Working across UK funky, house and various, mutated strains of bass-heavy club music, Roska has earmarked himself as one of the UK’s most accomplished underground exponents.
Through a series of releases via influential dance labels like Numbers, Tectonic and Hotflush, as well as two albums for Rinse Recordings in 2012, he originally blazed a trail for funky to return to the clubs. He has continued to push the sound firmly into the future too, albeit now punctuated by his wider influences, via his own, genre-blurring Roska Kicks & Snares (RKS) imprint. Presiding over 50 releases, RKS has welcomed the likes of MA1, Champion, Gemmy and Doc Daneeka to the label since its inception in 2009 and now functions around a core base of new artists; Tony Tokyo, J Kenzo’s Jodo Kast project, Majora, Transcode and Frederique. After spending the last four years releasing via different platforms, 2016 will also see Roska return to RKS for the first time proper since 2009.
A renowned DJ to boot, Roska’s ‘Roska Presents’ brand has seen him curate line-ups across the UK for the last five years and after recently returning from a tour of Asia – he took in dates in Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Osaka and Seoul – 2016 is already shaping up to be a busy year in the clubs. Armed with a series of fresh remixes for artists including Matthew Herbert, grime-rap star CasIsDead, DJ Fresh and even Diplo, Roska is also prepping releases for Low Steppa’s Simma Red, Form & Function and Pinch’s crucial label hub, Tectonic.
With a temporary move away from regular radio also in motion, a lot lies in store over the next few years – a defining period in Roska’s impressively diverse and equally influential career so far.