DJ ZINC

Whether he's hunched over the pulsing lights of the studio or rocking a blistering drum & bass set out from the DJ booth - Zinc works through the small hours and gets up mid-afternoon. So when he had to deliver the master tapes of his killer debut solo album, Faster, at the unearthly hour of 11am, it was a shock.

Zinc is a night person.

Whether he's hunched over the pulsing lights of the studio or rocking a blistering drum & bass set out from the DJ booth - Zinc works through the small hours and gets up mid-afternoon. So when he had to deliver the master tapes of his killer debut solo album, Faster, at the unearthly hour of 11am, it was a shock.

"It ruined me for days," he says, "I just can't deal with mornings".

These sleep habits of Zinc's have crept deep into the grooves of Faster. It's jammed to the bumper with depth-charge bass, crystal-tipped breaks and memorable, mysterious night-world melodies. It's trenchantly widescreen, covering hard soul slow-jams, laid-back girl singers, itchy, scratchy drum & bass and megaton MC chaos.

"I like all different kinds of music, but I didn't make the album to show that" says the producer and DJ. "I started experimenting with bpm's and it just came out that way."

Faster was recorded in Zinc's low-ceilinged East London studio over two and a half years. Six months after starting the album, Zinc realised that the tunes he'd been putting on the backburner had two things in common - they weren't strictly drum & bass and they were all different tempos. An idea formed: Make an album of heavy mood music, featuring vocalists, MCs and his own killer production - and program the tracks in speed order.

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