Darkstep

Fast drums, dread in the air and a mood that never lets the room breathe: that's the dark one, darkstep, a derivative form of techstep that lives at the heavy end of drum & bass. Low end first, light nowhere.

Fast drums, black mood, no mercy

Darkstep is characterised by fast drums and a general dark mood, pulling in dark ambient, industrial and hardcore. Its family tree runs back through darkcore, a direct influence on drum & bass, which combined with drum & bass itself to give rise to the sound. Dark ambient for the atmosphere, industrial for the grit, hardcore for the rush: that's the recipe.

Heads will tell you the word covers a fair bit of ground. One record the word gets hung on is "Stonekiller", a 1996 release by Source Direct, which got a digital reissue on Metalheadz in 2017. Dread, ominous percussion, nowhere to hide: that's the feel the name is chasing.

Next door in the dark

Darkstep never sat alone. It's listed among the derivative forms of techstep, and darkside is worth a look too if you're digging this way. Renegade Hardware gets the nod for cultivating the dark side of the music. Behind the label were Clayton Hines and Mark Hill, and it was originally founded in 1996 as part of the TOV Music Group. Ed Rush & Optical are named as the pair who helped make neurofunk one of drum & bass's strongest subgenres, paving the way for Noisia and Black Sun Empire.

Then there's Rufige Kru, Goldie's project, whose first EP, "Darkrider", is dated to 1992. Hardcore shoved into darker, more futuristic territory.

The names behind the weight

The Panacea and Position Chrome

Mathis Mootz, born in 1976 in Wetzlar, Germany, records drum & bass as The Panacea. Across several albums and many singles, and in his role as A&R manager for the label Chrome, later renamed Position Chrome, he became known for pushing drum & bass into industrial and hardcore territory. Proper pressure.

The label began as "Chrome", a division of Mille Plateaux and Force Inc. Music Works, and became Position Chrome soon after Mootz took over its A&R in 1997. It started out as a hip-hop and percussion-oriented imprint before turning towards harder drum & bass. His albums Low-Profile Darkness (1997) and Twisted Designz (1998, Position Chrome PC 25) are the ones to dig for. The label was relaunched by Mootz in 2005, after the Force Inc. distributor EFA Medien went bankrupt in 2004. His later techno EP Above The Absolute (Sonic Groove) still shows the hardcore and drum & bass influences on its A-side, so the junglist in him never left the building.

Technical Itch and Tech Itch Recordings

Technical Itch is a British drum & bass artist from Birmingham, known for dark and intense hard-style beats, and the founder of Tech Itch Recordings. He had singles on Moving Shadow from 1996, including "Can't You See (Dub Mix) / Contents Of Thought", and the 1999 album Diagnostics on the same label. We also carry an interview page for Technical Itch if you want the man himself.

Dom & Roland

Dominic Angas, Dom & Roland, is an alumnus of Moving Shadow, and he's counted among the producers who helped pioneer techstep in the late '90s. The London producer began recording on the advice of Nico Sykes, released on Sykes's label in 1994, and started recording for Moving Shadow in 1996. His album Industry came out on Moving Shadow in 1998. In 2005 he founded Dom & Roland Productions. His album Last Refuge Of A Scoundrel is on Metalheadz. More in our article on Dom & Roland.

Limewax, Current Value and the hard scene

Limewax is the alias of the Ukrainian producer Maxim Anokhin, based in Tilburg. His first EP, Changing Crisis, came out on Tech Itch Recordings in 2005, catalogued as TI 044. A 2021 announcement had his next LP, on Evar Records, leaning towards the harder genres he plays: hard techno, drum & bass and jungle. Rinsing the hard stuff, in other words.

Current Value is Tim Eliot, whose album Biocellulose came out on Critical Music. He began releasing in the mid-1990s on Position Chrome, and he has worked with key names in the European hard scene, including Limewax, Counterstrike and Technical Itch. He has had support from the Dutch groups Black Sun Empire and Noisia, and an alignment with the more popular neurotech end of the drum & bass scene.

Other acts tagged darkstep on this site fill out the picture. Counterstrike are a South African duo, Justin Scholtemeyer and Eaton Crous, producing together since 1998. Black Sun Empire are a Dutch trio. Cooh is a producer from Sofia, Bulgaria, who has headlined Therapy Sessions events. PRSPCT Recordings is a Rotterdam label run by Thrasher.

Where the darkness went

Follow the dark thread and it leads through Renegade Hardware, Tech Itch, Position Chrome, Limewax, Cooh and PRSPCT, the names on this page: a whole stack of labels and producers keeping the sub heavy and the mood black. Also worth a listen: skullstep.