Biography
St. Albans serves as home base for the duo Source Direct, whose ambient-leaning progressive drum'n'bass has appeared on Metalheadz, Basement, Certificate 18, Street Beats, and their own self-titled imprint. Listeners often liken the pair to the rolling, relaxed style of junglists such as LTJ Bukem, Peshay, and Goldie, yet Source Direct actually sits nearer the taut, brooding complexity associated with Photek and the edgier PFM, placing sweeping minor-key melodies atop sharp, splintered breaks and deep basslines that prove far more oppositional than the sweet retreat typical of much of the LGR and Metalheadz stables. Citing a close affinity with 1970s soul, jazz, and funk acts including Grover Washington, Bob James, and Average White Band, Jim Baker and Phil Aslett began making music together at age 14. They rented midnight sessions at Hackney's Panic Studio to assemble demo cassettes of still-unreleased material, sharpened their DJ skills, and organized underground, usually illegal hardcore parties. After assembling a studio inside their St. Albans residence near Ipswich, the home of Rupert "Photek" Parkes, the pair began issuing a run of highly acclaimed 12-inches by the time they turned 17. They have recorded under several pseudonyms for assorted labels, among them Intensity on Basement, Sounds of Life on Certificate 18, and Oblivion on Street Beats, though most of their output has carried the Source Direct name, chiefly via Odyssey, Metalheadz, Looking Good, and their own imprint. Source Direct tracks have surfaced on compilations from Looking Good and Metalheadz, and the duo has delivered remixes for the Shamen, Code of Practice, and Medicine Man. Their album Exorcise the Demons arrived in 1999. Aslett exited the project by year's end, yet Baker carried on alone under the Source Direct banner.
Albums
