Recognise: Nectax

“Things have just fallen into place in the past year, and I’m enjoying the ride,” says Ollie Underhill. And what a ride it’s been. As Nectax, he’s become one of the most in-demand artists in modern jungle, releasing 2023 anthem ‘Voychek’, being tapped by DJ Flight to restart her long- dormant play:musik label, and making his Boiler Room debut all since last December. Like all great success stories, however, it didn’t happen overnight.

“The first time I touched FL [Studio] I was a wee yout like, maybe 14 or 15,” the 26-year-old Geordie tells DJ Mag. At the time, he was falling in love with drum & bass, inducted by classic gateway labels like RAM, Hospital and Shogun. He downloaded a trial of FL Studio 11 at home and spent a couple of years learning the ropes, refusing to ever fully turn off his computer as the software lacked a Save function. Though he eventually got the full version, he still uses FL 11 today “because I’m too comfortable with it and don’t update,” he adds with a trademark grin.

Early releases came via Spectre Audio, Dub Damage and Diamond Audio — brash jump-up tracks full of taut snares and basslines that roar like a V12 engine. His first breakthrough came in 2019 with the ‘Paradox’ EP for Serial Killaz. An early indicator of his junglistic tendencies, it’s full of skippy breaks paired with Fractureesque bounce (‘Greedo’), gritty lows (‘Dice’), and lethargic liquid (‘One More Sunset’). But it was no-nonsense roller ‘Hologram’, with its incendiary sci-fi bass, which gained the most traction. “That was quite a novel experience, because Serum, Voltage and Bladerunner were playing it,” he says. “I remember getting a lot of messages about it. I was like, ‘What’s this, people messaging us to get to a tune? How have they heard this?’ I just didn’t understand how that was a thing.”

At the same time, he was playing regularly in Newcastle, joining community station Method Radio, and landing a residency for jump-up event Dilate alongside school friend, Skantia. “Every night would be packed out. It was a great atmosphere to cut your teeth,” he says. Along with other artists like Kastro and Hexa, and events like Lively Up, Motion Sickness and Noyse, Underhill was part of a new generation taking up the mantle of Geordie d&b after long-running night Turbulence shut up shop in 2013.