Summer Of Luvstep - LuvDub Symphony Mixed by DJ UMB (June 2011)

Over 50 tracks in this 2hr 20 minute mix recorded LIVE/1-Take on my trusty Pioneer CDJ's!

PLUS another 1 hour by DJ Nappy - recorded this in 1 take with no effects / drops / filler.

Inspired by "LoveSong" - The Cure!

LuvDub Symphony:

Luv, Luv he said!

Luv is here...Luv is lost...luv is gained...hearts are broken, hearts get mended & hearts melt....u feelin' the butterflies in your stomach yet?

LuvDuB Symphony is really an emotional journey exploring your passions, your romance, your joy of being in luv, your love lost and also your heartbreak.

You might feel as high as a kite, as if on cloud 9, you might get a warm glow inside you, you might wear a smile on your face and your heart might skip a beat.

You might experience some insecurity, despair, pain, get nostalgic over the memories you had with your loved one and also you might feel as though you’re world has ended too.

It’s all a part of being in luv!

Happy sun shiny songs but also sad, sad songs, all meshed together by me, DJ UMB, to make you feel the uplifting, superhuman strength of being in Luv but also the devastation & low ebb of breaking up and being heartbroken.

The mix, well yes it’s pretty lengthy but that just how love-making and getting over a heartbreak ought to be. Imho a Luvstep mix shouldn’t be rushed and some tracks should be allowed to be played in their entirety for the sake of creating a mood/ambience.

Everybody is doing short mixes but I love to do the opposite of whatever everybody else is doing and so I’ve opted for long & epic mix on this ocassion. It stretches to just over 2 hours & 20 mins and contains over 50 tracks including some personal & sentimental faves that have been meshed in that are not dubstep. Tracks like Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You”, Neil Young’s “Expecting To Fly” and various versions of Lovesong. Indeed, the main inspiration for this mixtape comes from The Cure’s “Lovesong”, which is one of my all time favourite tracks.

Anyway, enough waffle. I hope you enjoy it and it becomes a soundtrack to some part of your life happy or sad life.

I need to give BIG thank you’s to all the artists, DJ Nappy, Dirty South Joe & Flufftronix, all my dudes at Generation Bass and all of you who take time to listen to my mixes.

A special thank you to members of the Luvstep Dub Symphony Facebook group who posted some of the tracks in that group, which I have used in my mix, Anna, Lara, Ivo, Badshah and some others. Also to Monica & Kiran for recording the Lovesong dialogue and sending it to me.

LuvSTeP Serenade by DJ Nappy:

Go & grab it HERE and read DJ Nappy's take on this too:

http://snd.sc/mQ2tUy

http://www.mediafire.com/?iwer5k9q6u697vu

We all know luvstep is a movement built on melody at 140BPMs, and for this Luvstep Serenade, the idea is a pretty heavy night of passion. Some of our lovers like things a bit rougher, though, so while we have more somber, melodic bass bits from the likes of Matt-U, Starkey and L-Wiz, there are some curveballs thrown – a lot of these tracks speak of love lost, which is just as big a part of being in “love” than the puppy eyes, boo’d up afternoons that we all wish we could remember. Hell, when you break up with “the one”, you feel the pain more than the warm embrace, so why not explore both facets of this thing we call luv? Luvstep from the THUGSTEP architect…

LUVSTEP A BRIEF HISTORY – DJ UMB

Luvstep, Lovestep, Popstep, Voxstep, Dub Symphony..whatever u wanna call it!

It all gravitates towards the same thing. I'd say it's just Dubstep/Garage/Lazer Bass music with an emphasis on the more emotional side of that kinda music. A more reflective, romantic and emotional side.

I guess I first dropped elements of Luvstep in or about August 2009 in the last 20 minutes or so of my first Apocalyptic Dubstep mixtape. It contains traces of what would later evolve into my first Popstep Dub Symphony and what I now fully embrace as Luvstep.

I dropped my first “official full length” Luvstep mix in December 2009 during an extremely creative period mix-wise. In the latter part of 2009 I had dropped The Transnational Dubstep Calling series & also Apocalyptic Dubstep, as mentioned above. Both series of mixtapes had received great feedback.

As I thought I had got more serious work out of the way, it finally gave me the balls to drop my first Luvstep mixtape, which I called Popstep Dub Symphony.

Although it wasn’t called Luvstep, Popstep Dub Symphony embodied all the elements, sound, vision, atmosphere & feel of what we now call Luvstep. As far as I was aware there was nothing else like this concept out there at that time. I had toyed with the idea of calling it LuvDub or something like that but to be honest with you I thought it would come across as a bit cheesy.

It was not until Dirty South Joe (DSJ) and Flufftronix (Fluff) released their excellent mixtape “Luvstep”, on Valentines Day 2010 that I realized just how great of a concept it was to call it “Luvstep” and that it was not at all cheesy. They had executed the concept with some style and vision.

I felt a tiny bit surprised and upset though, cause there was no mention or acknowledgement to my Popstep mixtape, which had preceded it and I felt it had been overlooked & unfairly ignored by them both. However, I didn’t allow that to spoil my enjoyment of it and so I carried on with my Popstep mixtapes and also supported DSJ & Fluff with their Luvstep mixtapes.

It was DJ Nappy’s idea to do this mixtape and also to call it Luvstep and he invited me to do it with him. However, I felt a bit uncomfortable about using Luvstep as a title, as I had used Popstep for so long, and now, Luvstep had become more synonomous with DSJ & Fluff.

I didn’t want them to think we were hijacking the name or anything or jumping on their bandwagon, even though they don’t own it and there are other competing claims to it by others. But because I got to know DSJ, I approached him about the issue outta respect as I didn’t want him to be upset or us falling out over something trivial like a name.

To my relief, DSJ was in full support with the idea and had this to say about my role in the development and creation of Luvstep. He also, very graciously, provided his approval & support for calling this mixtape, “Luvstep”:

“You were definitely among the first to focus on and help develop perceptions of this style and sound. … Bro, you have provided me with a TON of inspiration over the last couple of years! FULL SUPPORT forever!!

When I asked him where the inspiration for Luvstep had come from, he revealed a fascinating history I didn’t know about and here’s what he said:

“The inspiration for Luvstep initially came from Caspa's Deadmau5 remix and our friend Alex "Rx" Burkat's remix of Jupiter One's "Find Me A Place" when he passed it to me in demo form in February of '09.

Dubstep seemed to always be presented as a testosterone driven, male dominated scene where things were getting more and more aggressive (filthy) to the point where it was comical. Either that or stoner music...

Obviously, there was a lot more going on and melodic, beautiful music was being made, so my initial effort was to create a dubstep mix that people could listen to while either having sex, taking a walk, or doing homework.

I compiled tracks over the next few months when I invited Fluff to join me on the project sometime around July or August of '09.

We completed it and sent the promo out to somewhere around 300 friends and industry people at the end of October '09. Then we put the video teaser out that January, and released it on Valentine's Day, having already garnered the support of Brodinski, Switch, Sinden and others from the October mailout...

I am TOTALLY down with and in support of your Luvstep project and can't wait to hear it!”

DSJ’s perspective of this history also offered to me a “valid” & understandable explanation as to why a nod had not been given in my direction (not that he owed me any explanation). Although their mixtape had officially dropped in Feb 2010, it was actually conceived way before then in 2009 and had been sent to close friends and reputable dj’s in or about October 2009.

So it’s not really a question of who was actually first to do it, as it appears now that we were all amongst the first to have the same ideas germinating in our minds, around the same time, with the same aims, but with different names.

I have to confess though, their decision to call it Luvstep was a masterstroke and I have to bow down to that because it conveys so much more as a title for the concept than Popstep, which does not sound as effective in comparison.

I have now totally brought into that title and so from now on all my mixes in this kinda terrain will be known as Luvstep mixes 

Luv “step” mixes are kinda new but the concept behind them, “luv mixes” is not a new idea by any stretch of the imagination. I and millions of others have been doing luv mixes for years as compilations and mixtapes for our loved ones, friends etc etc.

My inspiration for “luv mixes” came from Claude Challe and his 2 CD mix that came out in or about 1999/2000 “LoverDose” and his subsequent Buddha Bar & other cd’s. Claude has sold over 10 million compilations, an amazing feat, and has since become a friend of mine. It is to him, to whom I owe my greatest debt and inspiration, cause thru listening to his mixes, he taught me all I know as a DJ/Sound Designer.

TRACKLISTS:

LuvDuB Symphony mixed by DJ UMB:

1. Intro - Cure “Lovesong” - Man with No Name
2. Lost In Space – Starkey
3. Down Like – Fleck feat Eski
4. Lies (Endless Blame's I Know it's raining mix) – Amelia June
5. Squeeze Me – LoL
6. I Speak Because I Can (Engine Earz remix) – Laura Marling
7. Girl (Beatles Cover) – Jim Sturgess
8. You Can Count On Me (The Get Remix) – Panda Bear
9. Pictures (KJs remix) - Benjamin Francis Leftwich
10. Fireflies (Capt and Cooked Luvstep Version) – Owl City
11. Paper Crows FTL - George Lenton
12. Twilight Galaxy (Gladkill Remix) – Metric
13. Transition (Dillon Francis Remix) – Dwntwn
14. Taste – GoldRush
15. Apologies – NastyNasty
16. Intermission - Apologies (original excerpt) – Wendy Rene
17. Accordé Don – Débruit
18. Rolling Stone (sAuce REMIX) – The Weeknd
19. Mad World (CalicoLeaf Bootleg) – Gary Jules
20. What You Need (ChrisB Remix) - The Weeknd
21. Moments - Y2d
22. Intermission - Yumeji's Theme/Li-zhen's Dialogue - Umebayasi Shigeru
23. Lovesong – My Black Frog
24. 4D – Koreless
25. On the run (Dan Donovan Remix) – Selah Sue
26. The Scientist - Mike Posner
27. Dare Me – LoL
28. High For This (Flufftronix's Luvstep Arena Boot) – The Weeknd
29. Lost At Sea – Truth
30. Finest Hour (Planas Remix) - Submotion Orchestra
31. Intermission - Cure “Lovesong” – Woman With No Name aka Monica
32. LuvLuv 2.2 - Two Inch Punch
33. Living In My Head – Wizard
34. Ur Heartbeat (Wizard bootleg) – James Blake
35. Is Pleasantly Lifted – Richard Sweat
36. No Rain (Pumpkin Remix) - Blind Melon
37. Dragonfly feat Zaki Ibrahim - Richard the Third
38. Break You Down Ft Sanna - Loz Contreras
39. Take it slow – Gladkill
40. Heart Breaker(TORO43 remix) – T2 feat Jodie
41. When I Go feat Taho Nguyen (Stephan Jacobs Remix/Bootleg) – Emancipator
42. Starlights – Krsur
43. Conny Srockett – Krsur
44. The Way You Move – Hostage
45. So Fine (Joker Remix) – Sean Paul
46. Baby Food – Toro 43
47. Touch – Holy Other
48. MTI – Koreless
49. Intermission – Lovesong – Band With No Name
50. Lovesong - DJ Jaybird & Kamala
51. Thank You (excerpt) Led Zeppelin
52. Expecting to Fly – Neil Young/Buffalo Springfield

LuvStep Serenade Mixed by DJ Nappy:

1. Feed Me - Strange Behaviour ft. Tasha Baxter
2. Xilent - Choose Me II
3. D1 - Flood of Emotions (Subscape Remix)
4. Matt-U - Down With You
5. Von D - You are the One (ft. Phephe)
6. #TRG - Missed Calls
7. Surkin - White Knight Two (Mindflow Remix)
8. Jhene Aiko - Club Stranger (Nguzunguzu Remix)
9. Dev - Dancing In The Dark (Proper Villains Remix)
10. Kromestar - Can You Kick It?
11. Mala - Alicia
12. Engine Earz Experiment - Reach You ft. Lena Cullen
13. Von D - One Day ft. Riya
14. L-Wiz - 4.42 OZ
15. Starkey – Fidelio
16. DJ Khaled - I'm on One ft. Drake, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne (Spinstyles Remix)
17. Omarion - Ice Box (Disc Jockey Nappy vs. Tes La Rok Mix)