Omni Trio

Rob Haigh works alone as Omni Trio, and the bright, detailed, layered drum'n'bass sound he developed has steadily earned wider notice since the mid-1990s emergence of ambient and intelligent jungle first highlighted figures such as L.T.J. Bukem, Spring Heel Jack, and TPower. Reaching his thirties gave Haigh a ten-year head start over most of those artists, a difference audible in the broader influences running through his work, among them Carl Craig, Mantronix, Miles Davis, and Can. An early participant in London’s mid-1980s experimental industrial and avant-garde circles, he began releasing the first Omni Trio 12-inch singles in the early 1990s, each pressed in its own distinctively color-coded sleeve. Coming after the initial waves of hardcore and darkside techno, these tracks stood among the earliest jungle productions to move beyond immediate dancefloor demands and to draw freely on ambient, house, jazz, and soul. His first album, The Deepest Cut: Vol. 1, arrived on Moving Shadow in 1995, gathering several of those early singles, among them “Mystic Stepper” and “Renegade Snares,” together with remix and production contributions from Foul Play on “Snares” and others. Moving Shadow issued his actual debut, Haunted Science, in 1996, followed by Skeleton Keys in 1997. While his recording and remix career continued to advance, Haigh also owned and ran a record shop in Hertford.