Eprom - Bubble [Bad Acid]
>> Master P - Who Them Boyz
Juvenile - Way I Be Leanin'
Eprom - Shoplifter [Bad Acid]
Lil Wayne - Tha Block is Hot
Skeptical - Dream Police [Ingredients]
Distal - The Kurgan [forthcoming Seclusiasis]
Acre - Ghatt [Embassy Recordings]
Boddika - You Tell Me [Nonplus]
Max Ulis - D.I.Y. [forthcoming Swing & Skip]
Addison Groove - This Is It [Tectonic]
Clicks & Whistles - Cranberry Goose [Embassy Recordings]

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Little over two years ago marked the beginning of an event that helped usher in an era of bass awareness in the college town of New Paltz, NY; located just a few hours north outside of NYC. This event became known as the Watchtower Wobble and helped bring some of the brightest talents and purveyors of dubstep in North America through for an intimate performance in front of an ever receptive and rowdy audience that earned their own accolades as a truly passionate crew of kids.

This past month marked the party's 2 year anniversary and the occasion was celebrated with the Archie Pelago live trio performing their New Paltz debut alongside DJs Blind Prophet, I-Rex, and the Crown & Anchor residents Bloom & Rodan.

Coming full circle, the party ended just as it began two years ago; as an unofficial after party for the yearly Rock Against Racism event held on campus. While the party's founders will continue to pursue their own endeavours, the growth and formation of the scene in New Paltz wouldn't be where it is today without their pioneering event.

We recently chatted to Rodan from Crown & Anchor to lend more insight to the final chapter of the Wobble and what's on the horizon:


Q: When did you and Bloom first meet and what led to the eventual formation of Crown & Anchor sound in New Paltz?

A:  Bloom and I first met his freshman year and my sophomore year at SUNY-NP in 2007. We were good friends right off the bat with mutual interests in jazz fusion and improvisational music as well as dub and reggae. We would always noodle around on drum machines and synths and even played out some live gigs a couple times. We started discovering some of the mainstream electro that was popular at the time and just kept going down the rabbit hole until we got to a point where we decided to share this music we had discovered with our peers through DJing at house parties. I had been DJing since high school and also had an insatiable appetite for electronics which I pursued studying Computer Science at New Paltz.  We began DJing electro at house parties and bars around town and kept hearing the oddball 140bpm remixes on the releases. My girlfriend Marissa actually asked me if I had heard dubstep before at one of our electro shows before we were really familiar with it! With more investigation we discovered dubstep and the DubWar monthly down in NYC.

Q:  The New Paltz road warriors always made their presence felt at NYC's longrunning DubWar monthly. What impact did the party have on you guys leading up to the first Watchtower Wobble you put on two years ago?

A:  We learned so much from DubWar that it's hard to even put it into words. I learned so much about myself and how my life fits into the global community as a whole through that party. It opened my eyes to the healthy electronic music community right here in NYC, the Northeast, and further more all of the surrounding scenes here in the US and globally. Through DubWar I met so many other dedicated listeners and producers from all over the globe: England, Canada (HGLDT), the dirty South (Embassy Recordings crew), the Southwest! You were immediately connected from the start, all sharing something in common and with an open ear for conversation about the music. A tight knit gathing of people coming together for a common cause.

We also learned about the music and what it's really all about through DubWar: its roots, DJ culture & turntablism, as well as taking in the atmosphere and energy of the music and event itself.

Being a part of the dubstep scene before it diverged was also very influential to our night. We saw the music evolve in those few years and we saw how the DubWar gang reacted to it. There is always a time and place for the heavy tunes, and you would most certainly hear them at DubWar, but something deeper always happened when a tune like DMZ vs MZN came through those speakers. That's something that we really took with us.

Q;  New Paltz has built it's own reputation in the bass music scene here in the Northeast, with Watchtower Wobble obviously playing a large part in building that foundation. Why do you think the college crowd in New Paltz has been so receptive to the music?

A:  The electronic music scene in New Paltz before us was rather thin. Any night of the week you could go out and hear some groovy blueberry type bands, but there really wasn't any regular electronic events to attend. Once we started really listening to dubstep though, Dub War was something that we had to share with the rest of our peers. I find dubstep to reflect ourselves and New Paltz as a whole: progressive, global, and intelligent while still having lots of wiggle room for fun without being taken too seriously.

Q:  As you already announced, this past month's Watchtower Wobble would also be the last installment of the event. What were some of the factors that contributed to this decision and are there any current plans for the future?

A:  We've all moved to different places in the past two years: myself, Bloom, our friends, and the music itself. The producers of the dubstep of two years ago are making totally different stuff now! Dubstep opened my eyes to so much amazing underground bass music that it's impossible to share strictly minimal halfstep, which we were finding many attendees expecting to only hear. The music has evolved so far in the past two years that it has almost outgrown the event itself in a way. Of course I'll continue DJing, but I'm going to give the turntables a rest for the Summer and instead focus on production.

Q:  If you could go back and relive one Wobble over the past couple years, which would it be and why?

A:  Of course every single one had their own memorable moments, but I would have to say that the 1 Year birthday really sticks out. We successfully coordinated a mini-tour for our good ATL friends Mite and Distal with them headlining the 1 Year Bday. The plan was to go to DubWar the night before, when we got an unexpected phone call from Dave Q asking if Mite and Distal wanted to guest spin at DubWar that night! We were ecstatic! ATL brother Shortstack ended up taking a last minute flight up to NY to experience the night with us. After DubWar we all crammed into my car and pulled an all night drive back up to New Paltz. I invited Shortstack to share my set with me to top things off. The energy was so high that night, massive sets by all!

That and the Halloween when we invited Joe Nice, Incyde, and Pandaia to come play really stick out. Incyde played to the point of exhaustion in this rediculous ape costume that looked more like the gremlin from the classic Twilight Zone episode 'Nightmare at 20000 feet' than an actual ape.  Or at least, thats how I remember it! That thing still haunts me!

Dan, thanks for taking the time out and all the best on the future!

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