I’ve been thinking this for a while. Admittedly, I don’t live in London (although I’m very close) and dubstep isn’t my ‘main’ music I listen to anymore, so maybe I’ve missed a bunch of events. But I try to keep up with what’s going on and keep an eye on dubstep events and releases to see if anything takes my fancy. There’s definitely producers around at the moment who are doing cool things, this isn’t a “it was better back in the day” post (although imo it was obviously ). I’ve been to a couple of events over the past year or so, and still buy the odd tracks here and there. I know that genres need to evolve and not constantly look backwards, but I’m surprised there hasn’t really been a ‘classics’ night for ages.
I went to this 10 years ago and it was unreal. Proper legendary night:
This post was prompted by me going into my local wine shop earlier, and hearing Icicle - Xylophobia being played on the speakers (Yes, I know I’m old, but I wasn’t buying wine. Okay, I was buying alcohol free beer, yes I’m old )
There was a skream & benga set at fabric last year I think which is probably the closest thing. But honestly I don’t think a big classics night is what dubstep needs right now. There’s a lot of crews doing some really cool shit (mostly smaller events, but you’re seeing them play at bigger and bigger events) and those are a lot better. Yeah you get some classic tunes dropped here and there but it’s mostly people pushing new stuff which is a lot better imo
For what it’s worth, I’m not opposed to a night of classics but it really does depend. For example blackdown & dusk and also chef both did all vinyl dub sets at NLDC last year and those were fun because it was dubs you probably wouldn’t hear anywhere else, were mixed in amongst other sets & it’s a basement venue with a load of dubstep heads so the vibes were incredible. Now a bit longer ago, mala did 2001-2005 set which mostly consisted of dmz & deep medi cuts as expected. But this was at a much bigger venue and he didn’t really draw for that many deep cuts so for the most part it was a set most people could’ve played. On top of that when he did play something only mala probably has (e.g. Dun stinky or save me) there wasn’t that much reaction across the crowd and even though they had the sinia sound in the venue limited the sound so there wasn’t even the big sound to carry it. Martyn played that same night which was mostly new stuff mixed with a few techno/dubstep crossover classics which you never hear played out and that was so much more fun
NLDC, Dimeshift, Sublock, Juan Forte (though they did their last event last year), Hvywght does bigger events, Dub Stepping. There’s probably a couple I’m forgetting
). I’ve been to a couple of events over the past year or so, and still buy the odd tracks here and there. I know that genres need to evolve and not constantly look backwards, but I’m surprised there hasn’t really been a ‘classics’ night for ages.
(Yes, I know I’m old, but I wasn’t buying wine. Okay, I was buying alcohol free beer, yes I’m old 
)
