Drumsound

Drumsound is a drum and bass duo from the United Kingdom. It consists of SR and Benjamin Wiggett, and it operates as a sub-group of Drumsound & Bassline Smith. The project is associated with Technique Recordings.

Background

Drumsound is part of the wider Drumsound & Bassline Smith act, formed around the partnership between Andy Wright, Benjamin Wiggett and Simon Bassline Smith. The connection develops after Wright and Wiggett meet Bassline Smith at Technique club nights in Derby in 1998. The Drumsound pair have already been making beats for a year at that point, having originally started as a six-person crew.

Style and influences

The music combines drum and bass with the different backgrounds of its members. Andy Wright is classically trained and has a background in indie rock, while Benjamin Wiggett is rooted in drum and bass and has Jamaican family roots. Simon Bassline Smith brings experience from funk and soul and has been active in dance music since the early 1980s.

Work and recognition

Drumsound & Bassline Smith build a long-running profile on Technique Recordings, which celebrates its tenth year in 2009. The act gains repeated play on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra, with support from Zane Lowe, MistaJam, Annie Nightingale and Annie Mac, and it receives playlisting on both stations. It also completes several Radio 1 mixes, including an Essential Mix request in 2010.

The group records reworks and remixes for a range of artists and projects, including VV Brown’s “Leave”, Fugative’s “Supafly”, Chipmunk’s “Oopsy Daisy” for Annie Mac’s Mash Hitz segment, and a re-rub of the EastEnders theme for the BBC’s E20 Music Competition. Later remixes include DJ Fresh’s “Louder”, Afrojack’s “Take Over Control”, and tracks by Daft Punk and Moby.

Singles and touring

The act’s own releases include “Freak” and “Close”, both of which receive Radio 1 playlisting and Record of the Week support from MistaJam and Zane Lowe in 2011. In 2012, “What Can You Do For Me”, released with Utah Saints on Ministry of Sound, enters the UK charts. The group also tours internationally across North and South America, Europe and Australasia, including the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Iceland, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Poland, Switzerland, Uruguay and Norway.