Bensley
Peter Bennett, known professionally as Bensley, is a Toronto-born Canadian producer and DJ whose work sits primarily in drum and bass and jungle while crossing into liquid, bass music, dubstep and other bass-driven styles. He signed to Andy C’s RAM Records after sending a demo at age 19. His debut album Next Generation was released on RAM in April 2015 and his sophomore LP Muskoka followed on RAM in July 2019. He has released material on labels including RAM Records, Monstercat, Deadbeats and mau5trap, and has toured internationally, playing major festivals such as Tomorrowland and Let It Roll.
Background: Bennett grew up in Toronto and is jazz-trained on alto saxophone. That formal training is a documented part of his biography and sits behind his melodic and cinematic approach to electronic production. He entered the professional drum and bass scene early enough to secure a RAM Records deal as a teenager after submitting a demo at 19, and that early label connection shaped his first full-length release cycle with Next Generation in 2015 and the follow-up Muskoka in 2019.
Musical style — production and sound: Bensley’s productions foreground melody and atmosphere alongside clear, dancefloor-ready drum work. His jazz background informs sustained melodic lines and counter-melodies; on record he layers pads and string-like synths to build cinematic backdrops while keeping the drum programming tight. As a producer he favors detailed drum editing and clean transient shaping so breakbeats cut through systems, and he balances sub-bass focus with midrange harmonic movement so bass parts carry musical motifs rather than only low-end weight. Across releases he moves between liquid-friendly textures — warm chords, vocal chops and rolling snares — and harder, bass-music elements typical of dubstep and drumstep, using reverb and delay to push ambience without blurring percussive clarity. The result leans melodic and cinematic within drum and bass, with occasional turns toward breakbeat and dub-influenced bass music in his non-DnB output.
Musical style — DJing and mixing: As a DJ Bensley programs sets that reflect his studio work: melodic passages and atmospheric buildups segue into punchy, well-quantised breaks. His sets are built to highlight harmonic transitions and low-frequency impact — you’ll hear headroom-conscious EQ moves and tempo shifts that bring liquid passages into heavier rollers or dubstep-leaning peaks. That mixing approach mirrors his recorded balance of melody and thump, and it’s one reason he slots into both festival lineups and club bills.
Career and contributions: Bensley’s two RAM albums — Next Generation (April 2015) and Muskoka (July 2019) — are the core milestones publicly documented in his discography and show his progression from debut LP to a follow-up four years later. Beyond RAM, his releases on Monstercat, Deadbeats and mau5trap signal cross-platform work across bass music and electronic scenes outside strictly drum and bass labels. He has taken those releases on the road, touring internationally and performing at major festivals such as Tomorrowland and Let It Roll, which demonstrates his presence on large festival stages as both a producer and DJ.
Specific influences and connections: The concrete, verifiable connections in Bensley’s profile are his jazz training on alto saxophone and his signing to Andy C’s RAM Records after sending a demo at 19 — the latter creating a direct link to RAM and its roster. Other label placements (Monstercat, Deadbeats, mau5trap) provide documented ties to broader bass-music networks, but public biographical information centers on his saxophone background, the RAM relationship, and the two RAM albums Next Generation (2015) and Muskoka (2019).
Public information about Bensley is concentrated on those releases, his RAM signing, his Toronto origins and his jazz training; beyond that, listeners hear his signature in the combination of sax-informed melody, cinematic pads, tight break programming and a bass-first low end across both club and festival settings.
