Walking towards the church, on its own little island in the middle of Brixton, always brings on a buzz of excitement and anticipation that is only ever felt at that moment every two months. The notorious pilgrimage up the winding stairs, the bass getting louder, deeper, and more physical the closer you get. Walking into darkness with only sub bass to guide you. Its time for DMZ.
Run by Digital Mystikz (Mala & Coki), Loefah and Sgt Pokes, DMZ has become one of the most legendary nights in the Dubstep community. Those who have been understand that it’s more than just a dance, it’s a whole experience. If you’re a follower of bass music, I can promise you there is nothing quite like standing next to the speakers in the darkness of Mass during one of Mala’s sets. Since it started in 2005 the night has created its own family of loyals who, without fail, make it to Brixton on the first Saturday of every other month. You start getting excited about the next one whilst you’re still in the club. It feels like two months is longer than you can wait before your next fix, although it is nice that the nights are spread out, it makes it feel that bit more special. Then there’s the inevitable mystery surrounding each nights lineup. Mala will generally only release the list in the week running up to the dance, although more recently he hasn’t even done that and it’s been up to those most keen to trawl the internet for clues. Most regulars take the view that it doesn’t matter who is on that list because it will always be good, and we trust that Mystikz will make the right choices for us.
There’s a mellower vibe in the dance at DMZ than in most clubs, the tagline for the night “Come meditate on bassweight” sums it up perfectly. There are obviously sets where the crowd get hyped and skank out, but the general feel is that people are just appreciating the music they love. The atmosphere has changed slightly the last few times, due to a change in the layout. Unfortunately they’ve taken out the DJ booth and now have a desk put up on the stage. This means you now face what used to be the back of the room, so without actually creating more space it has made the club feel a lot bigger (and lighter due to the doors to the hallway being behind you) so it’s lost some of its intimacy. But this is no biggie, as long as they don’t take away the soundsystem.
These days, to me, DMZ feels like the only place left that represents what dubstep was originally. There are so many spin-off genres that it’s hard to even say what we’re listening to anymore, beyond simply saying bass music. Not that that’s a bad thing, the umbrella genre of dubstep is constantly changing and offering a wider range of sounds. But DMZ has thankfully dug its heels in and kept true to how it was back in the early days of dubstep. The lineups do cater for the more recent evolutions (James Blake played the summer blazedown last July), but the majority of the names on that lineup are going to be bringing bass of the Digital Mystikz type. Deep.
The next dance is celebrating DMZ’s 6th birthday on Saturday 5th March at Mass in Brixton, and if it’s anything like the previous birthdays will have a crazy lineup. If you haven’t been before come and get a lesson in bass. And in the mean time, prepare yourselves with this 2006 Essential mix
filled with classics.
Guest contributor: Buttons MC
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