Dubstep Allstars Vol.07

For the 7th installment of the Dubstep Allstars series we drafted in Chef & Ramadanman to provide a snapshot of dubstep in 2009.

Chef, much lauded for his main room DJ sets, employs a more show and tell technique for this mix. Released from the obligations of moving a peak-time crowd, Chef affords each riddim good time to be absorbed. Rapid fire mixes are replaced with subtle mixer effects and 1 bar loops. In some cases tracks are simply cut out to make way for the next.

On paper this style could be almost nonchalant, but upon listening you realise nothing has been left to chance. It’s the journey as a whole which is Chef's focus, and–as outlined in the opening moments of his mix–it’s a journey of “so many stages”.

The peak–and–trough workout continues in earnest with Ramadanman on the second disc. Showing an acute sense of rhythm in both production and mixing. Testing a rookie ravers balance, he throws elastic rhythms into the mix and collides sonics to create multi textured soundscapes. Consistently demonstrating impeccable taste, Ramadanman draws on a school of artists who, like him, favour a clean, considered sound. He throws in dashes of grime with a handful of assured and abrupt riddims as well as the technoid, ethereal and rave-era influenced production which has allowed him to carve his niche as a DJ.