The Illusionist

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Music has always been a big part of my life since as far back as I can remember. I got into Hip Hop from an early age, loving the energy and embracing the culture becoming a fully fledged B-Boy breaking at events all over my city. From there I became obsessed with having the freshest music available, so I started looking and the only people representing this sound were John Peel (RIP) and pirate radio. So me and a couple of others started compiling tapes and splicing them together for everybody at school. Forward to the end of the 80's and there was a new sound coming from America something only a few forward thinking DJ's were championing I soon caught on to this from the same sources I was getting my Hip Hop from and started doing tapes for friends, little did I know this music was about to spawn the infamous summers of love in 1988 & 1989. I started playing at local parties throughout the city, whilst cutting my raving teeth up and down the country, boy were those years mad. At the end of 91 I moved to Gloucester to get away from the madness, but the madness continued with me being in regular attendance at parties in Bristol, Bath and Chippenham to name a few. Still obsessively buying records my dj’ing was going nowhere fast, I was still playing the odd party here and there but nothing major, to say I was disappointed was an understatement but I suppose it wasn’t meant to be. Mid 93 I moved back to Coventry and promptly had all my records and equipment stolen, talk about being at my lowest, but you gotta dust yourself down and carry on. Needing a rest from raving and not really feeling the jungle sound I got back into Hip Hop at the right time, 93 was a vintage year for rap with so many timeless albums being released.Fast forward to 95 and my love for drum & bass was rekindled especially with the sound LTJ Bukem and the Good Looking camp and Goldie/Doc Scott and the Metalheadz camp were pushing. I had so many memorable nights at Speed and at the Blue Note in 1995-96 it was unreal, forward thinking music done by people who loved what they do. Falling out with the constant harder sound of D&B again in the late 90’s I moved back into hip hop, setting up the 4thFront in 2001 with fellow soldiers the Stik Up Kidz & Dice from here we blessed crowds with golden age party style hip hop from London to Leamington as well as bringing over established U.S. acts like Prince Paul, The Gravediggaz, Ugly Duckling and Giant Panda to show the UK cats how its really done. On the production side of things we released the classic Busta’s Soul a mash up of a Busta Rhymes acapella with a classic Souls of Mischief beat and worked with U.S. cat Spectac who is part of North Carolina’s Justus League. After becoming unimpressed and unexcited with the style, flow and attitude of a great many UK emcees and as well as having personnel differences with the 4thFronts Manager I decided to once again put Hip Hop on the back burner and concentrate on producing Drum & Bass for the first time, inspired by the sounds being played by the likes of Marcus Intalex, Doc Scott, Fabio, LTJ Bukem and productions from Calibre, D Bridge, Klute etc I’ve decided to learn the craft. The music you will hear on this page is undoubtedly endebeted to them.2008 is upon us and with so much good music out there the Illusionist has broke open the flight cases and fished out his 1210's to hold sway on Bassdrive twice a month, you can catch me taking you deep into the jungle on the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month for a 2 hour rollout.PEACE