Five years ago, Excision couldn’t destroy the soundsystem in your buddy’s Buick if he tried. Five years ago, the monstrous yet catchy womp-womp of Excision’s dub-step DNA was nothing more than ambitious strands left fossilized, yet to be discovered. In fact, if it wasn’t for the sparse dub-step rumble of British duo Vex’d , Excision would be drooling over a desk, trapped in a cubicle, chasing a paycheck that would help pay for the cost of dry cleaning his business casual wardrobe. Vex’d would release Degenerate in 2005, an 18-track LP that many music critics and critical bloggers claim to be one of the first “official” dub-step albums to be released. British writer Mary Anne Hobbs went as far to call the album the “single most accomplished and important record in album form of the genre.” To Excision (born Jeff Abel), the transformative Degenerate was all that lofty praise and more — it would forever change his life that very same year.
