
Selections: Carré
After attending showcases by Hessle Audio, Night Slugs and Hyperdub during her study abroad year in London, LA native Carré developed an affinity for fast, bass-oriented sounds. That formative influence has now seen her become one of dubstep’s brightest talents. Three years down the line and UK dubstep’s lineage is still the backbone of Carré’s sound, which places a future-facing twist on its fidgety rhythms, menacing moods and low-end tendencies.
Her latest EP, ‘Meltdown’, on EMA’s Woozy label, is a case-in-point suite of sophisticated dubstep with a cosmic club twist added in for good measure. Replete with chrome-plated dub synths, warm bass throbs and swooping, cinematic sound design, it’s the sort of music that feels entirely fresh despite its familiar flavours. “I wrote ‘Meltdown’ exactly a year ago after diving deep into System Music and V.I.V.E.K’s back catalogue,” she told DJ Mag ahead of its release. “The mood of those tracks really inspired me. This point in time ended up being a surprise start of an extremely transitional phase of my life, hence the name.” Complete with remixes from dBridge and NVST, the EP is a must-listen for discerning bass heads. Grab a copy here.
Outside the studio, Carré honed her craft as a co-founder of LA’s future-minded party series, Fast at Work. Started in the aftermath of the pandemic as an antidote to the commercial, dubstep raves dominating the city, the party quickly became a keystone of the local club circuit, spotlighting leftfield techno, dubstep, and low-end heavy sounds with a DIY essence. The party, and Carré, have since relocated to London, where Fast at Work has seen radical expansion, including the launch of its label leg last February. So far, the imprint is home to Carré’s head-scrambing ‘Soft Fascination’ EP, which takes cues from proto-dubstep, and an inaugural various artist release, ‘HOVER CAPSULE’, featuring breaks and bass badness from Baalti, Introspekt, Adam Curtain, and more. “Fast At Work has always been about creating a platform for our crew and community to experience the leftfield music we love in uniquely produced environments that exudes a sense of DIY creativity,” Carré shared. “The label and EP are deeply personal to me for this reason and came together in the same organic way as everything else.”
In keeping with the platform’s “fast not hard” doctrine, Carré spotlights chrome-plated dubstep, wonky techno, skittering bass bangers and more, for DJ Mag’s Selections series. Dive in below.