Founded during the summer of 2000, the Planet of the Drums is the alliance of four of America's most popular drum and bass DJs: AK1200, DJ Dara, Dieselboy, and MC Messinian. The alliance was created to move drum and bass out of siderooms and onto the main stages of electronic dance music events. In fall 2009 the Planet of the Drums embarked on their Tenth Anniversary Tour. The Planet of the Drums is the longest-running annual national electronic dance music tour of any genre. In 2010 The Planet of the Drums switched to performing one-offs, the first played at U Street Music Hall in Washington, DC in December 2010.
History
As told to RINSE Magazine in 2007: "We all ended up playing the same place at the same time in New Orleans on the Moonshine Over America tour in 1999," says Dara. 'Damian said we really ought to do a tour to promote dnb because we're supposedly the three biggest draws, to prove to promoters that dnb is a viable proposition." "Messinian, then part of the Substitution crew, describes the call from DSL, 'I always came to Platinum strapped with a mic, just in case. I got a call out of the blue that their MC couldn't make it. I said, 'Hells yeah, I'll pack my bags!' "'We realized we could use our collective weight to lean on promoters to get our music on the main stage," Dieselboy admits. 'I felt like kids were getting ripped off paying full price and having to listen to dnb on the shittiest sound system while the other kids got to hear trance, techno and house on the big system. We've come a long way in elevating respect for dnb.' "'At first we did individual sets and tag-teamed at the end,' says AK1200. 'It evolved into a multi-setup where we do spontaneous routines. Damian usually starts and Dara or I go on after him. Then we go three records, three records, three records, with the whole night ranging from two to five hours. Our main setup is two Technics 1200s and two Pioneer CDJ-1000s with an Allen & Heath mixer, a separate Pioneer mixer with another turntable and another CDJ-1000 hooked up to an auxiliary of the main mixer. Two people are on at all times and the other is standing by.' "'Stylistically,' says Dara, 'We're complementary. Damian plays the hardest, myself I play the mellower tunes, and Dave is somewhere in between.' "Messinian says, 'I try to take the energy of the club to that next level, get everybody on the same page, sparking that fire that makes it go fucking bananas. We're a strong unified force.'"
