Total Science is the stage name

Stage name

A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...

 of drum and bass

Drum and bass

Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...

 producer

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

s Jason Greenhalgh and Paul Smith.

The pair first met in 1987, both living on Blackbird Leys

Blackbird Leys

Blackbird Leys is a civil parish and ward in Oxford, England, and is one of the largest council estates in Europe. According to the 2001 census, the ward had a population of 5,803. Unlike most parts of the City of Oxford, the area has a civil parish. The parish was created in 1990. Its 2001 parish...

 estate in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, England and brought together through a mutual love of hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

. Distracted by the arrival of hardcore

Hardcore techno

Hardcore techno is a type of electronic music typified by the rhythmic use of distorted and atonal industrial-like beats and samples...

 in the early nineties, record collecting was quickly followed by DJing

Disc jockey

A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...

 and eventually production. Greenhalgh was the first into the studio, with "Freestyle Fanatic" launching his career in 1991. However it was the establishment of the Legend imprint and specifically Greenhalgh's "Champion Sound", which took their profile beyond the many anonymous white labels that were dominating the music at the time. In 1994, the pair started recording together, with "Got to Believe" the first in a series of records which pushed the label away from the darkside movement and more towards the epic string sections and rolling beats which started to appear on labels like Lucky Spin, Basement and Good Looking. After six years of recording singles for others, the pair established the CIA label in the closing months of 1997 with the help of Brillo from Timeless. The release of their Silent Reign EP for Goldie

Goldie

Clifford Joseph Price, better known as Goldie is an English electronic music artist, disc jockey, visual artist and actor. He is well known for his innovations in the jungle and drum and bass music genres, having previously gained exposure for his work as a graffiti artist...

's Metalheadz

Metalheadz

Metalheadz is a pioneering drum and bass record label based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1994 by Kemistry & Storm and Goldie, it has been home to some of the drum and bass scene's brightest talent and is notable for the high quality of its back catalogue....

 breathed a new lease of life into the project, and the pair achieved a further boost with a well-timed Bad Company remix of "Champion Sound" which conjured further interest in what they were doing at their own label. Their debut album Advance exposed a further field of interest, with downtempo

Downtempo

Downtempo is a laid-back electronic music style similar to ambient music, but usually with a beat or groove unlike the beatless forms of Ambient music. The beat is sometimes made from loops that have a hypnotic feeling...

 experiments logged as a series of "Breaks" on the majority of their early EPs extended to some deep house

Deep house

Deep house is a subgenre of house music that fuses elements of Chicago house into the 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. In the early compositions , influences of jazz music were most frequently brought out by using more complex chords than simple triads which are held for many bars and...

, this breadth taken a step further with their Skin Deep

Skin Deep

-Film:* Skin Deep , directed by Lambert Hillyer* Skin Deep , directed by Geoff Steven* Skin Deep , Australian television film* Skin Deep , directed by Blake Edwards...

imprint which has forged broken beat

Broken beat

Broken beat is an electronic music genre that can be characterized by syncopated rhythm typically in 4/4 meter, with staggered or punctuated snare beats and/or hand claps....

to considerable acclaim. Their pioneering of a revival in old school sounds and arrangements, together with Digital and Reinforced, dominated drum & bass throughout 2001.