Grime City follows British urban music off the deep end

Despite its name, the Grime City crew plays few grime records these days, having followed British urban music off the deep end into the bass spelunking of dubstep, its mostly instrumental weirdo cousin. Just three years after its start, the DJ crew has replaced the two-dimensional backdrops favored by Dizzee Rascal and Roll Deep almost completely with dubstep's diaphragm-taxing, reggae-in-a-blackhole explorations. And Joe Nice, Baltimore's self-described U.S. ambassador of the sound, will helm its anniversary bash. What Nice lacks in mixing precision, he makes up for in slavish devotion to dubplate culture (he refuses to play anything on CD) and ebullient interaction with the audience. While many pasty English dubstep selectors are content to lurk deadpan behind their mixers, Nice incites listeners to call for rewinds by waving homemade cutouts of hands, shouting, "Five for the reload!"