High Contrast: D-N-B With Melody

By Lily Moayeri
Published in the December 2004 issue of DJ Times Magazine
Volume 17 - Number 12


When Lincoln Barrett (aka High Contrast) released his debut album True Colours two years ago, he brought a fresh and appealing musical touch to the often-harsh elements of drum-n-bass. Genre-leader DJs from Roni Size to Grooverider, Andy C to Fabio were playing his tracks, but, true to its nature, the always-skeptical drum-n-bass cognoscenti seemed to say, “Yeah, but what are you going to do next?” The superb High Society (Hospital Records) is his answer, and those same DJs have to agree that High Contrast is no flash in the pan.

The 24-year-old Barrett spends most of the time between albums touring globally, playing to a crowd. But when it comes to studio work, Barrett says he lets very little of what happens in the d-n-b world affect his productions. In fact, the Cardiff, Wales-based DJ/producer admits to becoming self-contained when working out in his home studio.

His work process revolves around an Apple Macintosh G4 (both desktop and Powerbook) running Cubase SX 2.0 in OS9 (although he has upgraded to OSX since the completion of High Society), and a Proteus 2000 sound module (which he plays as a Rhodes, not MIDI). The rest of his sounds come from VST instruments such as Yamaha’s CS80, the Moog Modular, Native Instruments’ Kontakt, and Steinberg’s HALion.

Part of the reason for Barrett’s highly musical perspective on drum-n-bass is his approach towards the melody first, rhythm second. Having played keyboards for over 10 years, he will more often than not start a tune on the Proteus, or build on a sample taken from old records.

“The most important element for me is the musical sample at the core of the track—the key to the groove,” says Barrett. “As I’ve been traveling DJing, I buy records that aren’t available outside that country, [things] that I haven’t heard of. There’s no point in buying too many Quincy Jones records or anything that’s been done by a lot of people, everyone knows the sounds.”

Using synths for the bass sounds, Barrett plays the notes he wants on the Proteus, recording them as an AIF file and multi-sampling that in Kontakt or in the CS80 (for a more analog sound). He also uses IK Multimedia’s Amplitude guitar amp simulator plug-in when he wants a deeper, dirtier-sounding bass—he also uses Amplitude for getting grimier drum sounds. He uses up to five different breaks and cuts or layers them, then compresses them. Says Barrett: “It’s a lo-fi way of using hi-fi equipment.”

While True Colours featured primarily sampled vocals, High Society has three different vocalists—Dynamite MC, Spoonface, and Nolay. Interestingly, the title track, which features Dynamite, was not originally the tune he was singing over. “Only Two Can Play,” another cut on the album, was the backing track he was given. When Barrett attempted to work the vocal into the track, Dynamite’s voice was fighting with the guitars for space. By randomly placing Dynamite’s vocals over “High Society,” Barrett found that the gaps in his phrasing perfectly matched the sounds in the tune.

“There’s a lot more harmonies going on and doubling up on the vocals,” he says of his latest project. “With ‘Angels I Fly With,’ MC Nolay did two takes. She got it pretty much spot-on, so I had one going into the left and the other going to the right. She did a train-of-thought, non-stop rap not structured to verses and choruses. I recorded it all, edited it, and worked out what I wanted as the chorus, and learned what was going to be in the verses. It was almost like sampling off a record, choosing what bits you want to use.”

On the non-vocalized tracks (like “Racing Green”), Barrett shows a genuine gift for using ARP synth-sounding guitar lines. “It was a sound I’ve been trying to get for a long time, so it was nice to find it,” says Barrett, who snared the elusive element from an old funk record. “But it needed a lot of cutting up and processing to fit into drum-n-bass. I had it as a loop for a while, and I put a little beat underneath it and a bassline. [Hospital Records said] it’s such a strong loop, [I] could probably roll it out based on that loop. But I thought, ‘There’s too many straight-up, filtered tunes out there.’ I wanted to flesh it out, develop it, and bring in other elements. I cut up that vocal over it and it gelled perfectly, [and I] brought in more strings and ARP-sounding synth lines.

“What I find interesting about the track is, although it’s the most musical-sounding track I’ve ever made—the most non-stop, brash orchestrations—at the same time it’s one of the [best] dancefloor tunes. From the first time I played it, it’s been getting rewinds. For me, that is probably the best example of something which is dancefloor-friendly, but also musically engaging.”