Essential Roni Size

In 2013, drum & bass is (sadly) not in the forefront of the dance music scene like it was in the 1990s. During the "electronica" phase, you had artists like Goldie flying the flag for the dnb scene, but it was the foursome known as Reprazent, lead by Roni Size, that really showed audiences how it was done. Roni Size and his crew helped put the Bristol music scene on the map, and he helped bring the jazzy elements to the drum & bass genre like none other. He's been active in the scene for two decades, and V is reporting that he has a new album coming out for them in the near future. We just don't have it right now.

To prep for whatever he's dropping in the dnb future, we wanted to make sure you all were experts on Roni's catalog. We run from the early days and touch on many different eras, from the Reprazent bangers to the work he's done with some of hip-hop's finest. DAD welcomes you to the essential Roni Size.

Label: Full Circle
Year: 1993

When you hear jaded junglists speaking about taking the sound back to "the good ol' days," they're referring to classics like "Music Box." Big loops, warm subs, and a lot of fun on the drums, this is a truly awe-inspiring piece of jungle bliss.

Label: V Recordings

Year: 1994

Roni Size and his entire crew was big into jazz, and helped spark the use of jazz within the jungle/drum & bass scene. Watch how perfectly this Lonnie Liston Smith sample works in a jungle mindframe. Undeniably cool.

Label: V Recordings

Year: 1994

We all know that Goldie invented timestretching, and Roni Size took that idea and applied it to this track, creating a melody using the technique early on. No smokey samples in this one, either, just pure jungle drum & bass.

Label: Talkin' Loud

Year: 1996

You could drop this in a rave tonight and it'll ring off like it did back in '96. So much so that it'll creep back into the playlists of smart selectors every few years. It's so simple, which makes it so poignant. Unforgettable melody told in an off-kilter way. One of Roni's best.

Label: Talkin' Loud

Year: 1997

We're honestly not sure what Dynamite MC was talking about with a rhythm made out of brown paper, nor do we know why this video was so brilliantly odd, but the tune crossed boundaries regardless. The masterful use of the double bass atop those breakneck drums was too much. Perfect tune to stand and bop to, but you could also get your uprock on to this as well. Certified classic.

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Label: Talkin' Loud

Year: 1997

While Reprazent was formed by the four Full Cycle producers, DJs Krust, Die, and Suv alongside Roni Size), it was always seen as Roni Size's baby, and through their debut album, the 1997 Mercury Prize-winning New Forms, we got to see a major, definitive moment within drum & bass occuring. Similar to Goldie's Timeless single "Inner City Life," drum & bass was seen as a style of music that could blend the darker tones with more commercially-appealing moments, with tracks like "Heroes," bathed in full-on beauty, helping expose the multifaceted scene being properly exposed to the public.

Label: Talkin' Loud

Year: 1997

Philly emcee Bahamadia had the PERFECT vocals to blend with the cool jazzy drum & bass that Roni and company were crafting, but we always wondered if it was just a random line with "new forms" in it that sparked the title of the album, or if Roni gave her the title and she worked it into a rhyme. Legend has it that when Roni requested Bahamadia to vocal something for the album, she didn't hear his producer surname right, and actually spit "Roni Styles," which isn't heard in the final version.

Label: Mercury
Year: 1997

Onallee killed the vocal on this. Love that funky bass with that drumwork. Something that could go off live right now, with a capable band that is.

Label: Talkin' Loud

Year: 1997

The vocal on this one might be one of the strongest on the album, and is definitive of the Reprazent sound. The remixes of this tune are nothing to sneeze at, either; one of the best singles from the album.

Label: Ultra
Year: 1997

Proper anthem right here. While it's called "It's Jazzy" (utilizing the same sample that DJ Jazzy Jeff uses as a drop), you only get that feeling from the piano used in the intro; the drop in this one is all about that BASS. Once it gets going, you'll see how important it can be to leave things well alone. You've got a funky bassline and crispy drums... you really don't need to spice it up much more than that.

Label: V Recordings

Year: 1997

The entire Full Cycle crew was good for alternate names and guises when releasing their music, especially at that time, with Roni Size & DJ Die collaborating under a number of different monikers. Scorpio was one that they used a number of times, including on the well-received "Li Li," but "Trouble" is deserving of more shine. Another shining example of letting great things vibe on their own. Darker style from the crew, but that Full Cycle bassline is so official, you knew what it was when it was getting mixed in.

Label: Def Jam

Year: 1998

Why yes, Roni Size definitely produced a jungle track for Redman. In 1998. Redman's actually said on occasion that he digs jungle and drum & bass, to the point where he actually spits "jungle music got my mind and body stimulated" on this one. Proper Reprazent-era sounds for a rap album is pretty fucking leftfield, but this worked so well, we've always wished that Redman would do a lot more than random Adam F features and collaborations, especially over some dnb.

Label: XL Recordings

Year: 1999

Another side-project from Roni Size & DJ Die (this time with Leonie Laws on vocals), Breakbeat Era inked a deal with XL Recordings for an edgier take on the Reprazent chamber. Laws' chorus is wild, sounding like she wants to match the bass and the drums at the same damn time.

Label: XL Recordings

Year: 1999

The original "Our Disease" was infectious enough, but the instrumental, amen-break heavy "Tera" version snuffs it and anything else out. This was the call-to-arms, this was the tune that was slaying soundboys and getting immediately rewound when it dropped. Let that bassblast blow over you.

Label: Full Cycle

Year: 1999

Many thought Roni'd changed when they heard "Snapshot," but he was more just evolving. Wasn't it always about big bass and tough drums? That's pretty much what you got here, even if it's drenched in a shine that's very easy to take in. This one slayed when it came out, and was a welcome sound on the 1999/2000 rave circuit.

Label: Rawkuts

Year: 2000

In the late 1990s/early 2000s, Rawkus was so into dance music that they set up a new imprint, Rawkuts, to release drum & bass originals, as well as remixes from acts on their imprint. Monch giving the Bristol boys a special intro in their remix? Tough. Philadelphia dnb DJs were huge into the Full Cycle/V sound, and when this remix came out, you couldn't escape it.

Label: Full Cycle

Year: 2000

The flipside to Roni's "Snapshot" was a tune entitled "26 Bass," and for some reason Roni and Krust went in on a track that sounds like the older, wiser stepbrother of that one. It works very well, with some great percussive elements thrown in between the hypnotic bass that adds to the frantic groove that's created. We've never seen grown men playing hopscotch to this... but we wouldn't be surprised.

Label: Talkin' Loud

Year: 2000

For all of the accolades that Roni Size and the Reprazent crew got for being pioneers within the drum & bass scene, it may seem like some forget that they know how to churn out ridiculous bass. Don't ask us where they got the insipration, but this is some warp sector nine type flavor. Pure Bristol dnb style, mashing up any speakers that come weak to this sound.

Label: Full Cycle

Year: 2002

For obvious reasons, when this track was doing the rounds on dubplate, it was given the title "Harp Tune" for that hypnotic harp loop that's used throughout the intro. We wish the dubplate version was around, as the drums in it didn't kick in as quickly as the final version does, allowing that harp to really weave its magic over an unsuspecting crowd. This one will give you goosebumps once you let this one wash over you, being further thrust into some epic Roni dirtiness. The full version is over nine minutes, and an almost-three minute intro before the drop throws this one in the epic category. Roni can still build them.

Label: V Recordings

Year: 2004

On New Forms, the Reprazent crew did a track entitled "Beatbox," a quick interlude of the guys making the (drum & bass) music with their mouths. For In the Mode, the crew got Rahzel to perform on "In Tune With the Sound," where they manipulated his vocal beatbox work in the same manner. People didn't want that, though; they wanted the VIP-esque version, "Out of Breath," that felt like they'd looped a runner who had just finished a hard race, turning that heavy breathing into the metronome for this vibrant subwoofer assault. The real key is when the beat drops all of the way out, giving Rahzel the opportunity to flex some dnb beatbox wizardry. This one is huge and creative, a pairing you don't hear that often in the drum & bass scene these days.