DJ Dextrous, Dextrous or Dex is the stage name of composer, producer and DJ Errol Francis. Born and bred in North London

North London

North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...

's Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...

 area, at Brooke House Boy's School he associated with DJ Hype

DJ Hype

DJ Hype is a stage name of drum and bass producer and DJ, Kevin Ford. His 1993 track, "Shot in the Dark", appeared in the UK Singles Chart in 1993.-Biography:...

 as well as Smiley and PJ from the group Shut Up and Dance

Shut Up and Dance

For the hit 1994 single by Aerosmith, see "Shut Up and Dance ." For the British hip hop/house music group, see Shut Up and Dance ....

, DJed at school discos, played trumpet in the brass band, and sang in the school choir.

The beginning

Dextrous took his DJing up a gear when he started to play at parties and small clubs in 1987. At around the same time he began putting his studio together, based around an Atari 520STFM, Casio

Casio

is a multinational electronic devices manufacturing company founded in 1946, with its headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Casio is best known for its electronic products, such as calculators, audio equipment, PDAs, cameras, musical instruments, and watches...

 HT3000 keyboard, Casio

Casio

is a multinational electronic devices manufacturing company founded in 1946, with its headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Casio is best known for its electronic products, such as calculators, audio equipment, PDAs, cameras, musical instruments, and watches...

 CZ-101 Synth

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

 and Yamaha

Yamaha

Yamaha may refer to:* Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services** Yamaha Motor Company, a Japanese motorized vehicle-producing company...

 TX7 Sound Module. He had always been into computers and other technical matters, so the marriage of music and technology was always going to be an attraction to him. He released his first record in 1992, on Ruff Quality Recordings (the sister label of Shut Up and Dance Records) entitled Ruffneck Biznizz which topped the Kiss FM

Kiss 100 London

Kiss is a UK radio station broadcasting on FM and Digital Radio, specialising in hip hop, R&B, urban and electronic dance music. It also broadcasts on DAB Digital Radio around the UK & nationally on Freeview, Sky and TalkTalk TV...

 House Charts. This track was one of the precursors to the Jungle

Drum and bass

Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...

 Scene, with its sped up breakbeats and reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

/dub

Dub music

Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...

 bass-lines.

His labels

He then decided that he wanted to be in more control of his creative output so started his own label King of the Jungle Records with Rude Boy Keith (real name Keith Lawrence), who was working for Shut Up and Dance at the time, and who also attended Brooke House School during the time Dextrous, DJ Hype

DJ Hype

DJ Hype is a stage name of drum and bass producer and DJ, Kevin Ford. His 1993 track, "Shot in the Dark", appeared in the UK Singles Chart in 1993.-Biography:...

, Smiley and PJ were there. Dex and Rude Boy Keith also became a DJ and MC double act that travelled widely, spreading their sound through Dubplate

Dubplate

A dubplate is an acetate disc – usually 12, 10, or 7 inches in diameter – used in mastering studios for quality control and test recordings before proceeding with the final master, and subsequent pressing of the record to be mass-produced on vinyl. The "dub" in dubplate is an allusion to...

 Specials and PA-ing their latest recordings. During this time the pair signed to Suburban Base

Suburban Base

Suburban Base Records was one of the biggest British jungle/drum and bass record labels based in Romford, Havering, UK. It was established by Dan Donnelly and operated in the UK from 1989 to 1997 and in the United States from 1994 to 1997.- History :...

 to release Da Kings of the Jungle trilogy. At this time Dextrous was one of the leading lights within the ever growing Jungle scene, and could also be heard on Sunday mornings playing on Kool FM

Kool FM

Kool FM is a London pirate radio station, started on 28 November 1991.Kool FM has stated that it has been "the very first pirate station ever to play Hardcore Jungle". Simon Reynolds called it "London's ruling pirate station" in an account of the beginnings of jungle music in the early to mid 1990s...

, one of the main pirate radio

Pirate radio

Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...

 stations in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Never one to keep still, Dex parted company with the radio station and then subsequently King of the Jungle Records in 1995. By then he had already launched two further record labels, Subversive Recordings (formerly Subliminal Recordings) and State of the Art Recordings alongside partners Paul Brown and Jon Stewart. These labels allowed Dex further creative freedom, the latter being his platform to express his jazz roots. As a trio Paul, Jon and Dex recorded under the moniker Solid State. Collectively they have been credited as one of the pioneers of the Liquid Funk

Liquid funk

Liquid funk is a sub-genre of drum and bass. While it uses similar basslines and bar layouts to other styles, it contains fewer bar-oriented samples and more instrumental layers , harmonies, and ambience, producing a calmer atmosphere directed at both home listeners and nightclub...

 scene. Together they created the sound they branded Urban Fusion to cover all of the creative influences evident in their music, including jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, dub

Dub music

Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...

, Detroit techno

Detroit techno

Detroit techno is an early style of electronic music beginning in the 1980s. Detroit, Michigan has been cited as the birthplace of techno music. Prominent Detroit Techno artists include Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson...

, garage

UK garage

UK garage is a genre of electronic dance music originating from the United Kingdom in the early-1990s. UK garage is a descendant of house music which originated in Chicago and New York, United States. UK garage usually features a distinctive syncopated 4/4 percussive rhythm with 'shuffling'...

, funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 and reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

. During this time Solid State recorded for Fabio

Fabio

Fabio, Fábio is a given name descended from Latin Fabius. Fabianus originates from Fabius and it is equivalent to the English Fabian.It may refer to:-Performing arts:* Fabio Grossi, Italian principal dancer* Fábio Júnior, Brazilian singer...

's Creative Source label as well as Renegade Recordings and Alan McGee

Alan McGee

Alan McGee has been a record label owner, musician, manager, and music blogger for The Guardian.McGee is best-known for co-forming and running the independent Creation Records label from 1983–1999, and then Poptones from 1999-2007...

's Eruption Records (Creation Records

Creation Records

Creation Records was a British independent record label headed by Alan McGee. Along with Dick Green and Joe Foster, McGee founded Creation in 1983. The label lasted until its demise in 1999. The name came from the 1960s band The Creation , whom McGee greatly admired. McGee, Green and Foster were...

' sister label).

Aliases

As well as his work within the Drum and Bass

Drum and bass

Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...

/Jungle

Jungle

A Jungle is an area of land in the tropics overgrown with dense vegetation.The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala which referred to uncultivated land. Although the Sanskrit word refers to "dry land", it has been suggested that an Anglo-Indian interpretation led to its...

 scene Dex has recorded within many other genres Broken Beats, UK garage

UK garage

UK garage is a genre of electronic dance music originating from the United Kingdom in the early-1990s. UK garage is a descendant of house music which originated in Chicago and New York, United States. UK garage usually features a distinctive syncopated 4/4 percussive rhythm with 'shuffling'...

, Nu Jazz

Nu jazz

Nu jazz is an umbrella term coined in the late 1990s to refer to music that blends jazz elements with other musical styles, such as funk, soul, electronic dance music, and free improvisation...

, R'n'B, Dub music

Dub music

Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...

, Jazz fusion

Jazz fusion

Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...

) under many aliases:

• Transcendent Minds
• Solid State
• DJ Rus De Tox
• Forbidden Zone
• Fusion Forum
• Retro-Spec
• Da Kings of the Jungle
• Back2Back
• The Regulators
• Tit 4 Tat
• E.F.Jay

He is also credited the library/production music he regularly composes for radio and TV.

Awards

Dex is the only producer within the Drum and Bass

Drum and bass

Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...

 scene to have been awarded the prestigious Ivor Novello Award. He gained this for his soundtrack to the BAFTA Award winning documentary Feltham Sings. He was also nominated for a Royal Television Society

Royal Television Society

The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...

Award for Best Original Music for TV in 2003.

External links

• http://www.myspace.com/midifusion
• http://www.rolldabeats.com/artist/dj_dextrous
• http://www.rolldabeats.com/artist/solid_state
• http://www.planetdnb.com/dnb_interviews1791.php
• http://www.discogs.com/artist/Dextrous
• http://www.discogs.com/artist/Solid+State
• http://www.myspace.com/playagency