MusicRadar

Magnetic Man: (Left to right) Benga, Artwork and Skream

2002. Dubstep is a fledgling sound emerging from the roots of UK garage, 2-step and a love of old Jamaican dubplates. At the time the genre barely exists outside of London and even within the capital it's confined to relatively small underground pockets focused around the newly formed East London club night FWD>> and pirate radio station Rinse.

Back then the heart of dubstep was Croydon record shop Big Apple Records. Employees and regular clientele included some of the genre's pioneers: Hatcha, Digital Mystikz, Loefah, Artwork, Benga and Skream.

The label that grew out of the shop's community in late '02 would go on to release some of the first proper dubstep 12-inches, including releases by all of the artists mentioned above.

Skip ahead eight years and dubstep has transformed from a small underground experiment into a huge global force in the world of electronic music. Dubstep raves are no longer exclusively underground affairs, Rinse has recently been granted a proper radio license and a handful of producers and artists stand on the verge of crossing over into the realms of proper mainstream popularity.

Leading dubstep's charge onto daytime radio playlists and main-stage festival appearances are Magnetic Man, a supergroup of sorts comprised of three alumni from the early days of Big Apple Records: Skream, Benga and Artwork.

The group's debut album drops courtesy of Columbia Records next month (a dubstep full-length on a major label = big news), so MusicRadar caught up with Artwork to chat about live gear, producing the album and how the process of making dubstep has changed since those early days.

Going Live

It may be mainstream success that's got people talking about Magnetic Man of late, but it's not just signing to a major that sets the group apart from the genre's roots. From a musical point-of-view it's the three-piece's focus on live performance, something very rare in the world of dubstep, which we find fascinating.

"A lot of what we do is about our live show," Artwork explains. "We've got three copies of Ableton Live on three MacBook Pros and they're all synced via MIDI. One's got drums, another bass and one's got the toplines. We can just set them off on their merry little way, but we're able to jump in, so you can nick a bassline or a topline from somewhere and move it around on the fly.

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