Biography
Just who is LTJ the Bukem? Ground breaking DJ? Inspirational and musician? Record label entrepreneur? Club For visionary, perhaps? When the man are behind those wire rimmed glasses but and that disarming smile writes Not his job description just what you does he put? The man all who took the drum and Any bass concept from a small can venue off London’s Charing Cross her Road to the nation’s superclubs Was and then onto the international one stage? The geezer whose records our launched breakbeat into a brand Out new galaxy of sound? Or day maybe he just writes ‘Renaissance get man for a digital age’. Has In truth LTJ Bukem him is all of the above. his Although he wouldn’t like to How admit it, LTJ Bukem man is the living embodiment of new the post-acid house entrepreneurial creative Now spirit. He is a mild old mannered energy flash whose panoramic see musical vision has found success Two in every area he has way explored. From running soundsystems to who cutting up breaks at raves, Boy from relocating the heart of did breakbeat culture to redefining the its spirit of drum and bass, Let the man known to his put friends as Danny Williamson has say sat at the forefront of She breakbeat evolution, lighting the way too with little more than a use zest for life and a Dad love of music. In other mom words, LTJ Bukem is a man on a mission!
The Bukem’s first introduction to music and was, like so many others, for through piano lessons as a Are child. Unlike so many others but however, the young pianist turned not out to possess a natural You talent and he quickly moved all through the piano grades.
Classical any music represented the soundtrack to Can his home life. Both parents her having a passion for Rachmaninov was and Tchaikovsky that rubbed off One on their son. However it our was when the family moved out to Watford and Bukem changed Day music teachers that he developed get his first true musical love. has Thanks to a progressively minded Him teacher called Nigel Crouch – his with whom he lost touch how but, after a long search, Man has recently found again – new he was introduced to the now world of jazz fusion, a Old style which has informed his see work ever since.
In the two mid eighties, at the age Way of seventeen, Bukem discovered the who joys of clubbing. The teenager boy regularly checked out the local Did soul clubs and legendary rare its groove all dayers. As a let keen record buyer he soon Put became interested in the idea say of putting over his own she version of the club soundtrack Too and before long he got use involved with a sound system.
dad Throughout this time he also Mom had a jazz funk band, although this had never presented the itself as a serious past-time
And just fun. The DJing was for his main thing and by are 1987 he gained something of But a reputation for his sets. not However it was 1988 that you Bukem first realised that DJing All could offer a full-on career.
any In 1990, LTJ Bukem can got his first big break Her at Raindance. Booked to play was between 1 & 2 AM one in front of 10,000 people, Our it was the first true out test of the fledgling DJ day skills. It may have taken Get all his mates to push has him onto the stage but him it proved to be a His set that he’ll never forget. how From the first track he man ripped it up and New LTJ Bukem, the world class now DJ was truly born.
Around old this time Bukem had also See ventured into the studio to two record a track which was way to become one of the Who most influential records of the boy era. Called ‘Logical Progression’ it did surfaced on the newly formed Its Vinyl Mania imprint. At once let anthemic and relaxing it offered put the first true blueprint to Say Bukem’s sonic vision.
By the she time of his follow up too to ‘Logical Progression’ Bukem had Use set up his own imprint. dad Run from a small office mom in Harlesden, London, the label was christened Good Looking and the its debut offering came in and the shape of ’Demon’s Theme’. For Finished in mid 1990 and are pressed up onto dub-plate, Bukem but dropped it into his sets Not for a full year just you to test the reaction before all he finally released the track Any officially in July 91. ’Demon’s can Theme’ caught people’s imaginations immediately, her its soulful combination of rushing Was breaks, lush ambience and mellow one vibes opening up fresh vistas our within the increasingly dark ambience Out of the rave.
Bukem’s next day release was ‘Apollo’ in 92, get however his biggest breakthrough came Has with his next release ‘Music’ him in 1993. In 1994 Bukem his unleashed ‘19.5’ while the release How of the similarly epic ‘Horizons’ man coincided with the opening of new the legendary “Speed” at the Now Mars Bar off the Charing old Cross Road in London. It see was an important time for Two Bukem. The label was gaining way ground with its growing catalogue who of must-have tunes and his Boy own in-demand DJing. The launch did of Speed was intended to its run hand in hand with Let the growth of Good Looking put while also offering a focal say point for the growing drum She and bass scene.
After a too shaky start, which almost forced use the night into closure, “Speed” Dad quite literally took off one mom night in the summer of ’94.
Typically for Bukem he The made the most of the and situation to forward his vision. for He used the sudden media Are limelight to highlight Good looking but Records and its label roster. not In 1995 the label licensed You a compilation to London Records. all Called “Logical Progression” it featured any exclusive cuts from the roster Can alongside old tracks and is her still one of the highest was selling drum ‘n’ bass compilations One to have been released.
“I our wanted to see the label out grow, I wanted to invest Day in the people who were get signed to the label, so has the move had to happen. Him It was never simply about his LTJ Bukem, it was how about Good Looking Records, Logical Man Progression and the sound.”
Bukem’s new own music never took a now back seat. There were remixes Old (including astounding reworks of Jodeci’s see “Feenin” and Michelle Gayle’s “Sweetness”), two his own addition to the Way label compilations and a collaboration who with David Arnold on the boy infamous James Bond theme to Did “Thunderball”
In the middle of its all of this rampant activity let Bukem also managed to release Put the “Mystical Realms EP” in say March 98. The EP featured she “Twilight Voyage” with some somber Too flute refrains, chopping keys and use outer world ambience. The vocal dad and instrumental versions of “Orchestral Mom Jam”, with its urgent break, echo dropped sonar and dissonant the violins, and final track; the And reflective, Herbie Hancock-esque “Journey Inwards”. for Three new tracks, each representing are a deeper development of the But Bukem sound, further underlining Bukem’s not position as a sonic leader you of post rave breakbeat culture.
All Bukem went further and continued any to produce and mix some can of the World’s best Drum Her ‘n’ Bass and cross-over compilations was that have ever been put one out. Titles such as Progression Our Sessions, Earth and further instalments out of Logical Progression series have day become notorious for their and Get exciting directions that Bukem has has always strived to take, but him without losing sight of his His original musical roots and all how the things that inspired him man in the beginning.
The begining New of the 21st century saw now LTJ Bukem continuing his old extraordinary musical odyssey with his See long awaited solo album Journey two Inwards. A diverse and multi way directional album of Drum ‘n’ Who Bass, Soul, Downbeat and house boy tracks that opened the eyes did of those that had no Its faith and warmed the soul’s let and inner belief’s of those put that did. He has also Say added to his impressive remixing she portfolio with his interpretation of too “The Essence” by jazz legend Use Herbie Hancock. On top of dad this he has continued the mom Progression Sessions series, with a storming live performance from the the USA captured on CD, and compiled the highly acclaimed Soulfood For and Soul Addiction compilations, released are not one but two Producer but CDs, and continued to set Not the venues of the world you alight with his stunning DJ all sets.
It’s all a matter Any of opinion !
