MEZZANINE & VITAL EVENTS PRESENT: RUSKO facebook | instagram | soundcloud with support from PLS&TY DJ NICO CRESPO MORE ON RUSKO Hello, world: Rusko kindly requests that you wake the fuck up. The Leeds-born DJ/producer who ascended with the original U.K. dubstep movement -- and gave it one of its first and most enduring anthems, a bolt of foul-mouthed rave lightening called "Cockney Thug" -- is here to tell you that music is not about labels and dance is no fad. And to prove it, he proudly presents "SONGS": His gutsy, freewheeling, brilliant second album. "The sound of my early releases was very dub-influenced, and just good, fun, bouncy vibes," he says. "The majority of dubstep at the moment I think is aggressive, and I don't like angry music; I don't want to be angry in a club. So I wanted to make something really happy, but still heavy." "Happy and heavy" is a proper way to describe the vibe that has carried Rusko from the first moments of dubstep's life to the biggest stages in the world; from a single, seminal bass wobble to a swath of sounds that can't be capped in a few simple syllables. He might be one of the guys who started it all -- but he's sure as hell not going to leave it at that. FOR THOSE WHO LIKE ... Borgore, Zeds Dead, Flux Pavilion, Nero, 12th Planet, Excision, Skream, RL Grime, Slander, Ookay, Boombox Cartel, NGHTMRE, Troyboi, Slushii, Alison Wonderland, Ekali, San Holo, Baauer, What So Not