Dubstep, the deep, visceral instrumental sounds that share a genealogy with Grime, emerged blinking from the UK bedrooms of its formative years to an explosive expansion in 2006. The fertile incubation period in the suburbs of South London expanded into club Forward>>, the BBC 1’s Breezeblock and on to a massive increase in international recognition.
The dubstep polemic has always been about space and place. Eschewing the intense, complex beats of predecessors jungle and UK garage, the rhythmic structures of Dubstep are reduced to the core, leaving the subterranean bass sounds more room to breath. Since its beginnings just after the turn of the millennium, Dubstep has been intrinsically a product of the social and cultural environment of its birth. The early Dubstep sound came out of Croydon, a district of London often disparaged for its lack of culture and archetypically dull suburban atmosphere – but a place uniquely rich in the cultural diversity that also fuelled 2step, Garage and Grime.
The space between the beats has opened up Dubstep to considerable stylistic development, and its success has meant outgrowing its origins, demolishing the boundaries that tied it to the suburbs of its germination. The line up of the Freak Camp Session reflects these expansions: The DJs and musicians hail not only from London, but also from Belfast, Nottingham and Berlin. Location is not important anymore; it’s the bass that matters. If Sun Ra were still alive, he would certainly agree: Bass is the place!
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