Honorable Mention: Shackleton - Music for the Quiet Hour/The Drawbar Organ E.P.s

I have little frame of reference for dubstep.  I haven’t liked the vast majority of the dubstep I’ve heard, especially the stuff that skews dancier or heavier, but there’s a much spookier strain of the music that apparently reaches back to the genre’s start in Britain in the mid-2000s.  It’s this type of dubstep, basically bass-heavy ambient dub music, that I find most interesting.  Shackleton fits squarely in that vein with his magnum opus Music for the Quiet Hour.  Music for the Quiet Hour is one epic 65 minute piece split into five movements, punctuated by the spoken word contributions of Vengeance Tenfold.  The end product sucks you into an environment that feels like some dark, empty corner of a dystopian future city.  The Drawbar Organ E.P.s, which take up disc two of the set, are three EPs that were released in 2011 and consist of ten shorter pieces that offer a welcome change of pace from disc one while maintaining the dark, spooky vibe.  Like most beat music, Shackleton does not engage in traditional songwriting.  His music is all about creating a mood, and the mood over this album’s more than two hours is one of confusion and fear, much like the black and white psychedelic imagery of the elaborate album packaging.

Shackleton - "Music for the Quiet Hour Part 3"