Bay Area Drum & Bass

Audio1

Primary Element / Ultragroove / Warlord Dubplate / US Jungle / Destroyer

Bay Area heavyweight AUDIO1 has been holding it down on the turntables since birth. The original bboy digs deep to take you to the roots & soul of the Hip-Hop culture, giving the listener an eclectic mix of classics old and new, with b-sides, exclusives, and old skool breaks blended to perfection with shaolin b-boy techniques. While his roots are in Hip-Hop, Audio1 is more well known as one of the top jungle DJs on the West Coast. He combines precise cuts, scratches, and beat juggling with fast paced mixing covering diverse styles from ragga and hardstep amens to grinding techstep with a healthy dose of futuristic b-boy styles, but you already knew that.

Contact: thabboy@gmail.com | http://www.djaudio1.com | http://www.myspace.com/djaudio1

Bicolas

Skills Productions / Rhythm Method / DanceRecords / Streetmode

Examining the history of this severely disturbed individual, you will find that he has been a major supporter of the D&B industry for about 12 years now since the sounds of Ragga and Old School Jungle first hit his ears in 1994. Relentless in pursuing the sound and ultimately falling in love with the Neurofunky Futuristic Techstep of later years, he acquired turntables in late 1997 and has never looked back. Coming from a family with a very strong musical background, his mother plays the bass and his step-father plays drums in their band whose studio is in their living room, so Bicolas grew up with an arsenal of instruments and musicians at his disposal. Moving forward to recent years, Bicolas has also played host to almost over 100 professional artists from all around the world with the help of his close friends at the monthly event known as "Rhythm Method" and also putting together huge line ups for Skills Productions over the past seven years at many of the massive events they have thrown. Officially in the "Industry", Bicolas has been a Drum & Bass dj/consultant/buyer for about 9 years now since the opening of Skills Dj Workshop in Berkely in 1997, moving on to sales at Nemesis Record Distribution during it's short life on the West Coast from mid 2000 - early 2002, and finally landing at DanceRecords.com where he has been since early 2002, growing a strong catalog of D&B for DR.com, he also paved the way for many direct over seas accounts with companies ranging from ST Holdings, SRD, Nu Urban, Load Media and many many more, which has made Drum & Bass in the Bay Area more accessible to the public on a massive scale. These days you can find Bicolas mixing just about every type of Drum & Bass throughout the world-wide circuit, at least when he isn't playing video games, submerged in a gruesome horror flick, sorting through Garbage Pail Kids or grinding a curb on his skateboard. Things are going strong, life is good and there's no turning back...

Canadub

Badnb / Futurebreaks.fm

Born and raised in Vancouver British Columbia, Aaron Mullagh aka Canadub, got down to business at an early age, rinsing out 'Breakdance 1982' on his Fisher-Price record player. A gift of a Hitachi ghetto blaster with high speed dubbing had Aaron making sexy mix tapes for all the cute girls, and hardcore pump up music for his hockey team.

He began his journey into the electronic music world when he heard a late night radio program on Z95.3FM playing what he perceived as a continuous track which caught his attention and had him moving like a fire alarm in a library.

At age 15 Canadub moved to Toronto, Ontario and found himself at his first underground party. He was immediately drawn to the riddum of the hot, humid, and smoky Jungle room. Influenced by the 90's sounds of LTJ Bukem, Shy FX, and Rob Playford, this young man knew what sound had his soul and began picking up and collecting mix tapes.

At age 21, Aaron moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, and created, deejay'd, and hosted a radio show by the name of 'Eternal Exodus' on world renowned, 89.7FM KFJC. It was there he discovered such artists as Photek, Boards of Canada, Squarepusher, DJ Shadow, Kemistry and Storm, Andrea Parker, London Elektricity, Autechre, and Meat Beat Manifesto.

It was not until age 26 that Aaron bought his first set of turntables and mixer and began collecting records. After a pirate radio residency at 93.7FM Western Addition Radio, Canadub was picked up in the late spring of 2006 by Future Breaks FM! which broadcasts every Saturday from 4-6PM on 90.3 KUSF. Being a long time listener and fan of the program it was a surreal moment the first time he sat in the hosts chair alongside DJ Push, DJ M, and Jus Wan.

At the same time Canadub took hold of the reigns and became the Co-Chairman of the Bay Area Drum n Bass Collective. After a successful run with LoveFest 2006 he is pointing his focus at the 2007 campaign.

Canadub has made his mark playing at San Francisco Drum n Bass parties: Phuturo, Compression, Reflex, Blend and in front of thousands at on the BADNB float at Love Fest 2006.

Aaron likes to keep his sound diverse and realizes the importance of playing for the timeslot he is booked for, and the crowd that he loves to sensualize.

He can be reached via Mullagh@Gmail.com or www.myspace.com/19aaron

Emcee Child

Still Doin' It / Reflex / B.I.G.

Emcee Child has been working in the Bay Area since being forcibly imported from the UK by his wife in 2000. His diverse background encompasses many different genres of music from all over England. He got his start emceeing for the City Kids (Hip Hop) in '94 and learned to DJ from the Cornish DJ Nee (Drum and Bass) in '96.

His broad range of styles stems from his love of all music. He is always seeking to push and develop his sound and works not only in Drum and Bass (Still Doin It, Reflex) but in Hip Hop crews such as with the Psychokinetics, in Breaks with members of the Subscience crew and as a founding member of the BIG Crew, the USA's hardest working Grime crew. He also provides mic support for the Bachelors of Science (Horizons/Hospital Records).

He has performed with such artists as Blame, Seji & Afronaut (Bugs in the Attic), Vex'd, Paradox, Big Bud, The Plastician aka Plasticman, King Tubby Sound System, Sister Nancy, Distance, Pinch, Tomas, Joe Nice, Skream, Clever, Juju, Stunna, Pipeline, Photek, Silent Witness, Break, Basic Ops, Azeem (Spearhead), Subverse (two time Battle MC Champ), Foreign Legion, TC & Don the Enhancer (Frisco Studios) and Static Sound System.

CD/DVD credits include Risky Roads 2, The Psychokinetics' second album "7 League Boots," The Lounge Album (w/members of the Psychokinetics) and Roadwork Vol. 1 (DJ Megatron).

The Doctor

The Doctor has been taking the Bay Area by storm with his hard, and energetic style of Jungle/Drum N' Bass. Having been in the scene for over 10 years, he's no stranger to the electronica scene. Although it wasn't until 2001 when be began showing interest in becoming a dj. Five years later, The Doctor has managed to "operate" at numerous events up and down California aswell as out of state bookings in Nevada and Washington. He's also graced numerous radio shows and web broadcasts. Holding down residencies with BR Productions, Liquidvinyldjs, Rhythm Method, DTS, Elev8, and Hard Heads, it's no surprise that The Doctor has become one of the most prominent and busiest people in the Bay Area underground scene.

MC Duh

Groundscore / Phuturo

I have written my own, or read someone else's bios of me for stuff from clubs in Hong Kong to pirate radio stations in London. They've contained mostly truths, often been positive, sometimes seemed corny, and almost never been completely full of lies. But here is pretty much the deal: I have been into drum & bass for a pretty long time, as things go. I have been lucky enough to have the chance to see a lot of jungle/drum & bass shit from teeny-tiny outpost towns with bedroom DJ's to the biggest of the big on the mic for the dons. It's all been exceptionally rewarding.

The Bay Area's scene is a really diverse and wonderful one, and something for us all to be proud of. Love Fest will once again be a chance for us to shine in the midst of all the house and trance that moves the majority of our local dance music colleagues--you know that they've been reminded how big our nuts are when the previous Love _______ have come around. Our BS is infections.

And no matter how big of a moaner I might be, drum & bass still inspires me, I still enjoy helping the clientele integrate with the DJ, and some of the best friends I have, I've made hanging out on this corner of the music world. So don't watch that, watch dis.

PS: If you try to get into a BADNB benefit party for free, you are suspect!!!!

ECHO

Violence Recordings

Son of Chicago, oracle of San Francisco, Echo remains one of America's great stealth weapons in the strategic armory of drum and bass. One of the first to heed the siren call of UK drum and bass in the mid 90s, Echo abandoned his ambitions in live music to commit himself to electronic music, and drum and bass in particular, forging pioneering releases in the States long before most of his contemporaries had even contemplated getting in the studio. His music is often poised on a fine line between the crackling, radioactive grit of drum and bass at its darkest, and the pensive, measured gait and melodic sensitivity of electronic dance music peers such as The Black Dog and Aphex Twin. The method to this reconciliation is at the heart of Echo's art, and it's not for the timid. Fond of citing schizophrenic musical roots in a family torn between the sophistication of jazz and the profane tradition of hillbilly twang, Echo was given the encouragement to pursue his burgeoning interest in music as a youngster. After years of playing several traditional instruments, at 16 Echo was experimenting with reel to reel tape machines, dictaphones, and any other devices he could lay his hands on. As finances allowed, he began to slowly amass a formidable collection of instruments—some antique, some new—and within a few short years, was forging virtually any sound he could imagine. In 1995, beckoned by San Francisco's vibrant community of artists, musicians, and general creative misfits, Echo piled all the possessions he could fit into his car and made the long drive across the country. In San Francisco, he was met by the shattering new sounds of drum and bass, and almost at once, he recognized that this brilliant, peripatetic music was the perfect vehicle in which to concentrate his far-reaching creative energy. His timing was superb. In short order, Echo was DJing around town, at a series of weekly and monthly clubs; nights that felt more like fevered laboratories of a new, alchemical science than just a mere good night out. Taking its cues from the UK but insisting on its own identity, San Francisco's drum and bass scene became one of the US's great incubators of talent and vision. Out of this fusion of leading producers and DJs emerged the Phunckateck collective. Recognizing Echo's talents not only behind the decks but behind a mixer and sampler, Phunckateck founder UFO! invited Echo into the fold. There followed a string of early releases on pioneering San Francisco drum and bass label Green, led by Echo's “Sinistar” and “Microdot,” which also featured original sleeve art by Zachary Present and Echo. Numerous other singles soon followed, under his own name and in collaboration with UFO! as Monitor. These early releases set the tone for an emergent class of American drum and bass. Since those heady days, Echo has kept the pressure on high in his studio The Pod with a series of releases that are at once sonically intense, densely constructed, and musically mature while maintaining an uncompromising accessibility on the dance floor. His more recent offerings begin on Phylum Recordings and continue through releases on storied UK label Renegade, Commercial Suicide, and Violence. He's often found in collaborations, working effortlessly with Hive, Klute, UFO!, and Juju. Few drum and bass artists can boast a musical heritage as rich as Echo's. While striving to maintain a firm connection to the imperatives of the DJ, his music nevertheless contains an artful and subtle platform for the reinterpretation of that heritage. As much a fan of drum and bass itself as rock, jazz, techno, hip hop, and electro, the textures and rhythms of these often find their ways in to Echo's music, artfully insinuating themselves into the grooves. A producer to whom risk-aversion is incomprehensible, Echo continues to inspire and engage those who listen with his delicate yet brutal alchemy of the rough and smooth, dark and light.

E$KR

Company Truck / Streetmode.net / Sideways / Blackhoe / Gun / Raw Vision

A midwest original. With a solid foundation backed by the likes of the Drop Bass Network, H.o.t.f, and a personal agenda unmatched by many... Emerging from the post-apocalyptic late nineties tech-step scene, he rapidly became a favorite throughout the midwest. After re-locating to San Francisco in 2001, he focused his energy, devoting a lot of time and attention in the studio as well as maintaining a hectic dj'ing schedule, and he quickly became a force to be reckoned with in the local drum and bass scene. He was cofounder of the Rhythm Method collective, helping to organize, promote, and coordinate events headlined by some of the world's finest drum and bass talent. He has rocked dancefloors as far away as the European mainland, and with his latest agenda, you can expect more of the same! Watch closely, and come along for the ride as the humble one helps pave way for the future of drum and bass.

Femme Fatale

Sleeveless / Compression / Redline / fSound

Name a venue, shes played it. Name a sound system, shes rinsed it. Name a release, she supplies it. Femme Fatale is a household name when it comes to San Francisco Drum & Bass. Soon after arriving on the local scene 10 yrs ago, her dedication became as impressive as her collection of tunes and affiliations...& she hasnt missed a day since! Residencies with COMPRESSION, SLEEVELESS, & FSOUND keep her schedule packed, allowing her to perform her upbeat & dubby style with names like: Dillinja, Craze, & Reid Speed. Weekends, you can find Femme Fatale @ 1816 Haight St inside REVERB RECORDS, where she established the Drum & Bass and Ragga Jungle section in 2004. Shell be ordering new tunes, promoting her shows, & pushing wax all before heading out to a gig that night. INFLUENCES: Shy Fx, Visionary, Future Sound of Cambridge, Cyantific, Jenna G, Craggs & Parallel Forces, D Bridge, Calibre, Jonny L, Martyn, A Sides, Benny Page, Barrington Levy, RCola, Tester, Debaser, Krinjah, & SF D&B!!

HADJI

Company Truck / Street Mode / Deviant Nation / Peace Off

Hadji Started mixing in 1998 and quickly gained solid foundation in the Midwest. He hooked up with the Drop Bass Network out of Milwaukee through H.O.T.F, one of the early Breakcore distro's in America, based in Minneapolis, MN. He met the Peace Off crew from France while playing at a Drop Bass party in 2000. In 2001 he travelled to France for (at the time) one of the largest breakcore shows ever assembled > 4 floors of pure chaos!!!

He returned to Europe in 2002 for an extensive stay at the Peace Off compound, while also traveling to Switzerland, Austria, and Germany for various shows. Hadji then moved to Seattle in 2002 for two years, concentrating on djing while making some solid connections with Compound Seattle, and the Noise LIberation Army. The latter of which is now Slit Jockey records, one of the stateside grime scene's heavy steppers, backed by El Carnicero and his whole band of bad boy runners. He spent the winter of '04 - '05 in Minneapolis, freezing his tail and helping to organize and promote drum and bass and breakcore.

In the Spring of '05, Hadji moved to San Francisco, reuniting with old pal E$KR and fellow Soldiers Diatrybe and Doubleday to help form the monster known as Company Truck! With their sights set on the Dancefloors of the future and armed with a sackful of original dubs! Backed by the dead and on a mission to destroy your sound system! 2006 JUST GOT SICK!!!

HIGHSIDE

BADNB / THE PROFESSORS

When he's not adding to his Mastodon t-shirt collection, the one like highside is growing his hair back and pumping french presses of Fair Trade Certified coffee. The other half of the brains, brawn, dedication behind the 2006 Bay Area Drum & Bass Lovefest float, Demian Luper has threatened to get the BADNB 06 logo tattooed across his shoulderblades on numerous occasions. Originally from Napa but now representing Oakland, he's spent an estimated 38.7% of his total life income on wine, women, and song. But mostly on song. The desire to get up in front of people he doesn't know and play records for them came from attending dj Vibe's marathon progressive techno sets at Kremlin in Lisbon during the mid-90s but he'll tell you it was really a meglomaniacal desire to prove to everyone he has an incredible taste in music. It's all a blur until Hemisphere happened and he was lucky enough to be a resident with the smoothest, funkiest, loveliest, and most soulful crew to grace the decks in SF (bigups Freya, Zigumund Void, Cyan, soundboy, Audio Angel, Frogger.) The only night he hasn't played in SF is Compression. Luper has played on a boat in Porto, in a kitchen on Haight St., a loft in Emeryville, a truck in San Francisco, and in the best bar in Bairo Alto, Lisbon. He considers buying Calibre a drink one of his greatest Drum & Bass moments ever. His love for all the amazing people in Bay Area Drum & Bass has kept him from moving to Salvador de Bahia many times. He played nothing but Bay Area-produced tunes on the float in 2006. He's still riding the high from watching the crowd go off to the drop of gridlok's Tricks pumping through the wall of fSound-and has the permanent goosebumps to prove it. If you feel like making him a part of your life, go here: www.myspace.com/demianhighside or here www.djhighside.com

HIVE

Violence Recordings

Celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic, its in the unassuming personality of futurist B-boy Hive that drum and bass finds its mightiest bridge between the UK and the US. His tracks have become staples of virtually all of drum and bass legends, from Andy C to Goldie, and make regular appearances on Grooveriders Radio 1 program--on which Hives towering Neo spent weeks at number one on the Five Mighty Rollers. Hives label Violence has registered sales comparable to Ram, Renegade Hardware, and Valve. He released a tremendous remix of Goldies and Rob Playfords The Shadow for Moving Shadow. Metalheadz has invited him to record an e.p. for the label. Hes toured worldwide, completing a month of dates in New Zealand and Australia in the fall of 2002, preceded by a month in the UK and Europe, which included a guest appearance for the Valve Soundsystem. No American has gained such complete entree into the heart of drum and bass.

Hive came of age as a drum and bass producer in the late 90s, but hes long been active in underground music, with roots that extend deep into underground hip hop, embodied in a string of iconoclastic releases and credits that include recording O.D.s Beneath the Surface album, followed soon thereafter by his own first album Working with Sound, released on his own Mandala imprint. The album was largely centered around jazz-inflected instrumental hip hop, but glimmers of drum and bass flickering across the surface anticipated his forthcoming artistic development. It was on the strength of this album that London/FFRR signed him to an album deal. In 1998 he released Devious Methods, a hallucinatory fusion of hip hop and drum and bass. Lauded by critics in Urb, Spin, Raygun, Vice, and DJ Times, the album yielded the single Ultrasonic Sound, which ultimately made its way on to the soundtrack CD for The Matrix, which notched up double platinum sales, surely as much exposure as any drum and bass artist could hope forand beyond.

Yet beyond is where Hive has gone. Concurrent with his album was the establishment of Celestial Recordings. The label was dedicated to exposing underground hip hop and included luminaries Freestyle Fellowship, Awol One, O.D., Fat Jack, and The Shapeshifters alongside Hives own tracks. From Celestial sprung Vortex, a label dedicated purely to uncompromising drum and bass. Vortex included releases by Dillinja, Tech Itch, Pieter K, Juju, UFO!, Sage, and of course Hive, and established itself as one of the premier drum and bass labels in the US, improving not only on the sound of American releases, but on the overall package as well, with first rate design, promotion, and DJ support. His The Raw Uncut project was a rousing statement for the label, its triple-pack vinyl and eight track CD release gathering new fans both in the US and in the UK, represented most dramatically by Moving Shadows licensing of three tunes for Killa Bites 2.

A club night to complement the expanding profile of the label was the next logical step, and Hive and label partner Daddy Kev opened the west coast franchise of New Yorks venerable Konkrete Jungle. Named best dance club in L.A. by Rolling Stone magazine, Konkrete Jungle positioned itself as Los Angeles premier drum and bass weekly until it closed its doors in 2001.

That same year, Hive and Kev dissolved Vortex, and Hive introduced his most recent label, Violence, which has exploded onto the drum and bass scene with ferocious determination. Featuring releases by Klute, Teebee, John Tejada, Gridlok, Keaton, Echo, Juju, and himself, Hive has steered the label into the vanguard of drum and bass.

Since the inception of the label, Hives musical output has grown ever more assertive and daring, personified most clearly by Neo, one of 2003s great anthems. Neo has reached into virtually every corner of drum and bass, from dedicated ravers to disaffected breaks aficionados, binding fans of different stripes together in common cause. Hive has also been spending more time in the studio with collaborators, including Keaton of The Usual Suspects. The two of them were responsible The Plague, another massive anthem of 2003, released on Hardware. 2004 will see the release of their even more broadly appealing follow-up Bring it On, for Violence.

Tough, propulsive, forged out of both the traditional sampled aesthetic and leading sound designs of contemporary drum and bass, the sound of Hive today bears the imprint of an artist searching for new ways to reinterpret the music by his own lights. Neither a retrospective purist, nor a follower of fashion, Hives music, his DJing, and his label strike a steely, inspiring balance, hewing closely to a tight creative vision that has propelled him into the forefront of drum and bass wherever it thrives.

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