A quick Google search on dubstep DJs Excision, Dieselboy or any of their openers coming to The Blue Note on Saturday will give you the basic information: Who they are, where they’re from, what their music is like, when their shows are and how you can buy tickets.
Countless YouTube videos pop up to give those interested a taste of what to expect when the tour stops by this weekend and fans can stalk them via Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. What is undeterminable by this search, though, is why they do what they do and why they have developed a cult following — two considerations that are crucial in understanding their mixes.
It’s hard to fit DJs such as Excision and Dieselboy into a single genre since they mix, overlap and combine styles constantly to create a cohesive sound that has best been described as dubstep, a relatively new name for a flourishing genre.
“I play cutting edge, layered, aggressive bass music,” DJ Dieselboy (Damian Higgins) said in an email. “I take pride in the craft of DJing and layering tracks. My goal is to make the party hop and the mosh pits begin.”
Cutting edge and aggressive are two common ideas used to describe the music dubstep DJs mix, and they have drawn a cult following to the 140 beats-per-minute energy. Higgins attributes the success of the genre to the slower bpm.
“I have always felt drum and bass had the most energy in dance music,” Higgins says. “Its only real downfall was the fact it was 175+ beats per minute. Most people hear drum and bass and are like… it’s too fast. Current Dubstep captures the energy of drum and bass but pulls it down to a more palatable 140 beats per minute, which works for non-diehard dance kids.”
Higgins’ explanation hit the nail on the head for freshman Joe Mabrey.
“I like Dubstep because of its drops and overdriven bass lines,” he says.
Whether you like to mosh or just dance a lot, the show on Saturday appears to be the place to see and be seen. The bpm of the Excision and Dieselboy mixes create an indescribable atmosphere that can only be experienced live. Seeing a YouTube video or listening to an album, as suggested above, can give a potential fan the sense of what the music is sounds like, but fails to capture the energy of a few hundred college students and twenty-somethings piled into one building with the bass pounding and feeling the place come alive.
“Dubstep is a lot like love,” freshman Erik Settingsgaard says. “It’s all a feeling, and it fills the room from the floor to the ceiling.”
Still having trouble figuring out what to expect at a dubstep show?
“(Expect) a selection of the dopest high energy bass music with a guy who has been doing it for 20 years and knows how to manipulate the music to be as high energy as it possibly can be,” Higgins says. “Expect a riot on the dance floor.”