DUB BE GOOD TO ME

It's the biggest movement to hit mainstream music this year – DEAN MAYO DAVIES talks to Mary Anne Hobbs to brush up on the latest names on the dub step scene.

FWD>>, the club at Shoreditch's Plastic People at the foundation of the dubstep movement in the UK, has just celebrated its 10th birthday, throwing an east London warehouse bash with the likes of Zinc, Oris Jay, Youngsta, Skream and Kode9 – all names which need no introduction, such has been their impact.

The biggest thrill is, after a decade, the movement remains at the cutting edge, still pushing forward to create some of the most exciting sounds you'll hear – that haven't been heard before.

Dubstep got given the space to breathe and develop into the force – and new/sub genres – today because the mainstream media couldn't work out how to handle it. This was a DIY, technology culture of CDRs and MP3s over albums, with a total disassociation from the conventions of rock'n'roll. It's a format born and bred for Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Dropbox, Blogspot and the digital generation, with new bedroom producers rising to prominence, and making an impact, everyday.

Mary Anne Hobbs, a trailblazing broadcaster and DJ of the genre – January 2006's Dubstep Warz special of her then Radio1 show, is recognised as a global tipping point in the movement – has just taken the sound primetime on Xfm. With global listeners and a strong web fanbase, it has a massive potential of reach. Muse on the fact her Saturday evening show has been given massively coveted airtime on an indie/rock station, too. It's proof the winds of change are well and truly blowing.

"[The show is] such a victory for everybody who has great passion for music that is meaningful," Hobbs tells ASOS. "It's changing the game, and the excitement is just phenomenal. We have a family of listeners everywhere from Kenya to the Antarctic and they’ve had Twitter melting down over the last few weeks."

"I would agree dubstep is more of a metaphor for freedom than a sound that you can define now. Dubstep became a huge and highly successful global industry with completely different value systems than the conventional record business, which is in many cases, slow, jaded, artistically bankrupt and out-moded by comparison."

The producers (and releases) Mary Anne is most excited about at the moment? "Blawan, Jono McCleery, Cloud Boat, Vondelpark and Blue Daisy’s upcoming album."

Capturing it all is photographer Shaun Bloodworth, who is integral to the scene. The Rinse/FWD>>/Tempa (and beyond) lensman exhibited his portraits of the scene's protagonists in an exhibition, Underground, last May.

"For me, he is like the Rankin of this underground electronic generation," Hobbs continues. "Without a word ever needing to be spoken, a call from Shaun, a request to shoot a portrait, is like a rite of passage within the scene. Ask Daedelus, he recently titled a song 'A Bloodworth’. It is Shaun's ability to capture not just a true sense of the artist's character, but a vivid representation of their domain, that makes their work so profound. And it's his unique ability to instill each photograph with such incredible dimension and narrative that makes this work, and indeed this exhibition so intimate and insightful."

Elsewhere, the Belgian label R&S been relocated to London and re-ignited by Dan Foat. Known throughout the 80s and 90s as a hands-in-the-air techno and raver go-to, today they're putting out Cloud Boat; Vondelpark; the dubby sound of Pariah; mad, unique bounce of Untold and the fractured moods of Klaus. As well as sounds fit for glowsticks and fairground waltzers.

To say that this moment is a good time for bass music is an understatement. We have the excitement of searching, and being surprised by, new beats. As technology races forward, so does the music. But it's the sense of community behind it all that is ensuring success.