Oris Jay Darqwan
Man, I remember when 2-step was blowing up in the late 90's. You couldn't throw a stone without hitting some club with a dedicated 2-step night. Now, though? It's all but disappeared. It's not completely dead. It's got a faint heartbeat, IMO and it definitely lives on, but in a totally different way.
Today's track is from Oris Jay Darqwan. Born and bred in Sheffield, UK, Oris Jay dominated the UK music scene for more than a decade and became the most revered electronic music producer in the history of British bass music. He completely owned the 2-step genre in every which way possible. So, of course I had to start off this 2-step/breaks week with a track from the "Biggin' Up Da Massive" 12 inch from the year 2000--the peak year of the 2-step genre.
Since then, 2-step has, depending on which camp you're in, either devolved or evolved into newer genres characterized as "dark 2-step," "grime," "nu dark swing," "dark garage" and dubstep. I guess it's not that hard to conceptualize such a change. Each of the aforementioned genres has remnants of that which made 2-step what it was. The deep, vibrating bass beats certainly carried over.
Nowadays, Oris Jay is still making beats and he still produces UK Garage and dubstep, one of 2-step's progeny. Check out his first and latest album, "To The Fly" released August 2012 which is billed as a mix of UK Garage and grime. Here's a radio rip of Track 2 of that album.
So, there you have it. There's no use getting stuck in the past. It's out with the old and in with the new. As much as I will always love and appreciate classic 2-step, I have to say that I'm digging these new genres, too. Oris Jay's SoundCloud page is pretty active, so definitely check that for all the latest.
