Puerto Rican duo NRV have built their partnership on more than two decades of friendship, shared booths, abandoned sessions, and contrasting studio instincts. With Mystic Sun and Dealing Cards arriving through Vibe City, Trixx and Judge discuss Caribbean rhythm, creative trust, Puerto Rico’s resurgent drum and bass culture, and why some old projects may be safer left on the hard drive.

You both had established careers before forming NRV in 2024. What brought you together as a production duo, and what did you recognise in each other that made the partnership work?

Judge: More than a duo or partners — we're family. We've been at this together for over twenty years. The story of how we met is one that always gets a laugh out of us.
It was around 2002, 2003. I was already an established figure in the Puerto Rico drum and bass scene as a founding member of the Professional People — one of the first DNB crews on the island. At the time, there was a legendary underground club called Ambis where the best weekly drum and bass night was held. Around the same period, Trixx had started DJing alongside Andy Rapid and they were trying to break into the scene.

Trixx: Oh boy, here we go down memory lane. One of those weekly nights, Andy and I were given an early slot. But when I arrived at the venue, the line-up had changed — Andy had been placed to play back-to-back with our good friend Codezero, leaving me without a spot. The club owner approached Judge and said, "Hey, do you mind playing with him? The kid is good — give him a chance." Judge looked at me and said, "Yeah, okay — but don't mess it up and start trainwrecking."

Judge: Hahaha. I vividly still remember that moment. We played back-to-back that night to a packed club, and it was instant vibes. Fast forward twenty-plus years, we've been on this journey together ever since. We laugh about it every time we remember it.

NRV draws on more than two decades of combined experience, but this is still a relatively new project. Has starting again under a shared identity changed the way either of you approaches making and releasing music?

Judge: Absolutely. I started my music career in 1999 alongside two other legends of the scene — Alien and Armand — forming the Professional People crew, which quickly became one of the main DNB crews on the island. I later linked up with Roove, who had left the legendary DNB crew Fission to start his UTECH project, while continuing to DJ with Trixx and Andy under the Evangelix name.

Trixx: I came up DJing in the early 2000s, later forming Evangelix alongside Andy Rapid and Judge. I focused on the DJ side — securing prime slots at every major DNB event on the island. By the mid-2000s, Judge, Andy, Roove and I formed LoHi Stereo, with Andy and me handling the DJing and Roove and Judge on production. LoHi was signed to Formation Records and became one of the top drum and bass acts on the island. But as it goes, life took over. After about ten years, we all went in different directions.

Judge: Yeah, fun times. After a break — and honestly, after thinking about quitting music entirely — Trixx and I quietly came up with the idea of NRV around 2018, 2019. Then the pandemic hit. Being locked down, I started producing again and Trixx began learning the production side. We put together a lot of music during that time but have never shared most of it. We probably have two LPs' worth of tracks from that period that have never been played out or heard by anyone. Probably, never will. haha

Trixx: Oh man, please don’t get me started on this one hahaha. This is actually a bit of a sore subject between us. I believe there are tracks from that era we should release, revisit and update for 2026 — or at least not leave buried on hard drives. Judge, on the other hand, wants to delete every single one of them because he thinks they all sound horrible. We go back and forth on this every time we get together in the studio and I start scrolling through the old sessions.

Judge: This is about get testy hahaha. Starting fresh as NRV has forced both of us to raise the bar. It's not about legacy — it's about what we're making right now.

When you work on a track together, do Trixx and Judge naturally take on different roles, or does the balance shift depending on the idea?

Judge: Yes, we've found our lanes — but it's also fluid. Before Trixx got into production, the production and mixdowns were handled by me, with Trixx coming in to make sure the arrangement worked for DJs and the dance floor.
We've evolved that now. Trixx focuses on idea creation, sketches, sound design, vocals, and initial arrangements. I take the idea through its final development — engineering, mixdowns, and finishing the track.

Trixx: The one area that isn't fluid yet is the mixdown, which Judge manages and quite frankly, he’s a bit neurotic / psychopath with it hahaha. But there's a friendly back-and-forth as I continue refining my production skills. That tension is healthy — it keeps both of us sharp.

Puerto Rico is rarely one of the first places mentioned in conversations about global drum and bass. What does the scene there actually look and feel like from the inside?

Both: The Puerto Rico drum and bass scene is quite legendary — something a lot of the top names in the genre can attest to. Like anything, it went through a down period given the dynamics of the world and music in general. But since the pandemic it has been resurging, thanks to some key figures who held it together during the quiet years.
Now it's back to being a vibrant scene with both established talent and a strong new wave emerging. The main DNB promoter on the island is QVLQV, and increasingly promoters from the wider EDM, bass and electronic scenes are collaborating and incorporating drum and bass into their events.
From a music standpoint, the artists leading the way include CPTL PNSHMNT, Bass Banditz, CyclopsDNB, Plushtoi, Crishim, Lex, Andy [PR], Jay Vega, and Lexmadeit — to name a few. There's real depth here.

People will inevitably connect NRV’s sound with your Caribbean roots. Are there particular rhythms, musical traditions or experiences from Puerto Rico that consciously find their way into your productions, or does that influence emerge more instinctively?

Trixx: It's instinctive. Caribbean music is ingrained in our DNA, so we never sit-down thinking, "Let's write something that sounds Caribbean." But there are elements that always find their way in.

Judge: Indeed, We always, always, always use sampled breaks. There's always some kind of percussion — congas, bongos, something rhythmic beyond the standard kit. For us, there just always needs to be a groove in the track. And that groove — that feeling of movement — is the foundation of all Caribbean music. It's not something we have to reach for. It's already there.

Dealing Cards has a bright, immediate vocal and plenty of dancefloor weight beneath it. How did the track begin, and what did you need to get right for its uplifting side and heavier elements to work together?

Judge: Dealing Cards means a lot to us — you could say it carries a special meaning. It represents what we were both dealing with in life at the time. Around 2023 we had basically stopped making music. Then our boys CPTL PNSHMNT started pushing us to get back in the game. It was also around that time that Trixx really committed to production and started sending sketches to Judge. As those sketches got better and better, I got the urge not to be left behind — and that pushed me back into fully making music again and refining our sound.

Trixx: Judge took one of those sketches and went to work on it. When he sent it back, he told me, "I'm not sure about this, but here it is — tell me what you think." I called back and said, "No way. I'm not letting you do this anymore. We're finishing this track." We jumped into the studio together, and what came out was Dealing Cards.
Getting the balance right was about honouring what the track was about — there's weight in the subject, and the dancefloor energy had to match that. The vocal needed to cut through immediately, but underneath it had to hit.

Mystic Sun takes a deeper, more progressive route, with piano, arpeggios and layered harmonies surrounding the vocal. Was it always intended to be the more atmospheric half of the release, or did that character develop during production?

Judge: Mystic Sun started as another sketch from Trixx. The vocal was there from the beginning, but the original drums and vibe were nowhere close to what the track became.

Trixx: We built it out, but Judge kept feeling we hadn't nailed the drums and the overall energy — while I was getting tired of his complaining. One day in the studio we worked on it, and when I left, technically the track was finished. I made Judge promise not to keep messing with it and to move on.

Judge: laughs That night, after he left, I sat in the studio with a glass of wine and started doomscrolling through our sample banks. I found a break that lit the spark. I was supposed to do the final bounce and send it for mastering — but instead, I changed the drums in the initial drop. While doing that, I accidentally misplaced the chopped break, and the second-drop switch-up was born.

Trixx: Yeah, not fun haha. When Judge sent it to me, I was not happy — to say the least. But I loved the new first drop. Then the second drop hit and my reaction was, "WHAT?" It's such a massive change in vibe, but somehow it just felt right.
We had diverging opinions on that second drop, so we decided to test it at a gig we were playing. Once the second drop came through the system and we saw the crowd reaction, we looked at each other and that was it. Done.

Judge: So no — the atmospheric, progressive character wasn't planned from the start. It developed through the push and pull between us.

The two tracks show quite different sides of NRV while still belonging together. What made them the right pairing for your debut on Vibe City?

Judge: Well, we got to give credit to LeeUHF and his A&R prowess as he was the one that saw them together for a release. laughs
Dealing Cards is personal and immediate — uplifting energy with emotional weight. Mystic Sun is deeper, more layered, built on happy accidents and that tension between us. Together, they represent exactly what NRV is: two people who think differently, push each other, and land on something neither of us would make alone.

Trixx: Yeah, I agree. For a debut, we wanted to show range without losing coherence. Both tracks share that groove-driven foundation, the sampled breaks, the attention to how they work on a dancefloor — but they take you to different places. That duality felt like the right introduction.

You have described NRV as more than a musical act and as part of a wider movement. What would meaningful progress for Puerto Rican drum and bass look like over the next few years?

Trixx: It's quite simple: more of our fellow producers and musicians from Puerto Rico exporting their sounds to the world, while we continue welcoming new talent into the scene here at home.

Judge: Indeed; we measure success in the success of others, not ours. Time is the only unbeaten element in this world. We want to do our part so that the movement on this island carries on long after we're no longer able to be part of it.

Alongside your work as artists, you have launched NRV Recordings. What do you want the label to contribute that you felt was missing, and how will you balance supporting other producers with developing NRV?

Judge: The vision started simply. Trixx didn't want us to repeat a mistake I had forced on us before — making tons of music and leaving all of it on hard drives. He wanted an outlet for us to release our tracks. Plain and simple.

Trixx: After that, we realized it could fill a much bigger gap. Puerto Rico has been a drum and bass capital since the late nineties, and yet no Puerto Rican DNB label exists. There's no dedicated avenue for our fellow producers on the island to put out their music and showcase the talent here. NRV Recordings is that outlet — for us and for them.

Your forthcoming music reaches across labels including Formation Recordings, Vibe City and Coffee Shop Jungle. Are you deliberately keeping NRV open to different areas of drum and bass, or is a more defined signature beginning to emerge?

Judge: Yeah, for sure. We're consciously not restricting ourselves to any subgenre. We make what we feel depending on the concept or idea that inspired it — and that process, in turn, is forming our signature sound.
For example, our track Island Vibez came about after a day taking our kids to our favourite beach. The beach happens to be next to an outdoor park in Arecibo that once hosted a big festival where we were the closing act — right after Andy C. When we realised that, we joked that a day like the one we were having with our families should be a track.
A few days later, Trixx sent over a sketch that quickly took shape, but I felt something was missing. During a business trip, I called Trixx and said, "I know what it needs — the sound of waves. Find something along those lines." Minutes later, Trixx sent over a version with ocean sounds in the intro, and we were done.

Trixx: I remember that haha. We hadn't shared the track with anyone until I sent it to our friend Joey from CPTL PNSHMNT — who, without telling us, passed it to Makoto. From there, Makoto sent it to DJ Zinc, and the rest is history.

Judge: Yeah, that's how NRV works. The music leads, we follow — and it ends up where it's supposed to be.

Finally, you are stranded on a desert island with a solar-powered sound system and can keep just one drum and bass record between you. Which track do you choose, and can you agree on one?

That's a tough one — and no, we definitely won't agree.
Trixx: Tears for Fears — "Everybody Wants to Rule the World."
Judge: Wu-Tang Clan – Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Look, nobody said we play by the rules. That's kind of the point.

NRV’s process is shaped less by conflict than by the trust to challenge one another. Sketches change direction, accidental edits survive, and two distinct instincts gradually settle on a shared result. With Mystic Sun and Dealing Cards introducing the duo on Vibe City, that balance connects their music, label plans, and commitment to Puerto Rico’s scene.

Massive thanks to Trixx and Judge for joining us.