Roni Size’s whole life has been about building something new from whatever was around him. From Bristol youth club parties, through the white heat of rave and the founding moments of jungle and drum’n’bass, to transforming underground electronic music into something that could be played by a live band on the biggest arena and festival stages, he has at each stage created completely afresh – not just a sound or style but an entire methodology of how music can be made. And each time, that new creation has reflected his heritage, his surroundings and the precise moment in which he’s operating.
20 years ago, the Mercury Prize win for his ‘New Forms’ album brought D’n’B to the forefront of dance music news, making even the rest of the industry – where reactions had up until that point been bemused – sit up and pay attention. For several years thereafter Roni and team were on top of the world, succeeding as solo artists as well as a collective, maintaining underground credibility yet receiving Brit Awards and even collaborating with some of the biggest names in hip-hop.
2016 was a vintage year for Roni. Live shows included Ram Records’ NYE show at O2 Academy Brixton, a headline show at the BBC 6 Music Festival and a summer festival season that began at Love Saves the Day with a curated Full Cycle Stage Takeover for Arcadia Afterburner and included Secret Garden Party, Evolution, Glastonbury, Blissfields, NASS, EDC, Dour, Boomtown, Frequency, Lowlands, Creamfields, SW4, Outlook, and many more. Roni relaunched Full Cycle Records with fellow co-founder, DJ Krust, with the releases drawing praise from The Wire, Dummy, UKF, Mista Jam, 6 Music, Gilles Peterson, Radio 1, 1Xtra, DJ Mag and beyond.
It was in 2017, as we fully appreciated the legacy that Roni has created for drum’n’bass, that the next chapter began. Roni toured his groundbreaking new audio visual live show, a combined live instrument and hardware show that features state of the art production and 3D effect projection mapping celebrating 20 years of New Forms. Roni took the groundbreaking live show on the road to festivals in the UK and Europe as well as on extensive tours of the US, New Zealand and Australia with no let up as he also DJ’ed at the very best clubs and festivals throughout the globe.
The anniversary re-release of New Forms (on Universal and featuring the live set together with brand new remixes, edits and tracks) garnered huge support across digital and print media as well as on radio. With premieres from MixMag and Tsugi, rave reviews and coverage by NME, Fact, DJ Mag, Clash and many others along with multiple plays on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1 Xtra, Roni cemented his position at the top of the game.
This is a standing show.
