Flex
hooked up with a krew
who wanted the same things out of the scene as
himself;
Flex "I ended up linking with
Uncle 22 who lived just down the
road
to me and another guy called
DJ Tek.
Uncle 22 already had tunes out at
that
time on a label called
WAU who were like a major company, and he showed
me a
lot of things that I didn't know".
Soon after
Flex
and
Uncle 22 had
their
first release under the guise
Dubwise 2 on
Reel2Reel Records at the end
of
1990. This led onto Flex's big break on the producing side of things
with
the B side of the infamous tune "We R E" in
1990/early 91 on white
label;
Flex "I done the B-side which was called "Feel the Rhythm" and
Lenny D
Ice
done the A-Side which was We R E". Other producers involved were
A-sides
who
now runs the
Eastside/Fuze Recordings stable and
Uncle 22, the latter of
which made the Hardcore anthem "6 million ways to die" released on
Ram
Records and remixed by
DJ Hype. In the year of
1994 the record shop
De
Underground was born. Based in
Forest Gate in the East End of London,
this
was to be a focal point for many in the area and an important base for
Flex
being a key member; "My brother
Mikee, Mikee De Underground they used to
call him, teamed up with
Randall, they got their heads together and
decided
they had to sort something out because this part of East London needed
something, people wanted to hear music. I think the closest record shop
around was in Hackney so something had to be done".
De Underground's
legendary status was interrupted with the closure of the shop in
1997 as
Flex explains; "The profit in tunes wasn't really paying for the rent of
the
place, the record business is a really hard business. We actually set up
the
shop to see what sort of tunes people would buy so we knew what kind of
tunes to produce, that gave us a bit of an edge".
With this in mind,
De
Underground was a foundation for releasing tunes on
De Underground's own
imprints such as
IE Records,
Oddball Records,
De Underground and
Intouch
Recordings, it was this label that saw another massive release from the
Flex
with "Melody Madness", which also got the remix treatment from no other
than
Roni Size and was the tune that finally got
Flex's name noticed.
Flex
describes his technique of producing; "I like to get a nice beats
section
rolling, from there I like to get some strings to give it some direction
and
then the b-line I always leave till last. Once you've got the direction
of
the tune the b-line then kicks it off. You can start off with a good
b-line
and then put everything else around it but then it doesn't sound right
and
you work for ages trying to get the sound to blend in".
I asked
Flex
about
the influences he uses in his producing; "My influences come from the
tunes i've collected over the years, like Rare Groove. Funny enough the D&B I
produce now incorporates some Rare Groove, like for the break downs".
Flex
has been producing tunes for
A-Sides Eastside Label since day one,
having
already met
A-Sides many years before, the first release was a
collaboration
with
A-Sides called
"Uptown/Afterdark",
Reinforced Records and is also
on
Randall's own imprint
Mac II.
Flex see's
Default Recordings as a step in a new direction for himself
and
D&B. With his legendary production skills and unique style the aim on
Default Recordings is to experiment with new flava's.
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