Dubstep Explorer Shackleton Was Just Denied US Entry—Let's Guess Why

One of the pinnacles of dubstep's weird and dark experimental/evolutionary days is a track called "Blood on My Hands," by Shackleton, a producer and one half of the erstwhile Skull Disco label. Dubstep then often just meant strange, often foreboding bass music that was sometimes danceable, made by heads like Burial or Kode9. And that was the Shackleton category, but Shackleton's track gave voice to the darkness. It had lyrics:

“When I see the towers fall,
It cannot be denied that,
As a spectacle,
It is a realisation of the mind. You see, I'm standing on a mountain top
And letting out a scream,
It's the language of the earth,
It is the language of the beasts. There's no point to look behind us,
We left the corpse behind,
Because flesh is weak and forms break down.
They cannot last forever."

You need to listen to the song though to really get it.

Just holding that record in my hand felt like holding a loaded gun at the time. Somehow it felt heavier than any of the others in my DJ bag, a record made of cold steel or forged iron. In an interview on the Blackdown blog, Shackleton explains:

First of all, yes, it is a reference to the World Trade buildings. So, I'll briefly describe my feelings about the event itself, then place it in context of the track. I remember seeing it on TV at the time. I don't think I appreciated the full immensity as to what had happened. My immediate reaction was, "oh balls, here's a great excuse for another military adventure in an Arab country and kill loads of innocent people". Well, over the next couple of days I started to realise its significance. I even borrowed a television to watch the coverage (I gave it back though after I started watching Neighbours again after a 14 year break). Anyway, so I thought that it was like a story from the bible. That's how I think it will be thought of in time. Here's these buildings and all they represent seemingly indestructible, then all of a sudden they're nothing more than dust. All that's solid melts to air if you will. So that's the general idea I was trying to communicate.

As the title alludes, Shackleton, who is based in Berlin, just had his US visa denied, keeping him from one New York appearance and another at Detroit's legendary Movement festival. In a statement, the producer explains:

Suffice to say that despite having all the necessary documentation in place long before any authority deemed it worthy to take any notice and despite our general willingness to jump through ever increasing bureaucratic hoops and our readiness to throw ridiculous amounts of money at the sham process to ensure its successful outcome, the authorities have been kind enough to let us know just a couple of days ago that the whole thing has been a waste of time and effort due to some spurious claim of certain criteria not being met.

Shackleton also has a track called "Hamas Rule," which really has nothing overt to do with Hamas or Isreal. It's an instrumental actually, and in the same interview, he explains the title was just meant as a reference to the times in which the track was created. A reflection, not a statement. Some might say that's part of what music should do, reflect its surroundings.

So, we can see the leap one might make about "Hamas Rule," "Blood on My Hands," and a denied American visa. I don't think it's all that conspiratorial to suggest anyway, that the denial might have something to do with things other than forgetting to dot an i or cross a t. The producer himself doesn't suggest it directly, but maybe it's just implied by "spurious." In any case, Shackleton is still set to play the Mutek festival, which takes place in Montreal, Canada.