The Spaceape, who has died of cancer aged 44, was a poet, vocalist and MC from London who took the Jamaican dub poetry tradition into a new and experimental age. Born Stephen Gordon, he made a series of recordings as The Spaceape both in his own right and with others including the pioneering DJ, producer and academic Kode9 and the Mercury Prize-nominated electronic artist Burial that defined dubstep, the bass-heavy soundtrack to much of 21st-century youth culture.
Gordons vocals appeared on a track also called Spaceape on Burials eponymous 2006 album. It showcased his spare, menacing, patois vocal style, characterised by the Pitchfork website as a ten-ton doomsayer croak. At a time when the vogue among MCs in London was for boastful verse and catchy, testosterone-fuelled slogans, Gordon forged a different path, specialising in intense, demanding lyrics, and often employing sci-fi imagery, combined with a distinctive sense of looming apocalypse.
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by Melissa Bradshaw via Electronic music | The Guardian
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