London, UK · dubstep

Doctor P

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Circus Records co-founder — 'Sweet Shop' is effectively a foundation stone of UK dubstep, and the wobble has aged into legend.

Doctor P is the stage name of Shaun Brockhurst, born in 1986 in England. He came up within UK dubstep and co-founded Circus Records alongside Flux Pavilion, DJ Swan-E and Earl Falconer, a label that became a proving ground for a wave of producers working the genre's heavier, more melodic side.

His own productions favour that same territory: sharply defined synth leads set against the elastic, mid-range bass wobble that came to define dubstep's commercial peak. The approach, refined through Circus, proved widely imitated among British bass producers who followed.

"Sweet Shop" remains the track most associated with his name, but several others have crossed five million YouTube views on their own, among them "Tetris", "Big Boss" and "Watch Out", along with his remixes of Example's "Last Ones Standing" and Plan B's "Love Goes Down".

The alias itself has an odd origin. Brockhurst has said the "P" stands for Picto, an old nickname that came from a predictive-text suggestion for his name; a friend then started calling him Doctor Picto, and the shortened version stuck.

Brockhurst also produces drum and bass under other names: Sounds Destructive with Zachary Kemp, now known as Trolley Snatcha, Slum Dogz with DJ Swan-E and Krafty MC, and simply as DJ Picto. His track "The Pit", made with Adam F and Method Man, appeared in the trailer for the 2014 film Let's Be Cops. Flux Pavilion is a childhood friend.

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dubstep