By: Anand Harsh

Few artists have done more to popularize dubstep in North America than Excision. Along with his brother in arms, fellow Canadian Datsik, the young DJ, producer, and label exec Jeff Abel has been a banner carrier for bass music for the past half decade.

Before they got a hold of that odd, wubby sound, the dubstep filtering into Canada from the UK in the mid-2000's was very low-key, brooding, and subtle. Abel and his crew took those sounds, added a thousand decibels, and incorporated neck-snappin' flavors from the hip-hop and metal worlds to concoct this frothing potion of dizzying drops, spine-shattering drums, and of course, bass that will leave you gasping for air.

On top of running Rottun Recordings, and touring with his alien supergroup Destroid, featuring longtime collaborator Downlink and uber-drummer KJ Sawka, Excision is still a tastemaker in the subsonic realm. He returns to his old stomping grounds of Shambhala each year for a legendary set that functions as a sort of State of the Dubstep Union address.

In honor of our glorious leader, and on the backs of the announcement of his 2015 North American tour with our buddies Protohype and Minnesota, which marks the retirement of The Executioner and its 150,000 Watts of crushing PK Sound, we'd like to take a look back at Excision's storied career, and give new fans the quick and dirty introduction they need to get their nuts blown off this spring.

10. Subsonic

This early tune contains all those elements that became such signature pieces for Jeff Abel and his compatriots, the progenitors of a lot of the bass music that came after it. Dirty, Transformer wobbles clatter off junkyard drums. It's classic.

9. Brutal

Excision really pays homage to metal in its purest form with "Brutal." Sludgy riffs and soaring solos give a tip of the hat to the "original" gods of heavy. It's a tribute to the monsters of metal who paved the way for a lot of fans to make the leap to electronic music, crossing from one brand of thrash to another.

8. Excision & Space Laces - Funk Hole

Crafted for Destroid, this collaboration shows off a completely different side of Abel than we're used to, and the irreverent Space Laces is right alongside him. Fun and funky, not usually words you'd use to describe an Excision composition.