it's funny, i dunno where it really came from.
and, come to think of it, i'm not entirely sure that either i or steve were the first people to write it or even use it.
we'd certainly used it to talk about it together and i'm pretty sure i used it in muzik or some other dance rag, and that it probably cropped up on hyperdub, too. as ever, though, these things get said a lot before they get written down, so it was probably some dude in a bar who we never met a year or so before either of us and we'll never find out the truth!
of course, that bunch of pieces was about something quite different to what we're now calling dubstep, especially as it included sticky and jason kaye etc.
what we were really teasing out was the reggae influence at play in a lot of the deeper, more interesting, non-traditional 2step garage of the period; things like el-b and ghost stuff, horsepower productions (man, i listened to in fine style the other day and it's still a wonderful record) etc.
actually this created grime just as much and, arguably, moreso than what's known as dubstep now (and i don't mean these specific artists were grime forerunners - altho social circles definiely were - just that that soundsystem/reggae element is just as much, if not more, a part of grime's dna as it is dubstep's), so it was perhaps a bit misleading in retrospect.
of course quite a lot of the stuff out of the ammunition stable wasn't all that dubby at all and today's dubstep doesn't feel very dubby either, so i definitely agree, it's not that relevant any more.
let's find a new term, it's about time this one died, but i'm sorry techstep won't work!