Nookie

Besides working on engineering for material by Ray Keith, Gavin Cheung has recorded myriad drum'n'bass highlights as Nookie and Cloud 9, releasing his material on some of the most respected labels on the hardcore/jungle scene -- Moving Shadow, Reinforced, Penny Black, and Labello Blanco, as well as his own, Daddy Armshouse. An early fan of hip-hop and electro, Cheung was a member of a breakdance crew that also recorded several sessions during the mid-'80s. After studying for several years, he began working in a record store around the time of the acid-house explosion of the late '80s. Debuting on wax with a ragga/hip-hop remix of Ninjaman's "Zig It Up" in 1989, Cheung was a proper player in Britain's growing hardcore techno scene of the early '90s. He recorded for Moving Shadow as Cloud 9, and recorded several of the nascent jungle community's most infectious tracks, including the much-anthologized "You Got Me Burnin" and "Mr. Logic." His Nookie alias received much attention too, as Cheung released one of the earliest jungle LPs, 1995's The Sound of Music (for 4 Hero's Reinforced Records). Besides working on tracks with Ray Keith and helping out Moving Shadow labelmate Rob Haigh's Omni Trio project (for the LP Music for the Next Millennium), he remixed Tek 9 and Goldie, and also collaborated with Chicago house pioneer Larry Heard for the 1997 single "Mystical People," released on Labello Blanco. In 2001, Cheung resurrected Nookie for the First Light EP on Good Looking Records. ~ John Bush