You want to talk about Oxide & Neutrino? You need to talk about DIY culture…

We can chat all day long about their chart success and platinum albums during the early 2000s; how they were the first DJ/MC garage duo to hit number one in the UK mainstream charts off the back of their debut single ‘Bound 4 De Reload’, a single that started off on white label and had no support from daytime radio. Or how their second single won a MOBO for Best Video and their music was used to soundtrack major cult movies of the time; Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Ali G In Da House. 

We can gossip about them being members of one of the most successful and controversial garage collectives of all time; how as founding members of So Solid Crew they took UK garage and MC culture around the world and scored even more chart credits, all the while entrenched in dark drama, street beef and the most volatile industry and media backlashes in modern music history… 

But weathered them to the very last scurrilous rumour. 

We can discuss their undeniable role in the changing sound of heavier UK garage and bass music, and the prominence of MC culture; about how they soaked up the 90s melting pot and rose up through the pirates and how nascent jump-up cuts by the likes of Trend, Target, Geeneus would lead them to put their own much darker stamp on UKG. About how seminal tracks such as ‘Dilemma’ and ‘Back 2 Da Floor’ rolled in the thick of a movement that would go on to spawn grime and dubstep, the two biggest UK musical phenomena since jungle. 

We can also speak about the foundations their sound laid for the thriving UKG and bassline 

movement that’s hit new peaks every year since its big reload in the late 2000s; about how the league of new UK darksmith producers and thriving next-gen MC culture grew up aspiring to the sounds of Oxide & Neutrino and the wider movement they drove. How the South London duo have consistently featured on key billings; from heritage-celebrating dubstep events of the late 2000s who would invite Oxide & Neutrino to join the dots and show the roots by way of major festivals such as Bestival, Wireless and SW4 who understand just how much of a good time authentic UKG performances can be in the right hands, Oxide & Neutrino have remained in demand since their explosive breakthrough almost 20 years ago. 

But most importantly we need to talk about DIY culture and how it’s been the most consistent driving force behind everything Alex Oxide Rivers and Mark Neutrino Oseitutu have ever influenced and achieved over their careers so far. Armed with an inherent drive to do everything on their own terms, often in the face of adversity from the established guard who tried their hardest to ensure they or any of their affiliates weren’t supported, any discussion about Oxide & Neutrino needs to acknowledge how much Alex and Mark made happen with their own bare hands and passion for the music. 

From pressing their own white labels to running their own Garage Delight raves and broadcasting their own pirate station Delight FM with So Solid because no one else would book them or play their records – yet they knew they had a fiercely loyal following on the ground – Alex and Mark have experienced benchmarks and stratospheric levels of success few of their peers can claim. And it’s solely down to hard graft, setting up their own opportunities, creating their own platforms and driving their own movement through pure unblinkered passion for their music. 

Almost 20 years after they first met on South London pirate station Supreme FM, that ethic and drive remains just as strong…. If not stronger. Besides Neutrino’s dual life as a rugby player for London Cornish, neither of them have ever worked a regular 9-5 since they broke through. 

Diligently riding the musical cycles, heads down, focused on the music and ensuring they’re still relevant and resonant, the duo have spent the last few release-free years in creative hibernation, crafting new dubs and material for their consistent and constant slew of DJ shows where they consistently appear on all discerning line-ups that have a penchant for bass and respect for the roots. Now ready to unleash a new body of work that’s strictly aimed at the dancefloor and the thriving DIY UK bass culture that inspired them in the first place, Mark and Alex are bound for the reload once again. You want to talk about Oxide & Neutrino? You need to talk about the future…