![]() Martin Clark: A London-based journalist and DJ who has worked for a variety of UK publications and now runs the Keysound label and club night. I think that, maybe, Mala saw a side of the music industry after that period that made him react so aversely to be the anti-commercial vibe he's been for years, you know? Mala actually made a track with an MC called Onyx Stone, who was his MC partner at Twice As Nice, called "Whadda We Like?"-which came out on Cooltempo in about 2001, I think. If you do the math, of who Digital Mystikz are now: Mala and Coki? One was Malibu, and the other was Coke. Mala was an MC, too playing garage nights like Twice As Nice under the name Malibu. Around 2000-01, I was managing a bar in Croydon called The Black Sheep, where I was also MCing drum and bass nights. SGT POKES: My dad even worked with Mala's dad, and went to school with Coki's dad. He was the junglist who was into Metalheadz, just like us. We played at house parties in the mid 90s, and we met Loefah at around 15 years old through mutual friends. MALA: Myself, Coki and Pokes were at school together. It was that quick.Īre you into dance music? Check out Thump, our entire website dedicated to the stuff. After the holidays, everyone was into garage. Before the summer holidays in 1997, everyone was into jungle. I used to go out to hardcore raves, and then split off into jungle and drum and bass, but drum and bass became homogenized with the "liquid" sound and then suddenly, garage happened. Croydon was just an incestuous town, with people just working, drinking, thieving, and getting fucked. LOEFAH: There's a reason it all came from Croydon. They called it the "country park" but the council didn't bother with the upkeep and it just became a place to set fire to old bunkers. On the weekends, we'd have teams play on pitches, at the back of this so-called "lake" that you could literally walk across. MALA: I remember growing up and thinking that the sky was grey, the streets were grey, and the buildings were grey. Intro and interviews: Lauren Martin / Photos by Georgina Cook.ĬHAPTER ONE: "There's a Reason It All Came from Croydon" This is a story of a sound and culture, told by some of those who built it, and it's dedicated to the memory and work of Stephen Samuel Gordon, AKA Spaceape. This is not an encyclopedia of a genre that will come, I'm sure. Dubstep is nearly, roughly, 15 years old this year (and with the sold-out DMZ party's 10th birthday in south London next month, it feels more loved than ever), so the summer of 2015 seems like a fitting time to tell its story. These friends went on to create a sound that changed electronic music. Now, they were going to do their own thing. In the late 90s and early 2000s, a crew of friends from south London decided that, fuck it, they'd had enough of these legacies loved them, yes, but for their history rather than their sense of urgency. By the turn of the millennium, some of these genres were standing strong, while some were crumbling under the weight of their own mediocrity and ego-and it was this stagnation that bred something shocking and unique. UK club music is a conflation of sounds and cultures that feel gargantuan in their legacies: reggae, dub, jungle, garage, drum and bass, house and techno. This is the most fucking incredible thing I have ever heard, I would think, and still do. Hundreds of miles away from the epicenter of this sound, there was an appetite for it-my own almost aggressive in its confidence. ![]() 4, mixed by DJs Hatcha and Youngsta, and the Mary Anne Hobbs-curated Warrior Dubz compilation. "Then, if they sell, we'll see." We ordered Skream's debut album, the first Tectonic Plates compilation, Burial's debut album, Dubstep Allstars Vol. "You can have five CDs, OK?" they replied. "Let us buy some of this music," an employee and I asked. I was living in an entirely different country from the one that I felt was spawning everything new and exciting in British dance music at the time, but sneaking into parties underage, I was able to hear some of the DJs who were playing at the London nights I desperately wanted to go to: FWD> at Plastic People, and DMZ at Mass.Īround that time, I got a job in the budget music shop Fopp. I'd often end up at hardcore shows, but eventually got bored of what they had to offer. I left school in Glasgow in 2005 and thought I'd go to university, but was too busy drinking cider in the park to decide what to study, or where. My relationship with dubstep dates back about a decade. This article originally appeared on VICE UK. ![]()
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