This week sees the world of sub-bass take over BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra with the first dualstation Dubstep Week. The genre itself has come a long way: from its roots in the ashes of the Croydon Garage scene 10 years ago to becoming the international phenomenon it is today. It’s not the first time 1Xtra have had a Dubstep Week (the first was on my show in 2009) but the fact that Radio 1 are coming along for the ride this time round is testament to the popularity of the British sound.
I could go in with the history lesson on this post, but it’s a lot more entertaining if you check out the Story of Dubstep documentary currently on the iPlayer.
There’s loads of things going on across the week to celebrate:
If you missed my regular Xtra Dubstep Xtra Bass show on Saturday night, then make sure you catch up with it here I work hard each week to make sure we’re representing the full 360 of the scene so this week, alongside new tracks from Pinch, Plastician, DCult, Kutz and Foreign Beggars ft Skrillex; I went behind the Beats with Chase and Status and Bristol badboy Joker provided us with a sick exclusive 25 minute guest mix. Check it out here.
You should know by now about the BBC Philharmonic presents Nero’s Dubstep Symphony spectacular that will be taking place tonight live from BBC’s MediaCityUK in Salford (in fact, I’m writing this blog post on the way up to Manny!) so I won’t bang on about how amazing it’s going to be. You can watch the live stream here and also make sure you listen live to Zane Lowe and I on Radio 1 and 1Xtra from 7pm tonight.
On my 1Xtra show, we’ll be celebrating all forms of Dubstep as we always do with the Daily Dose of Dubstep. To the uninitiated, I turn over an hour of my show each night at 9pm to all forms of Dubstep. Monday to Wednesday normally sees some of the biggest DJs and Producers from across the multi-faceted scene take over with an hour long guest mix while Thursdays usually has me wading in with my big size 12’s in the mix.
However, for #DubstepWeek (getting used to the twitter hashtag, sorry!) later tonight after Nero and the BBC Philharmonic have finished, the mighty Jakwob and I will be back to back for a special live Daily Dose Mix exclusively on 1Xtra from 9pm. Tuesday night sees the True Tiger boys take their turn on rotation while Wednesday night sees Quest representing the mighty Deep Medi family with a deeper Dubstep mix. Then on Thursday night, the International superstars of Sub Bass that are Skream and Benga will bring their monthly In New DJ’s We Trust show to both Radio 1 and 1Xtra live for the first time ever.
Plus if you have a spare 2 minutes, have a play with this, the Dubstep Soundboard . I say 2 minutes, I have actually spent about 4 hours on there having a play around. It’s a great revision break tool, although please don’t forget to go back to revision afterwards!
Personally I hope the week will become an entry point for people to get deeper into the Dubstep & Bass world. While we’re probably still a long way off from hearing darker tracks on daytime radio playlists, it’s exciting to see the scene grow from strength to strength with each release. What are you most looking forward to this week?
|16:24 UK time, Friday, 24 June 2011
