Apex is the drum and bass project of Rob Dickeson, a producer from Kent, Germany, born in 1981 and active until 2017. He works in drum and bass and is associated with the genre’s darker, more technical styles, including neurofunk and breakbeat.

Career

As Apex, Dickeson follows his earlier work as one half of Unknown Error, a production partnership active for three years. That project releases music on labels including Lifted Music, Renegade Hardware, Moving Shadow, Defcom and Horizons, and Apex continues from that background as a solo act.

Releases and collaborations

Apex’s debut release under this name is The Space Between feat. Ayah, issued through Hospital Recordings and also included on the Weapons of Mass Creation 3 compilation. The track reaches the BBC Radio 1 drum and bass Top Ten and is also selected for Andy C’s D&B Arena Mix.

Other Apex tracks named in the record include Same Old Blues, Hench, In Motion and Nowhere To Run. Same Old Blues also appears on the Nightlife 4 compilation. Apex features on Lifted Music releases including the collaboration EP that contains Dirge, and later releases include Falling, Weeping Willow, The Yearning (Apex VIP) backed with By The Way, Emo Funk and Breathe as a 12-inch on Bulletproof’s Cyanide label, and Locked on on Critical Recordings’ All Sounds Electric 2.

He also remixes Bachelors of Science’s Strings Track, and that remix wins Beatport’s best drum and bass single award for 2008. Another remix, of London Elektricity’s Just One Second, appears on Hospital’s Sick Music compilation. Entrapment is also listed as a Lifted release.

Labels and scene links

Apex’s output is connected with Hospital Recordings, Lifted Music, Horizons Music, Renegade Hardware, Moving Shadow, Defcom, Critical Recordings and Bulletproof’s Cyanide label. Andy C is a recurring supporter of the project through compilation and mix inclusion.