I'm not gonna go and pretend that I'm the expert on this new fangled genre called "dubstep," but it looks like, or maybe already is the next grime. I have no judgement or radar on what's the proverbial hot shit in the UK clubs or underground soundsystems or whatever they're called, but the stuff I've heard so far that gets tagged as dubstep sounds pretty silky smooth.

Based on the almighty Wikipedia's entry on the genre, it seems to share space with the tradition of reggae soundclashes, but doesn't yet have the kind of infamy grime possessed right out of the gate (i.e. Dizzee Rascal getting shot before his album dropped stateside). Musically, I'd go with saying that it sounds a tad like an instrumental version of grime, but I'll go one better (or worse?) and admit I couldn't help but think of trip-hop stalwarts like Massive Attack/Portishead/Coldcut, etc etc etc. Hopefully dubstep stays on the righteous path and doesn't succumb to the oversaturated blandness of trip-hop, like showing up on Starbucks mixes and Global Mega Chill boxsets.

Below is what I guess is a rather well known dubstep track called "Midnight Request Line" by Skream, whose like 19 and a big mover and shaker over there. Also, the track "Glass" by Kode9 + The Spaceape totally reminds me of that downtempo Rockers Hi-Fi song used in the Topher Grace freebase scene from Traffic, so therefore I still think it sounds really cool and futuristic.

Skream- "Midnight Request Line"

Kode9 + The Spaceape- "Glass"