Substance
Substance is the stage name of Marc Lapointe, a producer and DJ working in bass music, dubstep, drumstep and dub. Born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, he is now based in Berlin, Germany. His release history includes records on Deep Dark & Dangerous, Duploc, Sentry Records, Nomine Sound, Artikal Music and Street Ritual; Bandcamp, Artikal and Nomine release pages list Marc Lapointe as the writer and producer behind Substance.
Background: Marc co‑founded the DirtyCake collective in 2012. He presents music and talk alongside Wraz as co‑host of the Gunfingaz Thursdays Twitch stream. As Substance he has performed live at festivals such as Lightning in a Bottle, Bass Coast and Shambhala, bringing his DJ and production work to international bass audiences.
Musical style: Substance’s output sits at the intersection of heavy dubstep/bass and drumstep-leaning rhythms. His productions characteristically use pronounced sub-bass design, layered with midrange growl and resonant filtering; spacious dub-style delay and reverb move atmospherics around sparse mixes. Drum programming often favors half-time and syncopated drumstep grooves rather than straight 174 DnB rollers, with chopped breaks and gated percussion to create snap and space. On the mix side he leans toward clear low-end separation and punchy transient control, using tight low-pass automation and sidechain compression to keep subs defined under dense midrange elements. Distinctive elements across his releases include dub echo motifs, wobble and formant‑shaped bass textures, and a preference for roomy, dub-inflected reverbs that push vocals and FX into the stereo field.
Career and contributions: Substance’s records on Deep Dark & Dangerous, Duploc and Nomine Sound place him in the international bass/dubstep circuit; releases on Artikal Music and Street Ritual further connect him to underground bass labels that favour heavy sub work and dub aesthetics. Live, he balances DJ sets with original productions — his festival appearances at Shambhala, Bass Coast and Lightning in a Bottle document that dual role. His co‑hosting of Gunfingaz Thursdays expands that presence into streaming, where he curates mixes and showcases new bass material alongside peers like Wraz.
Specific influences and connections: Public credits and label associations show Substance working in the same dub-forward bass tradition as artists on Deep Dark & Dangerous and Nomine Sound; his collaborative and curatorial activity with Wraz on the Gunfingaz stream is a named connection. Beyond those documented links, detailed personal influence lists are not widely published; release pages and label listings remain the primary verifiable sources for his credits and production authorship.
