Delta Heavy have waved the drum & bass flag for 15 years. Their ongoing world tour options the most important North American stretch of their profession, and it appears the world is choosing up on the identical contagious rhythm that’s captivated them since youth.
“Nightlife, going out, clubbing, raving, going to a festival. It’s the perfect way to escape—a bit of a cliché but—from day-to-day life,” Delta Heavy’s Ben Corridor tells EDM.com.
Corridor and Simon James just lately celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of their first report deal. Coincidentally, the previous was 15 years outdated when he first found drum & bass. The sheer scale and technological marvels of contemporary digital dance music festivals dominate social media in 2024, however the scene was fairly stripped again in Corridor’s youth.
“I went to this fairly outdated, posh boarding college within the UK,” he recalls. “A bunch of us went to a tiny membership referred to as Bar Rumba… It’s not round anymore. It hasn’t been for years. You’re proper within the middle of London within the West Finish, within the theater district. Perhaps 250-person capability. You go down the steps to the sweaty little basement. We noticed Bryan Gee, Shy FX and it was DJ Marky’s first-ever present within the UK.”
Equipped with patch-job fake IDs and can-do attitudes, Hall and friends found themselves in the center of London’s underground rave scene.
“We 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’t know how. Also, we all looked really young. There’s no way we looked 18.”
It’s 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.
“I’d got into electronic music through trance, progressive house and new school breakbeat which was really popular in the UK at that time,” Hall said. “But then we went to this night and the energy and rawness blew me away. I never really looked back after that.”
Delta Heavy released their third studio album on August 23rd, their highest charting LP to date. Their love letter to the genre, Midnight Forever is a “cathartic” trip down memory lane and a deeply personal project that bottles their youth and presents it through a modern lens.
It’s the same philosophy that drives Delta Heavy’s visuals. Their global tour debuts a new visual experience intended to bridge the gap between different generations of ravers.
“When we first started going out, it wasn’t really a visual experience. It was very much dark, sweaty, smoky and underground,” Hall explains. “We wanted to capture a little bit of that feel and vibe in the album while also creating a little visual world.”
Drum & bass is now quickly changing into vacation spot viewing on lineups in North America. Acts like Delta Heavy and Chase & Standing commonly fill out competition phases and venues. Corridor sees the lightbulbs going off, very like it as soon as did for him.
“It actually feels within the final 18 months or so, a wider viewers is listening to it and getting used to the rhythmic id of the music,” he says. “I believe the primary distinction lots of people have discovered is that previously whenever you’d hear drum & bass at a giant competition, individuals didn’t actually know what to do.
“I believe when it comes to the BPM, one thing like dubstep or entice has plenty of synergy tempo-wise with rap music,” Hall adds. “Drum & bass at 172, 174 or 175 beats per minute, it’s fully distinctive in digital music. I believe individuals have been fairly confused within the US initially. ‘How do I dance to this? What do I do?’ You’ll be able to’t actually head-bang at that tempo. Nevertheless it’s actually one of the, most energetic music to bounce to. Individuals are getting that right here lastly.”
Watch the full interview below and purchase tickets to Delta Heavy’s remaining 2024 tour dates here.
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