Moving Shadow | |
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Founded | 1990 |
Founder | Rob Playford |
Defunct | 2007 |
Genre | Drum and bass, Jungle, Techstep, Breakbeat hardcore |
Country of origin | England, UK |
Official website | www |
Moving Shadow was an influential UK-based jungle/drum and bass record label which was started in 1990 by Rob Playford. Moving Shadow grew to be a well-regarded and long-lived publisher, releasing over 200 releases.
The label began in 1990, operating from Playford's Stevenage home. Playford had self-released a track prior to setting up Moving Shadow, entitled Orbital Madness, and had become a focal point for local, young artists/bedroom producers seeking advice on releasing their own music. The label's first release arrived in 1991; the Psychotronic EP by Earth Leakage Trip. Many artists attributed to early Shadow releases were Playford's aliases or collaborations, such as 2 Bad Mice, a group he formed with Sean O'Keeffe and Simon Colebrooke. As the rave scene scratched the surface of the mainstream music industry in 1991 and 1992, Moving Shadow, like its friendly rival Suburban Base & D-Zone, enjoyed UK Top 75 singles chart success though Blame's Music Takes You and 2 Bad Mice's Bombscare.
As the rave scene split over the next year, Moving Shadow gravitated towards the emerging darkcore jungle scene. Releases by artists such as Deep Blue (Sean O'Keeffe), Foul Play, Omni Trio, and Hyper-On Experience bolstered the label's catalog, and by 1994, Moving Shadow was at the forefront of the UK jungle/drum and bass scene.
Moving Shadow's output could be seen at this time to represent the complete spectrum of the genre. The label released albums from both Omni Trio and Foul Play in 1995 and the first of a series of regional compilation albums such as The Revolutionary Generation,Storm From The East and Trans-Central Connection, highlighting artists both local and distantly-located.
In 1994 Playford began working with the drum & bass artist Goldie on tracks written using his Rufige Kru alias. The result was Goldie's Timeless album, produced and engineered by Playford and released in 1995 on the better-funded FFRR Records. Lauded by critics, the album was one of the first drum & bass titles to achieve mainstream success, going on to be one of the best-selling drum & bass albums of its time.