It is 11 years since Reprazent's debut album won the Mercury prize but the drum'n'bass collective are only now completing their third. However, comments this week by their leader Roni Size have given the long-awaited record an even greater significance - it will be the group's last.
"We're gonna do number three, [a final] Reprazent album and we'll see what happens from there," Size told BBC 6 Music. "I think that will be our last album [but] we'll tour again next year."
Though Reprazent were on semi-hiatus in the early 2000s, they recently reformed and made a critically acclaimed tour. "What we're currently doing is letting people know that, we're here, we're back, we've got the live show," Size said. "It's good energy, high energy and we're currently in the studio trying to put the finishing touches to the final record."
Despite the positive response to Reprazent's live shows and this year's release of an "armour plated" update to New Forms, their 1997 debut, Size said that Reprazent's various members need time to develop their own careers. "The whole thing about doing Reprazent was different people coming from different groups to form one, and I think there's people involved in Reprazent who need their own individual careers, like [MC] Dynamite and Onalee."
"Everyone in Reprazent can do their thing and has their own goals so it's not really fair of me to ask them to keep on representing Roni Size. I need to get into some kind of position where I can help them as well."
Though drum'n'bass has retreated from the front lines of dance music, ceding the hype machine to dubstep and wonky techno, Size is confident that the genre will stand the test of time. "I think more now than ever the scene has become very commercial," he said. "You have a lot of artists crossing over on a regular basis now and you can hear drum'n'bass music starting to kick-in[to] indie music and all different forms of music. It's no longer a new thing - it's accepted."
Besides, whenever Size wants to dance like it's 1998, he can always fly to the eastern Europe. "I think that's where it's going off," he said. "Places like Estonia, Serbia ... Slovakia, Prague. It's just absolutely incredible."
