Dan Havers and Chris Page, best known to dancefloor D&B-heads as DC Breaks, continue to flex hard as their latest single on Ram Records marks a return to their upfront smash-em-up roots. We premiered the heavy-duty “Bambino” just last week and thought it only right to lock the duo in for a glimpse into the tunes that have changed their lives and continue to shape their sound.
Spawned out of the rave culture which shaped a lot of what we find ourselves doing now, it was a pretty mental mix of reggae, ska, breakbeat, rave, ambient and god-knows what!
Led Zeppelin “Stairway to Heaven” (Atlantic, 1971)
Dan: I first heard this track when I was about 9 or 10 and found it totally inspirational. I learned every note on guitar and it completely got me hooked on rock ‘n’ roll and heavy rock (and later metal). I think this song inspired my love for melodic music, which also has a dark and heavy side. Cue drum & bass!
Bad Company “The Nine” (BC Recordings, 1998)
Chris: It’s perhaps a bit of an obvious classic, but this truly sounded completely different and futuristic when it came out in ‘98. It summed up dark and techy drum & bass in a nutshell, and the raves went completely bananas every time it dropped. Still do! It was a great record to mix with as well, double dropping with anything and everything!
Get it at Spotify | iTunes | Beatport
Adam F “Circles” (Section 5, 1995)
Dan: Something clicked in me when I first heard this record. I’d been doing a bit of production at this point—really basic stuff—and I didn’t really know where to direct my energy. I was into a lot of different music, but this track connected with my musicality and inspired me to pursue a more funky melodic direction at that point. [LTJ Bukem’s] Logical Progression fell into my lap about the same time and I was totally absorbed in it all. It definitely put me on the track musically to where I am today.
The Prodigy Experience LP (XL, 1992)
The whole album was totally new sounding for us back in the early ‘90s. Spawned out of the rave culture which shaped a lot of what we find ourselves doing now, it was a pretty mental mix of reggae, ska, breakbeat, rave, ambient, god-knows what! “Fire” was on TV back then and had this super weird trippy video with a flaming head in it. It was amongst the first “rave” music we’d heard and it got us interested in dance music in a much bigger way.
Get it at Spotify | iTunes| Beatport
DJ Samurai & DJ Kryptik (now known as DC Breaks) “The Future” (Frequency, 2005)
This was the first record of ours that Andy C really got behind, and eventually released, on Ram’s then sister label Frequency Recordings. That’s when our Ram adventure kicked off, and at the time it was pretty bonkers to hear Andy double dropping this tune with the likes of Pendulum and Fresh; we were super proud. It got rewound three times at The End in one night! Needless to say it was the first step on what’s been a long and exciting road.
Get it at the Ram Records Shop