Because the genre emerged in the United Kingdom, its defining names are overwhelmingly UK names, and the circle around Danny Byrd, an English DJ, record producer and musician from Bath, is as good a cross-section as any. The genre itself is defined on the Drum and bass page of this site; this page is about the people.

Who counts as a drum and bass artist

A drum and bass artist is anyone who makes or fronts drum and bass records, and the work splits into 3 roles: producers build the tracks, DJs mix them into sets, and singers and MCs voice them. The roles overlap constantly, and the sourced description of Danny Byrd covers 2 of them plainly: an English DJ, record producer and musician from Bath. One boundary matters for arriving searchers: drum and bass the genre has nothing to do with the bass drum, the percussion instrument in a drum kit. Questions about bass drum sizes, triggers, tuning or playing technique belong to percussion, and this site does not answer them; here, drum and bass means the music.

The artists on Danny Byrd's records

The artists credited on Danny Byrd's records form the first circle: 5 collaborators credited on his own releases, and 4 acts whose records he remixed. The collaborators, each with the record that makes the connection:

• I-Kay, a singer-songwriter from Bristol, is the voice on Ill Behaviour, the 2010 single that reached UK Singles peak No. 36, and has worked on several Danny Byrd releases.
• Netsky features on Tonight (2011), UK Singles peak No. 91 and UK Dance peak No. 11, and is also a name on the Hospital Records roster.
• Brookes Brothers share the credit on Paperchase (2011).
• General Levy is the featured credit on Blaze the Fire (Rah!) (2012).
• Roni Size is the featured credit on Grit (2013).

Remixing supplies the other 4 connections. In 2000, BBC Radio 1's Fabio championed Byrd's remix of London Elektricity's Wishing Well; London Elektricity appears in the sourced record as that remix subject and as a named liquid funk proponent, and not on the Hospital Records roster. Remixes by Byrd for High Contrast, alongside contributions to the Hospital Records compilation Weapons of Mass Creation, followed that first champion. Liquid, the act behind Sweet Harmony, supplied the record whose Danny Byrd remix became his first UK Singles Chart entry, at UK Singles peak No. 64 on 7 February 2010; it has its own Sweet Harmony (2010) page here. 2021 brought a rework of Groove Armada's Superstylin. This page deliberately stops at the connection itself: what any of these artists did before or after the record that links them to Byrd is not carried by the sources behind this site, so no page here states it.

The Hospital Records roster

The Hospital Records roster is the second circle, and it reads like a working list of drum and bass artists in its own right. Hospital Records is a British independent label based in East London, started in 1996 by Tony Colman and Chris Goss, primarily releasing drum and bass; its artists have included Netsky, Camo & Krooked, Logistics, Nu:Tone, Metrik, Fred V & Grafix, High Contrast and S.P.Y, 8 names that anchor the UK scene. Danny Byrd was one of the first artists to sign to the label, in 1999, and released his studio albums there from Supersized (26 May 2008) to Atomic Funk (7 September 2018). Several of the same names, Netsky, Nu:Tone and High Contrast among them, return in the liquid drum and bass story below.

The liquid drum and bass artists

The liquid drum and bass artists are the proponents of liquid funk, the subgenre that adds more instrumental layers, harmonies and melodies to the drum and bass template. In 1999, Fabio, alongside Sarah Sandy, began championing the style under the name liquid funk, with a same-named compilation on their Creative Source label; the style grew massively around 2003 to 2004 and by 2005 stood among the genre's biggest-selling subgenres. More melodic and accessible forms such as liquid funk emerged in the late 1990s, pioneered by artists such as High Contrast, and the proponents the sources name are Calibre, Netsky, LTJ Bukem, High Contrast, London Elektricity and Nu:Tone, with Hospital Records among the style's main labels. Danny Byrd is not on that list of proponents, and this page does not add him to it. What is sourced is that the label he released through is named among liquid funk's main labels, which is a fact about Hospital Records rather than a description of his own music.

Is there a best drum and bass artists list?

No: any ranking of the best drum and bass artists is opinion, and this site does not publish one. What can be measured belongs to records rather than reputations, and 3 sourced examples show the scale such measurements take: Red Mist VIP at UK Dance peak No. 1 in the week ending 25 July 2009, Ill Behaviour at UK Singles peak No. 36 with a BBC Radio 1 A-list promotion on 8 September 2010, and Tonight at UK Singles peak No. 91. As for the UK question, the map above largely answers itself: an English producer from Bath, a vocalist from Bristol, an East London label and a genre that emerged in the United Kingdom in the early 1990s. Readers who want these artists set against their sound will find the tempo, the bass weight and the breakbeats defined on the Drum and bass page, and the label that connects most of the names on the Hospital Records page.