Your EDM Premiere: Smooth – “Device” [RAM Records]

RAM Records is known in drum and bass and mass music at large for being host to some of the biggest heavy-hitters in the industry both now and throughout the genre’s tenure. What many fans don’t know, however, is that RAM is a big proponent of debuting and featuring new artists and guest works such as the EP from Smooth called Resurrection, due out tomorrow, July 7.

Resurrection has been gaining a lot of buzz for its first single, “Trajectory”, a ravey, almost half-step sounding track and which is already in festival rotation, but before the EP drops, RAM and Your EDM wanted to premiere another track off this high-energy EP. “Device” opens with an interesting mix of big orchestral melodies and trippy, space-inspired samples. Audiences may think “Device” is a halftime track because until about a minute in, where it suddenly dissolves into an amen loop and another halftime break, the real tempo of the track isn’t actually revealed. After the break the track is indeed drum and bass speed or even faster, with a combination of dark, grinding synths and Pendulum-style rolling drums.

Indeed “Device” combines a number of techniques and styles and it sort of a timeline of drum and bass, as it includes almost every era of drum and bass with its deconstructed amens, fractured drums, Pendulum-era buildups and late 90s switchbacks. The modern elements come into play with the spot-on timing and composition. “Device” is thus a very comprehensive track in the scope of DnB, and it’s fairly clear why RAM has chosen it for its RAM25 series. Smooth has done a great job of paying homage to drum and bass’s past and present, while also looking to the weird an wonderful future to come.

Ressurection will be out on RAM on June 7.