After a 10-year gap seminal Bristol three-piece Portishead released their long anticipated album ‘Third’ to critical acclaim. Portishead’s classy, dark and introspective new album is unleashed on a city whose love of bass-driven music remains undiminished, with the legacy of other famous exponents still casting a heavy influence on the popular sounds of Bristol. 

In the mid-nineties the Bristol music scene was invigorated by a swathe of artists who established themselves as leaders intheir genre. Massive Attack laid claim to trip-hop releasing three genre defining and critically celebrated albums.

In a similar ilk Roni Size, Mercury Music Prize winning drum and bass DJ and producer, confounded critics with his drum and bass epic ‘New Forms’, which set the benchmark for innovation in drum and bass.                                               

In the gap between Portishead’s releases, much has changed in the visual appearance of the city, yet Bristol’s clubs remain full with people wanting to hear a bass heavy, dark, dub fuelled style of music that compliments the urban surroundings of inner Bristol.

For those who grew up with the success of Bristol music and the bass heavy sounds that characterised it, the thought that so little new musical talent would receive nationwide recognition would have seemed improbable.

As exemplified by RoniSize’s ‘New Forms’ the musical underground is essential to any new form or emerging talent breaking through.  Each and sub-genre of music has a defining band, album or characters.

Bristol’s numerous inner city clubs and bars have been a perfect breeding in supporting new talent and Roni Size has mentioned on numerous occasions the look and sounds of inner Bristol has greatly influenced his work.

So who is keeping the city’s underground heartbeat intact?

It can be argued the sounds of dubstep music are singularly invigorating Bristol’s underground, mixing old and new sounds to create something contemporary, original and unique. As dubstep has entered the public consciousness, the musical talents from a number of Bristol dubstep producers are gaining more and more recognition on a national level.

Dubstep is credited with originating from South London, most notably Croydon. Its origins reside in the two-step sound of UK garage and the harsher more vocal sounds of grime music. Characterised by the up-tempo beat, dubstep is given its distinctive sound by percussion and harmonies that run at half the tempo of the beat creating a deceptive sense the track ismoving a lot slower than it actually is.

The success of dubstep as an emerging musical form was picked up by Radio1 DJ Mary Ann Hobbes, who in 2006 started devoting much of her experimental show to the genre and has championed many Bristol producers on her show - most notably DJ Pinch.

Pinch has been at forefront of dubstep in Bristol. Hosting regular nights Dubloaded and Bristol’s dubstep Mecca Subloaded, as well as the Subtext and Tectonic record labels, Pinch has cemented his place at the forefront of the Bristol dubstep scene. His full album release; Underwater Dancehall, was received to huge acclaim.

Now aged 27, but originally a student from Bristol University, Pinch is credited as the first Bristol producer to notice the fresh ideas being developed by London producers and the exchange of ideas taking place around 2003.

He explained: “In 2004 I started running a mixed genre night in Bristol called Context where London producers and DJ’s would play and later that year I started Subloaded.”

With the mission statement to diversify as well as educate, Pinch’s Subloaded and Dubloaded imprints became the meeting point fora number of other future Bristol based producers and DJ’s. 

Bristol based producer Gatekeeper, 25, was visiting these early parties with his friends and producers Appleblim, Headhunter and Wedge.

He said: “We were are all really inspired by the London sound because that is where it all started. Pinch was the first one to go to London and bring it back to Bristol in 2003".

Appleblim 32, was another Bristol based producer inspired by what was going on in London at this time.  

“We were going to a big dubstep night in London called FWD. Initially it was to see garage acts and grime, but we started to notice there was a real crossover in genres. By 2005 there was big getting together. The first big line-up was Subloaded. All the Bristol producers who had been coming together now had London DJs playing on the same bill as them.”

The organic progression of dubstep as a genre has led to it having a mass appeal to lovers of urban music across all genres as they can identify with various, more established sounds of other popular urban music in dubstep records

Gatekeeper agrees there was an exchange of ideas at this time: “For a lot of people dubstep came out of garage. For others it was out of grime, for others it was out jungle and drum and bass. So you have all roads converging at the same time and then journalists started calling it dubstep".

In a much wider vein, many urban music lovers, DJs and producers who had become disaffected by the demise of UK garage as a popular genre and annoyed by the lack of opportunity to break into the established world of drum and bass began to throw their weight behind dubstep.  

Fast-forward to 2006 and dubstep is about to truly enter the public’s consciousness with the release of the unknown enigma Burial’s eponymous debut album. Voraciously plugging the fragile heartstrings of anyone with a pulse, the impact of this release sent shockwaves through the music world, the album winning numerous music magazines’ album of the year award.

Such was the album’s genre defying production, the fact many people stamped it as a dubstep record vastly increased the genre’s profile, winning huge plaudits for it’s beautiful constructed yet incredibly dark content.     

So with both the scene in London getting bigger all the time and a concentrated few launching labels, releasing records and playing regularly the foundations were set for the genre to take hold in Bristol.

The city’s huge affiliation with dub heavy music and bassweight made it a perfect place to nurture such a sound and urban Bristol has remained a great inspiration for many of the producers currently enjoying success at the moment. The raw inner city areas of Stokes Croft and the dark, stark themes of urban decay, paranoia and introversion are all prevalent in dubstep records with the beauty of them laying in their underground instrumentality rather than the need for lyrical flow to front the record.

Unlike other urban genres such as garage and grime that have previously been criticised for being aggressive and needing a certain amount of attitude to front the music, dubstep’s limited lyrical content and reliance on forming soundscapes using echo and reverb makes it a lot more introverted in its production style.

This mass crossover in generic influence has made dubstep inherently experimental and given those who listen to the huge variety of sounds and influences that fuse the genre together a real sense that dubstep has pushed urban music onto the next level.

Applebim reinforces this: “It’s (dubstep) the next step in dance music, it’s the next level. I really think dubstep is a great progression".

With various generic roads converging, Bristol producers have harnessed the darker, sound of dubstep, bringing influences as far a field as stripped down minimal techno into their work. This has been particularly noted by Mary Anne Hobbes who showcased Pinch on her show about a year ago and featured an exclusive mix from Bristol based producer Headhunter on her recent Radio1 Experimental show.

She said: “There are a whole host of Bristol based producers exploring the intersection between techno and dubstep right now, Appleblim, Peverelist and Pinch to name a few. Headhunter is leading that charge. Signed to the Tempa label, his sound is becoming more sophisticated at every turn.”

With regard to the mix Headhunter said: “The sound of dub-infused techno have really inspired my sets recently, so this mix shows off the more experimental direction I like to take while keeping things fully grounded for the dance floor.”

Pinch said: “The dubstep techno crossover sound is the thing she has chosen to showcase and for me, techno has always been high on my list of influences."

“It’s all happened quite organically. When producers were coming through and finding their feet perhaps there was a different slant on the sound than there is now, but as a group of producers we haven’t consciously pushed a techy development in our sound.”

Appleblim agrees: “It’s a bit to easy to say the Bristol sound is deeper. There are producers in London doing deep stuff too. You can hear it in Headhunter’s stuff; there is a more melodic and deep angle to it.  That is the common sound we all love, but I already feel myself moving from that sound at some point, you have to keep it varied.”

Gatekeeper has a different take on the Bristolian interpretation of dubstep,  

“All of the Bristol producers, every single one of them is trying to make their own sound. I wouldn’t say there is a Bristol sound as such. Real dubstep for me is experimental and is always pushing forward. So when you hear a techy progressive record, that reflects what that particular producer is in to. We aren’t really concerned with trying to copy London. We have too much respect for it to just copy it. Their music is amazing, but that is what they do.”

“What also makes the atmosphere in the club good is the minimal aesthetic inside. The night is focused on letting the music speak for itself.  It’s not dressed up in any way.”

Appleblim reinforces the need for the world of dubstep to experiment with setting and place.

“I don’t know whether I agree it has to be in a dark space. It can work in other places. Producers are trying to transcend boundaries with their work and you can do the same with setting. I’ve been to a night where dubstep was put on in a forest in Scotland and it worked really well there.”

With the music the main drive for Bristol producers of dubstep rather than any real need or sense to glorify what they are doing, the scene is in safe hands as Gatekeeper explains:

“None of us are trying to fill shoes. That’s all music that we all like and we still like. We aren’t trying to carve anything specific we are just trying to carve music, but we have absorbed Bristol’s musical legacy. We aren’t consciously thinking we are the next Massive Attack or the next Portishead. It’s not like we think we are going to take over the world!  It’s not that type of thing.”         

With the popularity of the sound set to increase over the next year there is clearly a lot of drive from the Bristol producers to take their sounds to the next level

The summer promises to be busy for many Bristol artists.  Headhunter’s debut artist album is released on Tempa records later this year.  Appleblim is starting his new label Applepips and has mixed the latest edition of industry acclaimed Dubstep Allstars compilation, again for Tempa records, which is now on sale.  Pinch is also releasing three new tracks in June on the Soul Jazz record label and along with numerous other Bristol dubstep DJ’s a busy festival season will see them play right across Europe.

With the profile of the genre growing all the time Appleblim is confident about retaining the success and integrity of dubstep as a genre.

“The people who started making dubstep are still making really interesting music. Any cynical attempts to market the genre haven’t succeeded, but people can be a bit too precious about the underground. When the interesting music stops getting made people will stop buying it. It’s as simple as that.”

The danger of the genre becoming overblown like The UK garage scene did in the early nineties is a reluctant thought in the back of the mind of all those who hold the scene and the integrity of the sounds they produce as sacred and worth protecting from unwanted or uneducated hands.

Gatekeeper is wary of this: “Any kind of popular music has the potential to go over ground in the wrong hands. It is only matter of time before someone who is not involved in the scene will see the monetary potential, cobble something together half-arsed and probably do really well.”

Appleblim agrees but suggest that is impossible to control where the music is going to go as people are always going to listen to music they like.

What is clear is that in a dark corner of Bristol the city music legacy is taking on an entirely new chapter and is being pushed forward by group of talented producers who are stamping their unique style on a genre whose boundaries are still being pushed and bent with its integrity and style.

Once again the Bristol underground is bubbling and the city is responding with open arms.

Words: Thomas Frost 

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