That Eric Alper

Rufige Kru – Goldie’s alter ego with SubMotive – have released brand new single  “Goldikus,” out now via London Records.

Taken from forthcoming album Alpha Omega, the track features guest vocals from revered UK music legend Cleveland Watkiss MBE, sampled from a recording of Goldie’s 1993 set at legendary London club, The Blue Note.

Speaking about the new track, Goldie says: “Going back through some of the cassettes — as I do — going back to the caveats of what those DATs were about… I thought, “Some of these cassettes look pretty good.” I remember hearing Cleveland on a session I was DJing at — at the Blue Note — I heard the crowd and Cleveland says : “Make some noise for the Goldikus!” I thought, wouldn’t it be great to sample yourself? I love what [New album] ‘Alpha Omega’ does — it’s like one of those Nolan movies, where it just keeps coming back on itself.

The rawness of Goldikus — having Cleveland’s voice sampled off a cassette tape with me DJing at Blue Note, having a little bit of the crowd in the background, a real, rootsy b-line, and a real simple, effective, classic break that has been repurposed and replayed with Betts and Blease. Betts particularly smashed this one, and I love that.

If the music can do anything, I think my purpose is for it to feel nostalgic and take you back to that moment. A lot of the older heads who’ve heard Goldikus before have said, “Man, it takes me back to Blue Note.” Well… that’s job done. That’s what it’s supposed to do.”

“Goldikus” gives a taste of what’s to come on his forthcoming Rufige Kru album: an unfiltered, underground roller with breaks and a bassline that are made for the dance floor.

New album Alpha Omega consists of twelve groundbreaking new tracks which bring together Goldie’s unerring dancefloor suss and the impeccable technical prowess of SubMotive (real name James Davidson). It is Rufige Kru’s deepest outing so far – a reminder of exactly why drum and bass remains the most exhilarating, groundbreaking and electrifying music on the planet.

The album will also include “Still The Same,” the single produced collaboratively by Goldie and SubMotive which features a guest appearance from the peerless grime MC and UK rap artist CASISDEAD, after years of requests by his fans to rap over a DnB track. In fact, it is rare for CASISDEAD to feature on tracks with other artists – such is the significance of this collaboration and it is his first new material since his critically acclaimed 2023 album ‘Famous Last Words’ and being awarded Best Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Act at the 2024 BRIT Awards.

Of the new album, Goldie says: “It’s a reinvention. We’ve gone back to the source and extrapolated from there. I wanted to create something that absolutely represents what this music is all about … and where it’s going next.”

Goldie will be on tour throughout the year, including two dates at London’s Ronnie Scott’s and another show at Village Underground in April. Then in May, Goldie will feature as Artist in Residence at Detroit’s Movement Festival 2025, before bringing his live show to UK festivals this summer. See a full list of Goldie’s live dates below.

One of the most revered names in breakbeat science, Rufige Kru rewired the dancefloor for the first time back in 1992 with the hardcore classic, “Darkrider.” Back then, Goldie’s musical partner was hip hop fanatic Linford Jones. “He had a fantastic record collection,” remembers Goldie. “I had a field day going through his records and pulling out breaks.” Engineer Mark Rutherford—who also worked with Peter Gabriel and Mark McLaren—was another early collaborator. The partnership yielded pivotal hardcore moments like “Ghosts Of My Life” and “Terminator” (still considered one of the key moments in the evolution of drum’n’bass).

It’s a testament to the alchemy itself, that no matter who Goldie has worked with—or taken under his wing—the Rufige sound remains consistently forward-thinking and innovative. Though Goldie’s groundbreaking debut album, Timeless and its 1998 follow-up Saturnz Return broke through into mainstream success, he continued the sonic explorations of Rufige Kru with two had found a new music partner, Heist/Strider main man Jim Muir.

And then, of course, there was the first all-time drum’n’bass classic of the new millennium: Rufige Kru’s 2001 masterpiece “Beachdrifta.” Recorded with Danny Goldstein, it was a record that—like “Ghosts” or “Terminator” before it—just turned everything upside down. So much so that, in 2017, when Goldie played two memorable nights at Ronnie Scott’s, the live rendition transformed the venerable jazz club into a 4am rave. “Sometimes you catch lightning in a bottle,” recalls Goldie. “That was one of those times.”

Now he’s done it again with the new record. Turning drum’n’bass inside out, reframing the breakbeat, setting the agenda all over again. “I’ve travelled with James (SubMotive) through every angle of this game and now he’s a formidable partner in the Rufige Kru echelon…boss levelz.”

“I’ve gone back to my roots,” concludes Goldie. “That’s a beautiful thing for me. I’ve spent a lot of time honing my craft, developing these concepts, assembling all these moments. But that sense of possibility –what kept me going in the early days—is still there. I’m still as excited by this music and where it can go as I was all those years ago. The only limit is my imagination.”