This Woman Is Completely Possessed

Mary Anne Hobbs is the definitive authority on all things
dubstep and related to dubstep. A longtime music journalist, DJ, and
fervent pusher of experimental beats and the intense, wobbly bass that
defines the dubstep sound, she is touring the US in support of Wild
Angels, the latest in her trilogy of compilations on the
groundbreaking Planet Mu label. The first album in the series, Dub
Warriors, along with her weekly show (“Radio 1’s Experimental
Show”) on the BBC, are credited as pioneering forces largely
responsible for blowing up the budding genre worldwide.

Hobbs has the same massive enthusiasm in our phone conversation as
she does on the air, continually dropping huge phrases like “absolutely
amazing” and “completely mind-blowing” in an excitable British accent.
She explains, “I wanted to move beyond the core sounds of dubstep,
techno, and hiphop and choose artists that are building their own
causeways into the future, artists that are projecting forward from the
more primary sounds we’re used to hearing.”

Despite the visionary language, Hobbs is incredibly humble about her
influence on the popularity of dubstep and deflects some of the glory
onto the internet generation. “There’s an amazing sense of excitement
about reducing the degrees of separation between people. There used to
be all these layers of managers, and record labels, and club owners.
Now you can hit people up one-on-one, it’s fantastic. It’s given the
sound an amazing sense of forward movement.”

Yet still Hobbs remains quick to recognize the resourcefulness of
the dubstep scene as a whole. She explains: “Dubstep has created a
blueprint for the way a scene can operate. Here is an entire scene that
has remained 100 percent independent. Nobody is going cap-in-hand to
the major labels or seeking any kind of patronage from the traditional
industry at large. Every single artist is a master of their own
destiny, and nobody compromised anything. They wanted longevity and
they wanted control. Within dubstep, they found those two things, which
is amazing…. It’s what all musicians are looking for, really.”

Of course Hobbs has helped this world develop with her acute sense
for rooting out up-and-coming talent. Remaining modest, she simply
attributes her success in doing so to an innate connection to sound.
“There’s no accounting for taste, really, everyone has a completely
unique sense of what makes good music. If you love music, you’re a
great fan of sound—it touches you at the very soul. A great piece
of music is more than a physical sense, it’s spiritual,” says
Hobbs.

When the conversation turns to her listening habits, a stifling
obsession emerges. Hobbs discusses her overflowing inbox, describes the
internet as an overwhelming sea of sound, the impossibility of
listening to every single song that comes her way, and how she still
tries to cover everything despite the inundation. Her tone is absolute
and genuine, even a little guilty at the thought of what may slip
through the cracks. As she listens to music all day, then lays in bed
awake at night worrying about whether she’s done enough, it’s obvious
Hobbs’ passion is unshakeable.

Pressed about her own importance in escalating dubstep and being
known as a trusted curator of the sound, Hobbs goes from modest to
self-effacing, and half-jokingly says, “I’m lucky because people come
back to the radio show each week, and they trust me. But it’s just
because they know I’m a lunatic. I listen to music 10 hours a day.
They’re just thinking, ‘This woman is completely possessed, she’ll have
the goods this week.'”