As both a music journalist and a musician, Martin Clark walks on both sides of a sometimes tenuous line. While the writer blogs and pens articles for the occasional magazine (including this feature for XLR8R), the musician assumes the name Blackdown and produces some dark and heavy dubstep with Dusk. Rather than sounding like the work of a musician who sometimes writes, Blackdown’s tracks seem informed by the wealth of knowledge he has collected while documenting the shady ins and outs of London’s grime and dubstep scenes. Case in point: Margins Music, the album from Dusk & Blackdown, conceptually visits the fractured, culturally isolated districts of London, making observations that could be attributed to journalists and musicians alike. “Focus” features some epic, moody synth and rhythm work from Dusk, making for a single worth writing about. Wyatt Williams

Focus (Excerpt)