UK · happy-hardcore · uk-hardcore

Darren Styles

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UK hardcore royalty — piano riffs, pitched-up vocals and an unembarrassed grin, still the biggest name the genre has.

Styles was born Darren James Mew and moved with his family to Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, at the age of seven; his father, a blues fan, encouraged him to play music from an early age. In February 1992 he had his first taste of the rave scene at Oscar's Nightclub on Clacton Pier, an experience that pulled him into the dance music community.

His first records came in 1993 as part of the breakbeat hardcore group DJ Force & The Evolution, signed to the label Kniteforce and played by Carl Cox; he also produced under the alias A Sense of Summer for Slipmatt's Universal Records. In 1995 he set up UK Dance Records to release material independently, touring Australia, North America and Ibiza and holding residencies at Slammin Vinyl, Helter Skelter and United Dance.

By 1997, Force & Styles had written some of the biggest happy hardcore records of the era, among them "Heart of Gold," "Paradise & Dreams," "Pretty Green Eyes," "Pacific Sun" and "Field of Dreams," several later covered by commercial dance acts. The duo became the first hardcore DJs to record a guest mix for Pete Tong's Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1, and released three albums together.

In the early 2000s Styles turned to a more trance-influenced sound with Mark Brady as Styles & Breeze, scoring UK top-20 singles with "You're Shining" in 2002 and "Heartbeatz" in 2003, and contributing to the long-running Clubland X-Treme Hardcore compilation series.

As a solo artist he released two albums, the gold-selling Skydivin' in 2008 and Feel the Pressure in 2010, alongside frequent collaborations with acts including Hixxy, Ultrabeat and N-Force.

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