The reluctance of Dev Pandya to comply with accepted drum'n'bass programming and standards within his Paradox project has made him an increasingly influential figure within the movement. Over a decade since he first stepped into the studio with DJ Trax as Mixrace and offered the pairs' debut single for Moving Shadow, The Future Is Before Your Eyes, Pandya's sound remains characterized by an uncompromising approach to percussion. Having worked with a number of luminaries including 720, Partisan, Archive, Certificate 18, Timeless, and Renegade Hardware under a variety of monikers, he eventually settled his Paradox project at 4 Heroes' well-respected Reinforced imprint in the late '90s, collapsing beats with Nucleus in "This Side of Forever" " before going solo. His debut full-length as Paradox surfaced just over a year later, The Musician as Outsider Reinforcement took drum programming to the very limits with the Jimmy Castor referencing "Drum & Chase," and the windswept atmospheres of "Watchful Eye," both typical of an album which saw detailed percussion deconstructed by shards of outer space, melodic futurism with an admirable militancy. His sophomore album for the label, What You Don't Know, was released in the summer of 2002, confidently twisting midtempo funk with full-strength percussive drum'n'bass - the beats again providing the soul power - an eerily skeletal statement which dissected the core elements of drum'n'bass. In addition to his work at Reinforced, he remains one of the few artists to record material on both sides of drum'n'bass' unspoken divide, working with LTJ Bukem's Good Looking imprint under his Alaska pseudonym. His debut LP under the moniker saw release in the early months of 1999 for Subject 13's Vibez imprint, providing a balance between this characteristic intricacy of the beat programming through the use of warm key sounds and vast atmospheres. A seasoned live performer, he first took his studio out on the road in 2000, and has since toured Europe, North America, and Japan. ~ Kingsley Marshall, Rovi
