Jamie Giltrap, known as Tango, was born in Bromley and grew up around south-east London before moving to Kent in the mid-1980s. His first musical identity came through hip hop. He learned to DJ and produce in a culture built around breaks, scratching and the creative reuse of records — skills that became increasingly valuable as British dance music accelerated.

By the turn of the 1990s acid house had given way to breakbeat hardcore, and Tango moved directly into production. His first release appeared on DJ SS’s Formation Records in 1991, placing him inside one of the labels that would become crucial to the development of hardcore, jungle and drum & bass.

Early Tango productions captured the collision between sampled breaks, rave stabs, bass weight and a growing appetite for darker atmosphere. The music was evolving too quickly for stable labels. What could be called hardcore one month might be described as darkside, jungle techno or artcore soon afterwards.

Future Followers became one of Tango’s breakthrough records in 1993. Its rhythmic complexity and atmosphere reflected the point at which hardcore was becoming something less obviously euphoric and more focused on breakbeat manipulation, bass and cinematic tension.

His work with Ratty pushed further into that territory. The Tales From The Darkside project and tracks including Final Conflict became emblematic of the darker edge of early jungle. These were not simply horror samples laid over faster drums; the arrangement, bass and break programming created a genuinely different emotional world from the piano-led rave records of only a short time earlier.

As the music continued to change, Tango’s productions became more melodic and exploratory. His mid-1990s “artcore” material brought Detroit-techno colour, pads and a sense of journey into the increasingly defined drum & bass form. Releases associated with Moving Shadow placed him alongside a generation of producers pushing jungle beyond functional rave tools into more detailed electronic composition.

Tango eventually stepped back from full-time music. During the period away from the scene he worked as a chef, a reminder that the people behind legendary records often lived ordinary working lives when the first rave economy contracted.

His return was welcomed by people who had continued to play and rediscover the records. He launched Steel Fingers Heritage as a way to revisit and extend the catalogue, and new production work showed that his interest in the music had never disappeared. Reports before his death suggested he was also working towards material connected with Metalheadz.

News of Tango’s death emerged at the beginning of February 2018 and was met with tributes from across jungle and drum & bass. The reaction reflected his specific place in the genre: not always the most visible name, but one producers and serious listeners repeatedly cited when discussing the point where hardcore became jungle.

His memorial belongs to that moment of transformation. Tango heard possibility inside the darker records and helped turn possibility into a language other producers could develop.