When dubstep came along it sounded like the death knell for drum and bass.

That monstrous sub bass and growling electro pioneered by Rinse FM looked as if it would bludgeon everything in its path.

But champions including Brighton-born DJ Friction kept the D’n’B torch alive.

And now, says the Radio 1 DJ with a weekly D’n’B slot, the genre is making a comeback.

“It’s a very stable and secure part of the British dance music scene. It always stays there and is constant. Artists such as Sub Focus, Chase & Status and me – we are always busy, we do loads of shows, but as regards the media it falls in and out of love with it.”

He highlights his US bookings over the last few years, which had fallen off a cliff.

D’n’B never disappeared in America but dubstep overtook it.

“Now that thing has backed off everyone is going mad for D’n’B and I’m doing a mini tour once a month.

“They’ve welcomed D’n’B back into the EDM [Electronic Dance Music] thing and it was back on the line-up for the Electric Daisy Carnival. It seems to be the kids are feeling it again.”

A few weeks back Friction, aka Ed Keeley, played the Arcadia stage at Glastonbury. He calls it the most intense set he’s ever played. That’s thanks to a DJ booth in a giant metal spider with the crowd directly underneath and a structure shooting out flames with the beat.

“I will be chatting to someone and they’ll say, ‘Oh, drum and bass, is that still around?’ Yeah, yeah, I say, I just played to 20,000 people at Glastonbury on Friday.

“I have to hold my tongue.”

He thinks D’n’B gets a raw deal.

“I don’t think it gets the recognition it deserves. It’s one of the most British music genres. It’s born and bred in England.”

Friction has followed the sound since its early beginnings in London when D’n’B royalty Andy C and DJ Hype lit the torch. He’s seen the genre mutate and fuse with hard techno and jungle, visit the mainstream through Roni Size and Raprazent, take in jazz and funk, ragga, hip hop, and be performed with a band set-up.

“What I was fascinated about with Andy C and DJ Hype is they were putting on a show by mixing, the real art of DJing.

“It’s not a lost art now. There are some of us doing it. But you know, someone behind a laptop, it’s cool, I’m not gonna knock it, but I got into it by watching people entertain by mixing music.

“That is what I’m trying to stay true to. I try to do that in a 2014 fashion, try to put on show, by mixing music live and sticking to DJing.”

He loves playing live. It’s half the reason he’s still to make a full solo record – despite owning his own label, Shogun Audio, which is also Brighton’s largest drum and bass vehicle.

Rather than take four months off to write a record, as advised by his management, he’s done one-off singles, remixes, collaborations (most recently with Skream, K.Tee, Aquasky) and compilation albums (for Fabric and Ministry of Sound) in between the never-ending tour schedule.

Over the past few years he’s done stellar jobs on Wretch 32’s Traktor, Example's Change The Way You Kissed Me, Maverick Sabre’s These Days, YSK by Jack Beats and Love Is All I Got by Feed Me.

His most recent reworking is a mix for the new MK single, Always. “I love the track. He is an amazing artist. I am really feeling that whole thing at the moment.”

He’s never met the American who makes bouncy house and dub and headlines Shakedown’s Audio Area 10.

“It happens so much in this day and age. I’ve done tunes with people and never met them in person. It’s the way of the world in 2014.”

He is looking forward to catching DJ EZ at Shakedown.

“He’s a legend really, and I’ll probably have to time to catch Zinc, too, because he is my mate and he is a good DJ.”

He’ll be on after Zinc on the Supercharged stage at a festival he says represents the current state of UK dance music: plenty of house music, which is back in vogue, with a smattering of D’n’B after.

Not only is it on the money in terms of line-up, it’s also well located.

“I’m always heading to random fields in random parts of the world so I’m really looking forward to having a big festival in my hometown only a mile from my house. It’s where my son normally plays football.”

Honouring the D’n’B tradition, he’ll do his work live. “It’s four CDJs and a mixer so it is like decks. They are virtual, digital decks, so it is as close as being old school. I try to entertain through power and the medium of mixing – and playing off this set-up enables me to do that in a modern way.”

The Brighton-based label Shogun Audio is where Friction does his underground work.

“It’s the true underground element of what I do... it’s a real D’n’B label and that’s the way we like to keep it.”

He’s excited by Technimatic’s new record, Desire Paths, which he describes as “honest, well-produced drum and bass”. The other six artists on the roster, including Technimatic and Friction, are Rockwell, Spectrasoul, Icicle, Fourward, Joe Ford and Neuropol.

Despite being the man picking through hundreds of promos every week for his radio show, he admits backing a winner is never easy. You never know what is going to be a hit on the radio.

“Sigma’s Nobody To Love which just got to number one was really a bootleg the guys made to play in DJ sets. It wasn’t intended to be this big crossover hit. It was a bootleg for them to play of the Kanye West track. Then they got the sample cleared and before they knew it, it was number one.”

The same thing happened with Friction’s Led Astray, which was playlisted on Radio 1. He was messing about in the studio and his mate Example heard the track and responded by writing a catchy topline. “The main thing is nothing can be forced. That’s the biggest lesson I’ve learnt is it’s a lottery. If things happen, they happen. You just can’t plan for it.”

What not to miss this year

Main Stage
Basement Jaxx
UNDOUBTEDLY the big name headliner for this year's Shakedown, Basement Jaxx are back in Brighton for the first time since 2006.
The Brixton pair of Simon Ratcliffe and Felix Burton became ubiquitous on both dancefloors and dinner party stereos with their 1999 debut Remedy and attendent singles Red Alert, Bingo Bango and Rendez-Vu.
Following five more studio albums and a top-selling singles collection it all went quiet after 2009 aside from the duo scoring Joe Cornish's Brit sci-fi horror Attack The Block.
New album Junto is set for release at the end of next month so expect a set packed full of new material, plus the usual carnival-style extravaganza making a Basement Jaxx show so much more than two guys checking their email on stage.

Groove Armada
GROOVE ARMADA started out labelled as a chill-out act because of the summery grooves of Patti Page-sampling single At The River.
But with 2001’s aptly named Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub) the London duo turned all that on its head with a harder more upbeat house-influenced sound.
Like Basement Jaxx, whose rise was around the same period, Andy Cato and Tom Findlay's output has been fairly limited since the double 2010 release of Black Light and sister remix album White Light.
Earlier this year saw the release of the EP Pork Soda, suggesting that there is more to come from the pair, as this DJ set shows what they have been listening to over the last four years.

Duke Dumont
A COLLABORATION with vocalist A*M*E saw Harrow-born producer and DJ Adam Dyment move from the underground to the top of the charts with Need U (100%).
He returned to number one in March of this year with his Jax Jones collaboration I Got U, meaning anticipation is high for his forthcoming debut album, home to new single Won't Look Back.
This Shakedown show comes the day after his appearance at London's Lovebox on the Annie Mac Presents stage, and before he heads off to the Med for a series of club shows in Ibiza and Mallorca
Gorgon City
HAVING already
collaborated with Clean Bandit, Klaxons, and
vocalists MNEK and Laura Welsh, North London production duo Gorgon City are rapidly becoming ones to watch on the UK dance scene.
The pair's singles Ready For Your Love and Here For You have both cracked the top ten, with their forthcoming debut album tipped for big things.

Supercharged Arena
Zane Lowe
TASTEMAKER and BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe returns to headline the Supercharged stage in 2014 on his third Shakedown visit.
Having first presented on MTV in the mid-1990s and worked on independent radio station XFM, Lowe joined Radio 1 in 2003.
From presenting Brand:New on MTV he has focused on championing new music through his
regular Hottest Record feature, alongside creating his own sounds with the bands Urban Disturbance and Breaks Co-op.

Wilkinson
LONDON drum and bass producer Wilkinson broke the top ten in 2013 with the single Afterglow.
The single, featuring vocals by The Voice semi-finalist Becky Hill, was from his debut album Lazers Not Included, which has just been re-released in a remix format.

Foreign Beggars
FORMING in 2002, hip-hop trio Foreign Beggars have mixed rap, grime, dubstep and drum and bass influences over the course of five studio albums.
Last year saw them join forces with Dutch producers Noisia under the name I Am Legion.
Audio presents Area 10
MK
KNOWN to his folks as Marc Kinchen, MK is headlining Shakedown's third stage.
Last year saw the previously underground house star
breakthrough to the radios of the nation when his remix of Storm Queen's Look Right Through reached the top of the singles chart. He has since worked with the likes of Paloma Faith, Lana Del Rey, Sam Smith and Rudimental.

Lee Foss
CHICAGO born and raised, Hot Creations label owner Lee Foss has been one of the biggest new forces in the underground house and techno scene over the last two years.
Resident Advisor put him at number 36 of their top 100 DJs poll in 2010, and he climbed to number 18 the following year, despite only playing his first European show in 2009. He is part of house music group Hot Natured, which released their debut album Different Sides Of The Sun last year.

Huxley
NO STRANGER to Brighton's
clubbing audiences, Huxley, aka Michael Dodman, has been
making his mark on house music over the last few years.
The Rinse FM DJ will also play London's Lovebox ahead of his Shakedown show tomorrow.

Shakedown afterparty

Warehouse
Audio, Marine Parade, Brighton, Saturday, July 19
Future Classic artists Bodhi play bouncy soulful beats, with support from TCTS and James Moss, to help keep the party going.
11pm, £7/£10, free for wristband holders before 11.30pm. Call 01273 606906.
SuperCharged
Concorde 2, Madeira Drive, Brighton, Saturday, July 19
PURVEYOR of hard-hitting bass house Hannah Wants headlines this Shakedown afterparty, with support from Bristol's My Nu Leng and shift K3y.
11pm to 4am, £10. Call 01273 673311.
Fashionista
Funfair, King's Road, Brighton, Saturday, July 19
G23 and Milton play R&B, commercial tunes, house and old skool.
10pm to 5am, £5 to Shakedown wristband holders all night, £7. Call 01273 757447.
Saturdays
Pryzm, King's Road, Brighton, Saturday, July 19
With six rooms and three DJ arenas offering a mix of house, electro, club, R&B, hip-hop, funky and retro classics, there should be something for everyone coming back from Waterhall.
Until 4am, free entry with a Shakedown wristband, £8/£10. Visit www.pryzm.co.uk.
Shakedown Afterparty and Blow Afterhours
The Coalition, King's Road Arches, Brighton, Saturday, July 19
Coalition has joined forces with InYaEar for a post-Shakedown party featuring DJ Charlesy from 11pm and DJs Enzo Siffredi and Little By Little from 3am.
11pm to 3am, £5/£7 £10 after midnight, from 3am £7. Visit www.coalitionbrighton.com