Music
They're the heads-down moments for the real heads. Serum, Voltage and Bladerunner shake out their record box for the best examples of the form.
A rolling breakbeat and a bassline that grabs you and doesn't let you go – these are the quintessential ingredients of a roller. They are arguably the only ingredients a roller requires.
Rollers have been around since jungle and drum'n'bass mutated from hardcore 25 years ago, but it's important to recognise that the roller isn't in itself a sub-genre. In fact, the style is to be found in pretty much every d'n'b sub-genre. Perhaps it's easiest to recognise the roller by its stripped-back nature – its hypnotic effect on the dance: when a roller drops, heads go down, feet start skanking and everything feels locks together with pure groove momentum.
Listen to Kings Of The Rollers on Red Bull Radio in the player below
This is home territory for Kings Of The Rollers – aka Serum, Voltage and Bladerunner. Respected solo artists in their own right, they formed as a collective in 2016, united by their love for rolling drum'n'bass, and signed to Hospital Records in 2018 to release their self-titled debut album. They've also hosted a regular show on Red Bull Radio throughout 2019, mixing up the finest new d'n'b tracks and talking to living legends like Ray Keith and Bryan Gee.
Of course, these guys know their roller history – so we asked them to share some of their favourites from across the ages.
1. Drs S Gachet – Remember The Roller (1995)
The blueprint from Dr S Gachet, this is one of the earliest d’n’b releases to coin the term roller. It tore the place down at the famous AWOL raves where Gachet was one of the pioneering residents.
Picked by Bladerunner: “Definitely the original roller for me. I first heard this at the sanctuary in Milton Keynes back in 1995, it's such a pleasure to mix as you can roll it all the way through to the middle breakdown where those hair-raising Mary J vocals come in! It was an honour to be able to remix this tune years later, as it's been one of my all-time favourites for years.”
2. Krust – Set Speed (1995)
Out of all the Bristol pioneers, Krust is regarded as the most experimental and far-out. A professor in roller philosophy, many of his productions had the ability to lock you into a groove for well over 10 minutes. Set Speed was one of his shorter excursions, though. Just bare bass and breaks – it's a masterclass in minimalism.
Picked by Serum: “This is one of those tracks that shows what you can do with just the bare essentials. It's super simple with only a few sounds other than the beats and bass, but he keeps it interesting by switching the grooves up loads and changing the bassline melody so it builds up and down. The way the beats and bass interact with each other is perfect. Very subtle and understated by today's standards, but the programming is excellent.”
3. Ray Keith – Special Technique (1996)
One of jungle music’s founding fathers, Ray Keith and his Dread Recordings were synonymous with that heavy, stripped back bass-led sound. It’s no coincidence that both Serum and Bladerunner cut their teeth on Dread during their formative years.
Picked by Serum: “Ray was really on form with this track. I love a kung fu sample, and it has really nice layering on the drums as well as a bassline that takes your feet off the floor on a good system. Ray's tunes are always minimal and they always sound better in a club than at home, which isn't true of every track. The big thing I learned from working with him was that a lot gets lost in a club if you're not careful -- so having fewer sounds but making them big and bold really pays off. All the samples are really catchy so you'd definitely remember it after a night out, and that's another of Ray's calling cards.”
4. DJ Die & Suv – War & Peace (1997)
Every combination between the Bristol pioneers was roller gold, but there was something magic about the unity of Die and Suv. Unhurried and so much fun to mix, the drop doesn’t even come in until two minutes.
Picked by Voltage: “You hit the nail on the head, it’s definitely unhurried and so much bloody fun to mix. Die and Suv also made the classic Out Of Sight, but there’s something about War & Peace that just hits different. This, for me, defines what a roller really is: a big saucy bruiser.”
5. Suv – Output (1997)
Another big Bristol bruiser, Output set the framework for a lot of big, long drawn-out basslines being thrown around in drum’n’bass over 20 years later.
Picked by Voltage: “Suv is like a secret assassin and his bassline work and sampling is up there with the best. He made this tune to test the system at The End. For me, it is the blueprint for all bassline tunes and I believe that it is the best roller that’s ever been made to this day. For me it’s all about how he sets the tone in the intro – it’s just moody, and then when you get that long bass... mate… proper digestive riddim.”
6. Mask – Splurt (1998)
One of many, many rollers to emerge from Bristol during the '90s. If Dope Dragon was Full Cycle’s naughty bit on the side, Mask was Roni Size’s even naughtier alias-on-the-side. Just listen to that elastic bassline. Timeless.
Picked by Bladerunner: “Roni Size had so many different aliases back in the day – it was hard to know who made what tunes at the time. I loved every release from Dope Dragon but this is one of my favourite rollers from Roni as Mask. When that bass kicks in it's game over! The engineering on this track still holds up today with the best of them. Such a bad tune!”
7. Brockie & Ed Solo – Turntable 1 (1998)
Another pioneering East London jungle forefather, Brockie is best known as a DJ, but between 1997 and 2007 he and Ed Solo created a sizeable body of work that still stands the test of time today; straight-up, stripped-back party weapons, many of which could be described as quintessential rollers. Especially this one.
Picked by Serum: “Brockie and Ed were on fire when this came out and this is probably my favourite from that era. It definitely has one of my favourite bass sounds of all time – it's proper gut-wrenching stuff and inspired me a lot to make what I make now. At the time a lot of artists were going pretty dark and steppy but Brockie and Ed took the technical side of that and then made it more party-friendly with a rolling beat and a real earworm of a sample for the hook.
"Brockie has been a really big supporter of what we do and I can definitely recall a few times where I've been playing the same show as him and looked into the crowd to see him dancing away. He clearly still loves it!”
8. M.I.S.T – Outerspace (2003)
The sadly missed Marcus Intalex and ST Files brought a whole other dimension to the rolling style throughout the late '90s and the entire 2000s. Deeper, techno-influenced and totally heads-down stuff, these type of rollers get your turning your sleeves up and getting ready for some serious dancefloor admin.
Picked by Bladerunner: “These guys will always be the masters of musical rollers for me – with tracks like Dream World, How You Make Me Feel and Play On Me, it's hard to choose a favourite. Outerspace is the one for me, though. It just keeps on rolling, adding more and more musical elements, building and rising all the way through to the end. Definitely a classic roller.”
