Grime is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged in London in the early 2000s. It developed out of the earlier UK dance style UK garage, and draws influences from jungle, dancehall, and hip hop. The style is typified by rapid, syncopated breakbeats, generally around 140 beats per minute, and often features an aggressive or jagged electronic sound. Emceeing is a significant element of the style, and lyrics often revolve around gritty depictions of urban life.
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken beat, grime, and drum and bass. In the United Kingdom, the origins of the genre can be traced back to the growth of the Jamaican sound system party scene in the early 1980s.
From November 2001 to November 2018, the London nightclub fabric ran a monthly mix compilation series. Mixed by a variety of emerging and established DJs, the two series were entitled fabric and FABRICLIVE respectively. The compilation mixes were released independently by fabric on an alternating monthly basis.
Oliver Dene Jones, known as Skream, is an English electronic music producer based in Croydon. Skream was an early and influential exponent of the dubstep genre. After producing several singles, he released his first full-length album, Skream!, in 2006.
Steve Goodman, known as Kode9 is a Scottish electronic music artist, DJ, and founder of the Hyperdub record label. He was one of the founding members of the early dubstep scene with his late collaborator The Spaceape. He has released four full-length albums: 2006's Memories of the Future and 2011's Black Sun, Nothing (2015), Escapology and Astro-Darien (2022).
Skull Disco was an independent dubstep record label, based in Bristol, England. It was established in 2005 by Sam Shackleton and Laurie "Appleblim" Osborne, and ended in 2008. Releases on the label prominently featured African and post-African percussion, as well as "ethnic" samples. Zeke Clough contributed distinctive artwork for the label, drawing on both Egyptology and heavy metal imagery.
Joe Nice is a dubstep DJ from Baltimore, Maryland. Nice was the first person to put on dubstep nights in America and founded New York's irregular Dub War club night, which has hosted performances by British dubstep artists such as Hatcha, Youngsta, Kode9, Mala, and Loefah. He performs regularly in New York, London, and elsewhere. He first heard dubstep in 2002, at the Baltimore venue Starscape, and began playing it that same year. He has been praised for his charisma and stage presence. In 2005, music journalist Martin Clark also praised him for his access to new dubplates and willingness to play tracks by lesser-known producers. In 2007, Nice was selected as one of URB magazine's "Next 100". In 2015, he founded the label known as Gourmet Beats, pushing content from the likes of Moonstones, Fill Spectre & DJG.
Rinse FM is a London-based community radio station, licensed for "young people living and/or working within the central, east and south London areas". It plays garage, grime, dubstep, house, jungle, UK funky and other dance music genres popular in the United Kingdom.
Bassline is a music genre closely related to UK garage that originated in South Yorkshire and the West Midlands in the early 2000s. Stylistically it comprises a four-to-the-floor rhythm normally at around 135–142 beats per minute and a strong emphasis on bass, similar to that of its precursor speed garage, with chopped up vocal samples and a pop music aesthetic.
Rob Ellis, better known as Pinch, is a British dubstep artist from Bristol, England, noted for his fusion of styles such as reggae, World music, and dancehall with dubstep. He released his first album, Underwater Dancehall in 2007, on Tectonic, which he founded. One of Pinch's most well-known tracks is "Qawwali", released on Planet Mu records, which references the devotional singing of the same name, and featured samples of harmonium and singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. His songs appear on compilations such as Box of Dub: Dubstep and Future Dub 2, Science Faction: Dubstep, 10 Tons Heavy and 200. More recently, he has moved away from dubstep towards the UK bass scene, working with producers such as Mumdance and Adrian Sherwood.
Geiom a.k.a. Hem, is a Nottingham based producer, live electronic musician and DJ. He is also the owner of the Berkane Sol label. He was known for being part of a group of producers along with 2562 and Shackleton who blended techno, garage and dubstep.
Tectonic is a British electronic music label, founded and run by Rob Ellis (Pinch) which focuses primarily on dubstep and its related genres. As one of the founding dubstep labels, alongside Tempa, DMZ, Hyperdub, and Hotflush, Tectonic became a focal point for the Bristol scene, as well as introducing artists and releases that were among the first to bridge a gap between dubstep and techno.
Martijn Deijkers, known professionally as Martyn, is a Dutch producer and DJ from Eindhoven, currently based in Washington D.C. in the United States. He is the son of Dutch former footballer Gerrie Deijkers. He started his career by DJing drum and bass in 1996, but began to include more of a dubstep influence after first hearing Kode9's "Sine of the Dub". He released his first 12" singles in 2005, incorporating elements of both techno and jungle. Deijkers' first album, Great Lengths, was released in 2009. In 2010 he released Fabric 50, the 50th installment of the Fabric Mix DJ series. Martyn's second studio album, Ghost People, was released in 2011 on the American label Brainfeeder.
Steven Bishop, known professionally as Oneman, is a DJ and producer from Streatham, London. His background is in pirate radio and he is a regular DJ on Rinse FM.
Kwadwo Quentin Kankam, better known by his stage name Novelist, is a British grime MC and record producer from Lewisham in South London. He was a founding member of the Square crew and was nominated for Best Grime Act at the 2014 MOBO Awards. He has been called the "new face of grime" and was described as "the poster child for the first generation of real grime kids" by DJ Logan Sama.
Jack Revill, better known as Jackmaster, is a Scottish DJ and Producer from Glasgow. He is a co-founder of the record label and club night Numbers as well as Wireblock, Dress 2 Sweat, Point.One Recordings, Seldom Felt and TDSR. Revill was the subject of controversy in August 2018, after he overdosed on GHB and subsequently attempted to "kiss and grab people against their will" at Love Saves The Day Festival in Bristol.
UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house, but also incorporates elements from dance-pop, R&B, and jungle. It is defined by percussive, shuffled rhythms with syncopated hi-hats, cymbals, and snares, and may include either 4/4 house kick patterns or more irregular "2-step" rhythms. Garage tracks also commonly feature 'chopped up' and time-stretched or pitch-shifted vocal samples complementing the underlying rhythmic structure at a tempo usually around 130 BPM.
William Brown, better known as Compa is a British electronic musician and DJ from Clitheroe, Lancashire, who began releasing music in 2011. Compa first rose to prominence following his self-released remix of Mavado's Dem A Talk in 2012, followed by his signing to Mala's label Deep Medi Musik the same year, although he did not release his debut record for the label until 2013. In a review of the record, Boomkat described Compa as "Keeper of Dubstep's Darkest Light"
Mark Daniel Taylor, professionally known as Royal-T, is a British UK garage, bassline and grime DJ and music producer from Southampton. He is signed to Butterz and Rinse Recordings.
Tony Williams, better known as Addison Groove, is an electronic music artist from Bristol, United Kingdom. Noted for his fusion of styles such as Techno, Jungle, Soul, Juke and Dubstep, he released his first album 'Nomad' on Tempa in 2008.
