This week we will be joined by drum & bass heavyweights Delta Heavy & Optical!
From 6pm until 8pm on Friday (12th December) and streamed live via DJ Mag TV, they’ll mix up a selection in the tiny club at the back of our office before hitting Fabric for Ram Records christmas party later that night…
About Delta Heavy
Delta Heavy are the most exciting duo to hit dancefloors since Chase & Status and Nero, although if anything their music is even harder and heavier, darker and more multi-textured. Having conquered the clubs, however, their newer tracks are becoming more song-oriented, pointing towards a debut album that will surely be hailed as one of the year’s best, designed to satisfy bass-heads and traditional music-heads alike.
Simon James and Ben Hall – met at Nottingham University in 2003 they zeroed in on the city’s drum & bass scene spearheaded by nights such as Detonate and clubs such as Stealth.
Si was the musical one with the background playing instruments while Ben was the one with a penchant for sound engineering and a background as a DJ. It proved the perfect combination. After graduating, they wound their way back to London where they both acquired computer software. “And,” recalls Si, “because both of us had the same interests in music, we thought we’d align our knowledge.”
After several years of hard graft, their debut release appeared on Viper’s acclaimed Acts Of Mad Men compilation in June 2009. They had a cut on the Harry Brown soundtrack, followed by the anthemic Abort in June 2010, which received widespread recognition from the underground as well as support from the mainstream. They signed to drum & bass mogul Andy C’s Ram, label home of Chase & Status and Sub Focus, establishing themselves as credible newcomers with Space Time/Take The Stairs. The former was nominated as Best Track at the 2010 Drum&BassArena Awards while earning Si and Ben nominations for Best Producer and Best Newcomer DJ.
They remixed Example, Avicii, Chase & Status ft. Tinie Tempah, Rita Ora and Nero, making Delta Heavy ones to seriously watch. Their next release, Overkill/Hold Me, confirmed their reputation as bass innovators, mixing extreme electronic noise with low-end frequencies while acknowledging the need for a commercial imperative. The video to Hold Me received over a million views in a little over a week and daytime radio plays from Sara Cox as well as specialist spins from Skream & Benga, Mistajam & Kissy Sell Out.
They spent the rest of 2011 DJing around the world, from Australia to USA and Canada, and releasing a splendid EP’s worth of music in 2012’s Down The Rabbit Hole.
They have released almost two dozen tracks since their inception but Delta Heavy don’t consider that particularly prolific.
About Optical
Optical (Matt Quinn) is owner of Virus Recordings and has been involved in the electronic music scene since 1988. He has been at the cutting edge of Drum & Bass production and DJ’ing from its birth and continues to push the sound into the future, as a solo artist and in collaboration with long-time studio partner Ed Rush.
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