Remembering one of the greatest UK grime producers of all time.
Selected Works is a weekly (usually) newsletter by the Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, New Zealand) based freelance music journalist, broadcaster, copywriter and sometimes DJ Martyn Pepperell, aka Yours Truly. Most weeks, Selected Works consists of a recap of what I’ve been doing lately and some of what I’ve been listening to and reading, paired with film photographs I’ve taken + some bonuses. All of that said, sometimes it takes completely different forms.
This morning, I woke up to the news that one of the greatest UK grime producers of all time, Rodney Pryce, better known as Terror Danjah, had passed away. Throughout his lifetime, Pryce helped shape the genre’s pre-history, early-rise and latter-day reinventions as a member of Reckless Crew, N.A.S.T.Y. Crew and later on, steering his own Hardrive records.
In 2002, Pryce released the Highly Flammable EP on the UK house and garage label, Solid City Records. Over the next few years, he scored production and remix placements with Wiley, Skepta and N.A.S.T.Y. Crew, before helping pioneer a short-lived grime subgenre called R&G (Rhythm & Grime) through his collaboration with the UK singer Sadie Ama, ‘So Sure’ feat Kano and his remix (with DVA) of ‘You’ feat Klashnekoff by All Saints member Shaznay Lewis.
As Pryce told Pitchfork in 2017, “When I released ‘So Sure’ [by Sadie Ama and featuring Kano], [grime emcee] Crazy Titch said to me, ‘Stop doing the girl tunes and get back to making them hard riddims.’ Roughly six months later, he was like: ‘Oi, Terror! I need a ladies’ tune.’ [Laughs] At least Titch was honest, but everyone eventually embraced the sound.”
After forming his Harddrive Records label, Pryce signed with Planet Mu and Hyperdub, who released his acclaimed Gremlinz (The Instrumentals 2003-2009) collection and his first official album, Undeniable, in 2009 and 2010 respectively. In 2010, I interviewed Pryce for the first and only time as part of a feature story on Hyperub Records for the now defunct New Zealand music magazine, Rip It Up. I’ve included an edited version of that interview for you to read below.
Raised in Forest Gate, East London, Rodney Pryce, aka Terror Danjah, grew up in a Jamaican household full of music and records. It was the perfect environment to develop into a DJ who would eventually become one of the most respected underground grime producers of all time. As he explained, “I started DJing when I was about eleven… kids nowadays have CDs and mp3s, [but back then] having vinyl was natural in the house. So, to play a record player, that was how you played music. I was the youngest as well, and vinyl was the natural tool, so records, and buying them, in the early nineties, [that] was [well] standard.”
Marinating on the sounds of reggae, soul, house, hip-hop, funk and beyond, with the arrival of jungle in the early 90s, Pryce became inextricably locked into the future development of UK bass music. Cutting his teeth on pirate radio stations like Future, Raw and Rinse FM, he picked up electronic music production through some mutual friends, initially with the goal of making jungle and drum and bass. As he reflected, “I’d made a million drum and bass tracks, then I made my third garage track, and it got picked up!”
At the time, he didn’t consider himself a garage fan. Still, after prompting from some associates, including Scratcha DVA, Pryce tackled the art form. The results led to an association with a label called Solid City, which served as an early home to the likes of Wiley, So Solid Crew and Pay As You Go Cartel. In giving the music a hard-edged veneer, which was reflective of his hip-hop, jungle and funk background, he became an architectural figure in the birth of grime music – the UK genre that brought the likes of Dizzee Rascal, Kano, Wiley, JME and Skepta to the world.
Since then, Pryce has obtained a legendary status within grime’s internal netherworld. Although he had some very fruitful years in the early 2000s, it wasn’t until the late 2000s that he found himself positioned to realise his vision of a grime scene that placed a proper emphasis on instrumental tunes and DJ culture. When we talked, he described himself as “kick-starting the revolution” and “at the forefront of it”. In part, this was fulfilled through a close association with Planet Mu and Hyperdub Records, as well as a run of singles, EPs and albums that presented his stellar new perspective on a possible future for grime.
A consolidating factor in this resurgence was his Hyperdub-released debut album (in a technical sense only) Undeniable. One half vocal tracks, one half instrumental tracks, Undeniable saw Pryce’s weighted bass, tensely coiled drums and moody, atmospheric textures collide with fierce vocal deliveries from MCs and singers such as D Double E, Mz Bratt, Griminal, Laura Mason and others. Across the vivid album, crunchy eight-bit noises orbit around g-funk referencing melodies, incidental sounds fade in and out of existence, and a rare balance between experimentalism and accessibility is achieved. Pryce’s sound was an inspirational one. At the time, his music elicited very enthused commentary from critics, and he loved it. “It’s surreal after being unnoticed for ages,” he admitted. “But I ain’t complaining.”
Throughout the 2010s, Pryce released a trilogy of albums, The Dark Crawler (2012), The Planets: The Milkyway Edition (2016) and Invasion (2019) through Hyperdub, Hardrive and Tru Thoughts respectively. He also collaborated with Four Tet on the single ‘Killer’ (2014), dropped a bevy of singles and archival compilation releases an provided production to Riko Dan, Chip, P Money, Kelela and Wiley, as well as numerous other artists.
Today, I’m thinking about all of Rodney Pryce, aka Terror Danjah’s family, friends and listeners. Rest in Peace, Terror Danjah. I’m sure we’ll be thinking about your contributions to UK grime music and it’s associated genres for years to come.
FIN.
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