- As the dubstep juggernaut hurtles from the darkened dance floors of London into the shiny world of pop music, it's sometimes easy to forget that there are still artists making and playing good old fashioned wobble-free, sub-bass-driven dubstep. FWD>> is one such place. Since the club night began in the early '00s, it has been instrumental in helping shape several genres of UK bass music. At around that time, many producers were beginning to feel that the garage scene had stagnated. In South London, producers started to concentrate on the darker strains of garage, a sound that eventually morphed into what we now know as dubstep. It was at FWD>> that these producers tried out their newest tunes on their contemporaries, forging the sound on Plastic People's legendary sound system each week. In more recent times, the night has, along with its longtime collaborator Rinse FM, moved towards UK Funky, another homegrown mutation of garage.
Still going after almost ten years, FWD>> throws a party at Plastic People every Thursday, while occasionally teaming up with Rinse to pack out fabric on weekends. At their most recent event at the famed London club, each room had a healthy variety of bass-heavy genres, and produced one of the most mixed and friendly crowds I've seen at the club in a while. Room One was heaving all night, and when Skream pulled one of his favourite party tricks at 4:30 AM by throwing himself into the crowd, the night came to a climax. Another particular highlight was Youngsta and N-Type's back-to-back, where the heaving sub-bass took advantage of fabric's bass bins, shaking the walls of the ex-meat packing house to its foundations. Marcus Nasty went on to play a bounce-inducing set of feel good UK Funky, while Spyro pulled out a flawless selection of grime.
There is no doubt that FWD>> is still the premier champion of UK Bass. And despite the super club feel of fabric, you could feel the energy flowing through the venue's cavernous halls. FWD>> represents exclusively homegrown British music, and that's why it always goes off—every local there can relate to it. It's something a bloke down the road probably made. It's something a bloke down the road was dancing to on this Friday night.