So for a while I have thought about starting this thread.
The reason I haven't is because of the stigma attached to the genre.
The name has become synonymous with frat yanky parties and horrific high pitch squeals. This isnt how the sound started though.
It's origins are like many other urban UK sounds. Reggae, Dub, DnB, Grime and Garage.
The movement began as a counter sound to the Garage culture. Gargae blew up in the late 90s, MCs became celebrities overnight and a few even broke america. In that explosion a key part got left behind, the producer.
Not to speak for all Grime and Garage producers but many felt that they didnt get the recognition they deserved and weren't interested in the Smash Hits fame that was being thrown around.
As the Garage scene died the MCs turned pop, or dealt drugs, generally fell off the radar or lost their legitimacy.
A few of the producers took this as an opportunity to make their own thing.
Losing the celebrity MC they were free to experiment in the darker ends of bass.
2004 and this was a sound that had found it's own, it was the sound of the M1 running from Lewisham to central London up to Birmingham.
This sounds was new but familiar, dark but soulful, a beat but on the half.
This is a genre I am very much passionate about and one I would like to educate on. This is not Skrillex, this is the most important sound to come out of Britain for decades.
It has a very urban feel for me. It probably helps that I would be listening to this stuff at night while walking the streets of London or being on the tube. There is a nocturnal feel to it , a time I have always liked. Even as a kid I always loved it when we would be driving home at night on the motorway. I love the night time and feel this section of Dubstep is very much of the night.
It is cold in the high end but with a warm and comfortable beat. The 140bpm at half time feel lends itself to a kind of relaxed atmosphere while dangerous. It feels like the night bus in music form. Comfortable danger.
Dubstep Allstars Volume 5 is my starting point and go to for it all. My Gospel if you will.
I bought this CD in HMV in Stoke while at uni 10 years ago (ouch) and it totally blew my mind. It is pretty raw mind.
For more recent stuff i would go to Rinse.FM and their podcasts.
Check out Plastician, Ip Man ,J:Kenzo.
It is one hell of a genre. The yanks don't get it and make garbage under it's name.
Negative space is huge, have to feel where the beats are or aren't.
Funniest thing at a dubstep gig is someone trying to dance at the full 140bpm.
I can appreciate the grimy flow of the proper sound, can feel the streets in it. Some proper dirty, nasty basslines out there, but its too slow for me to listen to regularly.
When I was in Croatia at Outlook there was billed to be 5 or 6 dubstep battles, turned into all the big players, high as fuck playing that kind of thing back to back.
I need to find me some in the style of that later stuff, I've never really been into the 'cleaner' side of electronic music, same with DnB. Like it a bit grimey and filthy.
EDIT: Jesus FUCK that proper reggae grime tune is absolute fire.