DJ Zinc

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DJ Zinc is a drum and bass DJ from the United Kingdom.

DJ Zinc is renowned for both his skills as a DJ and for the quality of his productions and remixes. He rose to prominence in the period of drum and bass production dominated by the hip-hop-influenced Jump-Up style, although he has continually positioned himself at the cutting edge of the music by embracing a variety of styles in his versatile DJ sets.

He also remains a relative rarity in the drum and bass scene in that his productions outside drum and bass, most notably in the breaks genre under the pseudonym Jammin, are highly popular. Several of his productions have been successful in the 2 step or UK Garage genres, and Zinc's work is also appreciated by Grime artists.

DJ Zinc produces and DJs as part of the Ganja Kru and True Playaz collectives, often in association with friend and mentor DJ Hype. He also runs the Bingo Beats record label, which releases both drum and bass and breaks records. He has also been known to release many records under the alias of Dope Skillz.

[edit] Artist Albums

On May 22 2001, Zinc released a mix compilation of his own productions called Beats By Design. This album had heavy drum n bass tracks with frantic drums and booming bass. Largely over looked by the masses it is well worth a listen if you like the jump-up sub-genre of DnB. It also has his wildly popular breaks track '138 Trek' as the closer. This album showed-off not only his excellent DJ skills but also showcased his production talent too.

On August 10 2004, he released his second album with a very clear shift from what came before. Faster is a concept album of sorts, but in way that no-one expected. The album, as the name suggests, ups the tempo little-by-little for each song. The title track, and album opener, epitomises this and is a grimey crawl through bass and beat that speeds up from 40bpm into the early 100's by its end. But this track is by no means a representation of the overall musical style that's being aimed for here, it's much more eclectic than that. Along the way he trips into jazzy, vocal led tracks ('You Follow') through to reflectory downtempo and relaxing compositions ('Illa', 'Departure') then into more upbeat MC-lead dance-able tracks ('Flim', 'People 4') before upping the tempo more for the more recognisable Bingo Beats sounds of 140bpm+ breaks tracks ('Next Tuesday', 'Fair Fight') and then going further into something reminiscent of drum n bass but with a very light touch and heavenly vocals ('Since') and finally rounding it all off with silence that quickly turns into something not so silent when a new remix of DnB classic 'Ska' begins to unfold, explode and creep back into nothing to end the album. The album explores numerous areas previously left relatively alone by electronic producers, such as the 3-time piece of craziness that is 'Umbongo' and the unusual beats of "Casa de la Musica".

[edit] External links

• DJ Zinc at Discogs
• DJ Zinc at rolldabeats