Born over a decade ago in the multiracial London dance scene, drum 'n' bass had a hard time gaining much of a foothold here in the U.S., where the genres that helped spawn it--house, techno, dub reggae, and hiphop--tend to predominate. But drum 'n' bass has recently blipped onto the radar in America. Method Man being featured on the Roni Size track "Ghetto Celebrity" is definitely an indicator of times to come.

Drum 'n' bass has also found another vehicle, in the figurative and literal sense, to help promote itself stateside: skateboarding culture. Since the late '80s, and now more so than ever, skateboarding has used the gritty street-level imagery of urban hiphop as its soundtrack. Skating has always been obsessed with technology while maintaining a "keep it real" mentality, which makes its more recent union with the unrelenting, THC-soaked futuristic beats of drum 'n' bass an inevitable progression.

Compound Records is a store here in Seattle that helped broker this recent marriage. Marcus Lolario (who also runs Sugarshack Unlimited, which puts on the Baltic Room's popular Tuesday drum 'n' bass night), along with Catlin Richardson and Rinse, started Compound Records last year primarily as a DJ 12-inch record store, but they are currently expanding to house even more skateboarding hard and soft goods. Now you can pick up that newest Demonic single, throw in an Element hoodie and some Ghetto Child wheels, and be that little drum 'n' bass rebel that you've always wanted to be.

The outsider mentality is what drum 'n' bass and skateboarding have always thrived on, and is what will help them continue to evolve. NICOLAE WHITE

Compound Records, 1520 E Olive Way, 860-0013.