Techstep

Strip the swing out of the break, push the bass down into the mud and let the whole thing stalk like a dark one on a big rig. That is techstep: a style of drum & bass that took shape in Britain in the mid-1990s, around the West London producers of the No U-Turn circle. It is closely tied to the early history of neurofunk, and Ed Rush & Optical are the pair credited with spawning that style.

Cold drums, filthy low end

Mature techstep is aggressive and minimalist. Nothing is wasted, no wobble, no filler. This is a two-step style of drum and bass: technically precise drum programming, no loose ends, with a distorted, low, crunchy bassline sitting right underneath it. That is exactly how to describe the first Virus release, "Medicine/Punchbag", two tracks marked by that pairing of surgical drums and heavy bass weight.

Not everyone rated it, even among heads who admit its importance. The usual knock is that less imaginative producers drove the sound into the ground. Jonny L's 1997 album Sawtooth can be heard as the missing link between the Goldie-era sound and the brooding techstep that followed.

West London, No U-Turn and the road to the name

Dom & Roland belongs to the original West London tech-step collective based around the No-U-Turn studios, alongside Ed Rush and Fierce. Ed Rush's own path runs from the darkcore sounds of "Bludclot Artattack" (1993, with Nico) to "The Mutant" with DJ Trace in 1995. Then came 1996: his tracks on the Techsteppin' compilation, the Skylab EP on Metalheadz and "Killimanjaro" on Prototype are the ones credited with helping to steer the music towards techstep.

The names behind the pressure

Ed Rush, Trace and Optical

Ed Rush, working with Optical as Ed Rush & Optical, sits at the centre of the story. The pair started Virus Recordings, whose first release was "Medicine/Punchbag". The label is listed as established in 1998 in the United Kingdom, and it has been described as the label that started neuro-funk. Their 1998 album Wormhole is generally considered the moment the genre shifted into the aggressive and minimalist form of techstep. Their 2003 release Original Dr Shade was reported as their third artist album, and the Creeps EP is another record tied to their name, described as genre-defining. The site also carries an article on the duo.

Dom & Roland

Dom & Roland became Moving Shadow's most prolific artist of the 1990s, and he is counted among those who helped pioneer techstep in the late 1990s. His 2016 album includes "A New Renegade", a tune that calls back to classic albums such as Industry. The site also has an article on him.

Metalheadz, Goldie and the darker 1990s roster

Doc Scott has said that he and Goldie felt they had "outgrown Reinforced", and that Goldie wanted to start his own label. Metalheadz opened in 1994 with a first release pairing Rufige Kru with Doc Scott, and Timeless followed months later. Two more Metalheadz records to have in the crate: Dillinja's "The Angels Fell" and Photek's Natural Born Killa EP. Photek's first EP also came out on Metalheadz.

Source Direct

Source Direct are the St Albans pair Phil Aslett and Jim Baker, and between 1994 and 1999 they made some of the heaviest, most abstract drum and bass ever conceived. They had their break on Certificate 18 and followed Photek to the Virgin sub-label Science in 1996. By the time of their 1999 album, releases by Ed Rush & Optical and others had put the new tech-step movement firmly on top.

Bad Company UK

The four-piece Bad Company UK (DJ Fresh, dBridge, Vegas and Maldini) debuted in 1998 with the single "The Nine". Between 1998 and 2005 they racked up 70 productions and four albums, and their sound ranged from raw tech grit to funk, demonic bass and dark, slinky soul. Bad Company, DJ Trace and others from the same wave are among the names that made the tech-step movement dominant.

Labels that carried the sound

Beyond Metalheadz, Moving Shadow and Virus, Renegade Hardware is another label of the period, one that has shaped and shifted the drum and bass scene. The story of its founding splits depending on who you ask: either it was founded in 1996 by Clayton Hines and Mark Hill, or it was born in South London in 1995. The label announced its closure in June 2015. Critical Music has mutant, tech-leaning cuts running through its back catalogue. Technical Itch, Konflict and Fierce are also tagged with this style on the site; see the Technical Itch interview.

Across the water: the Netherlands and the neurofunk branch

Black Sun Empire, whose Blackout Music NL imprint appears on the site, are techstep veterans. Their fourth album, Lights & Wires (2010), turned towards dubstep. See also the site's interview and review of Driving Insane. Noisia, from Groningen, stay true to the challenging ideologies set by the likes of Optical and Photek two decades back; the group worked through their favourite labels, from Renegade to Ram, before launching their own.

Dead embers or slow burn?

Opinions on techstep's afterlife are mixed. When Ed Rush & Optical's 2015 mix Fabriclive 82 came out, the line going round was that many people had probably written the pair off along with the rest of the techstep scene about six years earlier. Virus still keeps rinsing out tunes that prod the dying embers of techstep, and the pair who spawned neurofunk now sit closer to brostep. That is one take, not a consensus. What is better documented is lineage: Wormhole is the record usually pointed to as the moment the genre shifted, and Rush and Optical are the names credited with spawning neurofunk. Rewind it however you like, the roots run back through West London.