21 YEARS of incredible producers in Computer Music

Over two decades, we’ve spoken to a huge variety of producers. Everyone has a story to tell, a plugin to play and words of advice. From launching genres to scoring mega movies, they are unified by their cutting-edge use of technology. So here’s what 21 top stars have told us over the years

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The legendary jungle producer on discovering a genre

“Music technology, computer music, urban music – call it what you want – hadn’t been done in the UK before. The horizon was as wide as you wanted it to be; the future was yours to mold in whatever way you wanted. It felt like anything was possible.”

“My brother jumped in way before me. He got an Atari, an S950, a Studiomaster desk… These days it seems very basic, but to us, it was an Aladdin’s cave of sound. Equipment was so expensive and so rare that you felt like a king if you owned just one synth.

“And that willingness to work with whatever was at hand was a great lesson because it made you hungry and it stretched your imagination. If I looked through my mum’s record collection and found some long-forgotten soul album, I’d listen to it and pull out ten different samples that I could put to good use.

“I think my first setup was an Atari, Notator, a 707 drum machine and a Kawai K1 module. Simple, but effective. And I was so naïve that I just thought I was going to make the greatest records the world had ever heard.

“My sound was… well, I guess you’d call it digital reggae. I was listening to hip-hop and reggae and, like so many British kids at the time, I was trying to make it mine. I didn’t want it to be from another country; I wanted it to be from the UK, from Bristol.