N3GUS

Long renowned as a hot-bed of bass-music culture, the city of Bristol has played a vital role in the development of jungle and drum & bass over the last 20 years. From the seminal underground anthems provided by the Full Cycle collective, to the Mercury prize winning Reprazent, and then later the template-shattering jump-up of Clipz, D*Minds and TC – the sleepy West Country status as the genre’s spiritual home is forever set in stone.

However, over the last decade, with the growth and globalisation of the D&B sound (and, of course, the rise of dubstep) the once seemingly unstoppable torrent of D&B talent that gushed out of Bristol has become more of a gentle trickle…

Into this setting steps the imposing, shaven-headed, figure of N3GUS, ready to help put Bristol back on the D&B map. Daubed in tattoos from head to toe and standing taller than the average man, N3GUS has recently been making his presence felt in more ways than one within the D&B scene he is now ready to conquer.

Having earned his stripes running the Bounce record label and nights of the same name in Norwich, and DJing under the Scheme moniker, N3GUS returned to Bristol in 2006, where he’d lived some years before, and set about racking his career up a notch under a new name.

Quickly re-introduced to Bristol’s bubbling bass community by D&B/dubstep legend and old friend Jakes, N3GUS drew immediate inspiration from the city’s rich pool of creative talent and found himself under the tutorage of one of D&B’s biggest stars, TC.

Success soon followed, and 2011 saw N3GUS drop two tracks (‘Swag Bag’ and ‘Fill Your Boots) for one of dance music’s biggest brands – the mighty Hospital Records – and deliver a 12” for one of D&B’s most credible imprints, Spearhead.

Now currently busy working on tracks with some of the finest MCs that Bristol has to offer, including Buggsy, Jakes and Carasel, and with more releases already lined up for Spearhead and TC’s genre-busting Don’t Play imprint, N3GUS’s career as a producer is already firing.

However, it’s behind the decks where N3GUS really shines, as his sets over the last year at many of the enormous Hospitality parties nationwide have proven time and again. “My main passion, the thing that switches me on, is going out to a club and DJing – I’ve always loved DJing, and that’s what I consider myself to be first,” N3GUS says.

“I just wanna be me,” he continues “I don’t care how famous I get, I’ve got no ambitions to take over charts; I just wanna do what I do and make the music as well as I can. It’s been my life-long passion, now’s the time to make it pay…”