Ed Rush

If the drum 'n' bass genre were ever to eat itself, Ed Rush wouldn't be to blame. In the early Nineties, Rush was just another way-too-serious breakdancer searching for meaning beyond his electro/hip-hop universe. As it happened, the key to his artistic salvation was the rave scene, or one aspect of it in particular: the sound of hardcore breaks. No doubt this was some shit he just had to do, and thus began a series of collaborations that was instrumental in developing the tech-step and neurofunk styles.

His first industry BFF was London neighbor Nico Sykes, a jungle producer who agreed to let him coproduce some tracks. That partnership led to a string of releases on Sykes-founded labels No U-Turn and Nu Black, and soon enough, Rush was helping to make drum 'n' bass a dark and interesting thing again.

He has been collaborating heavily with like-minded artist Optical over the past few years; their most recent release was 2006's Chameleon, on their own Virus record label.