Reid Speed

Reid Speed has had a pretty great year. In the fourteen months since her first mix CD, Resonance, on Breakbeat Science Recordings, she conquered a 35-date tour, moved to Los Angeles, secured a national ad campaign with Triple 5 Soul, and was selected as the official DJ for a network comedy show. As the perfect finish to her outstanding debut year, Reid Speed now releases her powerful new drum + bass mix CD, Life After Dark, a reflection of her packed dancefloor sets that illuminates the depth of her selection and the full spectrum of her talent as a DJ.

Little more than a year ago, Reid Speed was living in a loft apartment in Brooklyn with a view of the elevated subway tracks, touring on the strength of a nationwide network of regular parties and promoters won over by her energetic and fully-engaged style of DJing. After the release of Resonance and her monstrous U.S. tour (immediately followed by a month on the tour bus with stateside breakbeat kings Ming + FS), Reid moved to Los Angeles in an effort to nourish her fanatical following on the West Coast. From her new base camp, she has succeeded in making waves not only as a drum + bass artist, but in the house and breaks world as well, drawing on a dedication to an eclectic dancefloor that has shaped her tastes as a DJ. Reid's regular trips back to New York have demonstrated a continuing loyalty to her roots, and the response from New York City's notoriously fickle crowds has been nothing less than adoring. Amidst all this, the minds behind urban Ÿber-brand Triple 5 Soul took notice and have signed Reid to a national full-page ad campaign, placing her alongside such underground royalty as Dwele, Jean Grey, and Peanut Butter Wolf. Television called soon after, with Jamie Kennedy hand-selecting Reid as the on-air DJ for The Jamie Kennedy Experiment on the WB network. The first JKX special featuring Reid should air in late September, closely following the release of Life After Dark; the Triple 5 Soul campaign is already in full swing.

None of this attention has in any way distracted Reid from her first love - the dancefloor, to which she dedicates Life After Dark. The tracks on this, her second mix CD, represent a bold cross-section of the varying moods of drum + bass. Reid weaves a musical tapestry of uncommon threads, building a bridge from the musical bounce of "Funhouse", by NYC d+b production kings Mathematics, to the hardcore ragga stabs of DJ Dara and A-Sides' "Unholy Grail". Always one of drum + bass' most talented storytellers, Reid not only manages to get these two sounds into the same room but has them engaged in deep conversation - her greatest strength as a DJ and one of the standout elements of this mix. In a nod to diversity of tempos, the mix is bookended by slower and deeper works; Life After Dark opens with the murderous downtempo of drum + bass legend Dylan's "Black Rainbow" and slows to a sublime close with Omni Trio's remix of the Foul Play classic "Music Is The Key" - a bold gesture for a drum + bass DJ, and an illustrative start to the next unpredictable year of Reid Speed's artistic life.

For more information, you can visit: www.reidspeed.com