DRUM&BASSARENA SAYS
Watch The Ride is Harmless' DJ mix series which features the best up and coming and established
DJ talent the UK, Europe and the rest of the World has to o er. Focusing on genres including Hiphop,
Breakbeat, Drum & Bass, House and Techno the emphasis is without doubt rmly on contemporary
dance music.
Skream has changed the course of UK urban music, having helped build the foundations of London's
most exciting new musical style, dubstep. But he's barely started yet: because right now,
Skream is an artist on re.
First he met Benga, another talented Croydon kid who was starting to make music. Then he met
Hatcha, soon to be one of the most in uential and pioneering DJs in urban music. Around 2000
Benga and Skream set about building on the early dark garage avours that were to be found on
the pirate airwaves around Croydon. Through Hatcha's sets at club Forward» and releases on the
seminal Big Apple label, they were about to create a new phase of dubstep.
At rst Skream specialised in one avour of dubstep: dark. His clipped, techy minimal style became
a trademark sound. Long before grime existed, it re ected dark murky streets and sinister nights,
the sound of decaying London and its frustrated communities, stuck out in satellite towns and sink
estates with nothing but a PC and freely available software to channel their frustration into. Stuck in
front of a PC for days on end, that's exactly what Skream did.
Skreams his biggest tune was yet to come. Enter "Midnight Request Line" - on Tempa records - an
anthemic explosion of electro arpeggios and dub sub-bass. It's a tune you can sing along to:
Skream has it as his own ringtone. When it got dropped by DJ Youngsta at club Forward» grime
dons Wiley, Jammer and the rest of Roll Deep began to shock out, ashing their lighters out of hard
earned respect. The ip of this mighty release is bassline boomer "I," an excursion into deep dub
basslines and shifting cinematic textures.
Harmless takes great pleasure in welcoming the king of dubstep, Skream to this Watch The Ride
series!!