A Tribute To DJ Randall

We've lost the realest one

Photo source : Facebook

July 31 2024: jungle drum & bass lost one of its most iconic, realest and straight up pioneers. Randall McNeil.

Emerging through the acid house scene in the late 80s and rolling with the highly influential east London collective De Underground – a hugely important crew in the earliest tendrils of soundsystem-influenced UK hardcore and breakbeat-based rave music that would become jungle – it’s impossible to articulate or fathom just how much of an impact this man has had on UK underground culture.

 

 

The amount of music he was the first to support, the waves of new artists he believed in, backed and brought through on his label Mac 2, his style of DJing, his attitude and approach to everything. It all captured the absolute soul and spirit of this culture.

Randall epitomised the energy and the essence, the sound and the attitude of raw jungle music.

No one DJ’d quite like him. He’d start his set with a drum track if he wanted to. He’d roll out two tunes together for their 4/5/6 minute entirety, mix after mix after mix. He was cited as THE DJ to feed future music to and would received dubplates (and later unreleased digital files) aeons before any other DJ.

Your favourite DJ’s favourite DJ’s favourite DJ’s favourite DJ: Andy C‘s public appreciation and respect of Randall is perhaps the most high profile and consistent praise he’s had over the years. But make no mistakes; Randall influenced pretty much any serious jungle drum & bass DJ who’s ever followed. Other heavyweights I’ve spoken to in the past about Randall‘s influence include Marky, Hazard, A.M.C and Friction. And of course Goldie who famously rolled with Randall and the Reinforced crew (an absolutely vital pillar in jungle’s deepest foundations) in the early 90s.

 

 

Often Goldie, who was still very much cutting his teeth at the time, would be carrying Randall‘s record boxes as they entered the lion’s den at A.W.O.L. Another important accelerant on the jungle drum & bass fire. A.W.O.L‘s impact on jungle music and its explosion around the world was immence and there was Randall, a core resident alongside Kenny Ken, Darren Jay, Dr S Gachet, Micky Finn and MCs GQ and Fearless. Some of the most ultimate protagonists in this game-changing, boundary-smashed, class, race and gender uniting movement. Goldie would be whistling up serious hype, heralding their arrival as they entered the infamous Paradise Club.

“Ha! Those days!” Randall told me in an interview on UKF in 2016. “Yeah we were probably on our way back from a bunch of gigs up north and we’d be doing the 6am or 8am one. Goldie’s already hyped, he’s given me tunes specifically for that set. Not just that night but that set. So he’s prepping every one. We all know what he’s like… When he had those dubs ready to give to me everyone in the building knew things were going to kick off. No one in that room the night we debuted Terminator will ever forget it. Everyone was there to hear the tunes and knew the tunes and the mixes. It was a moment.”

The full interview captures his innate passion for the music which never died and his insistence on the craft and the artform of DJing. It’s well worth a read. The Terminator story expands even more and he also explains dubplate culture, how tunes were broken during the earlier years of the genre and the role he played in that essential tradition.

“The whole thing was making people want that tune. So that DJ, who knew they had something special, would bash the arse out of the tune and make people want it. The idea was to cause hype and interest for the tune. But every DJ and artist got their own vibe and their own people to send tunes to before anyone else. I’m blessed to be top of a lot of lists still. Very blessed.”

 

There were many golden moments in every interview we had. This one we did on Drum&BassArena, for instance, talks about how he kissed Calibre the first time they met in Music House because he was so in awe of Calibre’s music. He also spoke about the importance of taking risks as a DJ.

 

 

“Sometimes it would take weeks for people to get their heads around some of the tunes,” he spoke of the Metalheadz Sundays at Blue Note in the mid 90s. “It was fresh out of the box. It wasn’t even quantized right at the start. It was raw and loose and no one was scared to play dirty fresh tunes. I think people are too scared to take those type of risks now – you should never be scared to play any music. And ravers shouldn’t expect to be hit with the big stuff straight away. You won’t see me going for the big euphoria moments, I want to build up to that slowly and progressively. At least 30 minutes before the big euphoria or breakdowns. It’s about the journey.”

As cliche as it sounds, Randall‘s whole life was a journey. He’d switched from working in the offices at Canary Warf (hustling nice earners out of cash-flash 80s bankers to feed his vinyl fix) to a life on the road that never stopped for the best part of 40 years. In fact his dedication to DJing and commitment to being that risk-taking tastemaker on the forefront even kept him away from the studio for decades.

 

 

Besides occasional rare moments such as The R with Dego and Goldie in 1993 on Reinforced and Sound Control with a very young Andy C and Ant Miles back in 94 on Ram, it wasn’t until the last few years that he began to thrive in the studio and tap into a whole other source of inspiration. Both as a solo mission and as part of Watch The Ride alongside Die and Dismantle.

This newfound emergance as a studio craftsman at a later time in his life can be seen as a reflection of the unique man he was and how he did things in his own way.

“I was blessed with so much music!” he told me in Autumn 2020, again for UKF. At the age of 50, he’d just released his debut solo EP – Time 4 Da Switch. “I’d listen to all this music that I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do any better! I didn’t have the patience to learn that craft when I had so many good tunes to play as a DJ. I had to switch off when I was trying to write. I’d be on a vibe then I’d hear something from say Optical or someone like that and it would be like ‘how the fuck can I write anything on that level?’ So I focussed on my DJing. I’ve always been more of a DJ than a producer and I had a crew of producers sending me music so fresh and so much of it I could play fresh two hour sets every week. So I was happy to collaborate with people instead. Then suddenly it’s 2020, we’re in a lockdown situation, I can’t go anywhere so might as well start writing. Before I knew it, I had a stash.”

 

 

This stash erupted in recent years, especially as a core member of Watch The Ride, one of the most remarkable cross-generational, cross-genre collaborations to emerge out of bass music in a very long time. Just last month they dropped RAW! with Bristolian legend Scorpio MC and grime don D Double E. It’s the latest in a fine slew of floor-ready, but airwave-happy missives that fuse elements of garage, jungle, grime and other exciting and enduring black music movements.

Since their debut in 2019, Original Format (also with Newham General D Double E) Watch The Ride have been responsible for some exceptional remixes and worked with the likes of Nia Archives, Gardna, Sigma and Doktor, releasing on Rinse/Kool. Well over 30 years after he broke through with De Underground alongside other pioneering DJs and artists such as Cool Hand Flex, Marley Marl and Lennie De Ice (the man credited for writing one of the earliest jungle drum & bass style productions We Are IE) Randall remained neck deep in the culture, right in the thick of it, finger on the pulse with his sleeves rolled up and almost certainly letting off that amazing gutteral belly laugh that came with him wherever he went.

 

 

And it seemed he’d always be in that spot. Following his battle with ill health in late 2021, the spot seemed to be getting brighter. Still at least six months (minimum) ahead of any other DJ in his sonic field and part of an on-point collective, his schedule had never been busier and his energy remained infectious. Over 35 years of beats, he was finding new angles, ways, and things to inspire him. Just like his recent debut back to back with his son Rio Tashan at Glastonury just weeks ago.

This is Randall‘s most enduring legacy. He had a genuine live spark about him that was feiry, hyper and often relentless. A powerhouse on the forefront, just days ago he had played at Outlook Festival in Croatia and Secret Garden Party, UK. He’d played Nozstock the weekend before, countless other gigs weekend after weekend. Well-loved and in-demand. From my conversations with him and observations of him over the years, you get the vibe this is how he would want to be remembered. His legacy as an active selector who lived the life right until the very last days.

 

 

But do not get that twisted. He has died way way way too young. Jungle drum & bass is currently enjoying its most intense and longest-lasting mainstream attention and thankfully Randall has benefited from some of that spotlight and did get to have his flowers more than other peers who have tragically left this planet too soon. His influence has been recognised and he’s remained in work and respected by the generations who have followed. Especially his strong connection with the likes of Benny L and Trimer.

But there have been times when drum & bass hasn’t been in such commercial attention, or times within jungle drum & bass when the underground sounds he’s pushed, or DJs of his generation, haven’t been quite so popular, he was still out there on road, feircely flying the flag for the music he loved, rain or shine, packed floor or grave yard shift, thick or thin. This was his livelihood. And that life isn’t always, in fact it’s hardly ever, the Instagram ‘life is a movie’ lifestyle. Life on the road has a heavy impact on health.

Randall‘s entire adult life has been a dedication to jungle drum & bass, regardless of trend or hype or popularity. He hasn’t just watched the ride, he’s ridden that fucker from start to finish, highest to lowest. Round and round and round. When we spoke around the release of his EP, 2020 mid lockdown, he remained positive. His tenure gave him much more foresight than many other (rightfully) panicking peers..

“They tried to take us from the fields to the clubs. Then came the corporate sponsors who could see how much money this rave thing was worth. You see all those corporate names on festival flyers, they all tried to get in on it because it is viable and it does make a lot of money. And now look where it’s at. We just got to dig in, get through the cold front that’s coming in and stay creative.”

This is resiliance. It backs up the enormous personality that preceded him and it’s attached to one of the sturdiest shouldered giants ALL of us stand on. Every single person who’s involved in this music, who’s been touched by this music, found their way, their friends and their minds through this music, or even been fortunate enough to be paid by this music, needs to reflect upon this and give thanks to this man.

 

 

For me personally I give thanks to the fact we got to work together and engage a number of times, and the last time was especially memorable and hilarious. He could be one of those characters who would light up a room in an instant and have everyone in stitches, but at the same time he would never be taken for a mug and could happily put on the switchers. Often in razor sharp ways. Something I was reminded of when I interviewed him and Die on a live stage in Bristol to a particularly vibey audience for The Cause in October 2023.

He stopped mid sentence and offered his mic at one extra noisy couple who wouldn’t stop chatting in the front row and demanded they swap seats with us and carry on the evening’s entertainment themselves. The whole room went silent, the couple scuttled out of the room shamefaced, Randall let rip with the biggest gutteral laugh imaginable and the interview went up a few levels. Genuinely too hot to handle.

Randall‘s unique energy will be missed forever. His influence indelible and of a pedigree and class of its own. We send nothing but love, respect and the deepest condolences to your family, friends and everyone who’s lives you’ve had such a positive influence on. RIP and fly high you absolute don.

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