In any genre of music – pop, blues, hip hop – there are artists who achieve the culinary equivalent of cooking a delicious stuffed squab chaudfroid with Cumberland sauce on their first attempt. Sometimes these characters have years of hard graft behind them under secret aliases. Others are just naturally gifted. Whatever the reason, the ten DnB producers in this list hit a home run off the first pitch of their fledgeling career:

 

10.

Twisted Individual

Wales

Formation

1999

 

Appearing first on a sampler to DJ SS's World Of Drum & Bass LP, the oddly titled Wales (all the tracks on the album had names of countries to fit in with the World Of Drum & Bass theme) was a smash on the underground circuit, and while Twisted didn't blow up for another few years, it marked the start of a much-copied legacy that would bring us classics like Gimp Mask and see him become a staple in the record boxes of DnB DJs like Grooverider, Mampi Swift and Andy C. The drums were unique for the time.

 

 

9.

Craggz & Parallel Forces

Fizzy Piglets

Valve

2004

 

Seemingly inspired by a British supermarket sweetie line, Fizzy Piglets was a massive DnB debut single. Ironically, these students of dance music taught everybody a lesson in how to produce. Valve Recordings don't give releases to anything less than stellar.

 

 

8.

Randall & Andy C

Sound Control

RAM

1994

 

Okay, so this was co-produced by Andy C who had released records previously, and Randall's production history has been extremely small throughout his career, but it was the first and last time this pair made anything together. The coming together of two different DJs, with one thing in common – a desire to hurt the dance floor – spawned this high-tech jungle monster with memorably elastic drums.

 

7.

Un-cut

Midnight

Wired Productions

2001

 

This entry is cheating a little bit, because Un-cut is basically a different name for Future Cut (with the addition of Jenna G) who before had received a lot of love from the industry for their dark drum & bass productions. But, most artists – even the greatest – have had different aliases, some known, some unknown, in the past. Midnight inspired one of the greatest drum & bass remixes ever, courtesy of Marcus Intalex and S.T. Files, and 'made it okay' to produce soulful, delicate drum & bass music.

 

 

6.

High Contrast

Make It Tonight

Hospital

2001

 

2001 was a great year for drum & bass, with classics like Casino Royale, Up All Night, Midnight, Body Rock, Space Invaders remix, Planet Dust and Cybotron coming out. Make It Tonight was a brave track that went totally balls out on the funk; so far ahead of its time it raised its fair share of eyebrows. It became a blueprint for the Hospital sound that would turn that label into one of the most successful of the modern era. High Contrast has since won respect from various music scenes outside of drum & bass.

 

 

5.

Dead Dred

Dred Bass

Moving Shadow

1994

 

This anthem was huge in 1994, and just oozed with character. Produced by Dead Dred, an alias of Ascend & Ultravibe, Basic Movements and Sound Station, Dred Bass was one of the first famous 'jungle' tracks to use a reverse-style bass line, and it sounded unique. The introduction was magical, the ragga samples were memorable and the drums ... clever as hell. No self-respecting jungle collection would be complete without Dred Bass.

 

4.

Jo

R-Type

Awesome Records

1993

R-Type is drum & bass perfection – the mix is great, it's simple and hard hitting – it regularly features in drum & bass sets today, nearly 20 years after it was created. Dance-music fans are notorious for their love of video gaming, so the eponymous reversed music from the R-Type video game struck a chord with them. The vocoded, 'Holographic recognition ... active' and, 'Holographic imaging ... complete' samples were from the Darkman film starring Liam Neeson. R-Type came 100th in the top 100 Knowledge singles and a remix of the track alongside the original was also the first single on Shogun Audio in 2004.

 

 

3.

Moving Fusion

Turbulence

RAM

1998

 

Moving Fusion exploded onto the scene in 1998 with the dance-floor smashing anthem Turbulence on RAM Records. It was released as a one-sided sampler to RAM’s Sound In Motion LP, and on the album itself. The pitched-down vocals heard in the track are taken from the 1994 film Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, spoken by everybody’s favourite video-game babe Chun Li. Turbulence helped cement RAM’s reputation as the dominant label on the drum & bass scene, chock-full of capable artists. 

 

 

2.

)EIB(

The Nine

BC Recordings

1998

 

The creators of The Nine – Maldini and Fresh – could never have anticipated how big this track was to become. It is fitting of a debut classic in that nobody could have predicted it. The Nine was a little bit different to anything else, and can surely be appreciated by anybody who is interested in music. This track marked the beginning of a dynasty that would change the face of the drum & bass scene forever.

 

 

1.

Pendulum

Vault

31 Records

2003

 

Start as you mean to continue is a phrase that applies strongly to Pendulum, as they completely revised technical standards in the drum & bass scene with their first release. This set the bar for a slew of game-changing records in the form of Another Planet, Pack Of Wolves remix, Masochist, Slam, Tarantula and a remix of The Prodigy’s Voodoo People. It’s hard to imagine another artist in the future having as big of an impact on drum & bass production as Pendulum did with their debut.

 

• Andy C
,
• Randall
,
• High Contrast
,
• Twisted Individual
,
• Formation
,
• Grooverider
,
• Mampi Swift
,
• Craggz
,
• Parallel Forces
,
• Valve
,
• RAM
,
• Hospital
,
• Future Cut
,
• Midnight
,
• Jenna G
,
• Un-cut
,
• Moving Shadow
,
• Jo
,
• R-Type
,
• Moving Fusion
,
• Fresh
,
• The Nine
,
• Maldini
,
• Bad Company
,
• BC
,
• Pendulum
,
• Vault
,
• 31
,
• The Essential...

Related Links:

• Podcast 12
• Free Samples: Ray Keith
• Review: NI Maschine
• Podcast 06
• Caspa My Style Mix CD

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