When word began to spread in late 2005 that Ricardo Villalobos was playing out alien dubstep anthem 'Midnight Request Line', it seemed almost too good to be true. Although interest in dubstep was already exploding, Skream's track had built its following in the same intimate London community of clubs and pirate radio stations where the sound first evolved – so could it really have stowed away in the record box of a Chilean minimal prophet?

Jump forward to July 2006, when Skream himself was invited to DJ at Berlin's Panorama Bar. On the same trip, he wandered into the legendary Hard Wax record shop - where another day you might have found Villalobos happily browsing - and got a reception he didn't expect. “They all knew who I was. They were so humble! I got a free T-shirt.”

But Skream is far from the only dubstep soldier to have caught the attention of the techno world. And, just as promisingly, dubstep is starting to wake up to techno. In fact, the tentative flirtation between the twenty-first century's two boldest strains of dance music may at last be turning into a full-blown love affair. Cue the soppy strings – and cue the punishing bass... 

Dub history 

Minimal techno's frigid machine tones might seem a world away from the post-jungle hedonism of two-step garage, out of which dubstep was born; and their common ancestor – Chicago house – is nearly thirty years in the past. But techno, of course, is no stranger to dub. Since 1993 Berlin's Basic Channel have conjured the spirit of King Tubby with tides of analogue crackle washing over a warm sub-bass pulse, soon followed by labels like Deepchord and Scape. Fabric resident Craig Richards sees their sound as a natural bridge between techno and dubstep. “Lets face it: if you love dub, you love all areas of dub from Lee Scratch Perry upwards.” Although Basic Channel have since moved on to more traditional roots reggae, Markus Ernestus, half of the duo, confirms that “we like what we hear” of dubstep.

Many techno apostles were reminded of Basic Channel when they heard the stunning self-titled debut LP by the mysterious Burial, which is also fogged with static. “I've always had the feeling with those dub techno records that I could listen to any one of them on loop for an 
eternity,” says Montreal producer Deadbeat. “That feeling is something that, in the dubstep scene, I think has only been captured by Burial so far.” The resemblance was not a conscious one: when Kode 9, founder of the Hyperdub label, sent Burial a CD of Basic Channel material, Burial's response was reportedly “Aw, fuck!” 

Blood flowing 

A third producer who has been beguiling the minimal elite is Skull Disco's Shackleton. Cassy Britton opened her recent Panorama Bar mix with 'Blood On My Hands', which puts a doomy incantation about the destruction of the World Trade Center over tribal drums and wary synth chords. “It's such a great track, I wanted everyone to hear it,” she says. But 'Blood On My Hands' also resulted in the most crucial collaboration yet between techno and dubstep: an eighteen-minute remix by Ricardo Villalobos.

The story began when Laurie Osborne from dubstep consortium Ammunition, who produces as Appleblim, saw that Villalobos was putting 'Blood On My Hands' at the top of his charts in magazines. Then in September 2006 all three were at Bestival. “I asked Shack to give me the parts of the track, and my intention was to hassle Ricardo and see what he thought,” says Laurie. “Trouble was, our wristbands didn't allow us backstage, so I grabbed my trusty Skull Disco hoodie, got down the very front of the Big Top dance tent where Villalobos was gonna play, and waited right up against the railings. At last he turned up, and while he was getting ready, I started waving this CDR about, pointing at the Skull Disco skeleton on my hoodie and shouting 'Ricardo! Ricardo!' like some demented fan! After a bit he noticed, hopped down to the barriers, gave me and Shack a big hug, and proceeded to open his set with 'Tin Foil Sky' by Shack pitched down to -4.”

Shackleton himself is delighted it worked out so well with Villalobos, who has now gone on to remix 'Midnight Request Line' too. “The bloke's just into music. He loves the Skull Disco stuff and we really appreciate that. One day we might even collaborate more directly.” He thinks 'Blood On My Hands' may have such broad appeal simply because he didn't make it with dubstep in mind. “I don't know much about different genres of electronic music so I can't say which buttons I'm pressing for any particular crowd. I know that if I started to make music for a specific genre then I'd lose that creativity.” 

Switching styles 

While big names like Surgeon, Luciano, Craig Richards and Alex Smoke are all dropping dubstep into their DJ sets, many other techno producers are going one step further and imitating the sound in the studio. (Indeed, they won't even be the first to take that path: Arthur Smith, who helped to invent dubstep as Artwork and half of Menta, started out producing techno as Grain.)

On Ellen Allien and Apparat's recent collaboration Orchestra of Bubbles, 'Metric' combined a Croydonesque bass wobble with live violins. “It was fun to produce,” says Ellen. “Dub has always been part of my music. Berliners like it dubby!” They certainly do: Hard Wax, where Cassy Britton works, now has a far bigger selection of dubstep vinyl than most London record shops. “It’s usually difficult to sell things that are not straight techno or house, but this time several customers and even DJs got hooked,” says manager Torsten Pröfrock.

Meanwhile, Manchester producer Andy Stott has brought out the crawling half-step beat on tracks like 'Blocked' and 'Choke'. “I first heard a dubstep track on a night out in Manchester and it just blew me away, I'd never heard anything like it. So I went away and had a bash at it.”

Dubstep will also loom large over Restaurant of Assassins, the forthcoming LP by Edinburgh's Neil Landstrumm. “I was pretty tired of the techno scene at the turn of the decade. It seemed played out and uninspiring to me, just endless shit loops over harsh busy beats. I'd been working on my own new rave style since then and conveniently a new UK urban sound came around just at the right moment.” Dubstep's conquering bass reminds him of rave aristocracy like LFO, Nightmares on Wax and Unique 3. 

Reciprocation 

While minimal techno is slobbering all over dubstep, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the infatuation was one-way. Until last year, Shackleton had never heard of Ricardo Villalobos or Cassy. (When the Ostgut label helpfully explained that Cassy had worked with Luciano, that was no help either: “I thought they meant the reggae guy!”) And if the producer now known as the Plastician had come across Richie Hawtin's Plastikman alias, he presumably wouldn't have risked legal trouble by trying to call himself Plasticman.

But dubstep is starting to take notice. Look at Skream: when 'Midnight Request Line' came out, he didn't even know what minimal techno was. Now he's remixed tracks by Leftroom's MarcAshken. “Doing those remixes has really swung me into the direction I'm going now,” he says. “I like the energy of techno.”

Meanwhile, Bristol's DJ Pinch, founder of the Tectonic label, has been into techno since long before dubstep existed. His sets often veer over the border into minimal. “In techno I think people achieve that meditational head-space through dancing to a repetitive, slowly-developing beat, whereas in dubstep it comes from the bass and its presence - both are hypnotic in different ways.” He loves labels like Basic Channel and Underground Resistance, and can't believe dubstep would be the same today without techno. “I think techno has made such an impression on dance music since the early Detroit days that it's too easy to take for granted even the simplest things.”

Perhaps most exciting, however, is Bristol's Peverelist. 'Erstwhile/The Grind', his most recent twelve-inch for his own Punch Drunk imprint, is neither dubstep nor techno, hovering somewhere beyond classification. “Often you can find a similar palette of sounds between the two genres, just with a different rhythmical emphasis,” he admits. But as is so often the way, the supposed leader of the movement doesn't even believe there is a movement. “I don't think a crossover will happen in a big way this year. I think, if anything, minimalism is less prevalent in dubstep now than it was back in 2000. Sure, you can easily draw similarites between dubstep and minimal techno, but you can just as easily between dubstep and jungle, or dubstep and a Mark Rothko painting.” 

Wide horizons 

Of course, it's not only techno acolytes who are applauding the dubstep takeover. The desolate glitch-folk of Leeds band Hood could hardly be more distant from the dancefloor, but lead singer Chris Adams was listening to dubstep obsessively while he recorded his Bracken solo project. “It's an overdue reminder about how damned important bass, simplicity and also emotion are in all music. And on a more philosophical and punk rock note, it's also a reminder that all you need is about a hundred quid's worth of computer equipment and a load of ideas to start a revolution!” In fact, there may be no style of music on which dubstep can't make an asteroid-sized impact.

But its pioneers are hoping it doesn't lose its identity in the process. “I don't want dubstep to just become part of techno,” says Skream. There's probably no danger of that: dubstep is still too young and virile to be swallowed up. When techno meets dubstep, expect it to result in some of the most thrilling club music of 2007. Just don't forget that line from Shackleton's 'Blood On My Hands': “Forms break down – they cannot last forever...” 

Thanks to Laurie at Ammunition. 

 

Sidebar: five tracks that define the crossover 

1. Shackleton – Blood On My Hands (Ricardo Villalobos remix) (Skull Disco): techno takes on dubstep
2. MarcAshken – Roots Dyed Dark (Skream remix) (Leftroom): dubstep takes on techno
3. Andy Stott – Blocked (Modern Love): techno producer goes dubstep
4. Mala – Left Leg Out (DMZ): dubstep producer goes techno
5. Peverelist – The Grind (Punch Drunk): the first true hybrid?

 

Sidebar: top five other dubstep crossover tracks 

1. with folk: Various – Today (XL)
2. with grime: Skream – Tapped feat. JME (Tempa)
3. with UK hip hop: Foreign Beggars – Bollocks feat. Vex'd (Dented)
4. with metal: Distance – Traffic (Planet Mu)
5. with drum'n'bass: Skream – Midnight Request Line (Zinc remix) (Tempa)

 

Sidebar: check out the crossover this month 

On Saturday 3^rd March at Fabric they've got Luciano, Craig Richards, Kode 9, and Rhythm and Sound all in the main room – if you want to understand where dub is in the twenty-first century, you need to be there. 'I don't know yet what I'm going to play, because I don't usually decide until the actual evening of the gig,' says Kode 9. 'But I always like to throw a couple of non-dubstep wild cards in.' It could be Juan Atkins or Ricardo Villalobos. 'I also sometimes drop the odd Monolake tune like 'Static', which is very close to some dubstep anyway.'

Then on Thursday 8^th February between 2 and 4 in the morning, you can hear an edition of The Breezeblock, Mary Anne Hobbs' Radio 1 show, devoted to the techno/dubstep intersection, with both DJ Pinch and Ricardo Villalobos. 'The crossover's already happening in a big way and it's really exciting,' says Mary Anne. Her Warrior Dubz compilation on Planet Mu was the first ever to put dubstep and techno on the same CD. 'I want to smash traditional genre-ghettos to bits!'