Thank God for Soul Jazz, eh? See, I do LIKE dubstep but can't really hope to keep up, what with writing about house music for a living, and being old, and stuff. So Soul Jazz's regular compilations are a godsend.
This second Steppa's Delight collection features primarily more underground names, rather than just the usual line-up of Skream/Plastician/Digital Mystikz/Burial… okay, there's a Benga track on there, and a Ramadanman/Appleblim collab, but most of the other names – Dot Dot Dash, Shed, Untold, Kutz, Octapush, Cluekid, to name but a few – are new to me. But then what do I know?
Well, what I do know is that if you want proof that dubstep is one of the most fast-evolving sounds on the planet, it's here. Just a few years ago a compilation like this would have sounded quite same-y; nowadays, however, dubstep takes in such a broad range of influences (from ambient to rave via house, techno, reggae, soul and jazz) and encompasses such a range of tempos (from chill-out to tear-out) that you're unlikely to ever get bored listening to this. Hell, you don't even have to hear it in a club for it to make sense any more! Highlights for me include the retro bleep of Dusk's Focus and the closing track Relocate by Dot Dot Dash, which kind of takes us full circle with its massive speed garage bassline; that said, there's not one of the 26 tracks that had me reaching for the button marked >>FWD (see what I did there?).
If TIWWD gave out marks this'd be a '9' at least. Maybe even a 10. And it's OUT THIS WEEK, so you know what to do! Click here to order it direct.
About the label: They've had props on here before, and so vast and varied is their output that I'd be very surprised if anyone reading this doesn't have at least one Soul Jazz album/CD in your collection. So here's the website and let's be done with it.
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