Borne of their collaboration on Goldie's 2017 comeback album The Journey Man, this experimental ambient duo comprises the aforementioned drum'n'bass pioneer with James Davidson, a former member of Bournemouth, England's Ulterior Motive.

The pair met on the island of Sardinia, at Kim De La Haye and DJ Delicat's Sun & Bass Festival. This led to Goldie signing Ulterior Motive -- Davidson's drum'n'bass collaboration with Greg Hepworth -- to his Metalheadz label, which released their album, The Fourth Wall, in 2014. The following year, Goldie moved to Thailand but, a couple of years later, he came back to London for a 14-day stint at Willesden's Battery Studios. These sessions were engineered by Davidson and resulted in The Journey Man, which became Goldie's highest-charting U.K. album to date, higher even than his 1995 magnum opus, Timeless.

Without a strict agenda, they immediately set to work on new material, enjoying the creative freedom brought by their newfound bond. Goldie composed, while Davidson engineered and produced, and they named their partnership Subjective. The second half of 2018 saw the first singles on their own Subjective Records via Sony Music: from June's "Inkolelo" to November's "Re-Entry." Eventually, January 2019 brought their debut album, Act 1: Music for Inanimate Objects, a genre-bending record which incorporated glacial ambient atmospheres, toned-down drum'n'bass, mournful strings, and soulful house to produce one of Goldie's most accessible releases. Vocals came courtesy of Terri Walker, Naomi Prior, and Natalie Duncan, all of whom had contributed to sessions for The Journey Man.

2020 found Goldie preoccupied with his newly founded, non-drum'n'bass label, Fallen Tree1Hundred. However, by 2021, Ulterior Motive had split, leaving Davidson to focus not only on his own Submotive project, but also on further work with Goldie. In mid-2021, it was reported that Goldie and Davidson had completed the soundtrack to Sine Tempore, a planned, part-biographical TV series revisiting sounds, themes, and characters from Timeless. In September, they signed a deal as Subjective with Pete Tong's Three Six Zero, who -- after releasing the double-A side "Dassai Menace"/"Fathoms" -- issued their second long-player, 2022's The Start of No Regret. ~ James Wilkinson, Rovi