Squarepusher
At this time, Tom was becoming obsessed with bringing a "dark psychedelia" to Drum and Bass (which would eventually reach its zenith with "Go Plastic" from 2001).
During this period Tom also made a remix for Ninja Tune's DJ Food, which featured on the e.p. "Refried Food". The remix led Ninja Tune to offer Jenkinson a record contract, which along with an offer from Belgium's R&S records he declined in favour of a contract offered by Warp Records, which was partially instigated by Richard D. James.
Correspondence between Richard D. James and Tom Jenkinson sprung up after meeting at The George Robey. The resulting meeting led to Tom's first hearing of the "Hangable Auto Bulb" e.p. which Richard had brought with him. But the meeting also facilitated Richard's initial selection of Tom's tracks that went on to form the "Feed Me Weird Things" album released on Rephlex Records in 1996.
Malcolm Middleton
Middleton released his first solo album "" in 2002, followed by "Into the Woods" in 2005. After Arab Strap split in 2006, the album "A Brighter Beat" was released in 2007. The first song on the album "We're All Going To Die" was released as a single on 17 December and started off with odds of 1,000–1 against becoming the Christmas number one – reportedly the highest odds ever quoted. After support from social networking websites and from BBC Radio 1 DJ Colin Murray, the odds dropped to 9–1, and Middleton was 4th favourite for Christmas Number One behind Leona Lewis, Katie Melua ft Eva Cassidy and "The X Factor" winner Leon Jackson. Murray started supporting the song as a response to repeated Christmas chart domination by manufactured pop acts churned out by the likes of "The X Factor". Middleton has said that, despite the song's negative-sounding title, he feels the song perfectly sums up the spirit of Christmas – the need to make the most of life while we have it. On the UK singles chart dated 23 December 2007 the song reached number 31, with the Christmas Number One being a cover of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston's "When You Believe" performed by Leon Jackson. The publicity around the single gave Middleton significant mainstream exposure for the first time in his career.