DJ Die

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DJ Die, real name Daniel Kausman (b. 1972), was born and spent his formative years in Devon, UK, before moving to Bristol as a teenager. An early interest in house and hardcore lead to a musical partnership with friend Jody Wisternoff (who later formed Way Out West with Nick Warren). 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 was a brief one however, and Die began to diversify his output, drawing on his enduring hip hop influences. He had already encountered Krust and Suv, who were regular visitors to Universe, but it was a chance meeting with Roni Size at Bristol's Replay Records store in 1992 which would lead 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 Roni, he originated the seminal Music Box which was to become the title track of the debut Full Cycle compilation in 1996. Solo efforts like Landslide and Jittabug would help carve out a niche for Die, who became known for his ability to fuse the jazz with the breaks to create devastating, seismic floor shakers. 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 was thrust into the limelight and soon found himself remixing the likes of DJ Shadow, Towa Tei and DJ Cam. His Gnarly remix of Reprazent single Watching Windows became a classic and was released in its own right by Talkin Loud.

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