Distance

dubstep

There are at least six artists. 1- DJ Distance is a South East London-based producer who was instrumental in dubstep’s early development. Real name Greg Sanders, Distance is credited with introducing the much-imitated heavy riffage of metal to dubstep at the dawn of the genre. Before picking up Cubase and becoming a producer, he was a fan of heavy and industrial bands like Pantera and Fear Factory. In 2001 he was being drawn to the dark garage sound that was all around him in South London. Tracks by Oris Jay or Wookie on DJ EZ’s Saturday night show on Kiss FM caught his ear. He began to obsessively buy records from Blackmarket and Croydon’s Big Apple Records, on seminal labels like Tempa and Bingo. Attending FWD>> at its inception when the crowd of 15 or 20 consisted almost entirely of producers, Distance soon took to producing himself. He would bring his early tracks to the club and exchange them with the others creating the new sound, like Scuba, Mala, Jay Da Flex, Caspa and Plastician. Distance’s first release was a white label in 2003, then he was the first 12” put out by Hot Flush (Mount Kimbie, Joy Orbison) and went on to release tracks on Pinch’s Tectonic label, and the influential Boka label. Regular bookings at clubs DMZ, FWD>> and Exodus followed. Rinse FM gave him a show (James Blake on his one hour ‘new artists’ section was one discovery). The late great John Peel was one of the first DJs to play Distance’s tracks. Distance was selected by Ma...