V.A. Tempa 100

Next on Tempa comes the label’s landmark 100th release -- a double pack of essential classics to mark the occasion. 500 COPIES ONLY

Founded in London in 2000, Tempa swiftly evolved to become one of the most vital and influential labels in the last 15 yearsof UK dance music. At the epicentre of dubstep as it evolved from a mutant offshoot of garage into its own unique sceneand sound, Tempa has fostered many of the genre’s best-known names and some of its most powerful

So for our 100th release, we’re marking that legacy by casting an ear back into our rich archives. Across two 12”s we’re re-pressing a selection of pivotal tracks from Horsepower, Skream, Digital Mystikz, Benga & Coki, DJ Abstract and SP:MC,which together chart the history of dubstep’s emergence. Tempa100’s first disc gathers together the heady, dark percussivesounds of the genre’s early years, rich in smoky atmosphere. It opens with a track from the very first Tempa 12", the slinkilyrobotic freakout of Horsepower Production’s ‘When You Hold Me’, before drifting through DJ Abstract’s humid and romantic‘Touch’, High Plains Drifter’s ‘Sholay (Epic Mix)’ and Digital Mystikz’s ultra stripped-back early roller ‘Give Jah Glory’. Thesecond plate ups the ante with a clutch of dubstep’s most iconic dancefloor bruisers — Skream’s seminal ‘Midnight RequestLine’, Benga & Coki’s anthemic ‘Night’, the cybernetic halfstep of SP:MC’s ‘Trust Nobody’ and the dub disorientation ofCoki’s ‘Tortured’.

Just as powerful as when they were first released, the music on Tempa100 is both a celebration and a reminder of thelabel’s ten-tons-heavy contribution to UK music history.