For a better links directory check out http://www.dubstepdirectory.com
TOP 11 DUBSTEP SITES (because 10 just wasn’t enough):
Blackdown: AKA Martin Clark, Dubstep’s most on the ball journo and a fine producer to boot, runs Keysound Recordings. Ex Deuce magazine big boy, check out his Pitchforkmedia articles on a monthly basis.
Dubstepforum: This is a really busy forum and it’s where all the news is broken. Also includes lots of links to DJ sets and tracks from bedroom producers. A good place for club listings too.
Barefiles: The site that archives hundreds of Dubstep & Grime Pirate radio shows, for your downloading pleasure.
Gutterbreakz: Excellent Dubstep & Electronica blogger. Can be a bit quiet at times due to family issues (the most effective excuse for sick leave ever devised, trust) but he always bounces back. Check out his amazing archives.
Drumz of the South: Chief photographer of the scene, Georgina Cook/ Infinite has done some great stories over the years. Concentrating more on photography now but she's still the queen of Dubstep.
Rinse FM: The UK’s leading Pirate, Dubstep makes up around half of their playlist, but they’re also the home of most of Grime’s biggest DJ’s & MC’s. Broadcasts out of East London with a large coverage in the city. Although you can stream it live from the site.
BM Soho/Blackmarket Records: London’s best retailer for Dubstep, House, and D&B, and the workplace of scene DJ’s Youngsta & Wonder. This is the link to their ‘Underground’ section, i.e. Garage & all it’s sub genres.
Riddim.Ca: These guys are representing North America in a big way, with some great magazine type articles. They’re also archiving the articles of the legendary Hyperdub web magazine which covered the early years of Dubstep/ 2-step Garage (not to be confused with the affiliated label, although Kode9 was a journo for it under the name Steve Goodman), which is very nice of them. Oh and they also have a forum.
Forward FWD>>: The original Dubstep club night from way back when the word didn’t exist, 2001. Now a weekly at East London’s Plastic People club in Shoreditch, East London. It also includes some nice podcasts.
Tempa Records: Main label of in the scene and flagship imprint for the mighty Ammunition Promotions who run FWD and Dubplate.net
Gutterbreakz: Excellent Dubstep & Electronica blogger. Can be a bit quiet at times due to family issues (the most effective excuse for sick leave ever devised, trust) but he always bounces back. Check out his amazing archives!
Drumz of the South: Chief photographer of the scene, Georgina Cook/ Infinite has done some great stories over the years. Concentrating more on photography now but she's still the queen of Dubstep.
Dot-Alt: AKA Lower End Spasm, a Grime & Dubstep blog ran by a team including Alex Bok Bok of Sub FM and a few other notables. Pretty well written if truth be told.
Chantelle Fiddy: Peerless authority on the whole Grime thing, and not averse to the odd ‘dubby’ tune too.
Woebot: A Grime writer who’s not so keen on his Dubstep, but not afraid to admit a passion for Prog Rock! Like the man below, his memory span reaches back to the days of early 90's ‘ardkore’.
Blissblog: The home of Simon Reynolds, veteran purveyor of the whole ‘hardcore continuum’ concept. A legend when it comes to theorising, check out his 2-step garage page for a dissertation on the evolution of the Garage sound circa ‘98-2000.
Kode9: Cutting edge Dubstep producer by day, slightly eccentric blogger by night. An expert in ‘sonic warfare’, but don’t let that scare you. Sometimes journalist and head honcho of the mighty Hyperdub label.
Philip Sherburne: Journalist more known for his love of Techno (he does a monthly review of the genre in pitchforkmedia) than the Dubstep, but his knowledge of the scene runs deep enough to do the odd review for The Wire magazine.
Deeptime: Ottawa based blogger who’s into his Dubstep, Grime, Garage, and probably lots of other stuff. Seems to be allied to Riddim.Ca
DubbedUp: Belgian Dubstep & Grime blog that is in perfect English. Allied to the Grimelock club promoters.
Dodgy Stereo: Belfast born Czech Republic residing Electronica DJ who is developing a taste for the Dubstep sound.
Beat Diaspora: Baltimore beats man who’s well clued up on his Baile Funk; give the Rio sound a go, it’ll grow on you if you give it time, trust me.
Dubster’s Laboratory: Hungary’s top Dubsteppa. Okay, it’s little more than a tracklistings page if you can’t speak Hungarian, but if you look hard enough you should find some good radio shows and maybe even a bit of English text here and there.
INTERNET MAGAZINES:
Riddim.Ca: These guys are representing North America in a big way, with some great magazine type articles. They’re also archiving the articles of the legendary Hyperdub web magazine which covered the early years of Dubstep/ 2-step Garage (not to be confused with the affiliated label, although Kode9 was a journo for it under the name Steve Goodman), which is very nice of them. Oh and they also have a forum
Get Darker: Grime & Dubstep magazine, ran by Rinse FM’s DJ Darkside and a few others.
Dubstep.Fr: Gallic Dubstep magazine with some impeccably good English translations of some of their articles; well worth a look if you’re prepared to find the English stuff
Broadcite: Elaborate website for the Broken Beat label & a magazine all in one. Heavily reliant on Flash animation, make sure your screen resolution is set to 1024x768 (the standard size) to read it properly. You can also check out their Myspace or the site of their main journalist, Tasha TP. No I do not know what Broadcite means (sailing jargon perhaps?)
Grime Music.com: Pretty professional internet mag. Don’t expect much in the way of Dubstep though.
FORUMS:
Dubstepforum: This is a really busy forum and it’s where all the news is broken. Also includes lots of links to DJ sets and tracks from bedroom producers. A good place for club listings too.
Dissensus: For some reason this highbrow forum has excellent threads relating to Grime & Dubstep. More intelligent than Dubstepforum, but they have a tenth of the users, so it’ll take a while before a reply is made to your post.
Riddim.Ca: These guys are representing North America in a big way, with some great magazine type articles. They’re also archiving the articles of the legendary Hyperdub web magazine which covered the early years of Dubstep/ 2-step Garage (not to be confused with the affiliated label, although Kode9 was a journo for it under the name Steve Goodman), which is very nice of them. Oh and they also have a forum
Dubstep.NL: Dutch forum that also has a special section for English speakers.
Dubstep.PL: Polish forum with the odd English post trying to advertise something Dubstep wise. They might do more blogging/ article stuff in the future, don’t know.
RECORD SHOPS:
BM Soho/Blackmarket Records: London’s best retailer for Dubstep, House, and D&B, and the workplace of scene DJ’s Youngsta & Wonder. This is the link to their ‘Underground’ section, i.e. Garage & all it’s sub genres.
Rooted Records: Bristol record shop which sells mainly Dubstep, Grime, Reggae and a heap of other black music genres.
Dubplate.net: The home of Ammunition, including vinyl & MP3 sales, and exclusive dubplates to listen to. Was offline for a year or so and has changed substantially since then but you’d be surprised at the amount of ‘classic’ Dubstep tracks they have for sale on varying formats.
Boomkat: Massive online shop that has one of the best selections of Dubstep in Britain, but in truth that makes up only a tiny percentage of the stuff they sell, such is the broad range of genres they cover. Every release they have has a short review and this remains on the site even after the tune sells out, so this is often the only resource that’ll let you listen to a sample of the tracks long after their print runs are over.
Moremusic: A list of record shops in Britain. Go to the home page to find shops in other countries.
LABELS:
Tempa Records: Main label of in the scene and flagship imprint for the mighty Ammunition Promotions who run FWD and Dubplate.net
DMZ: Unfortunately this site generally refers to their club nights rather than the label of the same name. In case you didn’t know, DMZ are made up of Mala & Coki (Digital Mystikz) & Loefah.
Hotflush: Ran by Paul Rose, who also has a sister label under his pseudonym of Scuba.
Storming Productions: Ran by Rinse FM DJ Quiet Storm, this imprint covers the fast and dark style of Dubstep.
BOKA: Professor J-S’s label, BOKA has managed to avoid being pigeonholed to a single style of Dubstep or Grime, so it’s interesting what they’ll come up with next.
Baked Goods Distribution: Distributes a number of Dubstep labels in the UK and elsewhere. If you’ve started a label and you want to get your tunes into shops then they can help you.
INTERNET RADIO STATIONS & DOWNLOAD SITES:
Rinse FM: The UK’s leading Pirate, Dubstep makes up around half of their playlist, but they’re also the home of most of Grime’s biggest DJ’s & MC’s. Broadcasts out of East London with a large coverage in the city. Although you can stream it live from the site.
Sub FM: As they like to describe themselves, they are the original pirate style internet radio station. Dubstep features prominently here.
CLUBNIGHTS/ PROMOTERS (dubstepforum are much better at this info than we are):
Forward FWD>>: The original Dubstep club night from way back when the word didn’t exist, 2001. Now a weekly at East London’s Plastic People club in Shoreditch. It also includes some nice podcasts.
DMZ: Large bimonthly rave held in Mass in Brixton, South London. DMZ are made up of Mala & Coki (Digital Mystikz) & Loefah.
Grimelock: Belgium based Dubstep promoters who put on nights in Brussels. Also host the odd mix. For some strange reason their site is in English. Also connected with the DubbedUp blog which again, is in English.
Dubwar NYC: New York club night which also has put some of their mixes on the site.
MASSIVE INTERNATIONAL RECORD DEALERS:
GEMM: If you’re after that elusive tune then it’s sites like this that you need. This seems to be the world’s biggest network of it’s kind, but a large amount of the sellers are in the US. Considering Dubstep’s limited press runs the likeliness of you finding those rare early Horsepower singles you so desperately wanted are slim. But as with all the sites in this category, they are great for finding all types of music. You’d be surprised at what you’ll find here (and how much American postage actually costs). Bear in mind though that transit from most European countries is pretty cheap.
Netsounds: Effectively the British alternative to GEMM, much smaller but often has a better selection of Garage and other UK centric genres.
Discogs: A list of (literally) millions of released singles & albums, find the one you want and if you’re lucky there will be one for sale from an independent seller. As with all of the above, you are not buying from the site itself, the sites only act as middlemen.
Ebay: Obvious choice really. Always scan down the page to see if there are any international sellers or ‘ebay shops’. If you really want to get certain tracks you have to be prepared to buy from abroad.
Amazon: Again, you’d be surprised what you can find on Amazon, although they’re better at rare CDs than they are with vinyl.
Moremusic: A list of record shops in Britain. Go to the home page to find shops in other countries.
DUBSTEP OUTSIDE THE ENGLISH SPEAKING WORLD:
Dubstep.Fr: Gallic Dubstep magazine with some impeccably good English translations of some of their articles; well worth a look if you’re prepared to find the English stuff.
Dubstep.NL: Dutch forum that also has a special section for English speakers.
Dubstep.PL: Polish forum with the odd English post trying to advertise something Dubstep wise. They might do more blogging/ article stuff in the future, don’t know.
Dubster’s Laboratory: Hungary’s top Dubsteppa. Okay, it’s little more than a tracklistings page if you can’t speak Hungarian, but if you look hard enough you should find some good radio shows and maybe even a bit of English text here and there.
MUSIC RESOURCES:
Discogs: A list of (literally) millions of released records, find the one you want and if you’re lucky there will be one for sale from an independent seller.
Shazam: Not a site but a UK phone number: 2580. Phone this with your mobile and if you put your phone up against some speakers the number will try to identify the name of the track that is playing. It’ll then send you a text back saying whether it knows what it is or not. You will be surprised at the obscure tracks it can detect. Tips for use: Turn up the speakers very loud and place the phone right up to them. If the source isn’t loud enough Shazam will send you a text message telling you to turn it up so trust me on this! Also, the further away the speakers are from the hi-fi the better- ghetto blasters often pick up interference from the mobile signal which can fuck up Shazam’s analysis of the tune. After 20 seconds Shazam will hang up and you’ll receive a text reply in a minute. They sometimes can’t get the more underground tracks but it’s always worth a go because it’s quite cheap (I think around 30p for correct answers). And they are very rarely wrong. They either know or they don’t, everything’s black or white- it’s a computer after all.
DJ History.com: Ran by legendary DJ’s/ journalists Bill Brewster & Frank Broughton, who wrote the excellent ‘Last Night a DJ Saved My Life’ and ‘How to DJ Properly’ books. This site features lots of interviews with Dance music’s veteran players, and, surprise surprise, delves into the history of DJing.
Deep House Page: Excellent site that hosts mixes from 70 & 80’s Disco/ early House pioneers like Larry Levan & Frankie Knuckles.
TOP 11 DUBSTEP SITES (because 10 just wasn’t enough):
Blackdown: AKA Martin Clark, Dubstep’s most on the ball journo and a fine producer to boot, runs Keysound Recordings. Ex Deuce magazine big boy, check out his Pitchforkmedia articles on a monthly basis.
Dubstepforum: This is a really busy forum and it’s where all the news is broken. Also includes lots of links to DJ sets and tracks from bedroom producers. A good place for club listings too.
Barefiles: The site that archives hundreds of Dubstep & Grime Pirate radio shows, for your downloading pleasure.
Gutterbreakz: Excellent Dubstep & Electronica blogger. Can be a bit quiet at times due to family issues (the most effective excuse for sick leave ever devised, trust) but he always bounces back. Check out his amazing archives.
Drumz of the South: Chief photographer of the scene, Georgina Cook/ Infinite has done some great stories over the years. Concentrating more on photography now but she's still the queen of Dubstep.
Rinse FM: The UK’s leading Pirate, Dubstep makes up around half of their playlist, but they’re also the home of most of Grime’s biggest DJ’s & MC’s. Broadcasts out of East London with a large coverage in the city. Although you can stream it live from the site.
BM Soho/Blackmarket Records: London’s best retailer for Dubstep, House, and D&B, and the workplace of scene DJ’s Youngsta & Wonder. This is the link to their ‘Underground’ section, i.e. Garage & all it’s sub genres.
Riddim.Ca: These guys are representing North America in a big way, with some great magazine type articles. They’re also archiving the articles of the legendary Hyperdub web magazine which covered the early years of Dubstep/ 2-step Garage (not to be confused with the affiliated label, although Kode9 was a journo for it under the name Steve Goodman), which is very nice of them. Oh and they also have a forum.
Forward FWD>>: The original Dubstep club night from way back when the word didn’t exist, 2001. Now a weekly at East London’s Plastic People club in Shoreditch, East London. It also includes some nice podcasts.
Tempa Records: Main label of in the scene and flagship imprint for the mighty Ammunition Promotions who run FWD and Dubplate.net
BLOGS:
Gutterbreakz: Excellent Dubstep & Electronica blogger. Can be a bit quiet at times due to family issues (the most effective excuse for sick leave ever devised, trust) but he always bounces back. Check out his amazing archives!
Drumz of the South: Chief photographer of the scene, Georgina Cook/ Infinite has done some great stories over the years. Concentrating more on photography now but she's still the queen of Dubstep.
Dot-Alt: AKA Lower End Spasm, a Grime & Dubstep blog ran by a team including Alex Bok Bok of Sub FM and a few other notables. Pretty well written if truth be told.
Chantelle Fiddy: Peerless authority on the whole Grime thing, and not averse to the odd ‘dubby’ tune too.
Woebot: A Grime writer who’s not so keen on his Dubstep, but not afraid to admit a passion for Prog Rock! Like the man below, his memory span reaches back to the days of early 90's ‘ardkore’.
Blissblog: The home of Simon Reynolds, veteran purveyor of the whole ‘hardcore continuum’ concept. A legend when it comes to theorising, check out his 2-step garage page for a dissertation on the evolution of the Garage sound circa ‘98-2000.
Kode9: Cutting edge Dubstep producer by day, slightly eccentric blogger by night. An expert in ‘sonic warfare’, but don’t let that scare you. Sometimes journalist and head honcho of the mighty Hyperdub label.
Philip Sherburne: Journalist more known for his love of Techno (he does a monthly review of the genre in pitchforkmedia) than the Dubstep, but his knowledge of the scene runs deep enough to do the odd review for The Wire magazine.
Deeptime: Ottawa based blogger who’s into his Dubstep, Grime, Garage, and probably lots of other stuff. Seems to be allied to Riddim.Ca
DubbedUp: Belgian Dubstep & Grime blog that is in perfect English. Allied to the Grimelock club promoters.
Dodgy Stereo: Belfast born Czech Republic residing Electronica DJ who is developing a taste for the Dubstep sound.
Beat Diaspora: Baltimore beats man who’s well clued up on his Baile Funk; give the Rio sound a go, it’ll grow on you if you give it time, trust me.
Dubster’s Laboratory: Hungary’s top Dubsteppa. Okay, it’s little more than a tracklistings page if you can’t speak Hungarian, but if you look hard enough you should find some good radio shows and maybe even a bit of English text here and there.
INTERNET MAGAZINES:
Riddim.Ca: These guys are representing North America in a big way, with some great magazine type articles. They’re also archiving the articles of the legendary Hyperdub web magazine which covered the early years of Dubstep/ 2-step Garage (not to be confused with the affiliated label, although Kode9 was a journo for it under the name Steve Goodman), which is very nice of them. Oh and they also have a forum
Get Darker: Grime & Dubstep magazine, ran by Rinse FM’s DJ Darkside and a few others.
Dubstep.Fr: Gallic Dubstep magazine with some impeccably good English translations of some of their articles; well worth a look if you’re prepared to find the English stuff
Broadcite: Elaborate website for the Broken Beat label & a magazine all in one. Heavily reliant on Flash animation, make sure your screen resolution is set to 1024x768 (the standard size) to read it properly. You can also check out their Myspace or the site of their main journalist, Tasha TP. No I do not know what Broadcite means (sailing jargon perhaps?)
Grime Music.com: Pretty professional internet mag. Don’t expect much in the way of Dubstep though.
FORUMS:
Dubstepforum: This is a really busy forum and it’s where all the news is broken. Also includes lots of links to DJ sets and tracks from bedroom producers. A good place for club listings too.
Dissensus: For some reason this highbrow forum has excellent threads relating to Grime & Dubstep. More intelligent than Dubstepforum, but they have a tenth of the users, so it’ll take a while before a reply is made to your post.
Riddim.Ca: These guys are representing North America in a big way, with some great magazine type articles. They’re also archiving the articles of the legendary Hyperdub web magazine which covered the early years of Dubstep/ 2-step Garage (not to be confused with the affiliated label, although Kode9 was a journo for it under the name Steve Goodman), which is very nice of them. Oh and they also have a forum
Dubstep.NL: Dutch forum that also has a special section for English speakers.
Dubstep.PL: Polish forum with the odd English post trying to advertise something Dubstep wise. They might do more blogging/ article stuff in the future, don’t know.
RECORD SHOPS:
BM Soho/Blackmarket Records: London’s best retailer for Dubstep, House, and D&B, and the workplace of scene DJ’s Youngsta & Wonder. This is the link to their ‘Underground’ section, i.e. Garage & all it’s sub genres.
Rooted Records: Bristol record shop which sells mainly Dubstep, Grime, Reggae and a heap of other black music genres.
Dubplate.net: The home of Ammunition, including vinyl & MP3 sales, and exclusive dubplates to listen to. Was offline for a year or so and has changed substantially since then but you’d be surprised at the amount of ‘classic’ Dubstep tracks they have for sale on varying formats.
Boomkat: Massive online shop that has one of the best selections of Dubstep in Britain, but in truth that makes up only a tiny percentage of the stuff they sell, such is the broad range of genres they cover. Every release they have has a short review and this remains on the site even after the tune sells out, so this is often the only resource that’ll let you listen to a sample of the tracks long after their print runs are over.
Moremusic: A list of record shops in Britain. Go to the home page to find shops in other countries.
LABELS:
Tempa Records: Main label of in the scene and flagship imprint for the mighty Ammunition Promotions who run FWD and Dubplate.net
DMZ: Unfortunately this site generally refers to their club nights rather than the label of the same name. In case you didn’t know, DMZ are made up of Mala & Coki (Digital Mystikz) & Loefah.
Hotflush: Ran by Paul Rose, who also has a sister label under his pseudonym of Scuba.
Storming Productions: Ran by Rinse FM DJ Quiet Storm, this imprint covers the fast and dark style of Dubstep.
BOKA: Professor J-S’s label, BOKA has managed to avoid being pigeonholed to a single style of Dubstep or Grime, so it’s interesting what they’ll come up with next.
Baked Goods Distribution: Distributes a number of Dubstep labels in the UK and elsewhere. If you’ve started a label and you want to get your tunes into shops then they can help you.
INTERNET RADIO STATIONS & DOWNLOAD SITES:
Rinse FM: The UK’s leading Pirate, Dubstep makes up around half of their playlist, but they’re also the home of most of Grime’s biggest DJ’s & MC’s. Broadcasts out of East London with a large coverage in the city. Although you can stream it live from the site.
Sub FM: As they like to describe themselves, they are the original pirate style internet radio station. Dubstep features prominently here.
CLUBNIGHTS/ PROMOTERS (dubstepforum are much better at this info than we are):
Forward FWD>>: The original Dubstep club night from way back when the word didn’t exist, 2001. Now a weekly at East London’s Plastic People club in Shoreditch. It also includes some nice podcasts.
DMZ: Large bimonthly rave held in Mass in Brixton, South London. DMZ are made up of Mala & Coki (Digital Mystikz) & Loefah.
Grimelock: Belgium based Dubstep promoters who put on nights in Brussels. Also host the odd mix. For some strange reason their site is in English. Also connected with the DubbedUp blog which again, is in English.
Dubwar NYC: New York club night which also has put some of their mixes on the site.
MASSIVE INTERNATIONAL RECORD DEALERS:
GEMM: If you’re after that elusive tune then it’s sites like this that you need. This seems to be the world’s biggest network of it’s kind, but a large amount of the sellers are in the US. Considering Dubstep’s limited press runs the likeliness of you finding those rare early Horsepower singles you so desperately wanted are slim. But as with all the sites in this category, they are great for finding all types of music. You’d be surprised at what you’ll find here (and how much American postage actually costs). Bear in mind though that transit from most European countries is pretty cheap.
Netsounds: Effectively the British alternative to GEMM, much smaller but often has a better selection of Garage and other UK centric genres.
Discogs: A list of (literally) millions of released singles & albums, find the one you want and if you’re lucky there will be one for sale from an independent seller. As with all of the above, you are not buying from the site itself, the sites only act as middlemen.
Ebay: Obvious choice really. Always scan down the page to see if there are any international sellers or ‘ebay shops’. If you really want to get certain tracks you have to be prepared to buy from abroad.
Amazon: Again, you’d be surprised what you can find on Amazon, although they’re better at rare CDs than they are with vinyl.
Moremusic: A list of record shops in Britain. Go to the home page to find shops in other countries.
DUBSTEP OUTSIDE THE ENGLISH SPEAKING WORLD:
Dubstep.Fr: Gallic Dubstep magazine with some impeccably good English translations of some of their articles; well worth a look if you’re prepared to find the English stuff.
Dubstep.NL: Dutch forum that also has a special section for English speakers.
Dubstep.PL: Polish forum with the odd English post trying to advertise something Dubstep wise. They might do more blogging/ article stuff in the future, don’t know.
Dubster’s Laboratory: Hungary’s top Dubsteppa. Okay, it’s little more than a tracklistings page if you can’t speak Hungarian, but if you look hard enough you should find some good radio shows and maybe even a bit of English text here and there.
MUSIC RESOURCES:
Discogs: A list of (literally) millions of released records, find the one you want and if you’re lucky there will be one for sale from an independent seller.
DJ History.com: Ran by legendary DJ’s/ journalists Bill Brewster & Frank Broughton, who wrote the excellent ‘Last Night a DJ Saved My Life’ and ‘How to DJ Properly’ books. This site features lots of interviews with Dance music’s veteran players, and, surprise surprise, delves into the history of DJing.
Deep House Page: Excellent site that hosts mixes from 70 & 80’s Disco/ early House pioneers like Larry Levan & Frankie Knuckles.