“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact it may be necessary to encounter defeat so we can know who the hell we are, what can be overcome, what makes us stumble and fall, and go on...”

Maya Angelou, sampled on LTJ Bukem ‘Moodswings’ 1996

ELSTREE, HERTFORDSHIRE. Opposite a village hall, around the corner from the high street of a million high streets, and down a road that quickly melts into suburban semi-detached dreams, is the epicentre of the drum‘n’bass crossover. Good Looking records is an independent that acts like a major. And through its output by artists likeAquarius (aka Photek), Tayla, Source Direct and PFM, and its boundary-expanding live adjunct – the Logical Progression tour - Good Looking/Looking Good are dotting their flags across the map of the UK and beyond. And of course, they haveLTJ Bukem, aka Danny Williamson, pioneer of sparkling breakbeat, and drum‘n’bass figurehead at the helm.  

 Good Looking is a modern-day David, catapult aimed right at the centre of Goliath’s forehead. In this version, Goliath takes the form of major record companies who are at present trying to squeeze into David’s shoes. Bukem, and the artists he’s squeezing through the doors of opportunity are, as they say, on a mission.

 “Am I on a mission?” says Danny Bukem. “Yeah,”he continues with a heavy dash of sarcasm. “I’m on a mission through the cosmos exploring new craters... err. I dunno really. We’re all on missions in our own way.

 “It’s to play as much music as we can” adds MC Conrad, “until we drop dead.”

THE GOOD LOOKING OFFICES. Bukem’s behind a desk, answering the phones, putting on voices and larking about. Conrad’s gone AWOL and we wait about a bit. Bukem wants to go home toget changed. Tony, the label manager is having a bad day, and needs a holiday. An hour later, Conrad appears with Paddy P.H.D, an old mate and a new signing for Good Looking. Bukem’s still gone. Conrad and Tony are laughing about Bukem being hung in this month’s Muzik magazine when Danny Bukem arrives, freshly pressed. The hours have been ticking by, but finally, we’re ready to go.

A PARK, AT SUNSET. Bukem and Conrad are posing for photos and four kids have come to pester the pair and throw questions at them like a mini press corps. “You famous?” they shout. “Can I have your autograph?”

 The ‘Top of the Pops’ studios are just around the corner, and they’ve seen Backstreet Boys, Peter Andre and East 17 there. In fact one of the lads spat on Tony Mortimer. But who are these two? Are they DJs? Amid the kids pointing, laughing and smoking fags, Conrad and Bukem strike poses, look cool, and get on with the business of being snapped. “I didn’t know people still used them,” says one of the lads, pointing at a record bag. “I thought it was all CDs.” If the future of modern dance music relied on pure plastic we’d all be scuppered. Fortunately, it is based on something more; passion, soul, b-lines, beats, strings and the melting pot of musicality that has emerged over the last decade, and further back. The future of modern dance music is about mastery of each genre, and of fusing both the sounds and the listeners into a glorious millennial sunset. As more and more people listen to good music, and club culture expands literally and laterally, taking the music to all corners of the Earth has become a semi-religious crusade in some quarters.

 Logical Progression is all about accessibility. The roots of drum‘n’bass and jungle lie in mass access to the music. Whilst Balearic and acid house filled the pages of music magazines and dominated the temples of cool, the legion of people at events like Dreamscape and Rage were dismissed as cheesy ravers. The music was a mass escape for thousands of kids. Fast forward to Speed in 1995, when drum‘n’bass was seized upon by ‘influential’ people, and the music was taken back into the elite. Some people, in both the underground and in the new corporate atmosphere, want to keep it there.  

 Some talk about keeping it underground, and keeping it out of corporate clubs, about keeping things internal. Music is the battleground where concepts of cool and populism are battling it out. Bukem, however, thinks you can be cool and populist. He talks constantly about getting the sounds out to people in its purest form, how they’ve taken the majors on at their own game, how they’ve gone to major distributors and changed the way they work. The independent and underground record shops now get Good Looking records a month before the HMVs and Our Prices. To take Logical Progression to a fortnightly residency at Cream is a return to the populist roots of the music.It’s mirrored in Goldie’s recent comments about taking breakbeat back to larger spaces, hence his new club at Leisure Lounge and a possible monthly or bi-monthly residency at the 1,000+ capacity Heaven. And as Bukem and Conrad keep reiterating, why the fuck not?

Do you believe in making the music more accessible?

Danny: “Why not? I’d rather stay independent and go and make it accessible to X million people than say: ‘You can’t fucking have it’, and have another geezer go and make some stupid watered down load of rubbish, and make five million out of it. What’s the point?”

What do you say to people when they say that things are stronger when they’re smaller?

Conrad: “Stronger than what? That’s my answer.”

D: “Do you know when you’re strong? It’s when you’re together and believe you me, this scene is far from together. When it suits a man to be that way, why not make it accessible?Why keep it in-house? What for?”

Logical Progression now have residencies in Bournemouth, Liverpool, Bath, Bristol, Dublin, andLondon, and that’s not counting their overseas residencies which they’re trying to set up in Germany, America, Switzerland, Japan and Australia. At the height of their success in the late 80s Soul II Soul talked of Funki Dred shops, schools, even an airline, and now, Bukem and his cohorts are pushing drum‘n’bass to the outposts of the world. It’s their fortnightly residency at Cream, however, that has caused the most rumblings and mutterings about ‘handbag jungle’.

What was the concept of doing the Logical Progression tour?

D: “The album accessed people who hadn’t heard it before and we couldn’t leave it like that.We can’t just put out an album a year and sit back and be quiet. You have to go back and spread that word.”

C: “Reinforce it.”

D: “Bring up new artists. The main idea of Logical is to have all these guys who haven’t played out before who I know perfectly well are brilliant DJs but they’ll all never get a chance because of the hierarchy.”

So many people get locked out of DJing because they don’t know the right people. It seems like you’re kicking down a door and holding it open for as many people to come through as possible...

D: “That’s why I get so annoyed when people say I’ve ‘sold out’. I’ve ‘done it for money’. I’ve turned down millions to do a deal for fuck all to break new boundaries and new artists that wouldn’t get that chance again. If it was me seven years ago. I’d be like ‘wicked’.”

Do you sometimes feel you’re spreading yourself too thinly?

D: “I can’t cover all the places I need to cover. We need 17 Logical Progressions.”

C: “It’s not just Bukem and Conrad and that’s it. There are so many different people, such as Tayla and PHD.”

D: “Basically we need more Logicals, we need more artists. more DJs. We want to do it all.”

How did Cream come about?

D: It’s different people, different minds. I want to go to the busiest house club up north and do drum‘n’bass. Why not? I’m a great fan of the 70s, and in 70s America that music never got out! That whole decade of conspiracy. The music never even got out, and guys like Lonnie Liston Smith (funk artist who made rare groove classic ‘Expansions’)and them guys had to come over here to get their fame. So why not be independent and make it more accessible, rather than keep it to yourself. Then all that gets through is what is allowed to get through by a major player. Then things are fucked! It’s finished. When people talk about me selling out. I just think: ‘Come and have a discussion with me, man, and I’ll see about selling out.’”

C: “That’s why people got into it because it was unruly, so why put rules onto it, it’s mad.”

What happened the first time you did Cream?

D: “It went off. We emptied the house room.”

C: “We got to this massive, big room. and thought - shit! We’ve got to do this place. and I remember Darren from Cream saying: ‘It’s packed in there, open the doors!’ And we opened the doors and they came flying in. Flying in, man.”

D: “A lot of house people are getting into the breakbeat thing. A heck of a lot of house tunes have got breakbeats in them.”

Do you think people are making too much of a big deal about you doing Cream?

D: People make too big a deal out of most things. It’s just different. Clubs are for people to go out and have parties in. And sound systems are for DJs to play at. That’s what we’re doing. We have a good time and go home, and come back the next week.”

What were you feeling when you were planning this assault?

D: “It was a feeling of excitement. I love experimenting, I love taking a gamble. I’m a gambler. I’m not a ‘gambler’, I don’t wanna waste my money on fruit machines, but I’m a gambler. We thought, cool, let’s try and do something for the cause, for the people. I could go and get my deal tomorrow, get a house and a flash car and do that. But that idea bored me, I thought: ‘No man – let’s have no money and try things people haven’t tried before’.”

Do you enjoy touring?

D: “Love it. Love music, love DJing. When I stop loving it I won’t do it. Instead of playing for an hour, it’s the whole night you’re getting it. It was the same idea that Speed became. Instead of us going somewhere, you can now hear us all night, every week. It’s quite satisfying to let off all night. Those who want to hear us can hear us all night.”

Is it specifically important to be taking it out of London?

D: “It’s important taking it everywhere. How do you know how successful it’s going to be, how can you market your artists? How can you plan your companies for the next two years?”

C: “You don’t sell all your records in London. What if you can’t get to London to hear it? It’s not just a London thing. Obviously you get a lot of coverage cos it’s the capital. We’re taking it all over the place.”

You know the Bukem story. Danny Williamson was born in 1967 and was nicknamed Bukem, after Danno in ‘Hawaii 5-0’. ‘Demon’s Theme’, ‘Horizons’ and ‘Music’ are all must-haves for lovers of soulful breakbeat and are still staples in the boxes of the likes of Fabio.

 “I make music for myself,” he says disarmingly. “I make records to sit in the studio and have a wank to and go: “Fucking hell! That buzzes me up, that does!”  

 Alongside Fabio, he invented a small club in the West End of London named Speed and watched it grow from a small do for their mates to an extremely chic place for drum‘n’bass’s leading lights to bump into converted music industry execs and pissed-up journalists. The club brought the sound he’d been championing since 1991 into the limelight, and the LogicalProgression album was the final persuasion into drum’n’bass for the 50,000 that bought it. Speed has since closed, a matter of weeks after Bukem and Fabio left, as Bukem pursued his Logical Progression marathon. You might have heard his crystalline DJing, matched by the verbal dexterity of his spar MC Conrad.You might also know that he was brought up in Watford by strict Baptist adoptive parents, that he was expelled from school at 16 and found musical release in Brazilian Jazz, 70s and 80s soul. hip hop, house, and rave.

 When he released ‘Demon’s Theme’ in 1991 it flew in the face of the rising tide of darkcore. “People laughed at me,” he says. “But from day one I’ve done what l believed, that’s all I can do. I believe as a person you can only do the best for yourself if it’s what your heart’s telling you.”

 He knew he was right. and that eventually people would catch up with him. “My music is a soundscape, you know,” he says. “Space, if you like. I imagine wide open spaces and no limitations, and whatever visions come into your head.” Patience, it seems, has paid off. “We are more alike than unalike” he says, slowly. Then he repeats it, almost to himself, tasting the words one by one.

 “How would I describe Conrad?” asks Bukem, laughing. “Hmm, forgetful, conscious, and shy. He said I’d say he was lazy? Yeah! That’s true!” When Conrad is asked what words he’d use to describe Danny, he hesitates and says: “Determined, and sophisticated. Hmm. I don’t want to make his head too big, so I’ll have to think of one to knock him back ha, ha, ha. He’s very stubborn.”

 Conrad Thompson was born in April 1972. and grew up in Northampton and Aylesbury. He picked up on two-tone and mod, and then fell headfirst into hip hop. Whilst at school he developed his distinctive verbal style, with a stint in hip hop act Triple Element, and went on to be part of proto-breakbeat outfit. Silver ‘20 Seconds To Comply’ Bullit. After going to raves and realising that he could rap over the newBritish breakbeat that was emerging, he blagged a few spots on the mic at East End raves and the rest is history.

 Conrad and Danny met up at a farmyard rave in Slough at the end of 1990. Conrad was due to be MCing at another do, but couldn’t find it and ended up at the farmyard. DJ Trace, later to be known for his ‘MutantJazz’ workout, had told him about this LTJ Bukem guy and Conrad got on the mic for him.

 “Bukem was like: ‘Yeah, yeah, you sound alright,’” says Conrad. “But there was a tape made and when he listened back to the tape, apparently he was like: ‘Oh my God, who the bloody hell is this MC? I’ve got to have him!’ I was trying out different things, and scratching with my mouth. I was well into human beatbox when I was at school.”

 They bumped into each other a few more times, exchanged phone numbers and finally hooked up. “The first time that we worked together and it really kicked in, we looked at each other and thought: ‘Yeah, we should carry this on as a proper little thing. I remember that, it was quite a magical little moment,” he chuckles. Like the best partnerships, an unspoken symbiosis has emerged between the pair. Conrad’s rhymes acting as a complementary force to Bukem’s mercurial DJing.

 “Conrad understands completely what I’m doing”says Bukem. “As long as I’m not clouding what he’s doing, and leaving space for the music to breathe,” adds Conrad. “I think he just loves to see my face whenhe plays a new tune!”

MIDDLESBROUGH ARENA. Bukem and Conrad are upstairs after eating a soul food dinner and a couple of glasses of sweet Guinness punch. Hooligan X, resident MC and ex-UK boxer, explains that with drum’n’bass you don’t need the drugs, and with a belly full of food, a weed and some 3-D basslines you’re pretty much in heaven anyway. It’s reflected in the demeanour of the crowd. They’re pretty lucid, hardly any dilated pupils, and are disarmingly up for it. The sound system has been turned down for the warm up DJ, playing the likes of Blueboy. and chilled out house sounds. and people are wandering about. As soon as Bukem and Conrad come on, the sound system jerks into life. and almost immediately people are pulled into the centre of the dancefloor. Until he puts on his last slab, and passes over the controls toFabio, it’s a non-stop journey through celestial string astrology that takes the tops off people’s heads, technical sub-bass, strong enough to fell a tree and a few hundred wobbly people, and futuristic breaks.

You hear a hundred different ‘Bukem’ tracks. None sound the same, and it’s not that they use the same breaks or follow the same formula but there’s an undefinable something that makes a Bukem track. Bukem’s three favourite ‘Bukem’ tracks are Skanna’s ‘Heaven’EP on Skanna, Carlito’s as yet unreleased ‘Cascade’ on Moving Shadow, and ‘Danny’s Song by PFM (who are currently taking a break’ and considering a major deal away from Good Looking).

A girl is speaking to Bukem’s girlfriend. She knows it’s cheesy, but she wants to shake Bukem’s hand because she bought ‘Logical Progression’ a few months ago and it changed her life. “Bukem’s proper smart’ she says. “I’m not known for liking dance music, but everything about drum’n’bass is cool as fuck. I’m still into Nirvana, but drum‘n’bass is so fucking cool,” she says breathlessly. It seems this happens all the time. Conrad tells of on-the-spot conversions he’s witnessed while on the Logical Progression tour. “You see someone standing in front of the decks in sheer amazement,” he says. “Then they come up to you at the end of the night and say they’ve never heard drum’n’bass before, someone dragged them along, and it was like a religious experience or something!”

SNACK ATTACK, ELSTREE. Danny is thoughtful, razor sharp and alternates between staring out of the window, sitting bolt upright to get his point across, and slouching down on the green plastic seats of this neon burger bar like a bored and cheeky school kid. Conrad is more direct, sitting upright. They both have smart trainers on. They’re running through the tracklisting for their new album, a five-vinyl box set called ‘Earth’. Earth is a new label within the Good Looking stable, a label within a label. From Earth will come new branches; a hip hop label run by PoetsOf Thought called, wait for it, Cooking Good, and Nexus, a label run by Tayla. There’s a new Bukem track on Earth, a 110 bpm atmospheric slo-mo number called ‘Moodswings’.

 “I know it sounds mad. but I was making a drum’n’bass track without realising it was a hip hop track,” he says, by way of explanation. Bukem’s theory of putting out what he plays is put into practice as two "little Speed anthems”, Subject 13’s ‘Faith’ and Appaldosa’s ‘Travelling’ appear. Ex-Moving Shadow artist, Blame has signed up to Good Looking, and ‘Revival' is featured. P.H.D and Funky Technician, Pablo and nu-school hip hop heads, Poets Of Thought add to the surprises. Doc Scott rounds up the proceedings with a resounding, metallic sunrise ‘Tokyo Dawn’. It’s a surprising compilation. and one that will catch many people off-guard. While Metalheadz are racing off into apocalyptic, subterranean future, Bukem has incorporated more hip hop aesthetics into his drum’n’bass; he’s told his artists to go off and do whatever they will. The result is a surprisingly diverse compilation, full of tripped out hip hop and slow beats. It tells you as much as the past/‌present/‌futurescope of Logical Progression did. ‘Earth’ has only been out on promo for a few weeks, but the men in suits are already ringing up trying to sign the artists.Good Looking are laughing.

 “The whole thing about Good Looking is bringing up new artists” Danny explains. “It’s the whole theory. It’s about looking after the under­ground.”

How important hasGood Looking been to the fusion of jazz and jungle?

D: “It’s not just us, everyone has played a massive part in that fusion and it’s shown how good it can be. We’re just doing our own thing. We’re striving to build on that thing, and encourage more people. By sampling those people we’re encouraging those people to get involved anyway.”

With Jazzmatazz, Guru got original jazz artists involved in contemporary hip hop. Would you ever do anything like that?

D: “Well it is the same thing, all those guys sampled Roy Ayers and that, so hang about, ‘Let’s get the geezers in there. Let’s get Donald Byrd in there and make it sound real’.”

Is that going to happen?

D: “I’d love to see it happen. I’d love Donald Byrd to come round my house and lay down some shit. It’d be lovely.”

Is there anything in the pipeline?

D: “No comment.”

You’re joking!

D: “No comment at all.”

That’d be ace!

D: “It would be, wouldn’t it!”

Okay. Who would be the most ideal jazz person to work with?

D: “No. I’m not telling you that either. You’ll have to wait.”

On the journey between Middlesbrough and Leeds, we fly down A roads and a stretch of motorway in Bukem’s smart new car. We arrive at Back to Basics, an hour or so late, and rumours are circulating inside that Bukem, not known for his timekeeping. isn’t going to show. Danny and Conrad are making their way through the crowd, past whispers of “it’s him” and as Conrad mics up and introduces “LTJ BUKEM!” the response is rapturous.  

 Basics is a more hedonistic joint than theArena, and more recent devotees to the cause of breakbeat are to be found on the floor. The downstairs basement, previously the lair of techno has been transformed into a cavernous, 100 degrees hot sauna of bass.  Mashed up househeads and drum’n’bass kids are mingling and getting wet together.

Conrad is freeform, rapping verbal counterpoints to Bukem’s undulating sonics. Later, skunked-up and tired, he’s standing on the edge of the dancefloor, away from the booth, still chatting, still displaying verbal dexterity, even though he’s dead on his feet and is not looking forward to the long drive back to London. But such is the nature of their mission.

 The sample used in ‘Moodswings’ sums it up.It’s from the same source that he sampled ‘The horizon moves forward offering you space, to take new steps of change’ on last year’s ‘Horizons’. It’s from a TV interview with Maya Angelou, African-American author, poet and visionary. Danny is thoughtful for a moment. “I’d like to get more of her books and read them, because I can relate to her life experiences and the things she’s been through. Do I read much? Nah, not enough. I haven’t got the time. I’d love to though. I could definitely get into some of her books.”

“You may encounter many defeats but you must not be defeated.”

 “Am I on a mission?” repeats Danny. “Through all the backlashes, something keeps us going. I suppose it makes you stronger in many ways, people slagging you off, putting you down and telling you that you’re wrong. It’s hard to keep that focus a lot of the time, but if I’m happy, I’m focussed. That’s why I try so hard to stay happy. I look out for why I’m not happy and then I can rectify it.”

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