But hasn't Kode 9 (as a primary, perhaps only example
) distanced himself from 'dubstep' per se? You're probably right about the current dubstep fam sticking together right now and playing each others tunes. However, any split (which is inevitable, really - evolution) is likely to come from new producers that experiment a bit more and take the sound in a different direction.
Kode 9 is trying to distance (rofl!1) himself a bit, but he's buddies with the big players - he still plays lots of their tunes in his sets, even if the context in which they're played is massively different to the norm.
I agree with you about the new producers split though, although I'm slightly sceptical about whether or not they'd necessarily be more experimental - primarily because their major influences will be other dubstep producers, and secondly because so far, I don't hear a lot of tracks that can match dmz, kode 9, benga etc in terms of quality, or experimentation for that matter. And it's not for want of looking.
The influences of dubstep producers I think is an interesting subject. I'm drawing for a very obvious comparison here, but I think it's relevant - I'm convinced that in drum and bass, one of the reasons for its creative collapse is due to a lot of big producers coming through with no musical background other than their involvement in drum and bass. In jungle and hardcore, people were taking inspiration from all over the place - hip hop, reggae, house, early rave, funk etc... but when production becomes dominated by people who've only been interested in jungle (because they're TRUE JUNGLISTS, INNIT), the music becomes innately self-referential and creatively stagnant.
In my opinion, it'll be a hard struggle for dubstep to avoid the same problem.
