What is darkstep?

Darkstep is fast, cold, and heavy. Quick chopped breaks, ominous atmospheres, and a mood pulled from dark ambient, industrial, and hardcore. It’s drum & bass at its most menacing.

Its roots run back to darkcore, the “darkside” hardcore that took hold from late 1992, which steered rave away from pianos and euphoria toward dread and bass. Doc Scott, 4 Hero, Bizzy B, and Goldie as Rufige Kru made up its first wave, much of it on Reinforced Records. Hardstep, a gritty, drum-focused style, followed in the mid-1990s. Darkstep itself crystallised in the late 1990s, absorbing the stark minimalism of techstep and the menace of early darkcore.

Darkstep is the darkest edge of the family, cut from the same cloth as techstep.