Crate Diggin’: Mob Tactics select five RAM camp essentials

Drum & bass labels don’t come much more certified than RAM. For almost three decades Andy C’s imprint has been one of the genre’s leading powerhouses, considered the de facto benchmark for boundary-pushing 170BPM club music. Aside from the legacy left by the man dubbed “The Executioner”, RAM has also helped launch fruitful careers for giants like Chase & Status and Sub Focus, all while supporting the scene’s grassroots through its various offshoot outlets. For our latest Crate Diggin’ feature, we asked Mob Tactics to pick out five of the camp’s most essential artefacts – the type of thing that should be causing a storm at ProgRAM’s full label showcase in Room Two this Friday. Ahead of landing alongside Audio, Original Sin and more, they told us: “It’s so hard – almost impossible – to narrow down five favourites from a camp that’s so prolific with literally hundreds of incredible records. In reality it probably should have been a top 100, but here are five standout moments for us.”

Shimon & Andy C – Mutation (Remix) [RAM]

This RAM gem goes back to 1997, and in our opinion signified the dawn of a new era in drum & bass. It sounded so futuristic back then. Everything about this track just had an almost tangible metallic, crunchy sound. A firm favourite of ours to this day!

Legion & Logam – House of Cards feat. Adam Wright [ProgRAM]

This track appeared on ProgRAM a few years ago and is one of our favourites from these guys. Every track they do just oozes emotion and vibe, and this one is no different. The vocals are absolutely on point too. The American trio nailed it!

Decorum – Contrax [Liftin’ Spirit]

Back to the nineties again! This time an absolute face-melter of a tune by Contrax that appeared on what was RAM’s solitary sister label back then, Liftin’ Spirit. This track is so aggressive and gnarly, it still sounds huge some twenty years later. And don’t even get us started on that snare! Killer.

Crissy Criss, Malux & Erb N Dub – Rollerball [ProgRAM]

Back to more recent times and we chose the fantastically sludgy Rollerball by Crissy Criss, Malux & Erb N Dub. This one is a favourite of ours by these guys, and it’s great fun to mix with as well. Easily up there with the crème de la crème of the ever-growing ProgRAM back catalogue!

RAM Trilogy – Beastman [RAM]

And as always, we saved the best for last – the absolute monster that is Beastman by the legendary RAM Trilogy. Hands down our favourite ever track from the RAM camp, and right up there as one of our favourite drum & bass tracks of all time. Remember hearing Andy C drop this at The End back in the early 2000s, and completely and utterly losing it. This track is one of the blueprints to keeping it techy yet funky – a formula we ourselves always try to adhere to. This is unquestionably a stone cold classic, and a track we’d literally lose an arm to remix. BEWARE THE BEASTMAN!