Artist Details

Artist Bio

Pure Filth originally started out in April 2007 as a Dubstep weekly and soundsystem. While scouting locations, a colleague from Baseck mentioned this magical speak-easy in a basement beneath an art gallery in downtown Los Angeles. After a bit of investigating and a meeting with the wonderful owner and gallery curator Martha Higgins, a deal was struck and the adventure that is now Pure Filth began in the now-infamous Higgin’s Gallery. Every Tuesday afternoon, Sam XL, Pablo, Tony K, Magi, DLX, Kemst, and Breakage met faithfully at the gallery  in the following months. Each week, they unloaded the leftovers of their old rave soundsystem, precariously down the narrow Higgin’s stairwell.

The soundsystem, comprising mainly of massive subwoofers (originally used in theaters for George Lucas’ epic movie Earthquake) powered with heavy, old-school, QSC amps would be set up from scratch every week. We then invited some DJ friends and guests down to come play the latest and greatest dubstep tunes, and crossed our fingers that some folks might show up to dance! Our first night started out with 30 people, but word soon spread and 3 weeks later, 300+ heads showed up for Hyperdub label boss and all around badman Steve Kode 9 Goodman. From then on, we seemed to maintain a solid weekly crowd of dubsteppers who faithfully came down to support DJs and artists like Mala, Headhunter, N-Type, Caspa, MRK1, Juju, and a host of LA and Bay area talent, as well as the resident DJs known as The Professionals, consisting of Sam XL, Pablo Hassan, and Breakage.

As the club became more popular and they trucked in more and more speakers, the constant vibrations from the soundsystem became so heavy that pieces of the ceiling began to shake loose and became lovingly referred to by the DJs and crowd as ceiling crumbs. Visiting DJs referred to them as mad for carrying so much equipment down the tiny stairs, but to them it was worth all the effort, as they could never have imagined just how good Dubstep could sound in that basement. It was music to their ears and the Pure Filth Sound was born! Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end – 6 months later, the city of Los Angeles decided to demolish the historic building to build a parking lot, in true LA style.

They closed the last night with 450 sweaty people singing along to Mala and his remix of Cay’s Crays by Fat Freddy’s Drop, an absolute barnburner of a night, and something that will live with all of us lucky enough to bare witness forever! Many a smiling ceiling crumb addict had made the pilgrimage to climb down those Higgin’s basement stairs to have a dance and a beer and get fully immersed in the sounds of Dubstep.

They didn’t know it then, but their run at the Higgin’s Gallery helped lay the foundation to what is now the thriving LA Dubstep scene. After Higgin’s, Pure Filth moved to a series of venues in Hollywood like The Blu Monkey and the Play Lounge, but the new settings just couldn’t match up to the ambiance of our original downtown location. Shortly thereafter, Pure Filth decided to bring it back to the urban core of Los Angeles’ downtown with a new endeavour called BASSFACE.

After looking at photographs of past Pure Filth events, they started noticing a common trait running through the crowd at our shows. As basslines would drop on the sound system, the crowd would contort their faces in unison into a twisted expression that became lovingly referred to as the bass face.

About a year later, they decided to move forward with a new series using the name and did the first show in June of 2008 with Benga, who coincidentally had a tune that was getting serious dubplate support called, BASSFACE! It was a great night and returning to the urban-industrial setting of Downtown LA, added an extra element that really helped to solidify the Dubstep vibe. As Summer got into full swing, interest in hiring the Pure Filth Soundsystem began to grow with a number of local promoters and they started doing sound for, among others, Daddy Kev and the Low End Theory crew on Wednesdays at The Airliner.

Because of the high demand for the soundsystem, they decided to put BASSFACE on the back burner for a while. While doing Low End Theory every week, they heard the types of artists they were bringing through and couldn’t help but notice a lot of common ground between what they were doing and what was going on in the Dubstep scene. After an amazing summer of music, they felt LA needed a weekend outlet that would focus on local and international talent across the entire range of bass-heavy music genres. There was a buzz in the air and the timing felt right, so the BASSFACE moniker was resurrected to incorporate these elements and they did their second BASSFACE in December of 2008 with Flying Lotus, Daedelus, MRK1 of Virus Syndicate, and LA’s own 6BLOCC, and the rest, as they say, is history.

BASSFACE shows surfaced more regularly and began incorporating Pure Filth resident artists and beatmakers from Low End Theory & Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder crew. Along with a rotating cast of visiting UK talent like Mala, Skream, Benga, and Joker, the parties have since gone onto gain worldwide recognition and acclaim. In 2009, The highly-regarded event promoter Goldenvoice extended an invite to Pure Filth to throw a BASSFACE event at California’s uber-festival Coachella. Pure Filth, Low End Theory, and Brainfeeder residents alongside Hyperdub boss, Kode 9 gathered in the desert for a friendly soundclash of sorts. That Saturday night, Flying Lotus got to play an extended set to a crowd of about 12,000 people on a pyramid of bass cabinets that literally shook Indio Valley to its core as noise complaints were reported about the bass from over two miles away!

In 2010, Pure Filth has continued to push the boundaries of bass music with the ongoing BASSFACE series of events and we look forward to doing the same for a long time to come. To all of those that have attended their events over the years, they want to personally thank you for all of the support, as they really could not have done it without you. From the early days of shuffling down the hidden staircase at Higgin’s to their latest run at downtown’s Lot 613, Sam XL has always been happy to see so many other people from LA and beyond who really get excited about what he is doing. He’ll keep hauling those speakers as long as you keep showing him your BASSFACE!

Pure Filth is the finest sound system on Earth…peerless and unparalleled.

- Mary Anne Hobbs

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