Find Your Sound · Result
The Bass Scientist
Half step, a sub bass you feel more than hear, and a lot of space.
Designed rarity: about 6% of takers
You want the weight. Dubstep came out of south London in the early 2000s, around a record shop in Croydon and nights like FWD at Plastic People and DMZ in Brixton, where producers like Skream and Mala made music that was mostly silence and sub bass. Skream's Midnight Request Line from 2005 still sounds like the future. You land here because you like a sound that is designed rather than played, and you care where the bass sits in a room more than most people care about anything.
You tend to choose a night by its sound system before its lineup, and you often find the sweet spot in the room and stay there. You are happy to stand still and listen, letting a record played at 140 but felt at half that speed settle into your chest. Grime, which came out of east London at the same time, faster and angrier, keeps you sharp between the heavy moments.
Your strength
You hear a sound system the way other people hear a singer.
Your blind spot
You sometimes treat a dance floor like a laboratory, and the night becomes research instead of fun.
Key takeaways
- Your sound is dubstep, grime and UK bass: weight and space.
- You care about sound systems more than almost anyone.
- The original scene worked because people danced, not because they took notes.
Genres to start with
Records to start with
In Seoul
Bass music in Seoul lives in small, well tuned rooms in Hongdae and Itaewon, where crews run dubstep, grime and UK funky nights, and rooms such as Cakeshop have become known for bass and club programming.
Your first night
Find a bass or dubstep night at a room known for its sound system, stand somewhere in the middle of the floor rather than by the wall, and let the sub do the work.
Rooms to try in Seoul
- Mushroom, Itaewon: Its bass nights run dubstep, grime and UK bass back to back, so you can feel the low end with a crowd that came for exactly that.
- Cakeshop, Itaewon: Seoul's most adventurous basement books global bass and club artists, and its sound system gives every sub bass hit the space it needs.
Rooms to try around the world
- The Great Northern, San Francisco: This warehouse style club brings sound system dubstep and grime artists like Kahn and Neek, so you get pressure and space the way the music intends.
- Strange Brew, Bristol: Bristol helped invent this sound, and this intimate club keeps booking UK bass leaders, so you hear the music in the city that shaped it.
- Reactor, Shanghai: Crews like Gully Riddim throw their bass, grime and dubstep nights here, so you can find the most dedicated low end crowd in Shanghai.
Your nearest types
Read next: The Seoul Scene, reported