Music
This is how dubstep took over the world
Discover how an underground London sound took over the world, finding devotees everywhere from Berlin to New York and Croatia to San Francisco.
Back in the early 1990s, the Wu Tang Clan's Ol' Dirty Bastard opened his track Shimmy Shimmy Ya with the lyric 'off on a natural charge, bon voyage'.
A decade or so later, the sample found its way into Natural Charge, a lost dubplate from London producer Loefah, which first surfaced around 2006 in the midst of dubstep's global expansion.
Over a sparse halfstep riddim, ODB's voice is chopped up, the words 'natural charge' echoing at regular intervals over the physically threatening snare and bassline. SGT Pokes, DMZ's resident MC and founding member of the label and dance of the same name alongside Loefah and Digital Mystikz, would often recite ODB's full lyric as the track rippled through the dance. Looking back on it today, the sample captures dubstep's early growth, the sound setting off on a voyage around the world fuelled by its own natural energy.
Orson from Version sent us these photos of Skream, Mala, Loefah, Kode9 and more playing in Germany in early 2006. Check them out below.
Skream plays at FWD>> in Berlin, 2006
© Pola Sieverding
Cutting dubs with Skream at D&M, Berlin 2006
© Orson Sieverding
Maxximus, Hijak, Skream and Point in Berlin, 2006
© Orson Sieverding
FWD>> Berlin posters
© Orson Sieverding
Spreading the virus
For the first half of the 2000s, dubstep gestated in the London underground, ricocheting across the English capital via pirate radio, parties and enthusiastic supporters. In that time it also made small inroads abroad thanks to dubplate.net, one of the earliest online communities dedicated to UK garage's stylistic mutations.
Alongside dubplate.net were DJs like Hatcha, J Da Flex and Kode9, who were among the first to be booked in America and Europe, and to appear on radio – the London pirates like Groovetech and even the BBC's 1Xtra. Their work acted as carriers for what Kode9 referred to as the music's "virus".
This forward movement reached a critical mass in 2005. That year saw the first DMZ dances in Brixton, set up as an answer to the weekly FWD>> sessions in east London. On the other side of town, Rinse FM cemented its position as the premier station for the sound, with a growing body of fans archiving the sets online for local and, increasingly, foreign ears.
In late 2005, dubstepforum.com was set up by a Croatian enthusiast. Manned by an international team of moderators, it would soon become an integral factor in the music's global expansion. Then, in January 2006, Mary Anne Hobbs hosted the Dubstep Warz broadcast for her Breezeblock show on BBC Radio 1, a showcase of the music's early pioneers. As the show ended in the early hours of January 10, there was the sense that everything had changed, forever.
It's hard to pinpoint any particular reason as to why dubstep captured the ears and feet of people around the world in the late 2000s. Perhaps there was something to its urgency. This was a sound that felt new, and in direct opposition to the saturated grooves of drum 'n' bass, house and techno.
It's this urgency that connected with American DJs Joe Nice and Dave Q, who founded Dub War in New York City in June 2005. It was the first regular party on the continent, and a beachhead for the sound's invasion. Speaking to Dave Q recently about Dub War's 10-year anniversary, he admitted to feeling a sort of mystique emanating from the London scene in those early years. "Every week you'd hear a new tune that was transformative," he said.
Dubstep connected with a generation of music fans who'd become disenchanted with dance music's move into the mainstream – a situation that would prove short-lived, as dubstep became just another mainstream sound by the end of the decade.
Another catalyst for dubstep's expansion that shouldn't be forgotten was its conjoined brother, grime. Another London sound birthed from UK garage, grime had already gained an international foothold in the early 2000s, with regular parties stretching from San Francisco to Paris. Dubstep tagged onto grime's international presence, with many of the promoters adding dubstep DJs to their lineup as grime's intensity faded.
The music's growth was instantaneous in the year following the Dubstep Warz broadcast, a sort of ground zero for the music's global acceptance, and by April 2006, DSF added an events section to their forum. The threads starting coming in thick and fast from promoters around the world.
Dubstep takes America
America was well represented, with Nick Argon, Matty G and Sam XL's Pure Filth sound system putting on regular events in California. In Vancouver, Canada, Kuma and his Konspiracy Group fanned the flames of their early parties into a vibrant local community, and Starkey and Dev79 expanded their regular Philadelphia parties to include dubstep alongside the grime they'd been championing.
In NYC, Dub War continued to bring many of the genre's early pioneers to the city, including a string of shows at the Limelight, New York's original church of rave. Even South America got in on the action, with Brazil's Bruno Belluomini playing the music on the radio and at one-off parties in Sao Paulo.
Skream at Raumklang
© [unknown]
At first American audiences were small, but they soon grew from a hodge podge of dub, hip-hop and jungle enthusiasts, and curious seekers attracted to this new sound being hailed as the future. In those early international years, it wasn't uncommon to find threads online that discussed converting friends to the music, debating the merits of the stylistic directions or simply asking where one could learn and hear more.
As dubstep became more commercially palatable, Britney Spears hopped on the bandwagon back in 2007, audiences began to include people introduced to the music via releases such as Caspa & Rusko's Fabriclive CD – the first in the series to prominently feature dubstep. However, some fans complained of a narrower sonic vision that honed in on simplistic and aggressive tropes.
Splits soon began to show between those dedicated to the music's early ethos of exploration and those interested in something easy to digest, what would become the so-called brostep sound. Until the 2010s, those two camps, so to speak, managed to co-exist until eventually something had to give.
For its part, Europe was just as vibrant a playground as America. In Brussels, BunZero was an early champion for the music, putting on parties and broadcasting regular radio shows. In 2013, his contribution was recognised by his inclusion on the Roots Of Dubstep stage at the Dour Festival, one of Europe's biggest. In France meanwhile, Greg G brought Kode9 to play as early as 2003, and used his 7even Recordings label to bring through exciting local acts such as F and Helixir.
Another important early European champion was Berlin-based Orson, who'd befriended DMZ, Kode9 and other London pioneers, and brought FWD>> to town for a short string of shows in 2006, before continuing with another party, Version.
These worldwide characters are often overlooked in the history of the music, but their enthusiasm and dedication to this new London sound was just as important as the more populist moves that put dubstep on the mainstream map. A chain is only as fragile as its weakest link, and for a few years dubstep seemed indestructible.
Skrillex
© Erik Voake
It's broadly accepted by many that dubstep's golden years stretched from 2004 to 2006, making the following four years its growing-up phase.
In 2010, Dave Q ended Dub War on its fifth birthday, partly owing to a feeling that the music was becoming something he no longer was comfortable with. A few years before that, Kode9 had already begun to distance himself from the word, and these feelings were echoed by many of the early fans, promoters and DJs who'd grown the community.
It's undeniable that all this grassroots work was one of the reasons for the mainstream ascendance of the music, as exemplified by Skrillex's acceptance speech at the 2012 Grammy's, where he bigged up the "All the Croydon dub guys who started this all in 2003."
A dedication from the inadvertent new poster boy for the music might not have meant much to some, but by then the people who had innovated in the first place were already moving on to newer pastures.
Laurent Fintoni is holding it down in NYC at @laurent_fintoni.