Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
Fri 17 Feb
After three years running nights in Cardiff that feature high quality headliners big and small from the world of dubstep and grime, Submerge deserve a lot of credit. Their first party of 2017 brings together three DJs for their most daring event yet – also a link-up with nostalgic yet forward-thinking London club night, Contact.
Contrary to his name, Youngsta [pictured] has long been an important actor in the dubstep scene. During his residency at the movement’s home club night FWD>> (established 2001) and his long-running series of shows on the definitive radio station, Rinse FM, he broke many of dubstep’s biggest anthems and ushered in new directions for genre – though not the most populist, Americanised breakaway movement that some call brostep.
Youngsta continues to expose original forms by young producers as he blends new music in his unique style: low-down and elephant-heavy. He’s never produced his own tracks, just devoted himself to DJing, ignoring the fads and sticking to the original dubstep ethos of meditative bass, open space and inventive rhythm. A couple of years ago he set up Contact, in affiliation with Rinse FM and the original dubstep label Tempa, to create a positive space in which to continue these ideas – this night has partnered with Contact to spread the gospel to Wales. Contact regular J:Kenzo has been a musical compatriot of Youngsta for about a decade now. His music is strongly influenced by stepper’s dub as well as the more ravey sounds you might expect to hear on a club soundsystem.
Finally, in a tempo departure from Submerge’s history, they’ve pulled in the exciting Sam Binga – a Bristol-based producer and man of many genres and aliases with an outstanding history in nu-skool breaks, slow house music and anything else he’s tried his hand at. For the last few years he has operated in the realms of drum’n’bass, but not as you know it. He’s a rhythmic explorer, fashioning new rhythms out of deconstructed and slowed down breakbeats, blending US hip-hop and dancehall forms with futuristic jungle tearouts. Get amongst it.
Admission: £15/£10 adv. Info: 029 2023 2199
words GWYN THOMAS DE CHROUSTCHOFF