As dirty secrets go, DJ Dara's love of old-school house music may not be a headline grabber, but it is the sort of predilection that has little place in the world of modern drum 'n' bass. Best known as the don of American D 'n' B, Dara also hosts a weekly Internet radio program devoted to late-'80s dance music. Listening to the show's most recent episode-which can be downloaded at www.piraterevival.co.uk/-what strikes me most is just how relaxed it sounds, especially compared to the breakneck pacing of the sets Dara usually plays. Reached on the phone at his New York home, the native Dubliner explains that his radio show offers a much-needed respite from his scene's speedy tempos.

"These days, you can't really get away with playing old records from even the mid-'90s," says Dara, his lilting Irish accent still intact after 11 years on this side of the pond. "Back in 1995, drum 'n' bass tunes were about 165 beats per minute and now it's 175 to 180. And with most DJs these days using the pitch control to take the records up another 10 beats per minute, things are getting really fast. If we went over 200 BPM, I'd be lost."

In truth, Dara will likely follow drum 'n' bass wherever it goes, for as the founder and co-owner of the genre's biggest American record store and label (both known as Breakbeat Science), the DJ has tracked the scene's progression with fatherly interest. Among the first of the form's producers to make a full-length album (1997's Halfway Home) and as one of its most widely travelled DJs, the Irishman bristles at the suggestion that his scene just ain't what it used to be.

"If you look back to 1994 and 1996, there was a lot of music around at that time that wasn't really all that musical; it was just literally drums and bass. There's actually more variety now than there ever was, to be honest, everything from complicated breakbeat stuff to the more basic two-step style that always makes for the biggest hits."

Dara goes on to explain that the snobbish critical disdain for those simplistic two-step anthems reminds him of his older brothers, both jazz musicians who could never understand their younger sibling's fascination with loop-based dance tracks.

"I don't judge music on how difficult it was to make," says the DJ, who plays Sonar alongside Dieselboy and AK1200 on Friday (July 1). "Back when I was getting into acid house, my brothers would always argue that my music was so simple. Their whole basis for judging everything was how difficult it was to play. But for me, that's not what it's about. Just because someone can edit a breakbeat down to an infinitesimal amount, that doesn't necessarily make it work on the dance floor. It may have been a pretty genius thing to do, but it might not hit me where it hurts-and as a DJ, that's always my bottom line."