Kemistry & Storm were an English drum and bass DJ and recording duo, composed of Kemistry (Valerie Olukemi A "Kemi" Olusanya) and Storm (Jayne Conneely).^[1] They were active in the 1990s. Along with Goldie, they founded the Metalheadz label in 1994.

Appearing mainly on the club scene, recordings by the act include the mix album DJ-Kicks: Kemistry & Storm (1999). They were recognized for being "some of the first women DJs to have a widely distributed album" in a "male-dominated genre of music".^[2]

In April 1999, Olusanya died in a car accident at the age of 33.^[3]

History

Both Kemistry and Storm grew up in Kettering, where they met and became friends.^[4] They kept in touch as their lives diverged over the coming years, working as a make-up artist and in radiography respectively, and gave up their careers to begin DJing when both found themselves living in London in the early 1990s. They first started out on London pirate radio stations Touchdown and Defection FM.

Along with Goldie whom Kemistry had introduced to the drum and bass scene in the early years of the decade, they founded the Metalheadz record label in 1994. With Goldie, they led Metalheadz for two-and-a-half years before leaving the label. The success of their DJ-Kicks album brought them opportunities to DJ internationally and has been described as "paving the way for other, younger, female DJs".^[4][2]

The duo's collaboration came to an end with the death of Kemistry in a traffic accident in the early morning of 25 April 1999, while returning from a Kemistry & Storm gig in Southampton. In an article with The Guardian newspaper, Storm remembers the sound of glass shattering, but not how many seconds or minutes had passed before she realised something awful had happened. A 4.5kg metal cat’s eye had been dislodged from the road ahead by a passing van, and had smashed through their car windshield on the passenger side. It left Kemistry with devastating injuries. Minutes later, she died.^[4]

“Kemi said that she always felt that she was going to die young,” says Storm. “She didn’t want to be old. She said, ‘I’m going to be the Marilyn Monroe of this scene. I’m going to be notorious.’” ^[5]

Kemistry’s death rocked the now-global drum’n’bass scene. Their contemporaries felt the absence of a beloved originator keenly. As the time passed, those peers encouraged Storm to DJ solo and she started playing Kemistry’s tracks, from the shared collection she still owns. Jayne Conneely continued performing as DJ Storm.

References

External links

• Kemistry & Storm at AllMusic
• Kemistry & Storm discography at Discogs