Childhood friends Alex Green and Damon Kirkham began recording together in the early 2000s, reunited around 2005 and started releasing music as Instra:mental in 2007. The British duo also became known individually as Boddika and Jon Convex. Their early work brought drum and bass into contact with dubstep, techno and IDM, and they helped shape the Autonomic movement with dBridge and ASC. Green later described the project’s music as electronic rather than drum and bass; the pair said they often began with a beat before working together on a synthesizer to find a direction.
In 2009, Instra:mental and dBridge launched the Autonomic podcast and club night, giving the movement a regular platform. That year also brought the single Watching You. Green established Nonplus+ Records in 2009, and its first release was a split 12-inch by dBridge and Instra:mental. The duo also put out music through Exit Records, Apple Pips and [NakedLunch]. Their work with dBridge extended to the 2010 mix album FabricLive.50, which included Instra:mental tracks such as From the Start, End Credits and Encke Gap, as well as a collaboration with Consequence. That album also featured the duo’s track Machine Made and their collaboration with Consequence, Reflex Reaction. Instra:mental and dBridge also released the 2009 single Wonder Where / No Future on Nonplus Records. The duo co-founded Nonplus+ Records.
Instra:mental’s 2011 album Resolution 653 appeared on Nonplus+ and explored electro-techno sounds. The duo announced their split in 2012. In an interview, Green said that they had stopped making music together because their lives had taken different paths, while leaving open the possibility of working together again. The pair reunited in 2019 and released the album Timelines. Their work with dBridge also extended beyond the Autonomic project and the FabricLive mix, with the duo’s early scene activity rooted in their joint production partnership. In 2021, Instra:mental and dBridge released What We Got / Seren's Theme on CNVX.
