Contributing Writer
Beloved DJ and producer Skream returns with ‘Your Love’, the vibrant new single featuring Bajan singer Lagoon Wavey out on 23rd June.
Showcasing Skream’s genre-hopping brilliance, ‘Your Love’ combines acid arps, grime melodies and jungle techno breaks. All it needed was Baijan artist Lagoon Wavey‘s smooth vocal delivery, and the result is a wonderfully vibrant concoction that creates goosebump moments. Skream has become a shining example of the power of musical diversity, skillfully weaving together a variety of styles and influences in a way that makes sense.
“11 years ago I was on holiday in Barbados and met a man named Sam, who had booked me to play through another friend Dj silver and his family who owned a cafe on the beach (Cassareep cafe) who I hit it off with straight away… 9 years later Sam hit me up saying he had an artist I might like to work with”, Skream says of the track’s origins. “At this time I was working on trying to merge multiple genres into one and the original instrumental of ‘Your Love’ was me trying to merge grime synths with jungle techno and acid. When the message from my friend in Barbados came through it couldn’t have been more perfect timing! And there I had it: a rave, jungle techno, grime, acid, RnB-influenced track. BOSH!”
As one of the UK’s best-loved selectors Skream (AKA Oliver Jones) has enjoyed the kind of consistency most DJs and producers can only dream of. His passion for collecting and playing music is unrelenting; disco, house, techno and everything in between… it runs deep into his core and he lives it every single day. Following early collaborations with fellow genre pioneers Benga and Loefah, he released one of dubstep’s most easily recognizable tracks, ‘Midnight Request Line’, before releasing one of the genre’s earliest albums, Skream! In 2006. Commercial success soon followed with Skream’s involvement as part of supergroup Magnetic Man (with Benga and Artwork), whose self-titled debut album reached #1 on the U.K. dance chart in 2010. Never limited to one genre, Skream has also produced countless remixes for an array of artists (including La Roux, Depeche Mode‘s David Gahan and Klaxons), house, techno and electro DJ mixes such as 2018’s Fabriclive 96, and a relentless conveyor belt of single releases on every label in dance music worth mentioning, from Steel City Dance Discs, to Circoloco Records to Crosstown Rebels: the list goes on and on… and on… regularly providing heavy club ammunition.
Skream has achieved more in the last two decades than most people do in a lifetime, yet his hunger and enthusiasm is akin to that of a man who is only just getting started. Today, he operates in a genre-less field, shifting between styles at will, standing tall outside the bounds of one particular sound.
Born and raised in Barbados, the island’s rich cultural and musical history is a huge source of inspiration in Lagoon Wavey’s music. Grandson of the notable cricketer and national hero Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Wavey is not just another studio artist, but also a comfortable live singer, avid writer, reader and champion of his national art and culture. Recent EP Black Water saw Lagoon Wavey showcasing himself as an artist determined to honour his heritage, whilst effortlessly updating it to the modern era – with support from COLORS, Radio 1 & Apple’s AWA Global New Music playlist.
‘Your Love’ is a collaborative and genre-hopping masterstroke, weaving its way through countless sounds and influences to arrive at that singular Skream sound.