Hold onta ya butts!
So before we drown in a chorus of “where’s [insert record here]?!” tweets, here are some of the restrictions we put on it. First, because dubstep was such a vinyl-focused genre in both its principles and practicalities, we wanted to focus on records. Both A-sides and B-sides are taken into account when ranking these releases, and if something was only released as part of an album, it doesn’t count (so no ‘E-Trips’, no ‘Intensive Snare’ and, sorry folks, no ‘Archangel’).
Second, although there are records on this list that musically have as much in common with grime and garage as they do dubstep, we tried to make sure that everything included fits into the dubstep world/movement/scene before it did any other – whether that’s due to the label it was on, the DJs that were playing it, or simply where it made most impact. When it came to records like ‘Hyph Mngo’, ‘CMYK’ and ‘Maybes’, we decided that they were too far removed from dubstep to qualify.
Third, timeframe. We’ve deliberately focused on dubstep’s peak period (call it roughly 2005-2009), partially because that’s when it was developing most rapidly, partially because that’s when it seemed like most like a movement, before things splintered, and partially because that’s just when the best records came out. No shade aimed at System, Deep Medi, Kahn, Tectonic or any of the others who’ve continued to release excellent dubstep records deep into the 2010s, and no shade to records like Artwork’s ‘Red’ or the likes of Horsepower, which just comes too early to realistically count.
They made a fuck load of rules and cut loads of stuff out for no real reason.
40 Silkie vs. Mizz Beats ‘Purple Love’ (Deep Medi Musik)
39 Dusk + Blackdown ‘Focus’ / ‘Akkaboo’ (Keysound)
38 Toasty ‘The Knowledge’ / ‘Like Sun’ (Hotflush)
37 2562 ‘Channel Two’ (Tectonic)
36 Matty G ‘50,000 Watts’ / Loefah Remix (Argon)
35 Rusko Babylon: Volume 1 (Sub Soldiers)
34 RSD ‘Corner Dub (Blue & Red Mix)’ / ‘Pretty Bright Light’ (Punch Drunk)
33 Vex’d ‘Pop Pop’ / ‘Canyon’ (Subtext)
32 Various Production ‘Hater’ (Various Production)
31 Ikonika ‘Please’ (Hyperdub)
30 Martyn ‘Natural Selection’ / ‘Vancouver’ (3024)
29 Loefah & Skream ’28 Grams’ / ‘Fearless’ (Tectonic)
28 Omen ‘Rebellion’ (Tectonic)
27 Benga & Coki ‘Night’ (Tempa)
26 Untold ‘I Can’t Stop This Feeling’ / ‘Anaconda’ (Hessle Audio)
25 Geiom ‘Reminissin’ (feat. Marita) (Berkane Sol)
24 D1 ‘Missin’ / ‘Cocaine’ / ‘Firin’ Blanks’ (Tempa)
23 Joker / 2000F & J Kamata ‘Digidesign’ / ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is’ (Hyperdub)
22 Mala ‘Alicia’ (White Label)
21 Ramadanman ‘Blimey’ (Hessle Audio)
20 Zomby ‘Mush’ / ‘Spliff Dub’ (Rustie Remix) (Hyperdub)
19 Guido ‘Orchestral Lab’ / ‘Way You Make Me Feel’ (Punch Drunk)
18 Benga Invasion (Big Apple)
17 La Roux ‘In For The Kill’ (Skream’s Let’s Get Ravey Remix) (White Label)
16 Skream Skreamizm Vol: 1 (Tempa)
15 Pangaea ‘Memories’ (White Label)
14 The Bug ‘Poison Dart’ (feat. Warrior Queen) (Ninja Tune)
13 Coki ‘Tortured’ / ‘Shattered’ (Tempa)
12 Peverelist ‘Roll With the Punches’ / ‘Die Brücke’ (Punch Drunk)
11 Appleblim & Peverelist Soundboy’s Ashes Get Hacked Up And Spat Out In Disgust EP (Skull Disco)
10 Skream ‘I’ (Loefah Remix) (Tempa)
9 Joker Top Of The Game EP (Terrorhythm)
8 Untold Gonna Work Out Fine EP (Hemlock)
7 Mala ‘Left Leg Out’ / ‘Blue Notez’ (DMZ)
6 TRG ‘Broken Heart’ (Martyn’s DCM Mix) / ‘Put You Down’ (Ramadanman Refix) (Hessle Audio)
5 Burial South London Boroughs EP (Hyperdub)
4 Pinch ‘Qawaali’ (Planet Mu)
3 The Bug ‘Skeng’ (feat. Killa.P & Flow Dan) / Kode9 Remix (Hyperdub)
2 Skream ‘Midnight Request Line’ (Tempa)
1 Digital Mystikz ‘Haunted’ / ‘Anti-War Dub’ (DMZ)