Over the past few days, dance blogs have been publishing articles with various spins on the title, “Flux Pavilion Says Goodbye To Dubstep.” It’s a good article concept — a catchy title with a genre figure that has been at the top of his game over the past decade, with plenty of hits to his name like “I Can’t Stop”; “Do or Die,” Childish Gambino’s sole foray into EDM; his remix of “Cracks” by Freestlyers; the list goes on.
I am no longer a dubstep person
— fluxpavilion.wav (@Fluxpavilion) January 11, 2021
But the reality of this tweet is a bit more nuanced. While the above tweet has 390 RTs and nearly 4k likes (at time of publishing), the preceding tweets which undoubtedly give it context are far less engaged with. In referring to himself as a “dubstep person,” Flux Pavilion referencing the sort of person who’s always “trying to persuade everyone that dubstep is still good […] just because someone said it was bad in 2013.”
Just because someone said it was bad in 2013
— fluxpavilion.wav (@Fluxpavilion) January 11, 2021
Flux isn’t saying that dubstep is bad, either. He’s just saying that he’s no longer the kind of person who’s wasting energy on trying to convince anyone that it’s “still good,” even though it’s been good this whole time.
As we approach the release of his new album, .wav, a week from today, I wanted to offer a perspective that other authors of the aforementioned articles might not have — and that’s that I’ve had .wav for the better part of three months, and have been listening to it, and I can tell you his best is yet to come.
While .wav is not objectively a “dubstep album,” elements of Flux’s core sound are still pervasive within the project, including familiar bass patches, synths, melodic arrangements, and keys. Not to mention one of the tracks on the album, an orchestral production fused with dubstep that is one of the finest bass tracks I’ve heard in a long time.
So for anyone who’s been reading the recent articles and has been worried that Flux Pavilion is leaving the scene behind, hopefully this helps to assuage your worries a bit. He certainly won’t be the same Flux that we’ve known for the past decade, but we can’t expect someone to do the same thing for over 10 years and not get a little bored of it.
.wav, the new album from Flux Pavilion, is out January 21. Pre-save it here.
