Skream - “Midnight Request Line”

Nice post by tuneage. You guys know my brother is a dubstep musician … and that I can’t explain what dubstep is. I guess tuneage can’t either, but they’ve written a good intro. Enjoy.

tuneage:

Dubstep is a difficult genre to attempt to introduce a crowd to, because where do you start? It’s such a far-reaching and varied genre already that it’s hard to tell what some of the more disparate ends of it even have in common. And it’s only been around for a few years; it may be hard to tell, given the speed at which the genre twists and morphs, but it’s still very much in its infancy. The best, one would hope, is yet to come. So it’s probably best to drop the idea of a perfect introduction, and settle for something that simply makes you want to hear more.

The temptation is to pull out some “wobble” — don’t ask, listen — typically great at filling dancefloors with its half-step beat and dirge-like bass, and at working a crowd into a rewind-demanding frenzy, but usually uninspired and not very creative. On the other end of the scale is the more “difficult”, less accessible music of the genre. You’ve heard of Burial. He’s nearer the mediocre end of this part of the spectrum. Which isn’t very fair, since he was largely responsible for bringing dubstep into the mainstream, perhaps, but how do you make a record that’s both accessible to the mainstream, and interesting for the existing fans? Burial answered this question wrong.

Nonetheless, wisdom of the crowds has to be worth something, so I’m going to stick to what I know will go down well: Skream. Skream’s been around for a while, and this track is probably one of the most well known in the genre, certainly in Skream’s repertoire. I’m not going to get caught up in trying to describe it here — you either like it, or you don’t. If you like it, you might want to find more, and you might even start with this list or you might buy Skream’s album, Skream!.

After that, you’ll find a big, sprawling beast of a genre. You’ll find that dubstep has roots and inspirations in reggae, in electro, in jungle, in drum and bass, in techno. You might even stumble across a frankly excellent remix of Katy Perry in the dubstep style. (Oh fine, here you go.) Then you’ll look for other mainstream dubstep remixes and realise most are shit. You’ll be exploring different sounds for days, and you still won’t hear the best of it.