Playlist of the Week: A Little Sound
A Little Sound
Hi everyone, A Little Sound here! Six years ago, I would have never believed that being a full-time touring DJ would be my job! My entrance to the drum & bass scene was through songwriting and toplining, starting my journey when releasing with Kanine and Technimatic back in 2019. Don't get me wrong, I've always thoroughly enjoyed selecting tunes and hogging the aux at the uni house party, but I never imagined that I would have toured most of the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand in the last four years - all because my boyfriend and I bought our first decks to fuel our DJ hobby during lockdown.
I continue to write and release music with incredibly talented producers and writers, alongside touring the world and curating vocal/DJ sets that deliver a unique live experience for the audience. My sets include an eclectic mix of all that drum & bass has to offer, from the more chilled liquid dance floor bangers, all the way up to the heaviest jump up; while carefully ensuring my vocal tracks sit comfortably amongst the madness!
So this list is "a little" insight into the kind of sounds I lean towards when preparing a set and what a member of the crowd can expect to hear from an A Little Sound show...
It's certainly A Lotta Noise.
A Little Sound's five-track A Lotta Noise EP drops Friday, June 20 via Ministry of Sound Recordings. Buy it on Beatport.
I thought it made sense to kickstart this list with my latest single "Override", as it's a little insight into the kind of music I'm working on as an artist at the moment and I feel it really reflects me as a writer, but also the type of tunes I select as a DJ.
"Stars" is about how much changes when day turns into night and you feel like you can finally release yourself from what life has thrown at you. This one is produced by the incredibly talented Arcando and we wrote this on the first day we met and worked together! I also had the pleasure of collaborating with the icon Katy B on this one and we worked super well together in session. I really love the way Arcando's production skills make a track feel like it could fill an arena and that's exactly the feeling I get with this one.
This recent track from Kanine has been an absolute set weapon for many over the last few months and I've really enjoyed watching the crowd reaction when this one drops. The perfect combination of a vocal track that also hits heavy on the dance floor - a combo I'm always trying to achieve!
So this is a collab between the UK and New Zealand scene, combining elements of 1991's dance floor influences with ROVA's innovative new sound and I'm totally here for this combination. This is the kind of track that I would always reach for when wanting to catch the crowd off guard - they expect A Little Sound, but you give them A Lotta Noise kind of tune...
"Bad Boy Horns" takes me back to the unique Bristol flavour that I can't get enough of, paired with the more current elements of modern DnB and it has birthed a track that I simply cannot remove from my set. I always like to give a nod to my Bristol roots and Born On Road family, so this record does exactly that!
Now I chose to include this track as it instantly fast forwards time to festival season and the summer sun. Any tune that can transport me to a better time, I'm all for it and Etherwood and Hugh Hardie have nailed this!! Sooo catchy and feel good.
An unexpected direction for Serum, but a beautifully nostalgic track nonetheless and I'm left wanting more of this sound. I love it when my favourite DnB producers switch up a more commercially available tune, it always works a treat!
When three of the biggest producers link up on one track, you know it's going to be a winner! Austria and the UK have joined forces with the hauntingly beautiful vocals of ILIRA, where the sound design and production is honestly so euphoric, but hard hitting all at once!! This one will make the hairs of your arms stand up.
[IVY] is really paving the way for female producers and continues to release banger after banger! I just love how she always includes influences from all genres of dance music, from trance and techno all the way to the heaviest 4x4 drops of drum & bass - may the genre-blending hits continue!
The perfect set finisher! I have LOVED everything that John Summit has been putting out the past year or so, so when one of my favourite producers put out a drum & bass remix, you really can't go wrong. HAYLA's soaring vocals send me into a state of euphoria and there's no better way to end a show than to leave people on the verge of happy tears...
