As Dom mentioned when writing the blog post for his 95×25 mix, Pixl and the West Yorkshire drum & bass crew have helped revitalise his love of breaks in music production.

It wasn’t long after this I reached out to Pixl (Laurie) for a chat and the next thing you know he’s offered to remix one of our Army of Ghost tracks. We aren’t going to get too many of these done but we can safely say that Pixl is one of the artists who we trust to deliver a fantastic mix, which he has. If you like cosmic intergalactic drumfunk as much as us, you should love it.

We caught up with Pixl to talk about his path to drum & bass production, his Loop Progression label, his Tundra remix and his views on the current scene.

Hey Laurie, so before we get into what you’ve been up to lately, can you please let us know a bit about yourself and how you got into producing drum & bass?

I grew up in Cambridge and think my first experience hearing drum & bass must have been hearing Pendulum when I was 14 or 15, I enjoyed it but it didn’t become an instant obsession. I played guitar at the time and had some very limited experience using Logic 8 on the computers at school.

I started to get more seriously into drum & bass when I was 16 and started going to events and free parties put on by crews like Life 4 Land, Amen-tal and Uprizing in the East Anglia area. I’ve got to give a shout out to Paul Jones (aka MDS), his tunes are probably what really made me realise the potential this sort of music had. I also learned a lot of my early production skills from him, so there’s a lot to thank him for!

I’ve heard you say in the past that you listened to grunge and metal in your teens, which I can relate to, how did you go from that to producing electronic music?

There was a kind of breakcore/drum & bass hybrid that producers in the Cambridge area (particularly MDS, Scamp and Ghost) were pushing which seemed totally different to anything else I’d heard at the time. It was dark and chaotic and really matched the energy of the metal bands I was listening to at the time. Hearing that really helped me figure out there was more to electronic music than a lot of the stuff I had heard previously. Also the fact that these guys were all local made it feel a bit more achievable to make my own beats because if they could do it then surely I could as well?

What is it about metal you like so much? The energy? You don’t seem to be boiling over with rage like your stereotypical metalhead!

When I was younger it was definitely the energy and the virtuosity of the musicians. I think as well I was drawn to the slightly dangerous feel of it, with the lyrics and imagery dealing with dark and occult themes – I still love that shit. Most of the metal I listen to these days is more on the gloomy and atmospheric vibe though – I guess I’ve slowed down as I’ve gotten older.

Are they any artists or albums you could recommend to readers of the blog who may not have explored grunge and metal?

I could do a whole essay about this question alone to be honest but I’ll keep it brief!

Morbid Angel – Altars of Madness

It was originally the logo that drew my attention to Morbid Angel but their debut album from 1989 is such an amazing record. It’s non-stop from the get go with some of the sickest riffs and songwriting in the genre.

Opeth – Blackwater Park

Opeth are probably my favourite band of all time and this is probably my favourite album by them. I absolutely love the journey it takes you on with loads of soft and melodic passages alongside some great riffs and heavier sections. I saw them play this album in full at the Royal Albert Hall about 15 years ago and it’s still one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to.

How does metal and the other kinds of music you listen to influence what you make as a drum & bass producer?

I feel like the influence isn’t worn on my sleeve in the way a lot of producers (myself included sometimes) very intentionally show a love for genres like soul and reggae etc in their sampling, but the influence is definitely there.

Quite often I’ll want to capture the feeling or atmosphere a track gives me so I’ll play around with similar chord progressions or melodies to try and catch that vibe. I have sampled metal tunes once or twice but only ever in pretty obscure ways.

That’s interesting to hear, I love it when people go hunting for samples outside of the usual genres. As you might know I have a passion for the more atmospheric side of drum & bass. A lot of your productions focus on this style, can you tell us what it is about this sound that inspires you so much?

I’ve always been a big science fiction fan and I feel like the atmospheric style captures that feeling really well. Even though all the best science fiction tends to have some kind of message behind it, there’s definitely an element of escapism which I think translates into music very well.

It’s funny you mention that as I also really like tracks that have a message, which can often be lacking in drum & bass, what are you telling us through your productions?

It varies. I find music that makes the message too obvious a bit cringe, I like there to be some room for interpretation and reading between the lines. I’ve been on quite a positive vibe with my music recently so I’d like to think it can give people some joy or hope in an increasingly bleak world.

I’d also be lying if I said I never make something just because I think it will mash the dance up and there isn’t really any meaning behind those.

You launched a label called Loop Progression last year (2025) which features music by yourself and some of your friends. It seems a crazy time to be releasing vinyl and you’ve already released 2 with another 2 in the pipeline. Can you please tell us a bit about the label and your journey with it so far?

So the idea for the label came about in 2023 or 2024 and I spent quite a while unsure whether to go ahead with it, but after some nudging from Tim Reaper I decided to pull the trigger and go for it. Between Duburban, Galvatron, Peeb & myself we had so much unreleased music between us that it would never (and probably still won’t) all see the light of day if we waited for other labels, so I thought the best solution to this problem was to start putting it out ourselves.

The label is primarily for us four but I have got other artists involved through remixes and collabs.

What can you tell us about those 2 future Loop Progression releases?

003 is fairly retro sounding and dancefloor focused. It features a track by Champa B which I’ve been playing for YEARS at this point called Frozen in Time. It almost came out a few years ago but never happened in the end so when he hit me up saying it was still available I had to jump at it.

Then there’s a more footworky (but still with an atmospheric twist) tune by Galvatron called Push which has been getting some great reception recently. Peeb played it at Future Retro back in April and the room exploded so I had to put it out.

On the b-side there’s a retro piece called Replay by Peeb and myself, and the release is rounded off by a remix of my track Galaxy Dub (from LOOP001) by Tim Reaper.

LOOP004 will be the first full 12” by Duburban, Peeb & myself, more info on that to come.

I’ve seen some more established labels say they are finding it hard to sell even half the amount of records compared to what they used to. What’s been your experience of running a label that puts out vinyl?

It’s definitely a tough game selling records at the moment, especially when you add postage to online sales. The cost means people have to be super selective about what they’re buying.

I think if you’re expecting a quick return on your investment, running a vinyl label is probably the worst thing you can do right now.

As I mentioned earlier, the label focuses on yourself and your friends. Can you please tell us a little bit about your crew and the West Yorkshire scene?

I’ve known Duburban, Peeb and Galv for a few years now, I actually met Peeb at a Green Bay Wax night in Sheffield back in 2016 so I have to give Kid Lib a shout there. We’re all pretty close geographically and have a love for similar styles like drumfunk and atmospheric drum & bass so the collaborations came quite naturally.

As far as the scene in West Yorkshire goes at the moment it’s unfortunately quite quiet, we’ve lost several good venues in Leeds recently like Old Red Bus Station where I put events on from 2015 until around when lockdown happened. It feels like the scene never really bounced back in Leeds after that but there are a couple of crews like Licence To Jungle and Subdub still putting on nights. I’m starting to see a couple of new events and promoters popping up as well so maybe people are starting to get back into it. I’m toying with the idea of doing a Loop Progression event in Leeds later in the year but nothing is set in stone yet.

Can you recommend some of their productions for anyone who is yet to discover them?

Sure, I guess the best place to start is the Just Beats box set on OverShadow which features tracks from all of us, and in my opinion some of the best music we’ve released so far.

Various Artists – Just Beats Volume 1 (Over/Shadow)

I’ve also got to mention Seven Degrees of Separation by Peeb which came out on Subtle Audio last year.

Various Artists – Rhythmic Idyllic (Subtle Audio)

Duburban also put out a fantastic album on his own Bandcamp last year called Breaking Point, I’ve absolutely hammered all the tracks on there.

Duburban – Breaking Point (Self-released)

Apart from the label and your drum & bass productions, what do you get up to musically?

Recently I’ve been writing a load of downtempo and trip hop with my friend Ella who releases music as Elica. It’s been a great opportunity to step outside the usual BPM constraints of drum & bass and has been really fun working with a mixture of sampling, synthesis and recording live instruments. Our first EP is dropping on Bandcamp this Friday (6 February 2026).

I also play bass in a band with Ella and our friend Tariq on the drums. The initial idea was to play live versions of the tracks we’ve been writing but it has pretty quickly evolved into something a bit more ambitious. We’ve got a couple of gigs lined up which will be announced in the next few weeks.

I’ve also been really getting into dub techno recently as well and have been playing about with live mixing using the desk and some outboard FX. We recorded a couple of dub mixes of the downtempo bits I mentioned and we’ll be including those with the EP. I’ve got various other ideas for projects I want to have a go at this year but I won’t elaborate just yet in case they don’t end up happening.

You’ve also just did a remix of our track Tundra from our Totems project. What can you tell us about that and how do you go about remixing a track?

With the Tundra remix I basically went through the stems you sent me and made a sample pack out of my favourite sounds from it and built the track from that. I like doing remixes this way because I find if I work directly from the stems it’s too easy to slip into copying whole sections of the original tune or using the same structure etc.

For the drums I had recently been through a giant folder of breaks I had and deleted all the rubbish ones, and sorted the rest into different folders depending on what I thought they might be useful for. This remix was a great opportunity to try out one of the new breaks in the drumfunk folder.

If there was a drum & bass artist or group from the 90s you could remix, who would it be?

There’s loads of people I’d love to remix but DJ Crystl has to be up there, I absolutely love that 93-94 Luckyspin/Deejay Recordings sound.

I know from our previous conversations you have some strong views on the scene, especially about social media, promotion etc. Care to share what’s on your mind?

I’ll preface this bit by saying that I’m just a guy who likes making music and feel slightly disconnected from the wider “scene” due to most big events etc happening in London and Bristol, so feel free to take what I say here with a pinch of salt.

There’s been a lot of conversation recently about how numbers and content etc have become more important than music, which I agree with and think it’s unfortunate. That being said I think it does the music a disservice to put this kind of influencer mindset in the same category as actually making music for the love of it. The way I see it, that kind of drum & bass has very little to do with what actual drum & bass is (I’m not sure what that is but I think I have a pretty good idea what it isn’t). I often see people complaining about people who seem to be getting booked all over the place and having not done the groundwork to warrant playing lots of big events etc, which I agree with to a point but I also ask myself are those the kind of events I’d really want to play at?

I guess the point I’m trying to make here is that the fad will pass in time and those people will jump on to the next thing but there will always be people making good music, and it’s important to focus on that rather than on things we don’t like.

With that being said I think one of the best ways we can fix this as a community is start to move away from platforms like Instagram etc and go back to community run online spaces like blogs and forums. Forums definitely weren’t without their problems but I think a space for organic growth without sponsored content, ads and algorithms will help bring the focus back to the music and more long form types of content designed to actually educate and inform people rather than just generate clicks.

I get that 100%. It’s one of the reasons why I have all the stats turned off for the blog and Soundcloud. I hate the numbers game, it’s also one of the reasons why we are doing this whole Totem thing the way we are. We made the music for fun, which is why we aren’t pushing to sell them or to get loads of plays. They are there for people to hear, and if not now perhaps in a few months time.

Finally, are there any favourite producers or artists you can recommend to someone like me who no longer has their finger on the pulse of the scene?

I’ve already mentioned Peeb, Duburban and Galvatron but some other favourites of mine at the moment are Rumbleton, Nebula, ASC, Dwarde, Earl Grey and Tim Reaper. Also got to shout out Vxrgo who has been doing some wicked stuff recently and Deselecta – I don’t think she has released anything yet but her DJ sets are next level and I’ve heard some productions by her and she’s definitely one to keep an eye on!

You can check out Pixls music on his Bandcamp and the Loop Progression store can also be found here.

His remix of our Army of Ghosts track Tundra can be played below or on our Soundcloud here.