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 Goldie and others pushed from late 1992, which steered rave away from pianos and euphoria toward dread and bass. 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.