HEXADECIMAL

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RANK	SCORE ?	GENRE	LOCATION
27197	1	Breaks	Nottingham, GB

Related Labels

• Heavy Disco

Scott Reeder and Ben Harvey's introduction to the club scene will be a familiar scenario to most; a mate takes you out to a club for the first time, you're consumed by the atmosphere, the music, the crowd and whatever else is on offer and leave the place feeling irreversibly blown away.

Now however, as breakbeat DJ and production duo Hexadecimal, it is Scott and Ben dealing out the blows. They describe their sound as "quite raw, busy, energetic and exciting" and the difficulty in pinning them down to one description is a tribute to Hexadecimal's captivating originality.

Scott's inaugural steps into dance music were taken to the sounds of drum & bass and house music, while Ben started out immersed in the oldskool, frequenting London's first major techno night Knowledge back in 1992.

While Ben's confidence in his talents took a little more nurturing than Scott's, who arrived at university in Nottingham already determined to become a DJ, fortunately their passion for performing fell into sync in the suitably shadowy surroundings of perhaps the most underground of clubs in the city, The Lenton.

When Scott joined the line-up at breaks night Method, he and Ben regularly played back-to-back and a strong link was forged that extended from their musical tastes to their existing friendship.

Moving into more comfortable surroundings the duo took their skills into the studio and onto the airwaves with a slot on Nottingham Trent's university radio station Fly FM. Their show Weekend Breaks alternated between their own live sessions and guest mixes supplied by the likes of the Plumps, Krafty Kuts and Lee Coombs.

Two years later the roles were reversed, with Hexadecimal filling guest slots on Kink FM in Holland, internet station Proton Radio, Kiss FM and the mighty Radio 1. Off air and on the club scene, Nottingham has witnessed this pair of players quickly earning a name for themselves synonymous with unmissable breaks sets. Regular appearances at legendary underground club The Bomb - including slots at Breakdown, Tyrant, Spectrum and a residency at Drop The Bomb - were bolstered by further bookings at big room techno and breaks night Firefly, supporting Utah Saints, the Plump DJs and Freestylers.

Always riding the wave of progress Hexadecimal caught a big one when they landed two residencies at new venue Stealth, for Detonate and award-winning breaks night Spectrum. Their reputation has also started to travel, with gigs in Bristol, London and soon Europe, when they embark on a Spectrum tour to Spain and Croatia this summer.

But when it comes to getting noticed, nothing travels as fast and as far as music itself and Hexadecimal have been forging ahead in this department too. Ben's unfaltering talent for production (backed by a handy job as in-house engineer at one of the country's best recording studios, Electric Mayhem) has met its perfect partner in Scott's musical flair, resulting in incredible track after incredible track.

The duo found an avid supporter in James Zabiela, who has helped spread their sound across the world and whose debut album GTDJ001 featured the Hexadecimal remix of Sound Alliance's The Hit. Then there's the Plump DJs, who loved another of their remixes - Sound Alliance, From Home (Distinctive) - so much they used it as the opening track on their Fabric Live CD.

Now it seems everyone wants a bit of those unmistakable Hexadecimal breaks, with signings to Heavy Disco and releases on Silicon Hustler and CPRecordings. This is definitely some action worth getting a piece of.