Skullstep

Skullstep is the darkest strain of darkstep drum and bass, a mid-2000s style built from chopped Amen breaks, distorted Reese basslines and horror-film samples, played at punishing volume. Closely associated with the Therapy Sessions events run by *Robyn Chaos* and with producers such as *Limewax*, *Panacea* and *Current Value*, skullstep stripped darkstep down to minimal, repetitive and deliberately abrasive structures, closer to industrial noise than to conventional jungle. Its imagery drew on horror and the occult, and its leading producers later carried the sound into crossbreed, the fusion of drum and bass with hardcore techno.