Matt Quinn, known by his stage name Optical, is a British musician, producer and DJ. He is co-founder and owner of Virus Recordings,^[1] a widely regarded drum and bass record label. He is best known as one half of drum and bass duo Ed Rush and Optical (with his long-time musical partner Ed Rush), whose debut album Wormhole has been described as one of the most significant LPs of the drum and bass genre.^[2] He is also the brother of Jamie Quinn also known as Matrix.

Early years

Quinn started making music as a teenager, and performing as a DJ on the UK free festival scene with Bedlam, Spiral Tribe and Techno Travellers Soundsystem including the legendary Castlemorton Common Festival. He had his first releases in 1992 using the name Little Matt,^[3] released on Fat Chuna Recordings,^[4] and also under his short-lived hardcore jungle alias Teknarchi^[5] in 1993, and later as a techno producer (under various monikers such as Fly By Wire^[6] featured on Carl Cox's F.A.C.T 2 release,^[7] and Morpheus^[8][9]). He worked as a sound engineer and producer from 1992 onwards, (including production credits for the 1994 Jungle anthem "Leviticus - Burial"^[10]) for several London music studios including Great Asset Studios (Grey's Inn Rd, Clarkenwell, London), Pirate Club Studios (Roller Express, Lea Valley),^[11] Fokus Records Studios (London) and JAL/Stage1 Studios (London).^[12] His breakthrough successes as Optical include "To Shape The Future"^[13] 12" published 1997 on Metalheadz,^[14] "Grey Odyssey" featured on Grooverider's successful mix album "The Prototype Years", also "Moving 808's"^[15] and in collaboration with Ed Rush and Fierce on "Cutslo/Alien Girl"^[16] both on Prototype Recordings.

Along with his drum and bass musician and DJ career he has worked on many remixes^[17] and collaborated as a composer, producer, programmer and sound engineer for other notable artists including Rob Playford's label Moving Shadow for which he was credited on Goldie's "Saturnz Return"^[18] and Grooverider on whose 1998 MOBO Award-winning^[19] album^[20] "Mysteries of Funk" he was credited as writer and producer.

He went on to receive the accolade of 'Best Producer' at the 1998 Muzik Magazine Dance Music Awards^[21] in London.

Ed Rush & Optical

In 1995 he first met his main future musical collaborator, another upcoming drum and bass artist Ed Rush^[22] with whom he will form the musical partnership that they are both most known for. Shortly after, Rob Playford gave Optical a small space in his Soho office building to use as his studio, and in this studio the duo recorded and released the first of several 12" singles both as Ed Rush & Optical and in collaborations with other artists. Having recorded a dozen or so joint recordings in that studio, the duo considered that a lot of their material produced at the time was not fitting the style for labels like Metalheadz, Prototype and other labels they were associated with^[23] but that they still wanted to release it, as the music had been played by the two in clubs with a great reaction from those attending. So they decided to start their own imprint Virus Recordings^[24] in 1998.

The first single release was in early 1998, "The Medicine/ Punchbag" and the first full LP release by the duo on the label was their renowned long-play "Wormhole", released the same year, the album that is generally considered one of the defining points in the evolution of the drum and bass genre. The album is recognized as the recording that introduced the sub-genre of drum and bass known today as neurofunk and Optical, as the more technical musician in the duo, is considered by the wider music production community to be one of the genre's original sonic architects.^[25]

In 2000, DJ Craze used their track "Watermelon" in his beat-juggling routine which helped him win his 3rd DMC World Championship.^[26] They released their second album in 2000, The Creeps (Invisible And Deadly!) which broadened their palette by introducing vocals to the mix^[27] and won best album and best producers at the Knowledge DnB awards.^[28] Their third album, The Original Doctor Shade was released in 2003 and featured a collaboration with turntablist DJs, Scratch Perverts.^[29] In 2005 they took part in the 40 Artists, 40 Days project organised by the Tate Gallery in the run up to London's successful bid to win the right to host the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.^[30] 2006 saw the release of their fourth album Chameleon which saw them using a live band for the first time^[31] and three years later followed with Travel the Galaxy. Their track Frontline was use in the soundtrack to the 2008 video game Wipeout HD.^[32] In 2014, Ministry of Sound described them as one of the most influential artists in drum and bass.^[33] Their most recent album No Cure was released in October 2015.^[34]

2015 also saw the release of their first headline mix on the long running Fabriclive series of mix CDs, FabricLive.82. They had a long relationship with the London club Fabric having played at the opening weekend in 1999^[35] and appearing on the first drum and bass mix released by Fabric in 2002 (FabricLive.06 mixed by Grooverider).^[36] Following Islington Council's decision to revoke Fabric's licence in September 2016, Ed Rush & Optical took part in a benefit show to challenge the decision.^[37] In November 2016 agreement was made to reopen the club.^[38] As well as numerous club appearances they have performed at many well known festivals including Boomtown (2018/2022)^[39] EDC (2011/13/14/15/17), Dour Festival (2006/2015),^[40] Nocturnal Wonderland (2001,2011/2019),^[41] Glastonbury (1999 and 2014)^[42] Bestival in 2013,^[43]

Virus recordings

Although the Virus imprint was initially intended for self-publishing the duo's own Ed Rush & Optical material (a practice that is common in indie and dance music), Virus' subsequent releases have featured many notable drum and bass artists like Fierce, Matrix, Cause 4 Concern,^[44] Noisia,^[45] Bad Company, Pendulum, Ram Trilogy (Andy C, Shimon, Ant Miles), Audio, Mefjus, The Upbeats, Optiv & BTK, Insideinfo and many others.^[46]

Discography

References

External links

• Optical on AllMusic
• Optical on SoundCloud
• Optical on Discogs