ATTENTION: We are another week closer to major speaker meltdown as the release of Drum&BassArena 2012 draws nearer and nearer!
Just in case you missed last week’s shout out, Drum&BassArena 2012 showcases 40 essential club-busters over two CDs including eight tracks you will not find anywhere else!
Last week we caught up with Sigma for a behind the scenes chat on their contributions, and this week we’ve called up Ram’s title fighter Hamilton. Not only is his single Rich Kids one of the 40 bass bullets on our forthcoming release, it’s also causing a furore on our download store this week too.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwTJunkFP0c
With amens spitting and kickdrums double-hitting, Rich Kids is what you might call a ‘next level’ number. Keep saved at the back of the wallet when you want the real carnage to take place – timing is everything with heavy duty gear like this. Hamilton, however, prefers to play it cool…
“To be honest it just kind of fell out,” he laughs. “There’s no real intricate processes, it just came together. I’m a big fan of amens and that jungly style. The bass was a happy accident too really – I’d been playing this little bass pattern and I time stretched it and it gave this really mad sucking and whoosing quality. I thought ‘cool!’ Sometimes you can do a track and it can be hard work in places and other times you do stuff and it’s like ‘fucking hell! How did I do that?’ I love those kind of tracks.”
He should know, he’s done a few. Hamilton may be a relatively new name on the scene – having made a grand entrance with Soundboy on Andy C’s ever-firing Nightlife 5 release – but things have been ‘falling out’ of his studio for almost 20 years, crossing various genres from two-step to hard dance. However, just like Rich Kids, his exclusive signing to Ram, is a next level deal.
“It was amazing to get a call from Ram!” he beams. “I’ve been doing music for a long time. Different genres. Different styles. But when I entered the drum and bass genre, I aimed for the top. If I was going to do it then it’s a case of doing it with a big label or not doing it at all. To be honest I actually thought Ram was a bit out of my reach! I’ve followed the label from the start, I’ve got all their releases. So, yeah, it is a proper dream come true…”
Dream come true… And something of homecoming. It turns out Hamilton’s earliest work was hardcore flavoured and, as such, is part of the founding fabric of D&B DNA.
“I don’t wanna say ‘coming home’ but it’s definitely a full circle,” he nods. “One of my first releases was on a label called Knite Force as DJ Ham. It was what you’d call classic old school breakbeat. I’ve ventured into the worlds of hard dance and hard trance but drum & bass really ties together everything I’ve loved about dance music. The breakbeats and basslines have gone away from other genres I’ve been involved in. In drum & bass they never went away.”
And neither is Hamilton. Check out his very first release right here…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6X6E4mqGjQ
Rich Kids is just one of 40 concentrated bangers delivered directly on Drum&BassArena 2012, available on April 15th (download) and April 16th (CD)
Watch out for the launch party at XOYO, London, April 13th featuring Brookes Brothers, Phace & Misanthrop, Break, Total Science, Interface and Lowqui.