Liquid Funk

Smooth on top, rolling underneath

Liquid funk, also called liquid drum & bass or just "liquid", is the melodic, vocal-friendly strand of drum & bass, the side of the music where heads can sing along without losing the pressure. Think dusty breaks, booming sub-bass and moody samples, with soul running right through the middle. Fabio, the selector credited with naming it, pointed to its radio appeal, saying that "liquid is really radio-friendly".

It sits close to several categories that this site keeps separate: Intelligent, Atmospheric and Soulful. Fabio himself has noted how baggy the label became, saying that "anything that wasn't jump up, everyone just called liquid" (see Jump Up for the style he was contrasting it with).

From the mellow end of the dancefloor to a name that stuck

Mellow roots in the 1990s

Liquid grew out of the softer side of mid-1990s jungle and drum & bass. Good Looking Records, run by LTJ Bukem, was home to atmospheric jungle in the 1990s, with a roster that included Source Direct, Peshay, Photek, Blu Mar Ten and Total Science. In 1995 Fabio co-founded the Speed night with Bukem, a session focused on the mellower, jazz-influenced side of the scene. Speed later became Swerve, where Fabio and DJ Flight championed "liquid funk".

Fabio, Calibre and Creative Source

Fabio has said he coined the term while championing Calibre's music: "I thought it just summed up what Calibre was doing in a nutshell." He described Calibre's tunes as seamless, with "a flow that seemed liquid to me", and he was rinsing them on BBC Radio 1 at the time.

Calibre grew up in South Belfast and met Fabio through contacts in Dublin. On Creative Source he did not have the freedom he wanted, and watching Marcus and ST Files run Soul:ution independently made him want to run his own label. He came onto the scene with "Mystic" and "Feelin" on a 2000 12-inch for Creative Source, which became a home for liquid. Fabio's 2000 mix CD Liquid Funk, all loose jazzy textures and swift beats, sketched a blueprint for what was coming.

Labels, parties and the Hospital wing

Hospital Records

Hospital Records was founded in 1996 by Tony Colman, who records as London Elektricity, and Chris Goss. Colman coined the term "loungecore" for the label's early output, which he described as analogue lounge music played at drum & bass tempo, and London Elektricity's "Song In The Key Of Knife" convinced the pair to stay with drum & bass. Orchestral arrangements and emotive vocals on early London Elektricity records helped start the liquid style, and Hospital has been pushing that vibe ever since.

Lincoln Barrett, who records as High Contrast, was discovered by the founders through Catapult Records, a Cardiff record shop. A sublabel, Medschool, launched in 2006 for more experimental sounds.

The label's Hospitality parties began as a weekly residency at the Herbal club in 2001, later moved to Heaven in London, and grew into the 10,000-capacity Hospitality in the Park festival in Finsbury Park. Colman left in 2023 after 27 years, and the label has been through a management buyout.

Soul:r and the rest of the family

Soul:r, associated with Marcus Intalex, was arguably drum & bass's first boutique imprint, forged in 2000. Its early releases included Calibre's "Fire and Water", and it championed LSB and DRS. DJ Marky and dBridge also put out tunes on it.

Other labels in the liquid story include Fokuz Recordings, home to Atlantic Connection (who emerged in 2006), and Spearhead Records, which issued S.P.Y's "By Your Side" in 2010. Goldie's Metalheadz released Commix, whom Goldie made the first act besides himself and Rufige Kru to put out an album on the label.

The year liquid went big

Fabio dates a "golden era" to about 2003, "where liquid just blew up, we had liquid in the charts". High Contrast's 2007 album Tough Guys Don't Dance included "If We Ever" with Diane Charlemagne, a vocal liquid tune that still sits well in any selector's box. His albums also include High Society (2004) and The Agony & The Ecstasy (2012). Liquid's popularity peaked at the end of the 2000s, largely thanks to Netsky on Hospital, whose "Moving With You" (featuring Jenna G) became an anthem around the turn of the decade.

The late-2000s run was wide: Calibre's "Overreaction" on Signature Records, Brazilian-influenced work by Bungle, and Alix Perez's early liquid releases "Love Bug" (2005) and "Magnolias" (2006). DJ Marky, Patife and XRS are all names to know for the Brazilian-style side. The vocal end kept rolling, too, with Ivy Lab's "Twenty Questions" (2015) and DRS's "The View" (2015, Soul:r).

Liquicity: from the timeline to the field

The Liquicity brand launched online in 2008 and existed only online until its first event on 16 March 2013 at Ruigoord, an old church in Amsterdam. That night had about 350 people and featured Hybrid Minds, Smooth and Maduk. Maduk has called the 2015 Liquicity Festival the country's first all-day outdoor drum & bass festival; the 2017 edition ran as a two-day camping event. This site lists Liquicity Festival and its label Liquicity Records.

Still flowing

By 2026 Hospital had signed newer talent and released solo albums from vocalists including Degs (2020), SOLAH (2022) and Flava D (2025). Nu:Logic is among the talents the label has nurtured.