Touring with Roni Size and Breakbeat Era in 1999, Bristol’s D&B heavyweight DJ Die came by dublab during the station’s third week in operation for a slamming daytime session bristling with kinetic energy. Later that night the tour visited LA’s Club Baraka, and the following evening they would play the original, inaugural Coachella Valley Music Festival in an era when turntablists, producers and DJs from the orbits of indie hip-hop, trip-hop and D&B would all gravitate around Indio’s enticing new mirage in the desert.

In a set hosted by Frosty, Die spun a solid mix of his own work plus tracks produced by Size and a few of their collaborative cuts as Scorpio and Reprazent, along with selections from other D&B artists like Dillinja and Mampi Swift. Die’s D&B label Full Cycle with Size and Krust is now defunct but their releases, like all of Die’s mixes, are something to behold. Make sure to check out Die’s current label project Gutterfunk.

FROM THE VAULTS is an ongoing curation project produced by Ben Sinclair, resurfacing rare live performances and DJ sets recorded during dublab’s first ten years.

bensinclair1@gmail.com