The influential Drowned in Sound website is celebrating its tenth birthday, and as part of that they're running a series of articles this week on dubstep and its numerous offshoots and mutations. First up is an excellent retrospective mix/article by Rory Gibbs:
"Although it's difficult to ascertain the exact reasons why dubstep in particular has proved such a fertile ground for such focused experimentation, it's probably got a lot to do with the amount of space inherent in its structure. When those spaces first developed, leaving chasms between kicks, snares and gulping maws of sub-bass, it reflected the grimly identikit nature of the semi-urban cityscape surrounding its creators.
But later on, as producers from outside those regions adopted its influence, those gaps left room for other synthesised sounds to creep in. And unlike, say, jungle, which was already tightly packed with overlapping layers of sound, adding extra elements - toxic synths, found sound, swung percussion - posed less risk of overcomplicating dubstep into an indistinct, undanceable mess. It posed a perfect opportunity for a huge range of electronic musicians to imprint entirely unique stamps on its basic form; the seemingly endless array of permutations doing the rounds today offers pretty strong evidence to support this notion."
The tracklist of the mix:
Groove Chronicles - Stone Cold
Horsepower Productions - Hdn
Benga - Amber
Toasty - The Knowledge
Vex'd - Venus
Digital Mystikz - Neverland
Burial - South London Boroughs
Kode9 - 9 Samurai
Pinch - Qawwali
Skream - I (Loefah Remix)
Skream - Midnight Request Line
Shackleton - New Dawn
Peverelist - Erstwhile Rhythm
2562 - 'Channel Two'
Trg - Broken Heart (Martyn's Dcm Remix)
Pangaea - You & I
Ramadanman - Humber
Appleblim - Vansan
Geiom - Reminissin' - Kode9 Refix
Untold - Anaconda
Ikonika - Please
Joker - Gully Brook Lane
Brackles - Rawkus
Scuba - Latch
Joy Orbison - So Derobe
Download/stream/article available here: http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4140731-25-tracks--a-dubstep-chronology-mixtape
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