Shout out to everyone who sorted out tickets for the launch of Andy C’s XOYO residency tonight. This is your time. Easily the hottest ticket in London town this weekend, it marks the start of something special. Not just for Andy, not just for London but for drum & bass.
Representing the genre’s intimate underground club roots and celebrating the role of the resident, Andy’s 13 week role at the 500 capacity venue is a chance for many people to hear him play in the environment where he cut his teeth and chiselled his kingly reputation for the very first time.
A far cry from stadiums, concert venues and festival mainstages, this is Andy taken us back to The End and The Paradise Club. This is Andy taking us back to times when drum & bass was establishing its voice and presence and no one in the scene had any idea just how worldwide and influential it would become.
He’s packing an all-star cast across the 13 weeks with some of the most important names in drum & bass joining him over the run of dates. From Randall to Calibre, Ed Rush & Optical to Fabio & Grooverider, each night celebrates a different chapter of the genre.
“We’ll be able to explore some very special eras,” Andy told us in an interview last November. “We’ll also be having different nights with guests where the whole vibe and my set will be based on that sound or that feeling that individual guest invokes.”
With the residency launching tonight we thought we’d look back over Andy’s discography and see what feeling he’s invoked through his many projects and collaborations. From Trilogy classics to recent firebrand remixes, here are six of our favourite Andy C-related productions…
Randall & Andy C – Sound Control (1994)
22 years old and counting… This record was a dream come true for Andy as he got to work with the DJ who inspired him the most during his formative days: AWOL don Randall. With its mad time-stretches and layered drums, this captured a significant era as jungle as morphing and mutating into drum & bass and idea of rules or boundaries was far from anyone’s mind. Randall told us the story about it last year and explained how it blows his mind when people drop it to this day.
Shimon & Andy C – Night Flight (1996)
Welcome to Roller City. Population: You. Those swift, loose breaks, the fluctuating sub, the raw funk… This is one of the best drum & bass classic of all time full stop. If you’re looking for more minimal dark funk like this try Cause & Affect by Andy and Ant Miles’ Concept 2 project. Ooof.
Origin Unknown – Sound In Motion (1998)
Rather than picking the obvious Valley Of The Shadows (which is, without question, a seminal classic that still pops today) we’ve picked Sound In Motion from Andy and Ant Miles’ Origin Unknown era. A perfectly restrained heads down roller with an elastic bassline that turns itself inside out. Moody, unrelenting and coded with a dark sense of funk, this still sounds future.
Ram Trilogy – Screamer (2002)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRf4wDCdNVw
You could fill a Top 20 with Ram Trilogy tunes, let’s be honest. Screamer seals the deal due its dramatic sci-fi intro, that raw sweaty vocal sample and the talkbox bassline. A challenge to mix on vinyl but such a high impact tune to drop – this tore down walls and melted heads when it came out in 2002.
Andy C – Finders Keepers (2006)
Famously on dub for about half a decade – Finders Keepers first appeared on Andy’s Nightlife 3 mix in 2006 but wasn’t released until 2011 as part of Ram’s 100 package. A heady workout with dreamy pads but a blunt bottom end, this one’s a real journey track.
DJ S.K.T Feat Rea – Take Me Away (Andy C Remix) (2015)
True Faith’s iconic vocals have been repurposed with precision skill over the years… Notably by The Prodigy on Warriors Dance but also by Andy as he tear’s DJ S.K.T a new one on this classically rooted version. Representing Andy’s relatively recent return to the studio, the teasing gaps of silence and multiple bass textures ensure this track’s place on the list.
