How Subsurface Had an Impact on the Italian and Austrian Dubstep Scene
If you’re familiar with the European dance music scene, you’ve probably heard of Northern Italian DJ duo Subsurface. Formed in 2010 by Clemens and Stefan “Subsurface”, the duo developed its very own style back in the days when the European dance music scene was dominated by House music and Techno. Only a few places in Europe managed to establish
an alternative music scene, usually led by some artists who kept pushing hard enough till they found some recognition. One of these spots was placed in the middle of the Alps in Northern Italy, with the help of Subsurface.
After playing their first shows in their hometown Bolzano (Northern Italy) in October 2010, they soon decided to move away from mainstream club music and got picked up by local label Culture Assaults Records. Besides being a well known Drum & Bass label, Culture Assault Records also organized some local parties where Subsurface gained their first experience in playing Dubstep sets. Heavily influenced by bass music pioneers Skrillex and Zomboy, a few months later they became part of local event series LOVE ELECTRO! Festival, which back then was one of the biggest EDM event series in Europe. At that point Subsurface started to play bass music sets combined with different influences on a regular basis and developed a fanbase in and around their hometown.
In 2014 and 2015 Subsurface decided to participate in the DJ contest of Austrian major festival Electric Love Festival (Salzburg). They won the contest both years in a row and were allowed to play a set at Club Circus London stage, which is well known for hosting some of the biggest bass music artists in the world. Together with Austrian natives WestMB they managed to introduce Dubstep music to the more Drum & Bass oriented audience and became known as the local pioneers of Dubstep and bass music in those areas.
Later in 2015 Subsurface had their first important release called “Mr. Magician” feat. Leanne Louise on Austrian label Moshbit Records. The melodic Drum & Bass single got uploaded by Youtube channel xKito and counts more than one million streams to date. In October 2016 Subsurface uploaded their unofficial remix of The Chainsmokers’ single ‘All We Know’ which went viral on Soundcloud. They took advantage of their recent success and published another remix of The Chainsmokers’ single ‘Paris’ in January 2017. The remix featured cover vocals by British singer Shaun Reynolds and Swiss singer Romy Wave and got featured on Youtube channel Trap City. It was the most important release of their career so far and earned them a lot of fame, which allowed Subsurface to bring their genres to the biggest stages in Northern Italy and Austria. Soon other local DJs picked up these genres and bass music events started to emerge.
In Northern Italy there was LOVE ELECTRO! Festival, hosting most of their events at Club Max (Bressanone), bringing out headliners like Flux Pavilion, Modestep, Kayzo or Virtual Riot to a region with lower population density than parts of Nevada. In Austria there were clubs like Die Kantine Salzburg, one of the best known underground clubs in the country or Lusthouse Haag, which started to bring out acts like Skism, Doctor P or Virtual Riot on a regular basis and major festival Electric Love Festival packed its Club Circus stage with acts like Pegboard Nerds, Zomboy, Nitti Gritti and Snails just to name a few. Subsurface were regular guests and headliners at these event series and became the most prominent face of the Dubstep and bass music scene in Northern Italy and Austria.
After their huge local success they started to play more international shows and kept releasing music, gaining support from superstars like The Chainsmokers, KSHMR or Timmy Trumpet. They played more than 50 shows per year and headlined festivals in other countries like Peru, Romania, Switzerland and Spain and started their first bus tour in 2019. The duo now has a huge fanbase in their country and is commonly recognized for bringing Dubstep and bass music to the masses.
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About the Author
Dr. Jerry Doby Editor-in-Chief of The Hype Magazine, Media and SEO Consultant, Journalist, Ph.D. and retired combat vet. 2023 recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Partner at THM Media Group. Member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, the United States Press Agency and ForbesBLK.
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