Duncan Busto began DJing in 1987, before drum & bass had a name and before the rave explosion had reached its national scale. His musical education developed through the same collision of hip hop, house, techno and breakbeat that would eventually generate hardcore and jungle.

By the mid-1990s he was part of the remarkable music community around Redeye Records in Ipswich. The town may have appeared distant from London’s main rave mythology, but Redeye became a genuine hub. Photek, Klute, Digital, Certificate 18 and Spirit all passed through a network where new records, production ideas and obsessive discussion circulated constantly.

Spirit worked as a buyer at Redeye, which meant hearing huge amounts of new music before it reached most DJs. He also wrote about drum & bass for Muzik magazine. These roles mattered: selection, criticism and distribution were part of his musical training long before he could make production his full-time occupation.

His first production work came with Klute. By 1996 releases under the Spirit name were appearing on labels including Timeless, and his detailed, futuristic approach quickly gained support from leading DJs. The music could be dark and highly engineered without becoming empty technical display; tracks such as Raygun already showed the clipped drums, bass pressure and atmosphere that would remain identifiable across his career.

Spirit became a full-time producer in the late 1990s. The breakthrough collaboration with fellow East Anglian artist Digital was Phantom Force, a record whose impact was large enough to generate an entire collaborative identity. The pair formed Phantom Audio, and their partnership continued through a substantial body of music rather than one famous tune.

In 2002 Spirit launched Inneractive Music. Like the best artist-run drum & bass labels, Inneractive gave him freedom to release uncompromising material while supporting producers whose work fit the ethos rather than a temporary market trend. Amit, Outrage, Need For Mirrors, Nymfo, S.P.Y and others appeared through its catalogue.

Across the following years Spirit released on Metalheadz, C.I.A., Commercial Suicide, Shogun Audio, V Recordings, Dispatch and other respected imprints. He maintained a rare consistency while drum & bass repeatedly changed fashion around him. The sound could become deeper, harder or more stripped back, but it never felt as though he was chasing whichever production style had just become popular.

His relationship with Digital remained important to the end. The two described their later sessions as a chance to work without shackles, revisiting the energy of Phantom Force while still writing music that belonged to the present. Spirit also continued to operate Inneractive and remained an active DJ.

In a 2017 interview he described himself simply as a “drum & bass lifer.” The phrase became painfully appropriate the following year. Duncan suffered a cardiac arrest on 13 August 2018 and died on 26 August. Tributes from Randall, Andy C, Digital and artists across the genre reflected more than two decades of consistent involvement.

Spirit’s memorial belongs to the people who sustain scenes between headline moments. He bought the records, wrote about them, played them, made them, released them and helped other producers do the same.