Early 2-step's ~130 BPM tempo came from DJs pitching up American garage imports

Early 2-step’s characteristic ~130 BPM tempo was not chosen abstractly but emerged from a concrete DJ practice: London DJs mixed American house and US garage records with UK garage tracks, pitching the imports up to around 130 BPM to aid beatmatching. DJs favoured the instrumental (‘dub’) versions of these imports, because a track could be sped up substantially without the vocals sounding unnaturally high. UK producers then imitated this pitched-up sound in their own productions, codifying both the BPM range and the characteristic timbre of the genre. This explains why the tempo sits where it does and why early 2-step leaned instrumental.

Examples

Todd Edwards / Masters at Work imports pitched from ~120 to ~130 BPM; selecting the dub version avoids chipmunk-vocal artifacts when speeding a record up.

Assessment

Explain why dub/instrumental versions were preferred over vocal versions when DJs pitched garage imports up to 130 BPM, and what this reveals about how 2-step’s tempo range was established.