WORDS: LIAM MAHER
It’s dark but not aggressive. It expresses the struggle of growing up in London with no money.
This statement was uttered by dubstep pioneer Mala, when asked about his musical style, which he called chamber music in an interview with Alex Needham for Interview Magazine. The notion of place is something that is essential to the many genres of electronic music. When thinking of London it is the early dubstep releases that stick out in my mind.
As a sound dubstep has many characteristics, the most prominent being a heavy emphasis on sub bass frequencies, a shuffling half-time beat, minor keys and melodies often incorporating tritone intervals which gives the genre its dark, sinister sound. Figures like Zed Bias and El-B laid down the foundations of what was to become dubstep on the B-sides of their releases from 1999-2000. Digital Mystikz (originally composed of Mala, Coki and Loefah) took the genre beyond these starting points by introducing a heavy amount of reggae and dub influence as well as an orchestral bent in their melodies. They began their DMZ night in Brixton, a part of London already heavily associated with reggae at the tail end of 2003, a night which was to prove vital in breaking in many of the young producers that became stalwarts of the genre.
The actual term “dubstep” was originally coined by Simon Reynolds when talking about the genre’s constituents, the most prominent being those of reggae/dub and two-step garage — two musical scenes which were huge in London at the time. Given that many of the original producers came from poor South London boroughs, they had to make the most of the equipment they had, which resulted in the sparse, sinister music which has now grown into an all too easily dismissed behemoth. The original work of these artists produced some of the most innovative electronic music whose influence has moved beyond London, but could not have been possible without it.
Click here for an original mix following the growth of dubstep in London: 2013-09-21_20h28m48
