The recent decline of dubstep in the Netherlands left members of a once thriving scene misplaced, disgruntled and quite frankly, completely out of sorts. The decline was fast, and global in many ways. Like many genres, countries and music scenes, the Netherlands saw a wave of promoters cancelling events due to post-covid financial difficulties; leaving ravers, artists and promoters in an involuntary and impossible situation. It was hugely unpopular, and although love for the music was still rife, many felt lost in limbo.
After a few years of pining day and night for big, fat wobbly basslines, but with no events to unravel in, the community took action, coming together to bring the scene back to life.
Enter Dubstep Netherlands into the chat: a collective of DJs, artists, promoters and ravers pushing the genre and cultivating a community for the sound to flourish all over again.
We spoke with Davy, one of the creators, to find out more.
Davy! What and who are Dubstep Netherlands?
Dubstep Netherlands are a crew of about 10 people from the Netherlands who are all DJs, organizations, producers and artists. We’re all working together to build up the community. Before COVID happened, we had already seen a decline in events in our country. After COVID, there were not many left and it was a hard task to keep the scene alive. One of our friends said ‘We need to do something about this.’ That’s when it all started. He made a WhatsApp group and posted an invite link. More and more people started to join. The crew now consists of people from Ascension, who were formerly known as Ignition, another organisation called Cosmosh and more individuals who want to see dubstep thrive again! We started with a WhatsApp community and then within a short time, we had 150 members. We set up a Discord and really started to expand what we do. We’re now working on discord events, real events, releases and so much more. There’s a lot in the planning right now. Everyone has their own role in the organisation. Some people make the art, some people do our social media. When I joined, I said I wanted to create a compilation album. I started working on it and said ‘Hey guys, I have a line-up, I have these artists confirmed.’ Everything went from there.
Yes! The album is called ‘Get Cheesed Vol.1’. Love the name.
Obviously, because we are Dutch! There’s a little bit of humour in the name too.
Of course. What was the aim with the album?
We wanted to get as many styles of dubstep in there as possible. We wanted to keep it fresh, showcasing the talent and variety our small country has to offer. We have deep tunes, we have tearout tunes, we have everything. There are tunes for everyone’s liking! We didn’t just want big names on the album, but also upcoming locals who are working hard and who we think deserve the spotlight. Most of the names on the album are names that the Dutch scene are familiar with. If not, then now is the time to check them out!
Who are some of the artists who feature on the album?
We have Madcore & VALK involved, who are obviously pretty well known in the riddim stuff. Ricky West, he recently had a release out on Disciple too, so he’s busy building up his name. ELLE RICH, people call her the tearout queen. Soulless Cvlt, who are building up their name in the ‘deathstep’ area. gladde paling – You need to listen to his music! That’s just to name a few. There’s a lot of variety on the album. It’s good so
people don’t get bored quickly. We have a lot of talent in the country, we want to platform our artists.
When did dubstep get big in the Netherlands and what happened to the scene since this time?
Dubstep in the Netherlands became big when Flux Pavillion started to blow up around 2010. Back then we had events like 50Hurtz, Subway, Resist, SAW and RFLX which would have artists like Excision, Datsik, Skream, Borgore and many many more to come down and play. Back then, it was pretty big. I’ve been going to events for a long time. Slowly it was just going downhill, the lineups were getting less interesting, less events were existing. Right now, there aren’t that many events left in the country. Big shoutout to events like Ascension, Cosmosh, Skankbass, No Chill Sessions and Reload for keeping dubstep in The Netherlands alive! And a special shoutout to Nocturnal Sessions for hosting streams on Twitch and inviting almost every dubstep artist from the country!
You have a Dubstep Netherlands YouTube Channel with a series called ‘Spotlight’. Why was this an important aspect of what you do as a collective?
We are putting the Spotlight on the talented artists we have in our small but mighty country! We wanted to make a more intimate environment so that the artists and fans can connect with each other. We noticed that during the first few Spotlight sets, the artists were having good conversations with the fans too and everyone loved the first edition. Besides that, we all enjoyed some amazing sets! It’s about connecting people together. That’s what we’re about. We’ll have way more of these Spotlight sessions in the near future!
What does the future hold for Dubstep Netherlands?
We are currently working on showcases and events. We are really excited about that. After this compilation, we want to make everything bigger and better. We’d like to make the collective into a label too, opening up submissions so people can send their tracks to us. More than anything, we want to continue to build on the community and champion the Netherlands Dubstep scene!
READ
