Keeno

Keeno’s take on the emotive drum’n’bass sound — his expressive use of lush atmospherics, textured pads, and deep rolling breakbeats — quickly propelled him to the forefront of the scene, as heard on his 2014 debut long-player Life Cycle. Growing up in a household full of music, Keeno (aka William Keen) originally studied classical music and become a proficient multi-instrumentalist before embarking on a journey through drum’n’bass. From the get-go, his productions combined the use of classical orchestration with the rolling breaks associated with drum’n’bass. Keeno delivered his debut EP, Nocturne, in 2013 for Med School, after his collaborative work with fellow producer Whiney caught the label’s attention. His debut album, Life Cycle, dropped the following year and featured his now-trademark sound of atmospheric, orchestral-fused drum’n’bass. In addition to his own production work, Keeno became a sought-after DJ, playing sets across the U.K. and Europe, as well as hosting his own 60 minutes of Med School mix for BBC 1xtra in 2015. A sophomore album, Futurist, appeared the following year, and saw him pushing his sound further into the cinematic and liquid edge of the genre, and in 2017 he deliver his most orchestral focused work, the Music for Orchestra: Drums and Bass EP. His third album, the lushly produced All the Shimmering Things, appeared that same year, once again on Med School. ~ Rich Wilson