Grooverider

Born in Streatham, south London, in 1967, Raymond Bingham developed, under the name Grooverider, a career closely linked to the emergence of jungle and then drum and bass in the UK. After starting out as a DJ in the mid-1980s on pirate radio and at raves, Grooverider came to prominence around the turn of the 1990s with the 'Rage' nights at the Heaven club in London, where he shared the bill with Fabio and gradually accelerated a sound derived from house, hardcore and breakbeat. This DJ work led to productions under the aliases Grooverider and Codename John and to the creation of the Prototype Recordings label, active from the mid-1990s and associated with several notable drum-and-bass maxi singles. In 1998 Grooverider released the album 'Mysteries of Funk', co-produced with Optical, which distilled a style combining detailed breakbeats, deep basslines and futuristic atmospheres, midway between rave heritage and techno and soul influences. Alongside his international tours, Grooverider hosted, with Fabio, a drum-and-bass show on BBC Radio 1 from 1998 to 2012, helping to establish the sound beyond specialist club circuits and to evolve its selection from the rawest jungle toward more diverse forms of drum and bass.