POSITIVE VIBES: A chance for your favourite DJ to shed light on the sounds that make them smile.
Following our chat with Hamilton for our forthcoming Drum&BassArena 2012 album, we tackled him on the ultimate tunes that can’t fail to put him in a good mood. With such a rich history of beats in his repertoire, we knew we’d strike gold.
“It’s so hard to pick things down!” he laughs in faux frustration. “Especially down to single tracks. I really like albums but you can’t pick an album in these things… And I can’t pick one track from an album because it works best as part of the actual album. Anyway, I’ve managed to do it!”
And how… Lock your ears down on the below: one essential slice of rave, one killer anecdote on a classic piece of high energy mid 90s house he performed around the country, and a soul stirring ballad that no repeat rotation of his track Rich Kids could ever hint at!
Enjoy…
Acen – Trip To The Moon Part 3
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6TT0J0pPsQ
“Bit of an oldie this… It’s rush central right from the very start. Real hairs on the back of your neck business. It was very ahead of its time compared to all the other Production House stuff which was the label they were on. And it’s got an absolute killer riff. To me this sounds great now. A classic. A complete and utter classic.”
Powerhouse – Rhythm Of The Night
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96UtOrvkIyY
“This is a track I did with my mate Julian and it’s so much the music itself but massive, massive memories. We did this in 95 using DeBarge’s Rhythm Of The Night chorus. We thought we’d press a few thousand cheeky white labels and within a couple of weeks we had 3 Beat wanting to sign it! We did loads of PA’s around the country and all sorts. Eventually after two years of sample clearance it finally made it out.
It didn’t do so well by then; in 95 it was all about this sound, but by 97 the speed garage sound really kicked off. It only got to number 35 in the end but not too bad… You had to sell a lot more records to chart back then! We just had a really good time doing this. My favourite was turning up at a club for PA as some guy was getting kicked out by the security. He was like ‘are you that Powerhouse? You’re fucking shit you are!’ I thought fair play! It was great crack. It was nothing compared to live shows you see now… It was just us turning up with a couple of keyboards and playing off a DAT or a CD and having a great laugh.”
Beach Boys – In My Room
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l71pbhqnvNM
“I’m not a massive fan of the Beach Boys but there’s something about this that gets me. It’s a toss up between this and God Only Knows but this really catches me. A brilliant piece of music with a real innocent vibe, it connects with something deep down. I’d advise anyone to check it out with an open mind!”
