Life is all about speed and movement, as the outspoken and worldly Danny Williams, aka LTJ Bukem, might explain. Sipping water in an Italian pizzeria, he's thinking ahead to the end of tours, media junkets and a return to domestic life in Hertfordshire. "'I've probably spent two months in my house in the past two years," he laughs. "I don't remember where anything is. It's crazy!"

For someone that has just flown back to London from Japan, hooked up with his driver and friend, Malachi, and witnessed a shambolic gig by the legendary Jimmy Smith (the original funky Hammond player now in his 70's), his voice and manner is fluid and jocular. His debut album, 'Journey Inwards' drops at the end of the month and long-awaited isn't the word for it. The gestation period seems ridiculous considering it's nearly ten years ago that those revolutionary drum & bass rollers, 'Music', 'Demon's Theme' and 'Horizons' were released to an unsuspecting public and five, since he left the helm of Speed, the legendary club that he ran with Fabio.

If you were a Londoner branching out into your late teens / early twenties in the mid-90's then Speed was one of the defining drum & bass clubs of the scene. Along with Metalheadz it was the 'crossover' bridge between the hardstep of the AWOL phenomenon and fully-fledged success. It was hot. It was subtle and although the open, absorbing music emanating from the decks was lumbered with the moniker, 'intelligent drum & bass'; for a couple of years it kept media tarts and true soul and bass heads on their toes.

Swooning, brooding, bittersweet steppers, the first few 12"s from his Good Looking / Looking Good label were unidentified audio objects from planet funk. But instead of sitting down and composing an album, Bukem decided to consolidate his success by spreading the gospel and if that meant going to suburban clubs in deepest Cleveland, England or Osaka, Japan, then so be it. Alongside former Good Lookers, Photek and Peshay, Bukem became known as the finest creator of deep, ambient drum & bass and the hypnotic, soulful, percussive tunes on 'Journey Inwards' are no exception. Gorgeous yet unassuming, 'Journey Inwards' is an apt title for a disc that unfolds slowly and carefully, that is tough and as deep as a coalmine and is more a series of mantras than melodies.

So, what was going on, why did it take so long? "The first thing is Good Looking and Looking Good isn't just about me," Bukem asserts, "and I personally think that Good Looking as a label and a sound is bigger than me. To do an album at that point would have been the wrong thing to do. Also, when everybody else was doing their albums, I was doing Speed and yes, Speed was massive in a media-trendy kind of way but it also was small in the scheme of things. To do the album then would have been foolish because I wouldn't have sold very many anyway. Nobody outside a very minuscule circle knew who I was until I began to take the Logical Progression tours to the Four Corners of the globe."

Changing in flow, in almost every song, 'Journey Inwards' is like a walking catalogue of musical styles but it isn't a smash and grab eclectic affair, it manages to avoid any sense of 'underground' crankiness or blatant unoriginality to make uplifting music that doesn't pander to fey spirituality or trends. The obvious precedents are house cats such as Larry Heard and Detroit techno producers, Derrick May, Anthony Shakir, Kenny Larkin and Carl Craig. Throw in old school dons such as Herbie Hancock, Curtis Mayfield, Sly Stone, Eric B & Rakim and, of course, Lonnie Liston Smith (70's and 80's jazz-funk musician and producer responsible for Expansions and The Gap Band's 'Burn Rubber' and Yarborough and People's 'Don't Stop the Music') and you have a potent, intoxicating brew of grooves, breaks and chords.

His enthusiasm for Smith and his instrument of choice, the Fender Rhodes has not abated over the years, there's even a 'brand new, you're retro' ode to the Rhodes and Smith on the album, 'Rhodes to Freedom'. 'Yep, I'm still obsessed with Lonnie Liston Smith as an artist. My first love is the music from the Seventies and all the music that featured a Rhodes prominently. The artists kind of achieved 'space' in the music, would know when to space the notes or bars of a tune. It's crazy because although their stuff sounds full and warm, it's also incredibly minmalistic. It's what drew me into their work and something that I try to emulate myself."

It's similar to what Miles Davis would call the less is more ethic of 'jazz' and is one of the reasons that the music of musicians like Smith and Hancock is called jazz-funk or jazz fusion. It's also an ethos that Bukem has followed to the letter in his recording career. Ultimately, however, despite it only having one vocal track, ('Sun Rain'), it's a soul and ecstasy album. The final track, 'Feel What You Feel' is a bloody funky, deep house groove complete with vocoders that will blow you away in a predictably gentle Bukem fashion.

Was it inevitable that you'd turn to house eventually? "I'd like to play house out more too. Last week I played a set of what would now be called Balearic classics. You know, some wicked little club where I could play a house or reggae set. For me, it's not experimenting; it's just what I grew up with. Larry Heard, Derrick May, Juan Atkins and hip hop. Everybody has gone through that if you've been listening to music in the last ten, twenty years. It's impossible not to let that seep into the music. It's always been there, it's just more pronounced now. House, grooves and bass, that's drum & bass anyhow. It's about using the formats to your advantage."

"'Well, half the album is drum & bass," continues Bukem, between mouthfuls of pizza, " I didn't want to have forced vocals in drum & bass because that kind of thing has to happen naturally, I also don't think that drum & bass is about vocals, it's about the music. A lot of people decide to go that way just to have a commercial hit. And the other stuff I didn't find vocals that I liked in the time. What I've been talking about recently is doing the album again, on a semi-vocal basis, now I've got some new people on board."

Guests on the album include Andy Ross on bass and keys man, Kaidi Tatham, a touring member of Herbaliser, one third of Neon Phusion, an Afronaught and a member of the talented Bugs in the Attic collective that include Seiji of Reinforced amongst their number. Introduced by Malachi, Kaidi appears on the track, 'Unlock Your Mind', and watching him play has convinced Bukem he may have to take piano lessons again. "When I met Kaidi seven years ago he was a mad, little flute player," says Malachi. "I was saying to Dan here, you've got to hear this kid jam to seventies beats. All the stuff that Dan is into, you know, Herbie Hancock and stuff, Kaidi is mad about. He was pretty basic back then but six months down the line, it was 'wow, he's bloody great'. We used to jam every single night. "

"He's a joker man," laughs Bukem. "I mean, he's where I'd like to be but I ain't got the time [a frequent complaint], I'd like to sit in front of a Fender Rhodes and play for a few hours but I'm touring here and there, I'm A&Ring and running a label that has a rep."

Like any other potent sub-culture, hip hop say, drum & bass is a state of mind, a state of being even; where for true believers the power of self-expression, the vitality of belonging and a finely honed aesthetic of 'boom' combine to create a feeling of release that can overcome the grimness of life. It's a cliché, right, but it's also something that Bukem passionately believes and despite the fact that his transcendental groove music runs counter to the prevailing real politick or dystopian vision of a few other sub-genres of drum & bass, he's of the 'music is an universal language' school. He insists that the roll call of artistes across the Good Looking, Looking Good, Cookin' rosters are as crucial to the label's success as he is. "Good Looking is a collective, a soul collective," a crew that he's known since his teens growing up in Watford and trying to get him to talk exclusively about himself is nigh on impossible.

A grafter, and with his level head and neutrality, Bukem doesn't run Good Looking as an omnipresent, all-knowing, in-your-face leader. Staffed by his mates and with the notorious manager, Tony at the helm of the business, longevity is the name of the game. Good Looking are a cosmos that can set their own agenda and Bukem is the walking, talking, mini-tycoon on a mission to celebrate the atmospheric drum & bass that the label has been promoting for ten years. The proceeds of the 'Logical Progression', 'Progression Sessions' and 'Earth' compilations more or less look after everyone, and as an imprint, Good Looking, its sisters, Looking Good, Cookin (a new-ish downtempo subsidiary whose 'Soul Food' compilation is out now) and the planned house label are clearly a launch pad and safety net for all the artists.

And he's honest and generous enough to admit that some of his artists would not have received coverage initially without his stature and backing. "It was about using me as a pulling tool," he says, "to get people listening to what else Good Looking had to offer. On the Logical Progression and Progression Session tours I wouldn't take the main sets and that has propelled the label into the future."

Talking about the future, Bukem is concentrating on moving Good Looking away from being solely a compilation label and with the reception that greeted the Big Bud's mini-album, 'Infinity+Infinity' last September, he's looking into moving on to the next level, artist albums. "We decided to strike out as a compilation label not because it's a good source of cash, but because it shows diversity. But in the next few years, man, I'm sure you'll be hearing albums from Intense, Blame, Blu Mar Ten, Tayla, DRS and Seba, they are definitely ready to do albums because they've spent years learning their craft and I've seen what they can do."

The first tune I bought was The Jam's 'In The City'," he concludes. "The first gig I went to with my music teacher was Chick Corea at the Royal Festival Hall and I remember sitting there and being utterly gob-smacked. It was wild. What's going on, man. That was what got me into jazz, strings and Moogs. When I lived in Watford, when everybody was getting drunk, I was on the decks playing music all night, everybody on the label has a similar history. I'm not the only nutter there who spent most of their youth going to clubs, smoking puff, listening to house, hip hop, two-tone, dub, soul, Detroit techno - that's the sound of Good Looking and of drum & bass."

Watch out world stage, LTJ Bukem is about to take the spotlight.