Jamie Myerson

One of the few American producers fluent in drum'n'bass during the early '90s, Jamie Myerson explored the more melodic (if not muzaky) side of jungle and trance, in league with fellow new-age breakbeat producers like Adam F. and E-Z Rollers as well as straightahead dream-house merchants Sash! and Robert Miles. Myerson recorded for 4 Hero's Reinforced Records from 1993 to 1995 before signing with an American, Josh Wink's Ovum Recordings, for a Columbia-distributed major-label contract. Growing up in southern New Jersey, Myerson listened to alternative rock and played drums in several bands, but also built up his budding bedroom studio with synthesizer gear. During 1991, he began tuning in to a local college radio station to hear the new sounds of breakbeat and techno from England, primarily early hardcore labels like Moving Shadow and Reinforced. Still just a teenager, he began producing tracks in that mold. When he learned that Dego -- co-owner of Reinforced and a member of the seminal drum'n'bass team 4 Hero -- was in nearby Philadelphia as part of a DJ tour, Myerson travelled to the event and passed him a demo tape. Dego encouraged him to continue recording and, in 1994, released his first single "Find Yourself" (as JLM Productions) on the Reinforced EP Enforcers, Vols. 6 & 7 in 1994. At that point, Myerson was the only American producer recording for a strictly jungle label in England. Myerson produced three additional singles for Reinforced (and one for Belgium's Crammed Discs) before releasing his first domestic single on Sm:)e Recordings in 1996. Soon after, he signed to Josh Wink's Ovum Recordings, distributed through Columbia. Myerson's debut album, The Listen Project, was released in April 1998. His sophomore effort Sky City: Lift Me Up was issued two years...