MJ Cole

It’s easy to overlook quite how seminal the 90s were in birthing pretty much everything that has since come to dominate UK culture. In just a matter of years garage, jungle, UK funky, bassline and many more genres would explode out of one another like firecrackers. On the coal face of it all was electronic spearhead MJ Cole, whose pioneering 2-step sound went on to influence everything from grime to dubstep to bands like The xx. His breakthrough track, “Sincere”, was one of the first proper garage songs to penetrate the UK top 40, and even now it is the track played religiously at 6am during every house party from Hackney to Hartlepool.