Donna Tella) (from Onyx) [01:58:39]

 

30 Excision vs. The SubDivision - Titanium (from Hypothermic EP) [02:02:16]

 

31 Excision - X-Rated (feat. Messinian) (from X-Rated) [02:08:13]

 

32 Excision - Neck Brace (from Virus) [02:12:34]

 

33 Excision, Dion Timmer - Hoods Up (feat. Messinian) (from Apex) [02:16:42]

 

34 Excision, Dion Timmer - Hoods Up (feat. Messinian) (Figure Remix) (from Textacy (Remixes)) [02:20:34]

 

35 Destroid - Raise Your Fist (from Destroid - The Invasion) [02:24:30]

 

36 Excision, Downlink - Crowd Control (Delta Heavy Remix) (from Rottun Recordings #BeatportDecade Dubstep) [02:29:11]

 

37 Excision - Sleepless (feat. Savvy) (from X-Rated) [02:33:36]

 

38 Excision, Savvy - Sleepless (Xilent Remix) (from X-Rated (The Remixes)) [02:38:55]

 

39 Excision - Her (from Virus) [02:43:56]

 

40 Excision, Illenium, Shallows - Gold (Stupid Love) (from Apex) [02:47:47]

 

41 Excision, Dion Timmer - Salvation (feat. Alexis Donn) (from Salvation) [02:52:36]

 

42 Excision - Die For You (feat. Akylla) (from Apex) [02:56:42]

 

43 Excision, Wooli, Trivecta - Oxygen (feat. Julianne Hope) (from Evolution EP) [03:00:33]

 

44 Excision, Downlink - Heavy Artillery (feat. Messinian) (from Heavy Artillery / Reploid) [03:04:12]

 

45 Excision, Downlink - Heavy Artillery (feat. Messinian) (SkisM Remix) (from Heavy Artillery / Reploid (Remixes)) [03:08:19]

 

46 Excision, PhaseOne - Demise (from Demise) [03:13:21]