4Hero

Consistently on the front lines of the drum'n'bass battleground, the duo of Dego (McFarlane) and Marc Mac (Mark Clair) nevertheless failed to receive the exposure of luminaries like Goldie and Roni Size, mostly because they didn't release much 4hero material during jungle's crucial crossover years, from 1994 through 1997. Despite beginnings in London's hip-hop underground during the mid-'80s, the duo moved into the hardcore/rave scene later in the decade and recorded classics like "Mr. Kirk's Nightmare" and "Journey from the Light" for one of the scene's best labels, their own Reinforced Records. The tracks were among the first to chart the dark side of the rave scene and presage the more sinister tendencies of drum'n'bass. Quite ironic then, that while the jungle scene caught up with (and grew increasingly obsessed by) 4hero's innovations during the late '90s, the duo had already moved on to a more polished, fusion-inspired sound with their major-label breakout, 1998's Two Pages. In the beginning, the name 4hero did actually mark the presence of a quartet. Marc Mac and Dego first hooked up with Iain Bardouille and Gus Lawrence in 1986, through their mutual adoration for hip-hop and involvement in the Strong Island FM pirate radio station, which operated out of London's Camden area. By 1989, Marc Mac and Dego were recording percussive breakbeat experiments and becoming increasingly involved with the rave and hardcore breakbeat scene, while Bardouille and Lawrence gradually moved into management of the quartet's newly formed Reinforced Records. The label debuted with the Rising Sun EP by Marc and Dego, credited to 4hero. The second EP, Combat Dance, became a big seller in the dance community, though a shady distributor reneged on payment of the profits. The pair...