Actress

The acclaimed face of underground British electro, Actress - aka Darren Cunningham - creates an industrial, post-dubstep, apocalyptic meltdown of beats that is the chilling, icy and experimental antidote to the slew of cheesy, dance-floor fodder. A former youth team footballer with West Bromwich Albion, Cunningham took up DJ-ing after seeing Roni Size and Adam F at the Tribal Gathering festival and set up club night Werkdiscs, which grew into an independent label run by him and a gang of mates. His debut Hazyville (2008) was murky, nocturnal and sinister - a soundtrack to inner city angst and isolation - and follow-up Splazsh (2010) was named album of the year by highbrow arts magazine, Wire. He produced a track on the charity record Kinshasha One Two organised by Damon Albarn, and his own minimal grimey sounds became even more striking, dystopian and ambitious on R.I.P. (2012). Inspired by Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, fourth album Ghettoville (2014) was themed around death and the after-life, and was seen by Cunningham as the final chapter in the life of Actress.