Ram Records comes of age. Benjamin Goode reports.
The Happy Birthday chorus rippled across Fabric’s smoking area, to and fro and back again, while inside madness was breaking loose. Andy C and GQ came correct right after Marcus Intalex’s storming set with their customary élan, polishing off what was left of the crowd’s inhibited restraint.
Whipping up an energetic frenzy seldom seen at a drum and bass rave these days, with exuberant youths starting mosh pits (with little respect for the toes of aged geriatrics like me), were the MCs shooting green lasers and presiding over a night of almost magnificent proportions.
By the time Chase and Status came to the stage of Room 1 with their usual high octane mish-mash of the finest electronic music, it was clear that this Ram was in full flight. Stage left and completely hidden by the giant Ram insignia hung from the ceiling, Andy C fresh off the decks, peered through the cracks in his oversized stencil at the sea of the upraised goggle-eyes, sunglasses indoors, hoods up, tops off – just in time to catch the bassline drop.
Here Red One, the man behind Ram, shares some of his feelings and reflections. Wonderful.
How much of the DJing that you do is focused around creating an ambience or feeling in a room, as opposed to playing a set that goes all out to smash the venue into tiny little bits?
It’s a bit of both generally. It all depends on the the size / type of the club and the crowd that’s attending. If it’s a mixed crowd up for a party then it's all about creating the party vibes and if it’s more about the “heads” then its time to show off what’s in your box and show them you know what’s what. Nine times out of ten though it’s a mixture of both and everyone’s happy.
What are the top five unbreakable golden rules of promotion that you've learnt over the years?
In no particular order I’d say...
1. The right venue
2. The right line up
3. Over promote
4. Don’t get complacent – you're only as good as your last party. This mentality should keep you on your toes and keep you promoting every event like nothing else exists.
5. The best sound system – it’s all about the sound. If you get this right on the night people won't forget it – the cherry on top that too many people forget about.
What's the most extreme (drum and bass related) situation that you have experienced and how was it resolved?
Most recently I guess it was the closure of Matter two weeks before our event was scheduled. It got resolved by the nice people at Fabric accomodating us and letting us move it and all our future shows there.
What was the inspiration behind the name Ram and is it in anyway remotely related to the occult?
It comes from Andy’s star sign Aries (not Capricorn like someone in a well known dnb mag printed!!)
As Ram reaches its eighteenth year, in your opinion how much of drum and bass' future evolution as a musical form is restricted to or dictated by a tempo? Equally is there any room for a new drum and bass label or style in such a saturated market?
Dnb is set at a certain tempo range right now but who knows where it's going to go in the future. There’s a lot of sub genres spawning from the dnb scene at the moment which is all very exciting. On Ram over the past couple of years we’ve released dubstep, electro, and hip hop all alongside dnb. You only need to look at people like Zinc or Redlight (Clipz) and check what they're are doing to see how exciting things are right now. My honest opinion is that people are not really looking at genre tags as much as they were and are just embracing dance music as a whole.
In this respect do you think Ram will start diversifying the range and scope of artists that you represent?
We pretty much encourage all our artists to make what they want. Being 18 years old we originally come from releasing 140 bpm hardcore / rave tracks and like I mentioned before we've released a multitude of genres over the past few years so we’re up for embracing it all. This doesn't mean we’re not all about dnb because we are. We absolutely love it. You can't beat the vibe at dnb events. Just look at the dnb tent at any festival or at a multi-genre event... it totally smashes the place to bits.
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