Beginning their music careers in the middle of the early-'90s acid house scene, founders Laurence Ritchie and Andy Riley traveled up and down the English midlands as the Smokescreen Soundsystem rave collective until the decade's growing criminalization of unsponsored dance gatherings, and a sudden police seizure of equipment, forced the two to fold their energies into the Drop Music label. There, Ritchie and Riley began releasing EPs under the Inland Knights moniker, sharpening their production skills for their international DJ tours and the eventual 2001 post-Bangalter two-punch of Tech House Phenomena, Vol. 5 and their Creative Spaces debut. ~ Dean Carlson