DB

DB, sometimes known as DJ DB, played an important role in bringing the sound of drum'n'bass to American shores. Emigrating from London to New York in 1989, DB kept tabs on the developing sounds of the British dance underground, and founded the NASA club, which was credited as the first American party to showcase the harder sound of breakbeat techno (which eventually became jungle/drum'n'bass). In 1993, he became the A&R director of sm:)e communications, one of the first American labels to release drum'n'bass music in general, as well as one of the first to showcase American artists in the style. In the meantime, DB continued his work as a DJ, and also mixed the volumes in sm:)e's excellent History of Our World compilations. In 1996, he co-founded Breakbeat Science, the first record store in America devoted exclusively to drum'n'bass and all its stylistic offshoots. DB departed sm:)e in 1998 to found his own label, F-111; the following year, his mix album Shades of Technology became one of 1999's more acclaimed and admired drum'n'bass mixes. DB next masterminded a Bukem-type compilation of F-111 tracks, The Higher Education Drum'n'Bass Session, which appeared in 2000. His official follow-up to Shades of Technology was released on the new Breakbeat Science imprint in summer 2001, under the title The Secret Art of Science. By 2005 he was on his fifth volume of the Breakbeat Science: Exercise series. ~ Steve Huey