Anyone who knows the history of hardcore will know the name of Leicester's DJ SS. Whether behind record decks or mixing desk, this original breakbeat pioneer has made an immense contribution to the development of the jungle sound. He released the first of a string of classic singles on his co-owned label, Formation, in 1990, culminating with the seminal "Breakbeat Pressure" EP in 1993. Then, unexpectedly, came an absence which lasted nearly two years. "The reason I went quiet was 'cos that was when the ragga came in strong and I didn't want to do that", explains SS. "We were on a more experimental tip and wanted to do something different." Although he's mostly known for his hard core and jungle releases, SS also runs house, soul and hip-hop labels (100%, Ruff Justice, and F Project respectively) and spent most of his sabbatical from break beats co-producing material for them.

Not all though. BY the end of 94 he decided the time was right to return, and he had so many new killer tracks to release "Roller Convention Parts 1 & 2", two separate four track EPs. Their impact on the scene measured on the Richter Scale and we're still feeling the aftershock. DJ SS releases under many aliases, and in 1995 alone he's released "95 Rampage" by In Between The Lines, "Hearing Is Believing" by MA2 and "Lighter" by Sound Of The Future. With its unmistakable classical sounding piano intro, "Lighter" is the stand-out release that you either seem to loathe or love. Judging by the way it rose from the dance floor, the majority fall into the latter category. "One of the guys I make house tunes with was just messing around and playing the piano from "Love Story", and I though "that sounds interesting", remembers SS. "So I took it, speeded it up to 170 bpm and made it into a hardcore tune! It was supposed to be a special for Grooverider, but he caned it so much that I had so many phone calls that I had to release it.

"Its not original. It's just so simple that it just works on the dance floor. What everyone is trying to do is create original styles - cutting-up breaks, putting in weird noises and time stretching - but when they're cutting-up the breaks and changing, swapping and changing, people at a big rave are waiting and wondering "what's happening next" and "what's going on here" and that defeats the object. The object of our music is to make people dance."

He might claim to be unoriginal, but it's obviously important for SS to be different. While not wanting to change what he has always done, he also feels it's time for something else after the long influence ragga has had on jungle. He plans to experiment more with light, dreamy drum & bass, but with the "power" to work on the dance floor. Other projects include selecting and mixing the DJ's Delite compilation album and "Highly Recommended", an album to be featuring exclusive, unreleased material with guest artists like Grooverider and Roni Size.

Does he enjoy being so busy "Sometimes. I do when I'm doing good things I enjoy, but sometimes when I'm doing remixes it's boy. I'll just get this out of the way". I still love doing DJing, meeting people, seeing the scene, you know what I mean"

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