Fourteen drum and bass producers and the one record to hear from each

People who are new to drum and bass often ask the same question: where do I start? Lists of the best artists tend to be too long to be useful, and lists of the best records tend to argue with each other. This one tries to be practical. It names fourteen producers and gives you one record from each, with the reason it earns its place. Together they cover roughly thirty years.

It is a personal choice of the D-N-B desk, not a ranking, and every fact in it comes from a source we name at the end.

The first wave

Shy FX, Original Nuttah (1994). Shy FX, born Andre Williams, released his debut record, Jungle Love, in 1992. Two years later he produced Original Nuttah with the vocalist UK Apache, a ragga jungle record that became one of the earliest in the genre to reach the UK top 40. If you want to hear what jungle sounded like when it was new, start here.

DJ Hype, Shot in the Dark (1993). Kevin Ford began working on a Hackney sound system as a teenager in 1982, started producing in 1989 and had a chart hit in 1993 when Suburban Base released Shot in the Dark. He hosted shows on the pirate station Fantasy FM and later on Kiss 100. It is a record from the breakbeat hardcore years, fast, bright and full of the rave.

Andy C, Valley of the Shadows (1993). Made as Origin Unknown with Ant Miles, the track gave Andy C his first success. He went on to co found RAM Records, which has signed artists including Chase and Status, Loadstar, Sub Focus and Wilkinson. If you want his later sound, Body Rock, made with Shimon in 2001, reached number 28 on the UK singles chart in January 2002.

LTJ Bukem, Horizons (1995). Daniel Williamson trained as a classical pianist, found jazz fusion as a teenager and became the figurehead of the jazzy, atmospheric side of jungle through his Good Looking label. Horizons is his best known record, and it is the clearest door into that side of the genre.

Goldie, Timeless (1995). The debut album that entered the UK chart at number 7 and is widely regarded as a groundbreaking release. Rob Playford did much of the programming and production, and Diane Charlemagne and Lorna Harris supplied the bulk of the vocals. It is long, ambitious and still astonishing.

The late nineties

Roni Size and Reprazent, New Forms (1997). Released on 23 June 1997, it won the Mercury Prize that year and went platinum in the UK, with four singles that all entered the singles chart. It blends live instruments with drum and bass rhythms and remains the most widely recognised drum and bass album in Britain.

Ed Rush and Optical, Wormhole (1998). The Virus Recordings album that helped point the music towards the darker, more technical style that would be named neurofunk. Cold, precise and mechanical, it is a counterweight to the warmth of the records above.

The 2000s

High Contrast, True Colours (2002). Lincoln Barrett, from Penarth near Cardiff, made his debut album for Hospital Records in June 2002. His later Confidential reached gold certification, 100,000 sales in the UK, but True Colours is where the melodic, film influenced style begins.

Black Sun Empire, Voltage (1999). The Utrecht trio of Rene Verdult and the Heyboer brothers issued their debut 12 inch, Voltage and Skin Deep, on Piruh Records in 1999. They have since released six albums and run three labels, and are called the kings of all things neuro. Their earliest record is a good way into the Dutch sound.

Calibre, Shelflife (from 2007). Dominick Martin, from Belfast, is highly regarded for his influence on liquid funk, which was partly named after his production style, because DJ Fabio played most of his tunes on his BBC Radio 1 show Liquid Funk. From 2007 some of those unreleased productions came out in the Shelflife series on his own Signature Records.

Pendulum, Hold Your Colour (2005). The Australian band's debut, released on 25 July 2005, mixes drum and bass with rock instruments, with the single Slam becoming their first UK top 40 hit. It brought a whole audience to the genre.

The modern era

Noisia, I Am Legion (2013). The Groningen trio of Nik Roos, Martijn van Sonderen and Thijs de Vlieger worked with the group Foreign Beggars on a project called I Am Legion, and released a self titled album on 2 September 2013. It shows how far a drum and bass producer's sound design can travel.

Chase and Status, Backbone (2024). The London duo had a UK number one single with Backbone, made with Stormzy, and won a Brit Award for Producer of the Year. It is a record that proves drum and bass energy can sit at the top of the mainstream.

Nia Archives, Silence Is Loud (2024). Born in Bradford in 1999, she released three self released EPs before her debut album reached number 16 on the UK Albums Chart. She is generally regarded as being at the front of the post 2020 revival, and the album is where jungle meets songwriting.

What the list leaves out

Fourteen is a small number, and the omissions are painful. There is no Netsky or Sub Focus, who have both built large audiences. There is no Dillinja, Kings of the Rollers or Friction. If you like these records, follow the artists they point to, and you will find the rest.

A list like this is only a start. The best way to learn the genre is to listen, go to nights and talk to people who know it. But if you want a first fortnight of listening, you could do worse than one record a day, in the order above.