DJ Die

Last updated

DJ Die
Birth nameDaniel Robert Kausman
Born (1972-10-13) 13 October 1972 (age 49)
Barnstaple, Devon, England
Occupation(s)
  • DJ
  • producer
Years active1988–present
Labels

Daniel Robert Kausman, [1] (born 13 October 1972), better known by his stage name DJ Die, is an English DJ and music producer. He was a founder of drum and bass label Full Cycle Recordings [2] and a member of Roni Size & Reprazent (1997 Mercury Prize winners) and Breakbeat Era.

Kausman spent his formative years in Barnstaple before moving to Bristol in 1985 as a teenager. An early interest in house and hardcore led to a musical partnership with friend Jody Wisternoff (who later formed Way Out West with Nick Warren). Die DJ'd for a brief period with Circus Warp - a free party sound system. [3] Recording together under the aliases of Tru Funk and Sub Love on Three Stripe Records, they created hardcore staples like "4am" and made numerous DJing appearances at early Universe raves. The partnership, however, was a brief one.

After a chance meeting with Roni Size at Bristol's Replay Records store in 1992, this led to their first collaboration in the form of Agility for V Recordings and Die's ongoing contributions to the Full Cycle Recordings catalogue.

Together with Size, he originated the seminal "Music Box" which was to become the title track of the debut Full Cycle compilation in 1996. Emerging firstly as a core member of Reprazent and later in 1998 as one third of Breakbeat Era (a project spawned by the "Music Box" track of the same name), he soon found himself remixing for DJs including DJ Shadow, Towa Tei and DJ Cam. His remix of the Reprazent single "Watching Windows" was released in its own right by Talkin' Loud. He has his own label called Clear Skyz. [4]

DJ Die has also recorded under the aliases Break & Die (DJ Die and DJ Break), Die & Clipz (DJ Die and DJ Clipz), Swabe, 4 Tree, Breakbeat Era (with Leonie Laws and Roni Size), DNA (with Bill Riley), Scorpio (with Roni), Wings (with Roni and Krust), Kamanchi (with Krust) and DieMantle (with Dismantle).

Related Research Articles

Drum and bass is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, samples, and synthesizers. The genre grew out of the UK's jungle scene in the early 1990s.

Breakbeat hardcore is a music genre of the very early 1990s that spawned from the UK rave scene. It combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats usually sampled from hip hop. In addition to the inclusion of breakbeats, the genre also features shuffled drum machine patterns, hoover, and other noises originating from new beat, sounds from acid house and bleep techno, and often upbeat house piano riffs and vocals.

Jungle is a genre of dance music that developed out of the UK rave scene and sound system culture in the 1990s. Emerging from breakbeat hardcore, the style is characterised by rapid breakbeats, heavily syncopated percussive loops, samples, and synthesised effects, combined with the deep basslines, melodies, and vocal samples found in dub, reggae and dancehall, as well as hip hop and funk. Many producers frequently sampled the "Amen break" or other breakbeats from funk and jazz recordings. Jungle was a direct precursor to the drum and bass genre which emerged in the mid-1990s.

Dynamite MC English rapper and MC

Dynamite MC is an English rapper and MC. He originally gained prominence in jungle/drum and bass, working with Roni Size and Reprazent, but has also released hip hop material.

Krust English drum and bass producer and DJ

Kirk Thompson, better known by his stage name Krust, is an English drum and bass producer, DJ and co-owner of the Full Cycle record label. Beyond his roles in the music industry, Thompson is also responsible for two businesses: creative consultancy Disruptive Patterns and Amma Life, a CBD oil company he co-owns with Sophia Ali

Bouncy techno is a hardcore dance music rave style that developed in the early 1990s from Scotland and North England. Described as an accessible gabber-like form, it was popularised by Scottish DJ and music producer Scott Brown under numerous aliases.

Roni Size & Reprazent British drum and bass group

Roni Size & Reprazent are a British drum and bass group fronted by Roni Size. Their debut album New Forms won the Mercury Music Prize in 1997. Their follow-up album In the Møde featured artists including Rahzel, Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine and Method Man.

Danny Breaks British drum and bass DJ, record producer and record label owner

Danny Breaks is a British drum and bass DJ, record producer and record label owner. He is known for his experimental instrumental hip hop production, and early music career as the breakbeat hardcore artist Sonz of a Loop Da Loop Era.

Klute (musician) Musical artist

Klute is the primary recording alias of Tom Withers, a drum and bass producer and DJ from Ipswich, UK. He is also the drummer, vocalist and songwriter of the English hardcore band The Stupids.

<i>New Forms</i> 1997 studio album by Roni Size & Reprazent

New Forms is the debut studio album by British drum and bass group Roni Size & Reprazent. It was originally released on 23 June 1997 through Talkin' Loud, and later re-released by Mercury Records and Universal Music Group. The album was released to critical and commercial success, winning the 1997 Mercury Prize, certifying platinum in the UK, and often being cited as their magnum opus.

Roni Size Musical artist

Ryan Owen Granville Williams, better known by his stage name Roni Size, is an English DJ and record producer. He came to prominence in 1997 as the founder and frontman of Roni Size & Reprazent, a drum and bass collective. That year they won the Mercury Prize for their debut studio album New Forms.

TC (musician) English music producer, singer and DJ

Tom Casswell, better known as TC and also as Tommy Boy, is an English drum and bass producer, singer and DJ. He left school and started making music inspired by the sounds of the Bristol scene and the music and atmosphere of St. Paul's, the area of Bristol where he grew up.

Drum and bass is an electronic music genre that originated in the UK rave scene having developed from breakbeat hardcore. The genre would go on to become one of the most popular genres of electronic dance music, becoming international and spawning multiple different derivatives and subgenres.

Ultra-Obscene is the debut studio album by Breakbeat Era, a collaborative project consisting of Roni Size, DJ Die, and Leonie Laws. It was originally released on XL Recordings in 1999. It peaked at number 31 on the UK Albums Chart.

Natalia Sheppard, better known by her stage names MC Tali and Tali, is a New Zealand drum and bass artist, best known for her 2004 hit "Lyric on My Lip", which reached #39 in the UK Singles Chart. Tali has also worked with prominent artists, such as former Mercury Music Prize nominee Roni Size. Tali prefers to use the name "Tali" when singing and songwriting acoustically or live, preferring to use 'MC" whenever she collaborates with electronic music artists, sometimes using the former. In November 2019 Tali won the Vodafone New Zealand Music Award for Best Electronica Artist for her 2018 album "Love & Migration".

Nigel Thompson, better known as Jumpin Jack Frost, is a British jungle and drum and bass DJ and record producer.

V Recordings British drum and bass record label

V Recordings is a drum and bass record label, based in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1993 by Bryan Gee and Jumpin Jack Frost.

References

  1. "I Always Wanted To Be. . . A Dj". Bristol Evening Post . AccessMyLibrary. 5 February 2003. Archived from the original on 14 February 2008. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  2. "DJ Die". Allmusic . Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  3. "DJ Die Circus Warp mixtape from 1992". Freepartypeople.com. 12 April 2010.
  4. Crook, Matt (5 November 2009). "Bristol bass-head DJ Die ready to rock Bangkok". CNN Travel. Cable News Network. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 23 January 2019.