Errol Francis, better known as DJ Dextrous, is a British DJ,

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

.Watts, Janet (2002)
Jailhouse rock, rap and reggae
, ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'', 15 December 2002. Retrieved 10 February 2013

Personal life

Dextrous was born and raised in

Stoke Newington Stoke Newington is an area in the northwest part of the London Borough of Hackney, England. The area is northeast of Charing Cross. The Manor of Stoke Newington gave its name to Stoke Newington (parish), Stoke Newington, the ancient parish. S ...

London Borough of Hackney The London Borough of Hackney ( ) is a London boroughs, London borough in Inner London, England. The historical and administrative heart of Hackney is Mare Street, which lies north-east of Charing Cross. The borough is named after Hackney, Lond ...

, London, England. He was classmates with

DJ Hype Kevin Ford (born May 1968), better known as DJ Hype, is a British jungle and drum and bass producer and DJ. Biography Hype first became involved in music as a teenager in 1982, assisting PJ and Smiley with their sound system Heatwave in Sout ...

and Smiley and PJ from the group Shut Up and Dance, and DJed at Brooke House Secondary School, where he played trumpet in the brass band, and sang in the school choir. Rude Boy Keith, his partner from their King of the Jungle record label also attended the boys school at the same time, as well as Daddy Earl (twin brother of Smiley and DJ Hype's MC).

Career

Dextrous took his DJing up a gear when he started to play at parties and small clubs in 1987. At around the same time, he began putting his studio together, based around an

Atari 520ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...

FM,

Casio is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. It ...

HT3000 keyboard, Casio CZ-101

Synth A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

and

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: People * Torakusu Yamaha, a Japanese businessman and founder of the Yamaha Corporation Companies * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese musical instrument and audio equipment manufacturer ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organi ...

''TX7'' Sound Module. He released his first record in 1992, on Ruff Quality Recordings (the sister label of Shut Up and Dance Records) entitled "Ruffneck Biznizz" which topped the Kiss FM House charts. This track was one of the precursors to the

jungle jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...

scene, with its sped up

breakbeat Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that uses drum breaks, often sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as Florida breaks, hip-hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat ...

s and

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

/ dub basslines. In 1993, Dextrous met Teebone and they started producing together under a number of aliases including Fusion Forum, producing tracks like "Vintage Keys" and "Summer Mist", on

Reinforced Records Reinforced Records is a British breakbeat hardcore, jungle, and drum and bass record label, first founded in 1989 by 4hero and based in Dollis Hill, London. Reinforced is one of the groundbreaking record labels of the genre.Reynolds, S. (1998) ...

Music labels

Dextrous decided to start his own label, King of the Jungle Records, with Rude Boy Keith (real name Keith Lawrence), who was working for Shut Up and Dance at the time, and who also attended Brooke House School during the time Dextrous,

, Smiley and PJ were there. Dextrous and Rude Boy Keith also became a DJ and MC double act that travelled far and wide, spreading their sound through

dubplate A dubplate is an acetate disc usually of 10 inches diameter, traditionally used by studios to test recordings prior to mastering for the subsequent pressing of a vinyl record, but pioneered by reggae sound systems as a way to play exclusive mu ...

specials and PA-ing their latest recordings. During that time, the pair signed to

Suburban Base Suburban Base Records is a British breakbeat hardcore, rave and jungle/drum and bass record label. It is based in Romford, Havering, England. It was established by Danny Donnelly and operated in the UK from 1990 to 1997 and in the United Stat ...

to release ''Da Kings of the Jungle'' trilogy. Dextrous was one of the leading lights within the ever-growing jungle scene, and could also be heard on Sunday mornings playing on

Kool FM Kool FM, also known as Kool London, is a former London pirate radio station that now broadcasts on DAB and online, playing jungle, drum and bass, and old skool. Kool is generally regarded as being instrumental in the development of the jung ...

, one of the main

pirate radio Pirate radio is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license, whether an invalid license or no license at all. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are rec ...

stations in London. Dextrous Switzerland

Never one to keep still, Dextrous parted company with the radio station and then subsequently King of the Jungle Records in 1995. By then, he had already launched two further record labels, State of the Art Recordings alongside partners Paul Brown and Jon Stewart, and Subversive Recordings (formerly Subliminal Recordings) which featured a number of collaborations with longtime production partner Teebone including "Selectors Roll" which featured on the

compilation album, ''Drum & Bass Selection 3 (The Dub Plate Selection)'' and ''Top Gun''. These labels allowed Dextrous further creative freedom, the former being his platform to express his

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

roots. As a trio, Paul, Jon and Dex recorded under the moniker Solid State. Collectively, they have been credited as one of the pioneers of the

liquid funk Liquid funk, liquid drum & bass, liquid DnB, melodic drum & bass, or sometimes just liquid is a subgenre of drum and bass. While it uses similar basslines and bar layouts to other styles, it contains fewer bar-oriented samples and more instrume ...

scene. Together they created the sound they branded "urban fusion" to cover all of the creative influences evident in their music, including jazz, dub,

Detroit techno Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mi ...

garage A garage is a covered structure built for the purpose of parking, storing, protecting, maintaining, and/or repairing vehicles. Specific applications include: *Garage (residential), a building or part of a building for storing one or more vehicl ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

and

. During this time, Solid State recorded for

Fabio Fabio is a given name descended from Latin ''Fabius'' and very popular in Italy and Latin America (due to Italian migration). The name is written without an accent in Italian and Spanish, but is usually accented in Portuguese as ''Fábio'' (with t ...

's Creative Source label as well as Renegade Recordings and

Alan McGee Alan John McGee (born 29 September 1960) is a Scottish businessman and music industry executive. He has been a record label owner, musician, manager, and music blogger for ''The Guardian''. He co-founded the independent Creation Records label, r ...

's Eruption Records (

Creation Records Creation Records Ltd. was a British independent record label founded in 1983 by Alan McGee, Dick Green, and Joe Foster. Its name came from the 1960s band The Creation, whom McGee greatly admired. The label ceased operations in 1999, although ...

' sister label). Dextrous moody

Aliases

Dextrous has recorded drum and bass/jungle and several other genres including broken beats,

UK garage UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house and jungle production methods, but also incorporates elements from ...

nu jazz Nu jazz (also spelt nü jazz or known as jazztronica, or future jazz) is a genre of jazz and electronic music. The music blends jazz elements with other musical styles, such as funk, electronic music, and free improvisation. Nu jazz typically ve ...

, R&B, dub and

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

under many aliases: * Transcendent Minds * Solid State * DJ Rus De Tox * Forbidden Zone * Fusion Forum * Retro-Spec * Da Kings of the Jungle * Back2Back * The Regulators * Tit 4 Tat * E.F.Jay He also regularly composes the library/production music for radio and TV. Dextrous at the Ivors Novello Awards 2003

Awards

He provided the music for the documentary '' Feltham Sings'', which won the

BAFTA Award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to f ...

and an

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the Welsh entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and Musical composition, composing. They have been presented annually in London by the The Ivors Academy, Ivors Academy, formerly called the Britis ...

for "Best Original Music for TV" in 2003.Draper, D.A. et al (2004) ''Duffy and Armitage: Working with the Literature Anthology for AQA A'', Heinemann, , p. 49 He was also nominated for a

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

award for "Best Original Music for TV" in the same year.

Discography

Studio albums * ''The Ultimate Vibes EP'' (1995) Collaborative albums * ''Jungle Love / She Wants a 24-7'' (with Hyper Man) (1994) * ''Legend / Sunny Smiles...(People)'' (with DJ Matt & Dr. P) (1995) * ''Dexterity'' (with Bad Boy Brass)'' (1995)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dextrous, Dj DJs from London British club DJs English drum and bass musicians English record producers English television composers English male composers Black British DJs Jungle musicians Ivor Novello Award winners English people of Dominica descent Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British electronic dance music DJs People from Stoke Newington