LISTS The Next Step: A New Generation of Artists Is Reinvigorating Dubstep By Oli Warwick · Illustration by [Natalia Pawlak](https://daily.bandcamp.com/contributors/Natalia Pawlak) · September 18, 2025 
LISTS The Next Step: A New Generation of Artists Is Reinvigorating Dubstep By Oli Warwick · Illustration by [Natalia Pawlak](https://daily.bandcamp.com/contributors/Natalia Pawlak) · September 18, 2025
“Last Friday, I played at pe:rsona with Jan Loup,” explains one one of those artists, the Paris-based Beatrice Masters, otherwise known as Beatrice M. “We started with proper wobblers, wheeling up tunes and jumping on the mic but dressed really feminine. Sometimes I really enjoy playing proper wubs because they’re so bro-y that it makes me feel really empowered.”
Dublin, Ireland
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Dublin, Ireland
In its embryonic stage, dubstep was a broad sound that reflected many influences and took on many forms. It shook up rhythm and tempo, and helped spearhead a genre-agnostic attitude in club music that endures to this day. As the music became more codified, the harder mid-range wobble-bass became more dominant, eventually becoming a maximalized, macho mutation that felt a long way from the meditative sound system roots of the music. Masters might have an affinity for gnarly, visceral bass—stopping short of EDM-esque brostep excess—but they’re more tangibly attuned to the dubwise principles and experimental spirit of the music emerged at its outset.
“When modern-day dubstep fractioned into the unofficial but widely accepted umbrella term ‘140,’ this created some sonic ambiguity,” says London-based DJ Mia Koden, referring to the beats-per-minute the genre gradually began gravitating towards. “What I produce is often intentionally inspired by dubstep, but the act of intersecting dubstep with various other sonic worlds really re-lit a fire in me. I know a lot of my peers from my earlier dubstep days feel the same.”
Labels like Dimeshift, a relatively new operation out of Bristol, one of dubstep’s original focal points, explicitly nod to the sound of the early ‘00s. But in the scene surrounding artists like Koden or Masters and their label, Bait, there’s an ever-growing clutch of artists taking cues from the more expansive era of the latter half of the decade, when dubstep started to cross-pollinate with other genres, especially techno. Masters explored the time period in-depth with an article and show on NTS Radio.
Berlin, Germany
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Berlin, Germany
“At first I was saying ‘Wow! I just came across this crazy thing guys—you can blend techno and dubstep!’” laughs Masters. “Then I started studying the subject and realized it’s been done for the last 20 years, and it’s actually part of the DNA of dubstep. But it still sounds so fresh that when I came across it, I thought it hadn’t been done before.” While Beatrice’s passionate drive has led to them connecting with long-established dubstep labels like Tectonic, their focus both as a DJ and running Bait is on bringing through new talent from their community. It’s no longer a UK-centric, male-dominated scene like the early days, and as such the sound moves in different directions. Still, in Bait and Beatrice’s sets you can hear the unmistakable stamp of the fractured percussion, looming sub bass, and mysticism that gives dubstep its unique appeal.
As ever, DJs and label heads are as pivotal to dubstep’s renewed vigour as the producers. From her base in Dublin, Irish DJ EMA is an ambassador for the scene through her label and club night Woozy, similarly uplifting new names that share her deep love for bass-heavy dance music and fostering a tangible community around it. Masters and EMA are often on the same line-ups, and they’ve brought Woozy and Bait together for shared parties in the past. There’s a strong sense of camaraderie and shared goals that fortifies the sense of a scene despite geographical distances.
France
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France
Ghanaian-British Londoner Koden also feels intrinsic to this exciting moment in dubstep’s evolution. She brings a strong dubwise sensibility to her omnipresence across club and festival lineups, series of mixes, and radio shows. The difference with Koden is that she’s shaping out her own narrative with a steady, minimal fuss run of self-released EPs and singles on her own Bandcamp (albeit after a striking debut EP for dubstep-techno crossover powerhouse Ilian Tape). Away from the machinations of labels and promo campaigns, her decision to put out music herself feels like a more natural channel between artist and audience closer to the original community spirit and dubplate culture of soundsystem music.
There are, of course, many other labels and artists committed to adventures at 140 BPM in 2025. Ironically for a genre also named by its tempo, one of the interesting twists on Bait is a series of Various Artist releases specifically showcasing dubstep productions at 150 BPM. The pace might be different, but there’s no mistaking the genealogy of the sound. The same goes for Masters’s own music, even when it pushes past 160: No matter how different it hits, you can hear the dubstep influence through everything they release. And therein lies the difference, where the affinity for the roots meets with a thirst for new approaches. Although these artists are already a few years into their careers, everything feels wide open as to where the sound heads from here. “What I really like about all these dubstep-techno sounds is that it feels like there’s so much more to be done,” says Masters. “Even though it’s already been done for 20 years, it feels like it’s only just getting started.”
Andrae Durden
Berlin, Germany
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Berlin, Germany
Galician producer Andrae Durden co-runs the label Ecco from her base in Valencia, Spain, and also pops up on Bait and assorted other labels. Here, she gets an EP to herself. The smooth-rolling purr of “Humo” is the perfect distillation of dubstep traits with a distinctive sound palette—cast in velvet, but with that crucial whipcrack snare on the third beat. This was released by Darwin’s pivotal SPE:C label from Berlin—a vital conduit for modern manifestations of bass music mirrored by the scene-leading Reef parties.
Beatrice M. & Jan Loup
Montreal, Québec
Montreal, Québec
Freshly delivered mid-summer, this collaboration between Beatrice M. and Jan Loup perfectly sums up the spirit of the dubstep scene right now. The swirling, deeply layered production reflects modern techno detailing, but the expressive bass and sense of icy meditation is quintessential dubstep. Subtlety and intensity set the tone, but not at the expense of flair that spills out of every fill and effect splash. It’s notable that the release has arrived on naff, Priori and Ex-Terrestrial‘s well-established church of leftfield, ambient, and broken beat techno.
Carré
Dublin, Ireland
Dublin, Ireland
The most recent release on EMA’s label Woozy features the fast-rising L.A.-born, London-based producer Carré. While she was still entrenched in the rave scene in her hometown, Carré set up the Fast At Work label and started making a name for herself with a stripped-back, true-school sound. On Meltdown, she leans into half-step rhythmic poise and cavernous dub techno chords, delivered with a sincerity that can’t be faked. But it’s “Crawler” where you hear her ploughing a vital furrow between dubstep and 2-step that’s all her own.
Delian Sound
Cambridge, UK
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Cambridge, UK
Operating out of Cambridge with a smattering of releases to his name, Delian Sound has a knack for taking the well-worn tropes of choppy breakbeats, gnarly bass, and cult vocal samples and making it sound brand new. He’s released music on Dimeshift and Outhouse in the past, but this fresh, self-released drop finds him flipping 1992 dancehall belter “Gangster’s Anthem” by Terror Fabulous two different ways to devastating effect. The drops are engineered to perfection, but everything feels rough and ready like proper soundsystem music should.
Gent1e $oul
Berlin, Germany
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Berlin, Germany
Operating out of Berlin, a city not typically known for dubstep, the Fast Castle label has stood out from the get-go. There’s definitely a more techno- and electro-tinted finish to the sound pushed byGent1e $oul across their Fast Castle releases, but the dubwise core of the music remains the defining factor. It manifests as steppas on “4TC Boom,” and Rolex3k collaboration “Paladin” hints to UK funky; but ‘+390’ absolutely delivers as a sparkling, original update on the dubstep tradition, loaded with ear-snagging hooks and an urgent rhythm section.
Herbalistek
Madrid, Spain
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Madrid, Spain
Tokyo has long had an affinity with soundsystem music, and duo Herbalistek continue that tradition with their sumptuous, elegant strain of dubstep. Theirs is a more mysterious strain of the music, teeming with textural detail and avoiding obvious peaks and troughs in favor of engrossing, sustained immersion. Their latest release arrives on 95 Open Tabs, a Spanish label attached to the Refractor festival that has become an essential meeting point for the more psychedelically-inclined corner of the bass music scene.
Mia Koden
London, UK
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London, UK
True bass devotees will always argue for the healing properties of a proper soundsystem experience, and Mia Koden spells that out on her most recent self-released EP. “Made during a period of fatigue but I was motivated to feel better and step forward,” she writes in the album notes. “Built for dancefloors.” There’s a lean, sharply focused quality to the way Koden builds her tunes, keeping focused on the essential ingredients including, most vitally of all, the space in-between the beats. The challenge in minimal music is finding your voice, and Koden’s tracks are loaded with personality and charm unique to her ever-growing output.
Old Man Crane
France
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France
Having originally lost Old Man Crane’s tracks on their hard drive, Beatrice M. re-discovered the files without context and for a second thought they were the work of an OG dubstep guy from the early ‘00s, so authentic was the sound. Upon tracking down the artist and signing the tracks to Bait, they were pleasantly surprised to learn the music was the work of an emergent female producer from Leipzig, Germany, who just happened to have a startling instinct for the patterns and pressure of dubstep. What marks out the Hepp EP is the narrative of each track, where sharp turns and subtle subversion keep the dance locked in a state of intrigue while being thoroughly massaged by dexterous drums and throbbing low-end.