Roni Size

The Bristol drum and bass producer whose Reprazent won the 1997 Mercury Prize with New Forms, which holds the nine-minute "Brown Paper Bag".

Bristol and Full Cycle

Roni Size was born Ryan Owen Granville Williams on October 29, 1969 in Bristol, to Jamaican immigrants, and grew up around the city's sound-system culture, with reggae an early influence. He learned production at the Sefton Park basement youth project, with record players, a mixing desk, drum machines and samplers. He met DJ Suv and DJ Die at Glastonbury in 1990, and in 1993 the group set up Full Cycle and Dope Dragon; Krust had been in the Fresh 4, whose "Wishing on a Star" reached the UK top ten in 1989. Bryan Gee founded V Recordings in 1994 and its second release, V002, was "Agility" by Roni Size and DJ Die. "Witchcraft" with Krust (1994), "Fashion" (1995) and "Square Off" (1996) followed.

In 1996 Reprazent formed in Bristol, with Size, Krust, DJ Die, DJ Suv, the vocalists Onallee and Dynamite MC, Si John on bass and Clive Deamer on drums; the first release was the EP Reasons for Sharing on Talkin' Loud (November 25, 1996) and the live debut was at Tribal Gathering in April 1997.

New Forms

New Forms was released on June 23, 1997 by Talkin' Loud and Mercury, produced by Size, DJ Die, Krust and DJ Suv, 139:54 over two discs. It reached 8 in the UK, went platinum and won the 1997 Mercury Prize, making Reprazent, as the sources describe it, the first drum and bass act to win; they beat Radiohead, the Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers. Sound On Sound recorded the gear: an Atari with Cubase and Notator, two Alesis ADATs, Roland S550 and S760 samplers and Yamaha NS10s, with a Mac 7600 and Mackie desk added halfway through. It mixes jungle beats with live drums and double bass and hip hop, funk, soul and house. AllMusic gave it five stars, calling it the major statement on drum and bass, Muzik 10 out of 10, NME 9 and Pitchfork 7.7; Paste's Robert Ham called the 2017 anniversary edition a tonic and astonishing listen. He said of the win in 1998, we ate all the food on the plate, we're on seconds, and we're still going.

The singles were "Share the Fall" (UK 37), "Heroes" (31), "Brown Paper Bag" (20) and "Watching Windows" (28). In the Mode followed on October 9, 2000 (UK 15, with Zack de la Rocha, Method Man and Rahzel), and he relaunched Full Cycle with Krust in 2016. Reprazent made New Forms 2 in 2008 with Universal, Size calling it the way I wish I'd made it in 1997, played Coachella in 2009 and the Colston Hall in Bristol with an orchestra, and reformed around 2014. The 20th-anniversary New Forms came out in November 2017.