Crate Diggin': Headhunter selects five Bristol dubstep anthems

Antony Williams’ music goes from sub-drenched dubstep through to jittery electro, depending on which day you catch him. Originally coming from Bristol, he emerged as one of the scene’s leading artists under the alias Headhunter in the late 2000s, most notably as part of the influential Tempa imprint. But unlike many of his Bristolian contemporaries, to many people Williams is more recognisable under another guise: since 2010 he’s also been known as Addison Groove, a moniker he uses to blend electro, juke and house in collaboration with artists like DJ Die and Sam Binga. While Williams’ most recent output has fallen on the Addison Groove side of the coin, a recent revival of his Headhunter alias has seen him returning to his Bristolian roots. This Friday he dusts off the 140BPM section of his collection for a one-off back-to-back set with scene pioneer Pinch for our 19th birthday, so he sent us a list of his top 5 Bristol dubstep anthems as a brief teaser.

Custard Cream – Jakes [H.E.N.C.H]

I could pick about 20 Jakes tunes, but I'm sure some of these I have on dub plate never came out. We used to live together and we'd kind of battle each other on who could churn out the most tunes. It was when I was on Tempa. I was also the resident DJ for FWD>> at Plastic People at the time, my sets went from dub techno to dubstep but I always turned up with new tunes from Jakes (and the H.E.N.C.H crew for that matter) to drop and they blew people’s minds. Shout out to the rest of the H.E.N.C.H gang – Komon, Wedge & Whiteboi.

Circling – Appleblim and Peverelist [Skull Disco]

An absolute dream to mix, and definitive of the Bristol-Berlin dubstep connection that was very strong at the time. I'd still play this now in my Addison Groove sets.

Bad Apple – Komonazmuk [H.E.N.C.H]

The crazy thing is I was mates with Keiran (aka Komonazmuk) when I was about 15 years old, and he was a D&B DJ. Push forward 10 years and we are both playing raves together. His sound was pretty varied with some nasty half-time bangers, but for me this one was the tune. Again, it’s one of those ones that's like “is it dubstep, is it techno?” but either way it doesn’t matter, it has a sick vibe.

Over It – RSD [Tectonic]

I remember hearing this for the first time at Outlook in Croatia, RSD played it and I had to find the track. Of course it was only on dub for a long time, but I got my hands on it and I still play it. Absolute roller.

Spacecakes – DJG vs. Headhunter [Wheel & Deal]

Half-time dubstep. Drops in the club hard. Does the job. I've seen this one get the rewind treatment a fair bit when I've dropped it in the past, so of the many tunes of my own I could have picked, I had to pick this. It was made with DJG in his San Francisco studio when I was touring America one time. It came out on N-Type’s Wheel & Deal label, and did some serious dancefloor damage. I’ll probably play this one at fabric when I step up alongside Pinch this Friday.