Larry Cons, better known as Calyx, didn’t start out behind turntables at all. This South Londoner was a musical prodigy of sorts, studying five instruments as a kid and jamming in jazz and funk bands long before he ever touched a drum machine. In fact, young Larry even led an eight-piece funk outfit cheekily named Octane. So how did a jazz-funk guitarist end up as a pioneer of dark, high-octane drum & bass? Call it a twist of fate and bass obsession.
By the late ’90s, Cons got bitten by the electronic bug—hard. He dove into the thriving UK drum & bass scene and started crafting tracks that combined his musician’s ear for melody with the raw energy of jungle rhythms. His earliest releases hit the streets in 1998, and it wasn’t long before Calyx became a name to watch in drum & bass circles.
Early on, Larry’s productions caught the attention of the scene’s top labels. We’re talking the holy trinity of D&B imprints. From Moving Shadow (where he’d eventually find a home base) to Goldie’s legendary Metalheadz and Bryan Gee’s V Recordings, Calyx ticked them all off his bucket list. By the turn of the millennium, he had amassed a fat stack of 12″ releases on other respected outlets like Renegade Hardware, Subtitles, and Violence Recordings—basically a who’s who of drum & bass labels. This guy was on a mission, flexing his studio chops all over the scene. And he wasn’t just joining other labels; he even co-founded a couple himself (Thunderous Audio and Momentum Music) to push the sound further.
If there was a moment Calyx truly arrived, it was 2005. That year, he dropped his debut solo album “No Turning Back” on Moving Shadow, and it lived up to its prophetic title. The album was an absolute smash, hailed by many as one of the top drum & bass LPs of 2005. Calyx served up six blistering solo tracks alongside collabs with heavy-hitters like TeeBee, Gridlok and Ill. Skillz, plus remixes by scene veterans Dom & Roland and Hive.
In other words, No Turning Back was a full-on showcase of Larry’s dark, futuristic D&B vision. Techy neurofunk basslines met jazz-fusion touches and tribal percussion. The demand was insane: the record flew off shelves so fast they had to repress it three times in six months. With every track getting rinsed by top DJs, Calyx suddenly found himself a hot commodity on the international circuit.
What do you do after dropping a game-changing album? You hit the road hard. And that he did. Calyx embarked on a globe-trotting tour that kept him booked solid through 2005. We’re talking two separate U.S. tours, two Australian tours, and countless European dates. From London to Los Angeles, Sydney to Stockholm, the name Calyx was spreading like wildfire, synonymous with face-melting bass and razor-sharp beats. Little did he know, an unlikely partnership was about to elevate things to an even crazier level.
As the ’00s rolled on, Calyx’s path converged with another rising star: TeeBee (Norwegian D&B maestro Torgeir Byrknes). Fun fact: the Calyx moniker actually started as a duo back in the late ’90s (Larry Cons plus Chris Rush). In 1997, young Larry met TeeBee while both had tracks signed to Rugged Vinyl, a pioneering D&B label. The two hit it off immediately, geeking out over tunes and forming a lasting friendship.
For years, Calyx and TeeBee ran on parallel tracks, each forging a successful solo career. But the chemistry was there, and by the mid-2000s they finally dove into the studio together. Their first collaboration, “Follow the Leader”, made serious waves, a hint that something special happens when these two minds unite.
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In 2007, Calyx & TeeBee made their partnership official and launched a new label, Momentum Music, with a monster statement: an entire collaborative album as the imprint’s first release. That album, “Anatomy”, wasn’t just a few singles thrown together. It was a full-blown opus spread across four vinyl plates (plus a CD) of Calyx/TeeBee collabs. Hype was stratospheric.
Anatomy delivered on the promise and then some. It shot to the top of D&B sales charts and stayed there for weeks. Critics and fans alike were floored by the duo’s synergy; here were two already-legendary producers combining forces, and the result was pure fire. The album’s success launched yet another world tour. Only this time, Larry wasn’t alone. He and TeeBee were going back-to-back on stage and rewriting the rulebook for live DJ sets.
By 2012, our dynamic duo had so much momentum that the genre’s biggest powerhouse came calling. They signed exclusively to RAM Records, the iconic label run by Andy C, basically the Def Jam of drum & bass. Wasting no time, they started rolling out a slew of singles on RAM.
These weren’t just bangers for the underground heads. Some tracks revealed a new side of Calyx, with Larry himself on vocals. Who knew the dude could sing? The buildup led to their sophomore collaborative album All or Nothing, released in late 2012.
They brought in heavyweight guest artists like Beardyman and Foreign Beggars, added live songcraft (those vocals!), and honed a collection of tracks that balanced savage dancefloor energy with honest-to-god songwriting. The album blew up in a big way, even cracking into broader attention thanks to radio support from BBC tastemakers and beyond.
“All or Nothing” turned out to be an award magnet. Calyx & TeeBee practically swept the Drum&BassArena Awards that year, snagging Best Producer, Best Track for the uplifting anthem “Elevate This Sound”, and even Best Music Video for “Pure Gold”.
The duo was on top of the world, and the accolades kept coming. Getting a BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix invite is like receiving a knighthood in dance music, and in 2013, the pair got the call. They delivered an Essential Mix so fiery it ended up nominated as one of the year’s Top 5 Essential Mixes.
In 2015, Calyx & TeeBee topped download charts, paving the way for their third album, “1X1”, in 2016. This record showcased the breadth of their style, from ruthless club destroyers to more experimental vibes. The duo’s presence remained omnipresent: you couldn’t open a D&B playlist or attend a major rave without seeing their name. They even composed the opening ceremony music for Let It Roll, the world’s biggest D&B festival, in 2017. Basically, they soundtracked the Olympics of drum & bass.
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All the while, Calyx & TeeBee became the go-to remixers for huge acts, reflecting just how far their influence reached outside the D&B bubble. Pop and hip-hop icons wanted that Calyx & TeeBee flavor on their tracks. The duo put their spin on tunes by Rag’n’Bone Man, Rudimental, Ed Sheeran, Example, Wiz Khalifa, DJ Shadow, and Little Dragon, among others. Think about that. From underground techstep virtuosos to remixing Ed Sheeran? That’s a flex.
And of course, they continued killing it live: BBC Radio 1 studios, Ibiza festivals, US club tours, Australia, Asia. You name it, they’ve likely been there, detonating dancefloors and inspiring a new generation of D&B artists in the process.
After over a decade of relentless output, Calyx & TeeBee took a bit of a breather from albums, but not from the studio. They teased new material through the late 2010s (even hinting at an album called A Call To Arms that never surfaced).
Finally, in the early 2020s, they unveiled a passion project that harkened back to the old-school. That project was “Plates”, released in 2022 on RAM Records, and it was not a typical album rollout. Instead of dumping a full LP all at once, the duo went back to dubplate culture, releasing tracks one by one, each as its own “plate” to smash the dance.
Over the course of three years, they dropped nine singles from the Plates collection, each tune getting its moment to shine on sound systems before eventually compiling them into the album. The idea was to strip things back: no overthinking an “album concept”, no rush, and released when and how they wanted, like in the early vinyl days.
In 2022, fans got a surprise announcement: Calyx had signed with Critical Music, the esteemed underground label known for cutting-edge D&B. It marked Calyx’s first solo venture in 15 years, and he came out swinging. His debut solo single on Critical, the two-tracker Tempest / You Want It All, dropped in late 2022 and immediately reminded everyone that Calyx on his own is still an absolute beast.
In 2023 he kept up the momentum with a string of forward-thinking singles on Critical: the rattling “Pull Up / Feel the Sway”, the grime-infused “Cobra” featuring UK MC Logan, and “Riddim”. By mid-2024 he was still at full throttle, dropping “Out & In” (a collab with Manchester’s own Chimpo on vocals) backed with the dark stepper “My Dark Place”.
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And don’t worry, the Calyx & TeeBee partnership is still alive and kicking too. They continue to perform together when schedules align (as of this writing, they’re on the summer festival circuit, smashing stages as a duo) and undoubtedly have more collabs up their sleeve. But it’s refreshing to see Larry step into the solo spotlight again, proving that even after 25+ years in the game, he’s still hungry to innovate and hit us with the next wave of bass madness.
From his humble beginnings plucking guitar strings in London to becoming a worldwide drum & bass icon, Calyx’s journey has been nothing short of epic. He’s a rare breed of artist who’s done it all: underground cred, mainstream accolades, technical innovation, and global influence.
He brought musicality and funk into neurofunk’s darkness, set new standards for DJ performance with those 6-deck assaults, and continually evolved his sound to keep the scene on its toes. Generations of producers cite Calyx & TeeBee as an inspiration, whether for their studio prowess or their no-compromise approach to artistry. And fans... well, fans just know that if Calyx’s name is on a track (or a lineup), it’s gonna go off.
Even after sweeping multiple industry awards and essentially winning drum & bass bingo (huge albums, check; hit singles, check; Essential Mix, check), Larry Cons shows no signs of slowing down or mellowing out. If anything, he’s as energized as ever, jumping between continents on tour, cooking up fresh beats in the studio, and popping up on radio shows to represent the genre he loves.
Calyx helped drum & bass move forward while keeping its soul intact. And whether he’s rolling solo or tag-teaming with TeeBee, you can bet he’ll continue to be a leading light in the scene for years to come. In a culture that always looks to the next big thing, Calyx has earned his spot as a living legend by consistently being that next big thing time and again. Drum & bass wouldn’t be the same without him.
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