But he would have the last laugh as the tune began to filter into rave sets, with DJ Hype, Jumpin Jack Frost, Fabio & Grooverider, DJ Ron and many more playing it. The breaks and bass-heavy dub aesthetic worked as part of hardcore, but felt closer to the early jungle tracks that Lennie De Ice, A Guy Called Gerald, Congo Natty, Noise Factory and 4hero were starting to make. By this time, Meat Beat Manifesto was regularly touring. Dangers began working as a producer for American group Consolidated, and collaborated with Michael Franti’s industrial hip-hop duo Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, both of whom were based in San Francisco. While on tour in the Californian city, he met his future wife, which encouraged him to move there permanently in 1993.
His ‘Subliminal Sandwich’ album followed in 1996, with wicked tracks like ‘Nuclear Bomb’ further exploring the rich seam of shuffling breakbeats and dub reggae bass and atmospherics. Since, he’s been incredibly prolific, releasing sonically varied albums that have veered from the dubstep-savvy ‘Autoimmune’ in 2008 on Planet Mu, to the industrial tones of 2024’s ‘Extinct’, a collaboration with Japanese noise icon Merzbow.
“I just do stuff I like doing,” Dangers says. “So if it’s an industrial track, if it’s a dance song, a house song, like ‘Psyche Out’ was, I suppose, or if it’s noise stuff, you know, I’m just gonna do it. The Merzbow record sounded like if Jesus & Mary Chain had done a dance record in 1984. It’s got a beat, but you’ve got to peel back the layers a bit to hear it. I made Merzbow’s noise go in time, you know, what he does, to make it rhythmic, which is hidden under layers of noise. I was really happy with that record. But yeah, I’m sure it’s a head scratcher; if you like ‘Radio Babylon’, you’re probably not going to like that record.”
Having released a compilation of his early material, he recently worked with Trent Reznor on the Tron: Ares soundtrack, and has remixed a track from it, ‘Infiltrator’, in club-friendly form. Dangers is also putting the finishing touches to a new Meat Beat Manifesto record that is 34 tracks deep, and will run the gamut of everything he’s into. “It’s going through every type of musical influence I think I’ve ever had. I’m terrible at keeping it cohesive — you know, if you hear a Boards Of Canada record, it’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s Boards Of Canada’. That’s what they do. But for me, one track might sound like (X), a bit like them, but then this other track’s gonna be (Y), influenced by Merzbow or something unique. It’s all over the place, but that’s what I’m like anyway.”
Looking back at ‘Radio Babylon’, Dangers is happy it’s had an impact. “I’m pleased whenever anything of mine gets recognised for doing something.”
