Drum & Bass: The Movement - A D&B Documentary

[Music] there is nothing else like drum bass is for the whole world of subcultures a whole world of genres it's the real backbone of UK's street music German bass is so much faster than any other dance music it's always been on an island and because it's been on that island you can't really paint it it's like this tribal thing it's like hypnotic it just takes over me and when I hear it I just get into this sort of zone like I just lock into it you know maybe metal Pete metal errs and rockers have a

similar bond but in other types of dance music I'm not sure there's such a tight sort of lifelong obsession almost with with anything as much as drama mates [Music] it can define a movement in drumming base I think a basis culture isn't it it started in like a city like where we are now in London Bristol Manchester up with the big cities where it's a very multicultural you've got all these cultures kind of clashing almost I like that rebel culture is that real raw rebel we built this who says [ __ ] you I don't

need you [Music] [Music] it was a blend of different cultures it was the face size from reggae music the great beats from like hip hop it was like toasting from sound system it was rapping it was or this UK culture all comes together under one roof we were so born in a generation when that music was actually born you know we saw the birth of you know hip-hop we saw the birth of house techno so we've been really lucky to have been around during that time when all those musics not only were born but we've

german-based jungle hardcore it actually was just Britain was the melting pot for it to become John bass I think german-based quite a drive yourself kana from the hip hop strand their DNA slightly was a bit more kind of be led and I guess with most cultures as well especially music culture there's a defining it there's also defined by the technology at the time in 95 if I'm not mistaken we just had like ltj book and horizon something that was 95 Golda did in a city life I think that was 95 and I think pulp fiction

as well but they were all kind of quite melodic and you know and then I think 96 things started to get pushed in a different direction 94 95 96 that kind of those golden years then when you hear these tunes play then Randall's in the mix and he's going off it's just going off and it's just guys just that culture man is it made us [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] 1996 was probably one of the most important years in in British dance music 1996 itself is definitely a favored year for me mainly due to what was

coming out of moving shadow that year they called it the summer of 96 and you had storm from the east 1 & 2 which for me were huge records it was like early easy rollers hyper on experience James Genrich e-flite Ronix moving shadow for me 96 that was it there was a lot of really cool weeklies going on when I first got into the drum and bass so there was a point sort of 95 six ish I was going out Wednesday night to swerve which was Fabio's night and that was I mean that's probably one

of my absolute favourite trauma-based nights ever as they would be bar rumba so that would be more like the Bristol crew that was where their sound really was was coming up then Fridays and Saturdays would probably be something at the end like renegade hardware and all Ram nights and then also Saturdays metalheads were doing something in the leisure lounge for a while which I loved that some of my best drum and bass nights were there just because it was it had more of a warehouse feel it was a bit felt bigger to me and and

also that was the time when a lot of my tracks were getting played for the first time by like goldie and groove rider and Fabio and Doc Scott and stuff and then Sunday of course the the Sunday Sessions metalheads Blue Note it was a new energy that came into club club in mine and fortunately myself and family over and forefront of it and that's kind of when Goldie dropped I'm this so everything was blowing up because he want some major award and you know the whole club might call me vote from his out and doing

so well nobody expected it cleared myself I mean I didn't realize that God he would have that much commercial appeal putting into the form of an album and Thomas being Thomas was really just a massive middle finger to people that never want to believe in the music why can't we make a record is 21 minutes longer gives fun I'm gonna make you [ __ ] listen gold you've got signed with timeless then you know majors come out with we got rather gold he said they all start sniffing around you know I wasn't I was one

of the last to sort of signed to a major the record label would RCA at the time what it means to be like the next Chemical Brothers you know you can understand that if you go back to that era and look at an actor prodigy go and look at all the meet all their interviews with Liam you know he would always talk about me you know he was very influenced by a meet my DJing very flat you know I'm in between a gig for him I think it might have been about 95 96 and I

DJed Island hillford and as I was DJing there's like a box behind on the stage behind me and they keep poking their heads that came at this but I thought they meant you know alright so I'll be like playing to the crowd look right and see me I'll [ __ ] off and I kicked a little pissed off and I was getting the umph because I felt like they they're really taking a piss and then after is when I come off they're like why you order to know it what's the matter and I'm not you

look standing there doing that are you because we think you're good [Music] [Music] [Music] when we win the mercury night-night seven it was something that was a shot not just for us but for the whole scene it was at that point when you just knew that this music was about to blow up and TV got involved they picked up the music they started showing videos people like Adam Apple has been on MTV there's people that deejay rap was being rotated groove Reiner and Fabian was on radio one the thing was starting to really you know

the tape life you can see all these different color in our guys coming to these gigs down at the end in London there they're chucking money it you know they'll be signing an R I'm not gonna name that one but it was certain people getting deals they'd never made a record because at the same time while this is all going on I was also writing for a music magazine so which was one of the big dance music monthlies in the UK at the time so I could see like this whole progression where like you know

no one gave a [ __ ] and then like suddenly like everyone did give a [ __ ] and like guys it was things like Blue Note and things like speed where like I think the people of magazines were like you know what you know before that drawn basis a bit like you know killing music waiver but then like but then it was like so many people were going and people were queuing outside the clubs and people from Japan people from what everywhere everyone was come trying to go at these places and the music magazines

couldn't ignore it the prototype years quite a type was that was an amazing label at that time it was like the flagship label in a way I know we had heads and shadow and yeah its prototype was different groove rider was the was the taste maker and that album the prototype years for me was when I knew I had to be a producer had to be making drum and bass just every single tune on there it covered all styles you know it was a mind-blowing yeah optical bad company drum sound and baseline Smith matrix you

know broad I didn't actually bring all these people into the game but I hoped I would have liked awful I help their careers all gonna gate along the way such as back home free and fresh another you know when they brought me playing it thus there's like we were sitting in the cut in house music house and I just heard it and like what's that all right suss you know in fresh was sitting there something like what you saying it was probably tight cuz you know I said you know I'm still doing it don't get

me wrong what were the two my gear to but back then I was being a bully so I kind of bullied him into it but we work for everybody loves to see you know they caught they were doing their thing anyway but that really set them off again so yeah it was good move the only one who's doing anything around there wanted to be on metal heads or prototype or one of those babies they were just poking out record oh my dominating the scene really I mean because that white Dillinger right whoa what more can

you ask for we were the guy was just laying the path for everyone else always seemed Dillinger's the master of drama races let the professor Dillinger silver blade it's like Vangelis Blade Runner meets a horror movie like the balance of darkness and light is just he's just he's like that Dillinger is just amazing what can I say Dillinger's silver blade this was like the ultimate in a dystopian dark twisted vision of the future encapsulated in music I learned a lot from Carl and that was a big that was privileged to be involved in obviously because

he is when you say jungle and drama base as far as the biggest-ever of producers he will be always there it was difficult to follow a Dillinger shooting on it when you were playing out someone like Dillinger was a huge influence on people when he was at his most prolific there are only really two kings of this music two poles if you like Dillinger and caliber because they're both ends of that spectrum everything in between is us [Music] I've got my daughter of seventeen merely gonna be 80 and she came in one time and said

dad they played some really crap tunes and a radio but finally stood who's this - new name is Dillinger you know I mean it was nasty ways and I'm like rah acted sweet Carla say yo como that was coming with blanket at least you know her headphones you know I made [Music] [Music] [Music] 1998 wormhole a Russian optical they're still talking about it now it's nearly 20 years later it's one of the best drum and bass albums that has ever existed but I don't think people realize how much other music headrush not recall made that

same year they put out one of the most timeless albums in 98 but also 1998 was runagate hardware I went to the end for a few years before we actually thought I might in then I walked in there and I was I was blown away by the layout there was no Club at a time with that type of layout the DJ booth was in the middle of the dance floor and a lot of DJ's described it almost like a gorilla toriel arena we used to literally every Friday going onto the end wishbone in my opinion

what what is and was the best club what was the most fun been the only end things out of a topic I mean growing up then and listening the same people like your partner's like Andy see the möbius were just like DJing right front of you and that sound system I remember one time get in a two o'clock set at the end after Loxy and too shy which at the time that was the pinnacle you know you've got to come on then you've got to deal with it probably Loxy one of the tightest teachers I've

ever come across Loxy can [ __ ] dark you out just don't sometimes like what I want to play after him I'm like home [ __ ] over planter box we definitely don't have to Randall chiller mate Andy the club's empty now you've left 20 the end was like a two-hour set and I used to man a man of prepped I used to doing dubs that I used to cut and I used to be at home mixing literally if I was on the decks at like 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. I used to be at

home mixing until midnight like just learning the tombs and trying stuff out and go straight on the decks as if to say like you know like cuz it was all the same crew down there it was like right I've got some beats for you this time you know got some I got some warm music and it's gonna go off just really really beautiful memories have been in the middle of that right [Music] mighty 800 to those four years that you had devote you had the virus poised doing the thing that company would doing everything it

was just a good time there was good music there was a lot of different camps and it was a good rivalry that was very arms race II that area then it's like oh how do you make that all everyone was on the lookout for the new piece of hardware that could make them your bass sound weirder and twist it up friendly rivalry isn't it I mean but that's what's that's fuel to the fire do you don't I mean it's like it's not competition it's like wow you've just upped the game with that tune and we

want to go back and we want to like well you know we need to step up now because next week when we meet up there music house we want to play you a tune that blows your mind I was pretty much every week unfortunately had Russian optical would blow especially when they did worm howl pee in them days it was it was magic we weren't really thinking about and where's it's gonna go or what's this gonna do we were literally just making music that we wanted to hear that we liked because it sounded good to

us at that moment in that room at that second we didn't sit down and map out a plan and say we're gonna be nice what we're gonna do and it's gonna sound like this we're kind of hoping just if everyone didn't hate us afterwards would be good enough this production was out of this world and it was like something brand spanking new like it never heard before and it was just mind-blowing but really I'd say for will and I it was it was conflict there tunes on predominately on renegade hardware but they released some whole

sea of labels their production was out of this world and just the attention to detail the groove the ruggedness but it sounded clean did the mix downs at the time it all just sounded amazing and I think the conflict kamala Rob data are definitely right up there with one of the biggest reasons we got excited about production conflict were hugely sort of important to myself in terms of wanting to produce music if you could name ten producers that kind of change the scene they'd be in the top ten obviously one knows the there was a

fallout between us and Messiah but um take that away yeah that they were very good at what they're done even now people still talk about them day they let him do it [Music] [Music] around the year 2000 Fabio who who is still the dog has to be said he coined the term liquid for this soulful music musical drone base now I instinctively didn't like the turn at first because for me that there was already there was an explosion and a kind of light influx of generic liquid chains however thank goodness they were producers who stood

out from the crowds like caliber like Marc's intellects we carry on into 2001 the first sighting of Black Sun Empire so who are these guys they're Dutch there's no Dutch drum and bass but now there is and trace has started a label called decipher I really lofted label like the whole cell I'd work see artists ahead onboard the wave they kind of did the whole PR and the whole hype about it and the difference about that I think was very Internet centric and in the early 2000s it was a lot of it was down to

the Internet and the way that the internet started to revolutionize the way we consume music and talk about music and and fine music [Music] and then a holistic messenger and you can literally see your heroes of that at the end of the keyboard but on the screen there a future card and kindly even lost a lot of a name so we'd see like dogs gone gold Ian and EC in matrix wow their life you know bottoms away you could say yo Andy you might say you're behind you might and EC replies [Music] you know which

is the constant exchange of information and it was new to us so we'd spent hours a day just sitting online chatting to producers from all over the world who have got your aim handled we had a music house but it was in your own home you could talk to people in America or in Spain or wherever and and you you started to realize there's a lot of people interested in making his music well the best thing to happen to drummer bass was the world happened to it once England worked out that the world was making

this music and you know once once it became more accessible via the internet and people releasing music by people from outside of the UK and you know really opened up the sound of the music [Music] [Music] in 2001 to that whole period we had the scene was blessed with it for a lot of big change and it brought a lot of people in New York time where LK got really big and there was some other tracks I think Shimon and Andy body rock around that time as well you know with these massive tracks that were

getting a little bit more attention from outside of the trauma Bay scene and that was the interesting time it was a good time for John bass funny rock was a magical night all night studio session Shem and I were just laughing just like he said any I don't know is it good is it with what you know literally would be playing it and we'd be laughing it how mad and different and I don't know man I mean it got play listed on radio 1 which at the time was completely unheard of I was really happy

you'd like to see those teams chart they were made for the underground for clubs for radio for jungle ists and drum and bass heads and for them to find success in the mainstream chart I think out of this world that was like sort of one of the golden eras I suppose where he had like and ec2 but I think it's body rock came out around about there and then you have planet dust coming out there and you have John be up all night come Alan it was just like amazing so many tunes [Music] but then

obviously you know you had the whole side effects error as well when he was doing this thing you know I got in with him done a couple of tracks of topics as well which is really good MC fantastic conduit for the DJ's and help in that interaction with the crowd you know getting the part you go and maybe know if the DJs in a bit of a lull pulling them through and getting getting the vibe across and also you know interacting the crowd host hosting you know sort of like we're at the start of the

night let's I'll take you all the way through the journey you know GQ used to do the whole of a walk the whole night 10:00 till 10:00 and you used to come and listen to me and round a lullaby Paradise Club 93 94 I think it was when he was a local boy with long ponytail Easter come over there to take me a Randall out because red was the daddy kind of my strategy I think of emceeing is I go in and I read what the situation is if I go in and I'm working off

the skinny or them guys they don't know what I've got to go and do if I'm going into working off the DRS and them guys now know what I've got going to you just I think when you understand music you know I mean for more I come from you know I mean you know how to respect it [Music] the good MC is everything to a drama based party a bad MC not so much I think you know it just comes from being around music as a younger to be honest when you've got that musical thing

I mean I thought I just like to learn to play piano when I was five years old and then when I went to school is what I was playing drums I'm actually quite really good on the flute as well people don't realize like flute piano drums you know I was a musical youth basically I've been very lucky to work with amazing them season it in the DJ sets I mean with Stevie hyper like you know when being at telepathy when I had a residence here to never face our deceased new kid I've got I've edit

Lee sent me a tape and think he's wicked I'm gonna try him on your set this week and it was Steve you like the day their moments are like when he's going in full flow in your life you know you know and so many hooks and so many really quiet humble guy outside of doing the M scene to me MCS are an important part of it you know you know some of the people who don't like it fine but there are people if they weren't important they won't be with it you know look at something

like si si s you know you look at the crime scene for the UB [Music] [Music] [Music] we had a lot of lot of good tunes on frequency but if you can distill it into like one fantastic reason about frequency comes up focus people always talk about the scene being closed off ever you see they say that only lets so many people in and all this kind of rubbish maybe in in the late nineties mid nineties that there might have been some kind of truth in that who knows but I think we come through a

lot of other artists at the same time as us us noisier pendulum Sub Focus all acts today was still like working week in week out what I remember about chasing States there was a division of not just being pleased your knowledge on base ice they said to me from the get-go we want to do everything and at the time no one's doing it so a lot of people have to blow whatever it's a part to you know you got to take it to hats off to the light chase and stays and that's like that because

it's like they've changed a game and they've proved that if you've got a good job and base history you can make any kind of music [Music] so I became present one of the drum and bass team members 1xtra from the launch so before it launched and that was 2002 my show lasted five years and in that time we achieved a real lot for Drum & Bass in terms of having the BBC back in as well I mean obviously one in the jungle it existed on Radio one for quite a while then it became Fabio and

groove rider laughter if I go in there would have a set program and we just wear them just restart it I never wrote that in the show world what was gonna do the show or anything like that we just win and done it pirate style so this is all good favorite memory that's not hazy is when we show we can record it at my house and I've got loads of DJ's we've got some focus DJ Fresh Goldy heist they will around my house sit around recorded a show around my tables Ian Christmas dinner her spree

made them show and then we just went into it I never reversed I'd have a little battle it's quite very very weird like interviewing groove rider and Fabio on my show knowing that they had the show before me that was one of the most daunting things I've ever done but amazing and hearing some of like groove stories when he told me like telling me the story about when he got slammed and I think they round it like four times or five times on Radio one which was amazing but that was a massive part and time

for the scene because that was when things were changing I think in terms of the modern sound it's got the pendulum they just flipped DMB and how its produced on yeah as producers yeah like everybody's style kind of changed when they came into the fold sat next to rob when he had bacteria remix playing in the computer you know like so it's one thing to have get the tunes finalized but when you actually when you actually hear it coming out of the studio speakers and you're like how you doing it's like production levels were just

on it there's on another planet you know pardon the pun that's a good that's a good pun didn't mean that I remember not the planet I was like why would that be really switch is hot because I'm what it even is that how do you do yeah the way in our opinion took drama based like a different different place and you know they change the game as far as we're concerned in like you know the true pioneers is the scenery you know they took digital music to another level you know people were just playing about

a digital or a pendulum came in and said yeah this is what we do and made a statement there was even altercations in cups where first generation with a pro would approach people like pendulum accusing them of ruining their careers because they came with a whole nother knowledge of what sonic impact could mean it really expanded who could make music you didn't have to have a studio you know that cost you the price of an apartment and I understand this probably some resentment from those who made that outlay into hardware and spend all their money

on it but look at the quality of the music that came after that when it became more accessible [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] two thousand four five and six definitely one of my favorite areas of drum and bass James breakage making his like good W stuff you have digital making a lot of wicked tuna round that time all of calibers music was amazing and incredible at that time we started working together in 2004 drama bass was in a kind of mixed place which sort of been through the hangover after the honeymoon as in turn

of the millennium you know I think trauma bass actually was in a pretty good place at the time I think you know a good sales workers although they were starting to die it was there was a transition taking at the place where was much harder for producers to exist without DJing when we look at vinyl sales in in oh five I mean for an example in in 2003 we could literally release anything on subtitles and sell between eight to fifteen thousand copies and then you know everyone was screaming oh my god it's going down here

like 2005 was like it was getting hard to sell 5,000 mp3 culture that's when they'll show you turn around before I was done play culture then it was the case of people cutting God plates so you'd be given a DAP or you know CD and you'd have to take it to a place in London called music house [Music] [Applause] oh man stories from the car house before the first story is that you go kind house you never ever take a camera in there so there's not that much footage of what was good on the music

house never ever move from York you don't matter how hungry you are you can be hungry for days you could be in there boys you get a New York you put space never move because you'll lose that spot so that I was kind of I don't love hate of the dubplate days you know the Dubs itself I love the whole meeting up there and being part of that used to sometimes I'm not the quietest of people if you ain't noticed so therefore if somebody's giving an opinion about saying that I don't agree with rather than

a sit quiet and go you know what it's nothing to do me just sit there way you know I'll get involved I used to go team I hate like don't get involved in enough food you know just sit there you in a rush but I can't help with so the music house days were amazing trying to get there really early so that I wouldn't be waiting all day and you know because if you got there late and then grew fried to walleston and he's got his Radio 1 show later or something like oh no he'll

just walk in and he'd have a bag of that tapes and CDs you'd know that you weren't getting seen for a long time used to be like a DJ's Club to go and say in our own little internal club where we just sit and talk about music and it's what music and exchange and you know that aspect of it is really lost oh yeah music house was like it was like a community center where you went to get inspiration smoke some great weed and hear all the latest tracks that all the other days and it

won't be on the phone outside trying to call Dillinger saying grew roads just turned up with this that can we cut the track please like no plates were great they smelt nice they were nostalgic they cost a hideous amount of money and we never really delved into that world too much while it may be sort of looked upon in an era of nostalgia to me was detrimental to the progression of drum and bass if you had to spend 35 to 50 quid on on cutting a single record just to be able to play it it

just slowed the process of everything and if that record was only available to sort of an inner circle it was sort of reprimanding the advancement it was stopping drum and bass being truly available 21 and if you could walk into a club and hear someone play a record that you couldn't buy I can't see how that was beneficial in any way it's not reggae it's not sound systems it's drum and bass it's incredibly technical digital music made in a digital environment and then you add that people were demanding that you use sort of decades old

technology to perform it it's not a question of vinyl versus CDs it was a question of dubplates versus CDs because you were always if you're playing stuff on vinyl ok if it's something you're playing for a long time you're always you want to be playing stuff that's not out yet so the choice is dub play or a CD because if it's on vinyl it's too old already [Music] god grown up watching Randall and ec hi whoever you know his going to clubs are sitting there like trying to get near anywhere I could watch them actually

mix and like that was a big thing because it was just it was all about vinyl to me then what was happening is I'm playing in clubs where 90% of the D there's noplace CDs you know it's to spin and this is the true of anything between a thousand and three thousand pounds a month one dubplates and you know you turn up at a club where you've got a big poster with your face on the door hopes here tonight and you turn up the local guys on plainly CDs and the crowds kind of there but

really they're waiting for you and you're there you know they'll start shouting your name a bit and you know like ask when you want when you are gonna smash it then you go on and you're a man you put on your first mix because it's needles a jump in you can't actually do the mix so he's jump and you feel like a complete [ __ ] and those kids don't go you know what it is the sound engineer didn't say it up they just going [ __ ] he can't mix rubbish [Music] [Applause] I think

2006 was about a year I don't it was an I mean we from the start we made some [ __ ] at some point I think that was when we've done our good game album which was horrific the iPhone honest it was just not even because we just was partying a lot 2006 when we started med school the hospital had it grown to the point where it was now approaching the edge of becoming a mainstream independent label and I wanted I wanted something with no pressure on it something work and really experimental Global Gathering oh

six for pendulum was a huge one we swapped sets with frost I think and we played last it was broadcast on kiss it was you know that was a big moment playing a fabric our first sort of real live show was at fabric again 2006 and we seemed to play there quite often throughout oh three two about oh eight and you know fabric is a staple that's been there since 99 it's guaranteed it's going to be full on a Friday and it's going to be drawing based it's going to be good what was good about

fabric in London is one day policy is really towards underground music fabric has been my motherland the mothership you know a loft operates out of here and made a waste for the role of it as well which I like so yeah this is this is the club when the surroundings I mean such an excellent club it's got a sound it's got the look it's got everything for a proper rate it's four rooms in a floor there's no fancy lighting he's greedy the sound systems but those four walls have spawned a hell of a lot of

incredible careers and I've met a lot of people talk about fabric being the place that they had that moment hear someone play that tune have an epiphany totally friends and say this is why London forest of my life go home I completely changed and become focused on this and the alderman on to work on producing DJ's someone on to become oh there's a big boy web websites to do with the scene so we're not to become big promoters agents and managers it's an institution in dr. Stromm base but UK music [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] 2007

I was a bedroom you do sir and then I released this album and kind of everything went crazy and I went auteur and the music like so many cool artists out there did fresh kind of music like the digital revolution kind of sing by 2007 when I was finally being sort of picked up a build-up to that moment where I was working really hard and at that time I make a tune that day or two and I did a few releases a lot of people like them signed them and then everybody else is like if

you got something for me and a lot of labels I had never thought I'd get signed to there were like have you got something and because I was writing so fast I was like yeah so it just it went like that and it was really fast it was a super exciting time you know I was like in my early 20s and all of a sudden everybody cared which was also quite unusual being Dutch in such a an English music scene although I was really not the first in that sense people starting to break that barrier

down so many places this music is travel to it no longer needs to be dependent of just a UK sound Europe is definitely being somewhere which has taken this whole thing by the horns and was normally said you know what we get this I mean we don't get this but we're gonna teach you guys a few lessons as well [Music] honestly I had no idea about I know I knew John bass was you know star in the UK etc but by the time I was discovering drum bass for myself that I didn't have the interest

to look into drum into in the UK settle on bass because I was hoping the whole European side from the beginning like yeah noisier face guys like that for me it was an era I can't really define the the the correct time spent what for me I was called the subtitles era you know when noise he was starting out hubcap that kind of [ __ ] and when you know face hot rock then miss enfoque came along with my professional this year it was just gold yeah go big up TB on signing those people I

did put quite a big focus on actually signing non-uk acts to sort of just bring it through you know I had the first release it from my noisier phase and yeah it was good types 2007 was an interesting year really I remember at the time noisier were doing some break stuff I like she hooked up with the guys from Accra sky we ended up making a tune pendulum had a break struck out as well and yeah it was is interesting I think people were starting to experiment more I think the zinc around that time as

well and he was making more sort of like break be kind of staff I was he thinks an absolute legend from from brights seminal tunes like super sharp shooter to doing different genres like one 3x rec funky and go DJ basically started up this bingo imprint which is fundamentally zinc was doing what he does but a slow tempo and at the time there was a whole load of like it's not making he's silly now he's doing this and the reality is that making students at 140 isn't selling now it just make it to sit 140

but it was much clearer than even even more than now and he got a lot of stick for it but he also wrote some of the biggest rooms in the country [Music] I think the dubstep movement is inevitable to come off the back of 140 BPM based music because job Steph has had lots of elements from drawing bass with the bass noises the kind of levels of production the fat drums were just kind of slower and it had all no kind of production levels and quality that previous music might not have had when that step

came around and started doing you know just sort of cool bass tiny stuff which is what I came from to begin with you know I mean like I have what's the difference between an early screening and early Johnny LG you know I was excited by it but for a while the beginning right I was like these guys have [ __ ] produces [ __ ] hell man like learn learn how a compressor works and then we'll talk again [Music] oops that was here as I remember people comes to me in waves in in Oklahoma go

yeah [ __ ] German bass man dubsteps in man I like wow really punch it out in the face happen you know when dubstep first come to the forefront at the same time people like chase a state is sub focus wilkinson pendulum in a DJ fresh and it will became today's pop stars chart success and especially chart singles were something we never thought about we made albums we won't the record companies would say you need singles and we'd be like we're just going to make an album pick what you want so anything that kind of

got popular in a mainstream sort of crossover like I guess one of our tracks tarantula it's about going to a funeral you know propane nightmares as a about a cult they weren't targeted at a sort of mainstream audience that's just how it worked out and was bewildering to us at the time our first top ten was with Plan B end credits 2009 and that song was all about dying I think if we did we not just Jason stays it would have all tried to make music to get on the radio and on the chart we

would have failed and it would never had the opportunity it's had you can see when people make Tunes that aren't like them for the radio and it doesn't work and it doesn't chart or anything it happens in drum and bass and has happened over the years where you can always find some wicked music and excellent music but there are just these little time periods that kind of pop up every now and again where you think bloody hell I love this but it's not changed the game for me and so I was a driving bass [Applause]

[Music] that time you just like nothing ever before and it was just bringing in all these different influences and and they were making stuff it's kind of like electronica what it was really slowing it down bringing in all of this musical stuff and I was just like wow what is this this is incredible it was just the whole movement they were doing rim three at fabric they asked me to be a resident there which I'll be eternally grateful for as well it gave me a chance to play other styles of music [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

2010 it was I guess it was a bit of a game changer for us because I mean we've all we all like the bad company stuff with software you know it was yeah II still love that listen love it we still look up to freshers an amazing producer and he he would just go in touch and he was interested in what we were doing so I remember the time we went downstairs and he saw the studio and like a riverboat tizzy yeah and so we'd go down there and like you'd be in the studio and

probably room not much bigger than this and he would have the tubes up so loud you can talk to it like you had some dishes shouting is here and then you sit ducks with pasta so it's quite some real experience but yeah you know dad showed us a lot of pool and you know you've really didn't have a ball back from you know day one and then so the methods well I mean breakbeat Kaos was still really strong then oh yeah and yeah kind of the ice that we both always I mean there's a lot

of a hell of a lot of ice with the cop to inspire us but I still think at that time it was out of meth from fresh people like DJ Fresh I'm always about to take my house because he's always changing stuff his success kind of speaks volumes really I mean he's always up for trying something different whether that's going down a commercial route or whether that's doing something that's a bit out there and kind of strange but I think that's what we really respected you know seen fresh take a lot of flack but he's

one of the only guys who actually walked the line truthfully within the game of DMB went into the pot fee roxrite's Aurora major us world wide star my broker still plays [ __ ] music why because he's [ __ ] good what particularly it DJ to be honest I'm more of a producer more of an alchemist that puts great sound together you know catch me wrong down [ __ ] plomox a [ __ ] salad tell me more play good you play a few change though if you catch me in a right [ __ ]

mood maybe you don't mean there's people that can really do that let up in the Randalls of this world the Andy sees of this world you know that can really [ __ ] roll out of spirit spirit can [ __ ] roll out really roll out turn me inside out the same is Thorne some people have great selections other don't my favorite guy to listen to his break because of the Devon flow of his sets you know because of the style he represents and because of how understated he is at times and he can make

the most sort of like in someone else's set the common roller just go off yeah he's like the antithesis of what DJing has become for a lot of people in terms of lowest-common-denominator emphasis entirely on the drop [Music] we just flat out all night all kinds of gimmicks as well is calling on our John's in the edge crowd-surf airing what we [ __ ] I was going yeah I would have actually gone into it if people with groove item Fabio we've gone around and all that down crowd sir probably would know it was like cuz

groove would be up there spliff hanging out his mouth just look it weren't about him but yeah and it was yes you not mean there was nice of likes or showman's or thing going on there yeah doubled up into that I'm [ __ ] finish I'm do now now look straight face given up yeah maybe it's interesting maybe there's not as many DJs with unique styles nowadays you know in a sense of like a DJ having an identity where you can tell it to that DJ on do to maybe the way that they'll mix or

blend a tune or the way that you know that it will always get through the breakdown and then it'll be a lovely smooth ride at the end to segue into the next tune or whether it's gonna be like Bom Bom Bom hammers are all double drops or whether it's gonna be cutting in and out I think you'd I think DJ's have a [ __ ] massive responsibility to be dutiful I love the fact that went on when we're there and Andy's plane and he'll still have to draw a tune unless he knows he does don't

you he knows he will they'll have to draw a tuner and he will and he'll [ __ ] joy out executioner he'll join us and proper [ __ ] D&B love you in a fresh to you and get drops up love it a man that can still roll out a [ __ ] sheen and hurt people SS still guys war in the world more than any crazy is nice man doesn't doesn't get mention like the guy works so hard yeah non-stop and he and he ran one of the biggest most influential drama based labels ever

signed every artist he signed something pretty much from every big eyes last 20 years man [Music] [Music] [Music] 2011 12 it was just that every release that came out was just mortal mm-hmm and even if it wasn't something you necessarily liked it was still cool it still sounded different every time I DJ there was fresh music to play that was great some focus was putting out records chase and say this was putting out amazing records TC was putting out amazing records guys are the prototype started to you know to send us Tunes a message fresh

of aim every single day for a year no lot he was relentless he's really I just bother people with stuff until family he's really good at there then yeah eventually man like these people are listening to your stuff just because they don't tell you but they turns out a lot of them have been playing our stuff for months before we even know about through 2010 11 12 you would hear the music first and you didn't know who it was like lodestar and Simon based off smith and you'd hear in rudimental records and you'd hear freshers

record i like you know i heard me you're always voice first so i didn't know who it was so when i find out where's fresh so i mean i was kind of like how surprised but not that surprised I can't like believe people were involved in majors that grew up on jungle German boat so their understanding of it was a lot better therefore if you see in the second half of the history of your name there's been a lot of successful pot backs like D and B except crossed over whereas back then it didn't really

happen can be a lead-in to it that's a load of nonsense you're not gonna [ __ ] find a debut album why listen to that [ __ ] I am NOT gonna find [ __ ] rolled into one by photoquai listen to that she I so I argue about B argue it out there rather strongly about stuff either I would never want to criticize any sub-genre of drum and bass like everything has its place and I like it all pretty much and I've always felt like that like right from you know the the kind of

sound that would get criticized when I first started was this sort of aphrodite kind of jump up sound like people saying it was cheesy and poppy like you know the remixes of the hip hop stuff but I used to play that a university because it was a gateway you know you're trying to get people into drum and bass so play things that are not the super hard stuff all the time to get the girls dancing and get people a hard into drum and bass dancing to it without them realizing and you know the same can

be said now for Wilkinson and Sigma and things that people criticized for being too poppy or charty they get people into drum and bass I totally embrace even stuff I'm not into that's real charity and poppy if it's bringing a wider audience in that's well then get into what we're about then that's a good thing I wasn't gonna get into drum and bass coming from my jazz background going straight into know you tonal source direct or hidden agenda I got in through beautiful and Ian paired strings little bouncy 808s rolling breaks but good-looking records all

that stuff was you know how I got into it [Music] [Music] [Music] again say 2013 12 maybe just before it was an amazing time for music where you just go in and say I'm gonna play some music listen to it ultimately what you want to do I remember talking to the IV get IV lab guys about three years ago and they were like doing this thing and it was like we do shows together and they're play it and I'd be like I don't know if people like it but it's really good but like you're brave

to play that much of it you know we started to play more and more of it and obviously they they're the champions as far as I'm concerned they're very much the champions of it along with people Alex Perez down D bridge I think he's a he's a big proponent of being experimental being amazing when I made deadline and just to afford out and that teacher before that and I think there's wise men before there's like loads of I just see it as part of making drum bass I don't see they're thinking about what I've done

afterwards really it's just a fun thing I just got a few drums together and it progressed into that I experiment I mess around I didn't think well you know we're so like a half time female this is now you know it's just a track yeah I mean halftime is definitely really bigger than I am and beat see you know I mean half times been big I remember Johnny L halftime tune in 96 but I mean the beat see things completely taken off and is really cool and I like it as well but it's converging into

one sound it's fairly easily defined there's also a danger with the beat stuff that it becomes beer strokers music that is what 2014 to 2016 is for me it's about letting our older generation fans know that we're still here and there's younger generation of fans no you know what we didn't just come yesterday [Music] obviously Ronnie sighs he took it from jungle to the mainstream brilliant but still just kept it I mean he kept it massively credible still this mean for everyone I believe that everyone should who's being a part of it if they want

it they should have a piece of it because it's great out there you know who doesn't want to go and pay in front of like 20,000 people at Gaston Barry on the main stage who doesn't want to do that that's the biggest party in the world I mean so you know don't let it just be because some NR man out there you know had the great idea to do this because if you are specifically writing drum and bass music with the mindset of wanting it to be commercially viable it's going to not end up sounding

like drum and bass record or it's going to end up being corrupted by your vision when you look at this scene and all the people that have helped to take this thing to where it is you should understand that what you're actually playing on the radio is a segment of what the rest of it is and the only reason why that then that when that music will be credible is what I'm [ __ ] dead when that music that they're making is gonna be credible because I feel strongly about that gentrified drum and Biber bollocks

mainstream popularity and drum and bass and charts positions in their own base I think it's awesome cool you know rudimental had a charting drum and bass unit has a trumpet solo in it I don't know how the hell they pulled that off song based drum and bass first is cynically created pop drum and bass bit like the view but by Drs and LSB you know amazing song just like should easily be number one you know Annie and in people who knows hearts it is none and that's the thing Sigma featuring take that now that's not

done through love it's a kind of construct it's it's a functional process to make money it's not done because it's what you want to do and you love doing it it's not like we set out to kind of you know we wasn't like there was a hit list of people for us to work with but you know has we progressed and as like we get bigger with the music we're making you know the artist we working with get bigger and you know I think for us if the music's good you know that speaks for itself

it doesn't matter if it doesn't matter what you make I mean we wouldn't ever want to compromise what we were doing just to work with one of those action I mean and for us it feels like a secret track following on from the other tracks that we've done so you know from our perspective that's why we kind of did it feels good I wish I could make a John bass record that was like really commercial and would like crossover then we can happen you might get a little bit of radio playing on radio sixth grade

that's one eighth really seal off never winning the shot it was like some like little top thirty or something you know in today's terms that's a real disaster doesn't matter does it was he was voicing something this is one of the downsides of pop dry race is that young producers see that as an entry point however a lot of people will always be making anti-establishment music what I find in the last few years which is fantastic is the underground you know if you look at other genres of music especially in the UK British born ones

where they born out the underground they become big then all the artists within it that hop in go on to have pop success or commercial success and then what happens is everybody leaves the underground like they [ __ ] it off and then that's fine when you have in commercial success but soon as commercial success disappears it can be very fickle in the end it's gonna die now without an infrastructure on the underground the whole thing dies with it you know if you look wearing Gary's guarantors as big as you could get but when it

died meat died overnight saying we've dumped it when it died over it died overnight every few years you get another John to come in it's huge and we get kind of sizes that are what you still doing it but our music is because we've got an underground infrastructure [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] I think it's always moving it's always going forward in a positive direction more and more talents coming through the more global we become the more the music is spreading the more talented producers come in there's more room for people to

come in and change the music totally like what D which is done like what dub dub physics did when he brought in all of the other influences this success that we see now and the ubiquity of DMB on the radio you go out to the festivals you know who and I be through every week and it's go in it's going off them foundations are laid by the entire scene everybody influences everybody and everybody's laid the foundations for the success of German bass today and I have to say this because this is one of my favorite

things to write about but Ron bass is never [ __ ] cool right it's always the bastard childhood dance music one of the most important things about Durham bass longevity is that it's that sort of bastard child of dance music if you're getting all the love people are gonna get you're gonna get sick of it eventually it was room 3 music and for me being into punk rock that was where I was gonna be I wasn't gonna be in room 1 I was like where's the underdogs where's the DIY guys where's the guys that are

being told constantly your scenes dead I want to be part of that [Music] to get into it you have to care about the music and you're proud to be involved in something that you know is so cool and so awesome and different and you're not like in a you know following some fashion and you know that's gonna change or you're into something that's really meaningful and different and interesting and creative and not like sell outi cheesy crap it's been around for such a long time and there's been so many sort prolific producers coming through the

scene and keep coming through you have acts also that break into the commercial world and make the sound even bigger to a bigger audience so it's kind of like you know occasioning an actual breakthrough and you know suddenly you'll get a whole different audience listening and hopefully coming to the drawing base clubs [Music] [Music] [Music] there's a schizophrenia and a Jew ality and drum bass it it's one of the hardest types of music to make well but if you do make it well I think the underground nature of it keeps people really together it's it's

really funny watching drawing bass how its withstood the test of time and other genres haven't drawn bass we're just there is that it's actually a much bigger industry than people realize no-one's been holding it hostage like obviously some artists have been signed to majors over the years but the music is so radical it can't be contained it's always been underground and always will be underground it kind of it was built up from people that has nothing really but created these weird of wonderful new sounds when you need the tempo the energy the vibe it's you

know it's um there's no other music out there at our tempo it's not been assimilated by 4/4 you know pretty much every other genre ever and I've said this all along every other genre sooner or later you go out and it'll be don't don't weave that with the influences but we've not we are we stand apart for that and dark hard I said I said to my agent years ago and I said to pay well so I just Chuck's on them stages at the festivals and you watch it rip this [ __ ] you watch

people go nuts and that's what's happened do you know I mean and like with the success of the ice that we've had coming through and with the with the success that it's enjoyed now pulls everybody out it's like a big ladder and then big tunes whether whether whether the underground of the scene is into them or not it's like a rope ladder that pulls up everybody in every facet you know remain and it brings more and more people into the scene and everybody has to get into a scene somewhere there's always a mixed gang this

getting into it you know who whether it be the same source sound that was there before I don't know but there's always something else and then somebody else coming through and pushing the boundary that a little bit further so hopefully it still continue because that's what keeps me involved it's not like the same as it was because like back in the day back in the early days it was just like UK productions but no the productions are coming from everywhere in the world and that's changed the whole thing that's opened up even more so we're

gonna be here for a while I do hope young kids come up and show the old ones what's possible and I don't know is there's a happy future for us of course and I think there's too many people cool people honest people live people and so many great minds out there so I see very positive and yeah we'll see we find out I never like to predict the future I just kind of go with the flow and see where it takes me the things that I'd like to see happen with the scene itself in terms

of inclusion on line ups like see more women be supported I'd like to see a mixture of cultures on line ups as well I think the way it's become now when you look at some label rosters you just see one type of person and that's not what attracted me to this music I fell in love with it and going out because I saw all these different people around me different cultures different ethnicities different ages different sexualities everybody just coming together and enjoying the music [Music] there is something else now to happen in fact I think

right now we're at a point again where we can really break it out if you want a beats is a really interesting sort of thing in the moment I will go other places as well but it really leaves some space I think the moment for someone to be invented in there so we'll see it's being videoed we'll see whether I'm right the room I will have this interview in another 20 years you know well I've got no hair left and I'm walking in on a walk is it but the passion still did and it is

is that that ruinous there is in the future you know that and you know what it isn't one because what you do today creates tomorrow and that's the attitude of what culture does it doesn't give a [ __ ] about tomorrow we can't do anything I think the youth will just do it they just do it themselves you know they they they dictate what's happening what's cool what's what's the trend what people are in what they're into you know you could try all you like to push a certain sound I pushed a certain this if

if the kids that aren't into it they're not into it and I think the beauty about jumble it is will sense it and when it's authentic when it's genuine and when it's you know from the heart to be cheesy when it's real that it's what's enticing them attractive not lost in jungle with drum bass in any genre if you just do it properly because you want to do it you love it and you could and you couldn't hear that you can hear that and that is what will attract people want to be part of this

culture drawn based crowds really like drum and bass and that's what's amazing a ton and that's something you cannot you cannot ignore and that's one of the things that makes being a drum and bass DJ label owner produce whatever amazing because the people who love your music they really really [ __ ] love it and that's really really special I mean it's like cliche but if you're in with Ronan days you're almost in for life yeah definitely and people are very passionate about it and they're true like I mean I can relate to that it's

still I love it and yeah just a forward-thinking nature the producers as well is just driving it a lot I think people are constantly trying to outdo each other but how do themselves and just push something new for it it's Underground it's greed it's something that none is never produced before it's never fallen off you know and because it's it's all underground it always just reinvents itself you know there's been a garage there's been funky house you know there's hip-hop and stuff like that well nothing compares to the actual energy and the feeling you know

the main of just um just the beats the bass the brakes you know nothing doesn't really compete to that [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] this music for us always slightly makes you this is a physical reaction as well because if it was scratching their faces and nodding quickly and you get it on the same kind of vibe but just touches you somewhere else and I think you know drama bass jungle what did that to me did that to will did that to us people ask me what's why are you doing what you do and I say

I want to bring beautiful music into the world that didn't exist before and that's not just my own music that's music by our artists drum and bass to me is a refuge a passion an obsession and an undying love java-based is my life donor base to me is everything trauma-based me at one point I would have said everything but as a flash your base is life [Music] the basis of me is pretty much my life has been for the last 25 years and I don't see it changing at the moment you know it's been 18

years since I started buying records and since I started being involved in drum and bass and I think it's better than it's ever been and I'm even more stoked now than I was the day I worked out what it was so there you go Thank You drone base to me drawing base is everything permeates every minute of every day [Music] you know drum and bass it's the nice it's a life's work it's a mad thing it's beautiful you know it was beautiful [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]