Leo Cap

Leo Cap is the dubstep alias of Russian producer and DJ Evgeny Khmel (Khmel Evgeny Vladimirovich). Based in Saint Petersburg, he records primarily in bass music, dubstep and drumstep, and also works in dub and UK garage styles. He releases drum & bass under the name Black Barrel and has used the aliases Yougeen and Innerline.

Leo Cap’s recorded output began publicly on April 20, 2020, when he launched the Leo Cap project with the 140 bpm EP "Lost In Rave" on Dub Raw. Since that debut he has released music on a range of labels, including Navy Cut, Wheel & Deal, Deep, Dark & Dangerous, Metalheadz and Dispatch Recordings. He has performed internationally, with appearances at Fabric (London), Rampage and Outlook, and has spent periods living and working in Thailand (Koh Phangan).

As a producer Leo Cap works around 140 bpm for his dubstep material and around similar bass-music tempos for his drumstep pieces. His tracks commonly foreground a weighty low end — deep sub bass underpinning midrange growls — while making space for skittered, garage-derived percussion and swung hi-hat patterns. On the "Lost In Rave" EP the tempo and rhythmic emphasis make the half-time groove explicit: drums sit in a dubstep pocket while kick/snare accents and fills recall drumstep’s faster-evolving drum programming.

Production techniques in his releases show a clear dub influence: audible use of delay and plate/room reverb to push vocals and textures into the back of the mix, automation of low-pass filters on basslines for movement, and saturation to add harmonic content in the 200–800 Hz midrange. He layers drums rather than leaving a single loop exposed — tight, processed snares with compressed transient control sit above chopped breaks or programmed percussive elements. Bass design trades pure sine subs for hybrid voices: sub fundamentals layered with distorted mid-bass or metallic wavetable content to retain weight on large systems.

Signature elements across Leo Cap releases include reverb-smeared atmospheres, chopped vocal stabs, and a preference for bass timbres that combine analog warmth with digital grit. The UK garage influence appears in shuffled percussion and syncopated subdivisions; the dub influence appears in long delay tails and dub-style echo throws; the drumstep/half-time influence appears in drum programming that borrows the momentum of drum & bass while keeping the 140/half-time feel.

Career highlights tied to verifiable credits: the "Lost In Rave" EP (Dub Raw, 2020) marks his public launch as Leo Cap. He has subsequent releases on Navy Cut, Wheel & Deal, Deep, Dark & Dangerous, Metalheadz and Dispatch Recordings. He also maintains a drum & bass identity as Black Barrel and has used the aliases Yougeen and Innerline for other projects. Live activity includes sets at Fabric, Rampage and Outlook and extended stays in Thailand (Koh Phangan), which he has cited in interviews and social posts as periods of residence.

Specific named influences are not widely documented in public sources. That said, the audible framework of his work — dub delay/reverb techniques, garage swing, and the sub/mid contrast common to modern bass music — points to a lineage of dub, UK garage and heavier drum & bass/dubstep production practices rather than a single artist model.

Leo Cap continues to release bass-weighted dubstep and drumstep from Saint Petersburg while keeping a separate drum & bass outlet as Black Barrel; his catalog and appearances on labels like Metalheadz and Dispatch Recordings make those stylistic priorities easy to follow in his recorded work.