Clubbing: Something Filthy at Motion

Thursday 26th March 2009

The rise of dubstep over the past couple of years has been stratospheric, growing from a niche offshoot of garage to become dance music’s first new genre of real note since the birth of drum’n’bass almost 20 years ago.

But despite its spectacular emergence, there are plenty who think that dubstep is too uncompromising and minimalist to truly cross over to the mainstream in a manner that drum’n’bass, despite threatening to, never quite managed.

Those naysayers may be hastily re-evaluating their opinion of the genre’s commercial potential now, though, following last week’s first plays of the new Snoop Dogg track, Snoop Dogg Millionaire.

It’s not the predictable braggadocio of the vocals that’s noteworthy; it’s the fact that, as dubstep fans will immediately realise, the US hip-hop superstar is rapping over a re-edited version of last year’s Chase & Status anthem Eastern Jam (and, over on Twitter, asking his 55,000-plus followers “Who up in here likes dubstep?”).

It’s the first time an artist of true mainstream international status has dabbled in dubstep, and it’s unlikely to be the last: a number of other US rappers are rumoured to be working with UK dubstep producers.

Certainly, if Snoop Dogg Millionaire becomes the hit that many people are predicting then expect plenty more such tracks to follow in its footsteps.

That dubstep’s profile has risen to such an extent in such a relatively short time is at least in part down to the efforts of one of the genre’s most tireless supporters, Radio 1 DJ Mary Anne Hobbs.

Her show, for many years known as the Breezeblock, has long been among the premier areas for emerging electronica sounds, 2006’s Dubstep Warz special is now regarded as the catalyst for the genre to break internationally.

Since then, she’s given the oxygen of airtime to dozens of young and initially obscure dubstep producers – many of whom come from Bristol. The efforts of locals like DJ Pinch, Peverelist, RSD, Appleblim, Headhunter and many more, plus iconic record labels like Tectonic and Punch Drunk, have seen Bristol called “dubstep’s second city” after London and placed at the centre of the international scene.

Our city’s pre-eminence was recognised in December last year by the Radio 1 documentary Bristol: Rise Up, constructed around interviews and mixes from 12 of the city’s foremost dubsteppers.

Presented by (who else) Mary Anne Hobbs, it placed dubstep in its historical context by examining it in relation to the original “Bristol Sound” of Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky and as a successor to the Bristolian drum’n’bass of the Full Cycle crew.

Of course, as well as documenting the rise of dubstep, Mary Anne Hobbs has increasingly become part of it. At the age of 44, after a career that has included egg packing, wardrobe design and writing for the NME as well as 12 years at Radio 1, she finds herself as an in-demand club DJ following two successful compilations on record label Planet Mu: Warrior Dubz and last year’s Evangeline.

This weekend she finds herself at the head of one of the biggest dubstep line-ups the main room at Motion has ever seen, taking top billing from Coki, Hatcha, Tes La Rok, Kromestar and Komonazmuk.

It’s not all dubstep either, as you’d expect from the eclectic bent of promoters Penguin Dance. Fabric regulars Tayo (fresh from his new label Cool & Deadly winning big at Breakspoll), and Keith Tenniswood, aka Radioactive Man, veer from breaks and electro to house in room two, with all things bass-heavy from rising stars Reso and Raffertie in room three.

The night itself is called Something Filthy – rarely has a title been more apt.

STEVE WRIGHT

Something Filthy is at Motion, Avon Street, on Saturday, March 28. Doors are from 10pm until 6am. Advance tickets cost £12. For more information, visit the website www.myspace.com/penguindancebristol