There's a soundsystem run by reggae stalwarts Iration Steppas in Chapeltown, Leeds that is so powerful that walking past it feels like struggling through a force nine gale. Standing in front of it, you can feel the low-end sounds rattling not just your chest, but your eyes, nose and thighbones too. Some might say that such powerful sound should come with a health warning, but if American scientists are right, I and my fellow bassheads could be gaining some unexpected benefits from time spent in front of speaker stacks.
New York State University scientist Dr. Clinton T. Rubin put mice on a platform that buzzed at a low frequency, for 15 minutes a day, five days a week. By the end of the experiment they had 27% less fat than mice that didn't get any platform time - and correspondingly more bone, the suggestion being that vibration might prove an unlikely tonic for both osteoporosis and obesity.
Dubstep DJ and producer Mala, 27, runs bi-monthly night DMZ and knows first-hand about the healing powers of low frequency sub-bass. 'It penetrates you,' he says. 'People have told me they've come to our night with backache, stood by a speaker all night and the next day it's better. Bass is just compression and refraction of molecules in the air so it's logical that you can physically feel it. Sound is powerful.'
I agree. I've spent a lifetime hot-housing myself in bass at clubs like London's superlative Plastic People and can report that I feel happier and healthier and still craving the comforting blast of a b-line slugging through my décolletage. Molecular vibration doesn't work for everyone though: I recently took an old friend and one-time acid house obsessive to DMZ. He slogged it out for about two hours, all the while looking extremely uncomfortable, and emailed me the next day to say he thought it had loosened his fillings. Best not take him on my next mission to Chapeltown, then.
