FOUNDATIONS: RANDALL
Too hot to handle.
Friends.
It’s Friday, you know the score.
This week we’re heading back into the jungle, with the all time master dubplate selector.
Love.
RANDALL
For true dnb heads growing up in the 1990s, there was only ever one king of the rollers: Randall.
The vinyl vandal.
Too hot to handle.
Real name Randall McNeil.
In the thick of the scene from the earliest days of Acid House, which he first encountered at Notting Hill Carnival in 1987, Randall quickly established himself as a consummate selector and one of the best mix-and-blend DJs ever to touch deck.
As Acid House morphed into hardcore, jungle and drum and bass, Randall was at the forefront of the evolutionary process. Cutting the most upfront dubs and constantly pushing the sound forward through his residencies at seminal raves like AWOL in Islington and the legendary Metalheadz sessions at Blue Note on Hoxton Square. As well as through his involvement with Forest Gate’s highly respected De Underground Records, alongside co-owners Mike De Underground, Cool Hand Flex and Uncle 22.
Randall is probably most famous (for DJs anyway) as the inventor of the double drop mixing technique that would go on to define drum and bass DJing right up to the present day. Ths involved creating completely new musical forms live in the mix by skillfuly blending and switching the bass, drums and melodies from different tracks to create a completely new composition. Often keeping tracks rolling together for minutes a time, all perfectly laced up on dubplate. No mean feat.
“He’d blow your brains out. The way he’d roll things out, and his selections were out of this world. I can still remember some of those blends now. The genius of his switches, and how he’d take things where you least expect. It’s not about transitions, it’s about creating actual moments between the records. That’s the art of DJing, right there.”
Andy C, describing Randall to DJ Magazine in 2017
A perfect example of the double drop in action is the opening section of one of the defining DnB mixes of the late 90s: the ‘Extra Sensory Perception’ session released by Dreamscape in 1997.
Opening with Dom and Optical’s apocalyptic tech step masterpiece ‘Quadrant 6’, Randall effortlessly segues into the rude, broken sub bass steppa that is Seiji’s ‘Storm Report’ over a flawless 3-minute transition.
Truly next level selection and technique.
Beyond the opening salvo, this set is a perfect encapsulation of the best of late 90s drum and bass and Randall’s clinical approach to mixing. Featuring wall-to-wall underground classics from the likes of Future Forces (D Bridge & Vegas), Nasty Habits, Capone and many more.
In a scene that often becomes obsessively focused on its own micro-genres, Randall’s ability to effortlessly select and flow between different sounds and corners of the scene while creating something coherent and uniquely his own is one of the things that made him stand out as one of the true creative forces in underground music.
As Lee Gamble once said, “Jungle functions as a particle accelerator”. It strips all other genres down to their fundamental components, shatters them, accelerates them and reshapes them in its own image. Pulling on everything from jazz fusion to rare groove to progressive rock to detroit techno in the process.
Randall was the master of navigating this terrain.
Shout to MC Fats for perfectly hosting the session on mic.
Sadly, both Randall and Fats passed away in recent years. Fats in 2023 after a long struggle with diabetes, and Randall just a year later in 2024 at the tender age of 54. Yet the impact of these originators lives on through the indelible mark they’ve left on the artists and ravers around them.
For those wanting to dig deeper, you really can’t do better than this extraordinary collection of over 500 Randall sets put together after his death by Mancunian rave archivist Dork Sirjur. (Tip - head to the AWOL sets from 92, 93 and 94 to hear the evolution from hardcore to jungle. Golden era business.)
Some personal highlights:
The first time I saw Randall playing Flashback at the Que Club in November 2001. He delivered a ‘93 jungle masterclass which will forever be etched in my memory.
Watching him shut down Renegade Hardware at The End with this absolute weapon from Amit.
That one time I got play with him at Queen’s Yard Summer party a few years back.
One more tune!
Peace and love.
Rubin