Croydon / FWD>> Dubstep

A record-shop conversation becomes bass you can feel in your chest.

What you're really asking

Listen beneath the obvious beat. Early dubstep leaves room for sub-bass, echoes and small rhythmic changes to become the main event.

It grew through a close exchange between record shops, producers, DJs and clubs rather than one sudden invention.

Where it sits

Around the turn of the millennium, darker and more spacious garage productions found a home in the emerging FWD>> network. Croydon’s Big Apple shop brought together people including Artwork, Hatcha, Skream, Benga and Mala.

Horsepower Productions and Tempa were important to the developing language. FWD>> in London and later DMZ offered different testing grounds.

As the music spread, it opened into several international directions; this scene stays centred on the early London and Croydon ecosystem.

The scene

Who: Hatcha, Artwork, Horsepower Productions, Skream, Benga, Mala, Coki, Loefah and Youngsta. What: bass weight, restrained arrangements, garage-derived rhythm and dub processes.

Places and outlets: Big Apple, FWD>>, Tempa and DMZ. Later Deep Medi and international underground releases are continuation routes, not automatically founding-era members.