Doc Scott (b. Scott McIlroy), was the recipient of the first release on the influential Metalheadz Recordings — which he co-founded with Goldie — and an early inspiration on the jungle star, Doc Scott began producing records in the early days of the ’90s, when jungle was in its tender infancy. The ever-joyous strains of rave and hardcore were gradually giving way to darker sounds, more influenced by hip-hop, and few producers did more to birth the dark mid-’90s sound of jungle than Scott. A resident of Coventry, he was early inspired by the heady moods of the Blade Runner soundtrack as well as Detroit figures such as Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, and after receiving a pair of turntables at the age of 18, he began DJing. Scott played live dates at raves during 1989-90, and soon after gave up his job as a telephone worker to enter music full-time.
His early recordings for Absolute 2 like NHS, NHS, Vol. 2 and Surgery made him one of the top names in the emerging hardcore scene, and Scott soon became part of the Reinforced Recordings crew, which included Dego and Mark Mac of 4 Hero, and later, Goldie. Scott’s 1992 EP for Reinforced, Nasty Habits’ As Nasty as I Wanna Be, set the template for darkside drum’n’bass with the classic “Here Come the Drumz.” He and Goldie recorded several tracks together while at Reinforced, then formed Metalheadz in 1994. The Doc Scott single “VIP Drums” proved to be the label’s first release, starting out Metalheadz with style and foreshadowing additional releases such as “Far Away” and an update of “Here Come the Drumz” titled “Drumz 95.” Scott recorded as well for LTJ Bukem’s Good Looking Records, and set up his own label in 1996. That same year, he released a volume in the Mixmag Live! series of DJ albums. |
