{"id":1050,"date":"2024-09-25T16:48:59","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T16:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orangefiles.me\/?p=1050"},"modified":"2024-10-19T10:39:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-19T10:39:04","slug":"delta-heavys-love-letter-to-drum-bass-from-fake-ids-and-smoky-rooms-to-the-world-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orangefiles.me\/index.php\/2024\/09\/25\/delta-heavys-love-letter-to-drum-bass-from-fake-ids-and-smoky-rooms-to-the-world-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"Delta Heavy's Love Letter to Drum & Bass: From Fake IDs and Smoky Rooms to the World Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Delta Heavy<\/a> have waved the drum & bass flag for 15 years. Their ongoing global tour features the largest North American stretch of their career, and it seems the world is picking up on the same contagious rhythm that\u2019s captivated them since youth.<\/p>\n

“Nightlife, going out, clubbing, raving, going to a festival. It’s the perfect way to escape\u2014a bit of a clich\u00e9 but\u2014from day-to-day life,” Delta Heavy\u2019s Ben Hall tells EDM.com<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Hall and Simon James recently celebrated the 15th anniversary of their first record deal. Coincidentally, the former was 15 years old when he first discovered drum & bass. The sheer scale and technological marvels of modern electronic dance music festivals dominate social media in 2024, but the scene was quite stripped back in Hall\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to this quite old, posh boarding school in the UK,” he recalls. “A bunch of us went to a tiny club called Bar Rumba\u2026 It\u2019s not around anymore. It hasn\u2019t been for years. You\u2019re right in the center of London in the West End, in the theater district. Maybe 250-person capacity. You go down the steps to the sweaty little basement. We saw Bryan Gee, Shy FX and it was DJ Marky\u2019s first-ever show in the UK.”<\/p>\n

Equipped with patch-job fake IDs and can-do attitudes, Hall and friends found themselves in the center of London\u2019s underground rave scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got in with these really ropey fake IDs,” he continues. “The bouncer kept grabbing us from the crowd and peeling the IDs open. Somehow mine passed the test. I don\u2019t know how. Also, we all looked really young. There\u2019s no way we looked 18.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how many holes Hall had in his rave-punched card by this point, but he was already an electronic music enthusiast. Hall had been spinning vinyl on his Technics 1210 turntables since he was 12 or 13. Still, no amount of adolescent DJing could prepare him for the breakdance pace of drum & bass.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d got into electronic music through trance, progressive house and new school breakbeat which was really popular in the UK at that time,\u201d Hall said. \u201cBut then we went to this night and the energy and rawness blew me away. I never really looked back after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delta Heavy released their third studio album on August 23rd, their highest charting LP to date. Their\u00a0<\/em>love letter to the genre,\u00a0Midnight Forever <\/em>is\u00a0a “cathartic” trip down memory lane and a deeply personal project that bottles their youth and presents it through a modern lens.<\/p>\n

It’s the same philosophy that drives Delta Heavy\u2019s visuals. Their global tour debuts a new visual experience intended to bridge the gap between different generations of ravers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we first started going out, it wasn\u2019t really a visual experience. It was very much dark, sweaty, smoky and underground,\u201d Hall explains. \u201cWe wanted to capture a little bit of that feel and vibe in the album while also creating a little visual world.”<\/p>\n

Drum & bass is now rapidly becoming destination viewing on lineups in North America. Acts like Delta Heavy and Chase & Status regularly fill out festival stages and venues. Hall sees the lightbulbs going off, much like it once did for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly feels in the last 18 months or so, a wider audience is listening to it and getting used to the rhythmic identity of the music,\u201d he says. \u201cI think the main difference a lot of people have found is that in the past when you\u2019d hear drum & bass at a big festival, people didn\u2019t really know what to do. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think in terms of the BPM, something like dubstep or trap has a lot of synergy tempo-wise with rap music,” Hall adds. “Drum & bass at 172, 174 or 175 beats per minute, it\u2019s completely unique in electronic music. I think people were quite confused in the US initially. ‘How do I dance to this? What do I do?’ You can\u2019t really head-bang at that tempo. But it\u2019s honestly one of the most, most energetic music to dance to. People are getting that here finally.”<\/p>\n

Watch the full interview below and\u00a0purchase tickets to Delta Heavy’s remaining 2024 tour dates here<\/a>.<\/p>\n