Artist profile · Drum & bass
Ed Rush
Deep in the music.
Closer to the artist.
Discover Ed Rush, Ben Settle, from London's rave scene to Wormhole with Optical, Virus Recordings, and the separate creative outlet of Piranha Pool.
Behind the music
About Ed Rush.
Ed Rush is Ben Settle, a drum and bass producer and DJ whose work is closely connected with the development of techstep and neurofunk. His early interest in the music grew through rave culture, pirate radio, and record shopping in London.
His partnership with Optical led to the foundation of Virus Recordings in 1998. Their debut album, Wormhole, appeared that year, combining the two producers' ideas in a shared studio and establishing a catalogue they could release independently.
Virus subsequently expanded beyond its founders' recordings, with releases by other producers. Settle also created Piranha Pool as a separate outlet, giving him room to explore his own material and work with newer artists alongside the established partnership.
He has described production as something learned through practical experience as well as tutorials: developing sounds takes time spent working with the tools, not simply knowing what they can do. That attitude sits alongside the duo's emphasis on deciding whether a track deserves release.
Artist styles
Source-reviewed associations with parts of this artist’s work. Individual releases may differ.
Neurofunk
High confidence · Wormhole, The Creeps, Bacteria and Alien Girl with Optical, late-1990s onward.
Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3
Techstep
High confidence · Late-1990s production movement with Optical and earlier No U-Turn strand.