Darren Styles

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Darren Styles
Birth nameDarren James Mew [1]
Also known asDarren Styles, Unique
Born (1975-05-23) 23 May 1975 (age 48)
Colchester, England [1]
Genres UK hardcore, trance, hardstyle
Occupation(s)Record producer, disc jockey, singer, songwriter, manager
Instrument(s)Vocals, keyboards, turntables, music sequencer, sampler, drum programming
Years active1993–present [1]
LabelsUniversal, UK Dance, Raver Baby, All Around the World, Together We Rise, Dirty Workz, Monstercat
Website www.darrenstyles.co.uk

Darren James Mew (born 23 May 1975), better known as Darren Styles, is an English record producer, DJ, singer and songwriter from Colchester, Essex, England. Originally a member of the breakbeat hardcore group DJ Force & the Evolution, Styles found success during the 1990s as one half of Force & Styles. The duo were pioneers of happy hardcore and wrote several well-known songs such as "Heart of Gold", "Pretty Green Eyes" and "Paradise & Dreams".

Contents

In the early 2000s, Styles began producing more trance-influenced records with Mark Brady as Styles & Breeze. [2] The duo released two hit singles "You're Shining" (2004) and "Heartbeatz" (2005) which both reached the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart. [3] They have been involved in all volumes of the popular Clubland X-Treme Hardcore compilation series. Darren Styles also has a collab alias with Stonebank called "Zero Hero".

As a solo artist, Styles has released two studio albums, the gold-selling Skydivin' (2008) and Feel the Pressure (2010). [1] He has also frequently collaborated with several other artists such as Hixxy, Ultrabeat and N-Force.

Early life

Styles was born as Darren James Mew in Colchester, Essex, England. He was encouraged to play music from an early age by his father, a blues fan, and always had a passion for music. He spent many nights mastering his ability on the keyboard and developing his own style, inspired by dance music. In February 1992 in Clacton-on-Sea, Styles had his first "hands on" experience of the underground rave scene in "Oscar's Nightclub" on Clacton Pier. This event lead to him wanting to be a part of the dance music community. [1]

Force & Styles

His first records were as part of the breakbeat hardcore group DJ Force & The Evolution (with Paul Hobbs, James Broomfield and Paul Hughes) released in 1993. The group signed to hardcore record label Kniteforce and many of their tracks were played by Carl Cox. The group also produced tracks using the alias A Sense of Summer for another hardcore label Universal Records owned by Slipmatt.

In 1995, he and Paul Hobbs set up their own label UK Dance Records so they could quickly release more material and have complete artistic licence over their records. They began producing using the alias Force & Styles and released many 12-inch records on UK Dance and by 1996 their popularity had grown so that they were DJing every weekend up and down the UK, as well as touring Australia, North America, and Ibiza on a regular basis. The two also held residencies at various events including those by Slammin Vinyl, Helter Skelter and United Dance.

By 1997, they had produced some of the biggest happy hardcore tracks of the time, many of which went on to be covered by commercial dance artists, including singles "Heart of Gold", "Paradise & Dreams", "Pretty Green Eyes", "Pacific Sun" and "Field of Dreams". Force & Styles picked up many awards at this time and they were the first ever hardcore DJs to do a guest mix for Pete Tong's Essential Mix radio show on BBC Radio 1. [1]

Force & Styles released three albums: All over the UK (1996), Simply Electric (1998) - a compilation of tracks by DJ Force & The Evolution and Force & Styles - and their greatest hits album Heart of Gold (2000).

Solo career

Styles' first solo record was "Feelin' Fine" which was released as Unique in 1998. His solo career as Darren Styles started in 2002 after releasing a record for Nukleuz and other labels. He has also released many records on Raver Baby and his first solo single was "Save Me" released on All Around the World.

In 2005, Styles partnered with Hixxy to follow up the Bonkers series by initiating a popular compilation mix series called Clubland X-Treme Hardcore, several releases of which attained BRIT Certified Gold status. [4] Fellow artist MC Storm claimed the series to be "another massive turning point for hardcore". [2]

Styles has released singles collaborating with other artists on tracks such as "Sure Feels Good" and "Discolights" with Ultrabeat and "Right by Your Side" with N-Force. In 2008, he released Skydivin' . The album was a collection of old and new hardcore and commercial songs. This album reached No. 4 in the UK, [5] # 41 in Ireland and has since been certified Gold in the UK. [6] His follow-up single to "Discolights" with Ultrabeat was the song "Girls Like You", released 2 February 2009. Styles owns Junkbox Records which has released a number of singles.

In June and July 2009, Styles and Ultrabeat embarked on a ten-date UK-wide co-headlined tour, accompanied by Breeze, Infextious, DJ Frisco, MC Domino, Rebecca Rudd (Ultrabeat) and N-force. Starting in Sheffield, the tour went to Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester and London. In late November and early December 2009, Styles was part of Clubland Live 3 which toured through England, Scotland and Ireland. [7]

Styles' most recent album Feel the Pressure was released on 23 August 2010, and features the singles "Outta My Head", "Sound Without a Name" and "Holding On". [1]

Personal life

Styles is married to Fiona Merry who appeared on the 2007 edition of the reality television series Shipwrecked . They had a baby girl on 3 November 2010.[ citation needed ]

Awards

Discography

Related Research Articles

Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or "hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s.

Karen Parry is a dance vocalist who featured on a number of European hits in the 2000s.

Ultrabeat are a British electronic dance music group from Liverpool, England, formed in 2002. Originally consisting of vocalist and producer Mike Di Scala and producers Ian Redman and Chris Henry, Ultrabeat emerged with their cover of the Force & Styles song "Pretty Green Eyes", which peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart 2003. They released further singles, including top forty hits such as "Feelin' Fine", "Better than Life" and "Elysium ", followed by their début album Ultrabeat: The Album in 2007, which peaked at number eight on the UK Albums Chart

Flip & Fill are an English electronic dance music duo, based in Manchester, England, consisting of the producers/remixers, DJs Graham Turner and Mark Hall. They are signed to the Filtrate record label.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Universal Music TV</span> UK record label; imprint of Universal Music Operations Ltd.

Universal Music On Demand (UMOD) is a London-based record label owned by Universal Music Group, formed in 1998 as Universal Music TV (UMTV). UMOD specialises in producing compilation albums and occasional single releases. It was founded when Seagram acquired PolyGram and merged the company's record labels under the same umbrella, replacing the PolyGram TV label.

Mark Breeze, also known as DJ Breeze, is a British DJ and producer of UK hardcore music. He is best known for his collaborations with Darren Styles as Styles & Breeze and the compilation mix series Clubland X-Treme Hardcore. He is also the founder of the label Infinity Recordings, running it from 1997 to 2003, when DJ Silver took over its operations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pretty Green Eyes</span> 1997 single by Force & Styles

"Pretty Green Eyes" is a song originally written and recorded by Force & Styles featuring Junior. A remixed version appeared on their debut album, All Over the UK (1996), and the song was released as a 12-inch single in 1997. The song achieved mainstream popularity in 2003 when it was covered by Ultrabeat and peaked at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feelin' Fine</span> 1998 single by Unique

"Feelin' Fine" is a song written by Darren Mew and originally released as a happy hardcore song in 1998 under the alias Unique. In 2003, Ultrabeat released a cover of the song with newly added lyrics as their second single; it reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sure Feels Good</span> 2007 single by Ultrabeat vs Darren Styles

"Sure Feels Good" is a song written and recorded by Ultrabeat and Darren Styles, released as a single in 2007. It was the first Styles/Ultrabeat collaboration since Ultrabeat covered "Pretty Green Eyes" and "Feelin' Fine" in 2003. The vocals are by Rebecca Rudd, also the singer on "Elysium ".

Clubland is a brand created by the UK dance record labels All Around the World and Universal Music TV. Since 2002 Clubland has made many dance compilation albums, including the popular Clubland series, which is currently up to Volume 28, which was released on 13 November 2015. Clubland also hosts live events in various nightclubs and clubland Ibiza, and in 2008 many Clubland artists featured on the Clubland Night of Your Life arena tour. In January 2008, Clubland launched its own digital TV channel, Clubland TV.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paradise & Dreams</span> 1997 single by Force & Styles featuring Junior

"Paradise & Dreams" is a song written and recorded by producers Force & Styles, featuring Junior which originally appeared on their album All over the UK (1996) and was released as a single in 1997. Both members of Force & Styles would later record cover versions of the song at later dates, the first was by The Force in 2003 and another was by Ultrabeat versus Darren Styles which appeared on both artists début albums Ultrabeat: The Album (2007) and Skydivin' (2008).

"Pacific Sun" is a song originally written and recorded by Force & Styles featuring Junior. It was originally released on white label in 1997 and appeared on their greatest hits album Heart of Gold (2000). The song has also been covered numerous times with other versions recorded by Flip & Fill featuring Junior, Ultrabeat and Darren Styles

This is the discography page for Darren Styles. It also includes the discography of his groups DJ Force & The Evolution, Force & Styles and Styles & Breeze. It also includes the peak chart performance of each album or single where applicable.

<i>Skydivin</i> 2008 studio album by Darren Styles

Skydivin' is the debut solo studio album by British dance musician Darren Styles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heart of Gold (Force & Styles song)</span>

"Heart of Gold" is a song written and recorded by Force & Styles. It was first recorded and released on Force & Styles album All over the UK (1996) with the vocals by Jenna, and it was released as a single in 1998 with vocals by Kelly Llorenna. It is one of the most well known hardcore songs and was used as the name of Force & Styles's greatest hits album Heart of Gold. In 2002, Llorenna released a new version as her fourth solo single produced by Flip & Fill.

Clubland X-Treme Hardcore are a series of compilation albums from Clubland, released by Universal Music TV and AATW, that was initiated by DJ producers Hixxy and Styles. The series has been credited as a turning point in the popularity of the hardcore music scene.

Karen Jane Danzig is a British singer with paternal German ancestry. She was raised by profoundly deaf parents, with a hearing brother and a deaf younger sister.

<i>All over the UK</i> 1996 studio album by Force & Styles

All Over the UK is the debut studio album by British happy hardcore musicians Force & Styles released on 26 August 1996 on United Dance Recordings.

Dowster or DJ Dowster, also known as David Thomas,, is a Welsh record producer, singer-songwriter and disc jockey from Cwmbran in South Wales. David has been involved in the rave scene since 1998 and his love of the music lead him to begin his DJ career in In 2001, Dowster was signed to Raver Baby Records by its owner DJ Hixxy to become part of the original Raver Baby Collective. This collective, known at the time as the RBC, included some of the UK Hardcore scene's leading DJs and MCs – Hixxy, Breeze, Darren Styles, UFO, MC Storm and MC Whizzkid. In addition to his DJ bookings and single releases within this period, Dowster's solo and collaborative studio projects can be found on certain volumes of the highly successful Bonkers series as well as other leading names in UK hardcore compilation albums. Three of his most popular tracks were "Starlight", "Steps Ahead" and "Here We Go".

Hixxy, or DJ Hixxy, is a British disc jockey and electronic music producer known for his innovative work in the UK happy hardcore scene, co-founding the Raver Baby record label, and the Bonkers compilation album series.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 O'Brien, Jon. "Darren Styles Biography". All Music. Archived from the original on 22 February 2023. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  2. 1 2 Hodgson, Jaimie (20 July 2021). "'Why Don't We All Go Bonkers?' – The Rise and Fall of Happy Hardcore". Vice . Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  3. ↑ "BREEZE & STYLES". Official Charts . Archived from the original on 21 February 2023. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  4. ↑ "Aatw/Umtv Various Artists Clubland X-Treme Hardcore 2". BPI . Archived from the original on 5 March 2023. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  5. ↑ Coldplay score first ever UK number one single Archived 23 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine . New Musical Express (22 June 2008). Retrieved on 19 December 2008
  6. ↑ "Aatw/Umtv Darren Styles Skydivin'". British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  7. ↑ "Clubland Live 3". Archived from the original on 22 July 2009. Retrieved 17 July 2009.
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