THE DJ HANGOUT / ELECTRONIC MUSIC WITHOUT BORDERS
DjRUM
From the London Bass Underground to a Piano-Led Universe
Check out the DjRUM events here ↓Electronic · Bass · BreaksFelix Manuel’s music crosses bass, jungle, ambient electronics and classical piano without treating any of them as a box. The result is one of electronic music’s most unusual listening journeys.
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THE DJ HANGOUT · ARTIST TYPOGRAPHYDjRUM
ARTISTFelix Manuel
ROOTSLondon bass scene
BREAKTHROUGH LPSeven Lies · 2013
2025 ALBUMUnder Tangled Silence
CHAPTER 01
The producer who refused to choose one tempo
A typical DJ biography lists a genre and starts describing the sound. Djrum makes that approach difficult. Felix Manuel draws from UK bass, breakbeat, jungle, ambient, experimental electronics and piano music, often moving between those worlds within a single recording. It is not unpredictability for the sake of being clever: the contrasts are part of the storytelling.
Manuel trained as a pianist with a strong interest in jazz, and his early involvement in London’s bass underground exposed him to garage, dubstep, drum and bass and much faster club styles. He learned to treat tempo as something to explore rather than a fence around the music.
CHAPTER 02
Seven Lies and the years of experimentation
After early releases including the two-part Mountains EP, Djrum issued the full-length Seven Lies in 2013. It placed detailed, atmospheric production inside the post-dubstep era without confining the tracks to one club formula. Later singles and collaborations showed how much space remained between experimental headphones music and the dance floor.
His 2017 Broken Glass Arch EP on R&S anticipated an album that would bring a different instrument into sharper focus. Portrait With Firewood arrived in 2018 with contributions from cellist Zosia Jagodzinska and vocalist Lola Empire. Where earlier work often leaned on sampled textures, the piano became central.
CHAPTER 03
The sound of somebody playing the piano again
The idea behind Portrait With Firewood matters as much as the track listing. Manuel had been hesitant about sharing his own piano playing. Returning to that instrument allowed him to make music that felt openly reflective without losing the complex rhythms of his electronic production.
The result blurred a line that often separates the club from the concert hall. A piano passage could carry the emotional weight while a breakbeat changed the physical momentum underneath it. That contrast became part of the vocabulary by which listeners recognized Djrum’s work.
CHAPTER 04
A lost archive and a rebuilt album
The road to Under Tangled Silence was not straightforward. During the pandemic period, a computer failure destroyed much of the material Manuel had been developing. Rather than reproduce the files mechanically, he reassessed the project and rebuilt the record. The album arrived through Houndstooth in April 2025, following singles including Three Foxes Chasing Each Other.
The new work drew together piano, bass pressure and richer acoustic textures. That history makes the album an unusually direct example of artistic persistence: losing a body of work did not erase the ideas behind it. For a producer staring at an unfinished session, there is a practical reminder here. The tools can disappear; the musical imagination must still be cultivated.
THE REPORTING BEHIND THE STORY
Verified releases, artist accounts, interviews and dated event records. Artist-reported history is identified in the article when older accounts disagree.
- AllMusic — Djrum career and recording history ↗Training, early labels, Seven Lies and Portrait With Firewood
- R&S Records catalog — Portrait With Firewood ↗2018 album recording context, piano and collaborators
- Pitchfork — Under Tangled Silence album announcement ↗2025 album, missing files and return to new production methods
- DJ Mag — review of Under Tangled Silence ↗Musical evolution and third album context
Until an authentic image is approved for republication, this profile uses original name artwork rather than a fabricated artist portrait.
Electronic · Bass · Breaks
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