(Included are the published version and then uncut version)

 

 

The bar is sweaty and filled to capacity; stranglers still wait behind for their drink before returning to the dance floor. The crowd keeps their hands up in the air, following the slow melodic start of the song. The beat gradually gets faster, some synthesized sounds or singing grow louder, and together the mass anticipates the most important part of the song.

The world pauses for a moment and there’s virtually silence in the bar, waiting for the most crucial part of any dubstep song – the drop. The DJ is rocking his head, the crowd jumps and dances in unison and they can feel the bass in their chest. By then, the wob has taken over, and they don’t care about the sweat, they don’t care about the alcohol – they just want to feel.

You can’t pass a street post downtown without seeing an event poster for dubstep. This form of electronic music is booming in Ottawa culture, and is becoming even more popular throughout
artists like Skrillex, Flux Pavillion and 12^th Planet. Today, dubstep is bleeding into popular pop music like Britney Spears’ Hold It Against Me or hip hop like Kanye West and Jay-Z’s Who Gon Stop Me.

Dubstep isn’t exactly the easiest thing to describe as all DJs are different, but it’s mainly large bass lines, drum patterns and occasional vocals. And like every genre, it comes with an entirely different lexicon like ‘dirty’ and ‘filthy’.

Jared Lebel and Anthony Bucciarelli are part of the group Bass Machines, a dubstep duo straight from Ottawa. The group has been rising in popularity, playing venues like Ritual Nightclub and Babylon. To Lebel, dubstep is an international communal language of music, and it’s only growing more powerful in Ottawa.

Being on the forefront of electronic and metal music, Lebel branched off into more jungle and 90s rave culture and was brought into the scene by drum and bass music.

“Anthony and I started mixing mostly electro and house [when] dubstep started getting popular. I always loved it and once we started noticing everyone enjoying it, we started throwing it in our shows,” Lebel said.

Through parties and shows, Bass Machines saw the dubstep culture in Ottawa growing and are now part of the tight-knit community. They created their own mantra called FREE:BASS. Bass Machines wanted listeners to get addicted to their music and keep them coming back.

“We wanted to be like a big family for dubstep. We just wanted a big turnout, we’re not there to make money off it,” said Bucciarelli.

Back before the scene got fairly popular, Bass Machines were throwing parties under the FREE:BASS name and bringing huge DJs to Ottawa.

“It’s a style of music that I think anyone can relate to, because no matter what kind of music you like, there’s a dubstep song out there that’s similar to it or samples something from it,” Lebel said.

The dubstep community has been likened to the metal community, a very tight-knit group of music lovers. Bradley Boileau is one of those devoted fans.

“What was interesting in the discovery was just how wide dubstep could be,” Boileau, a religion and culture student at the University of Ottawa said. “There are a variety of different genres of dubstep in every continent of the world.”

Through research, Boileau found dubstep in all corners of the world, and it only pushed his love for the genre further.

“It has such a profound affect on people, and I found it surprising because it effected who I considered myself to be, much more than anything has up-to-date. You go to shows and it’s such a powerful and energetic atmosphere and you can dance for hours, and for me it’s sort of cleansing,” Boileau said.

While dubstep grows, that close sense of community has helped bring in music lovers and unite passionate ‘dubbers’ like Boileau with all who attend events. The number of attendants for events like DUBSMACK at Ritual is steadily rising, as well as DJs whose tours include Ottawa rather than going to either Toronto or Montreal.

Carlyle Doherty, the CEO and founder of KNWLDG NTRTNMNT, is one of the key activists for dubstep in the Ottawa area. Together with supporters, photographers and DJs, KNWLDG NTRTNMNT acts as the promoter for some of the most anticipated events for bassheads with acts like Gemini, Dub FX, Adventure Club and Borgore.

Doherty noticed a large number of hip-hop events in the city, and wanted to try something different. After hearing the hit song Sierra Leone by Mt. Eden, he thought dubstep was something he enjoyed and wanted Ottawa to enjoy as well. The first DUBSMACK event took place April 2010 with Vancouver-bred DJ Rainman and the event was a success.

“We ended up having 200 to 250 people come out, so when something like a local launch event goes that well, it’s a sign of good things to come,” Doherty said.

Within six months, the brand DUBSMACK had grown huge and popular DJs were making their way to Ottawa. With theknwldg.com blogging new music, their thoughts on DJs and promoting events, this company and the strong fan base have helped push the new style to where it is today.

Now DUBSMACK, hosted every second Friday at Ritual Nightclub, plays host to 350 people and the crowds can’t get enough of it.

“There were so many people who didn’t know about [dubstep] or what the music was like, they just saw it as really loud Transformer noises. I think DUBSMACK, along with theknwldg.com, has been a pivotal partnership in showing everyone what dubstep is and showing them why they should like it,” Doherty said.

Cities all around Canada and the world are becoming more intact with the electronic music scene, and Ottawa is not dragging behind. Artists are growing more and more popular and this is only the beginning.

“The sky is the limit – It will be whatever people allow it to become and whatever people will push it to become. The fact that it can differentiate itself from other genres will be very beneficial,” Doherty stated.

Dubstep is being described as the “alternative music of our generation,” and while some people think it’s just noise, you can’t really understand how this community moves and works until you go to a live show. Watch out for dubstep, it’s growing fast.