Hyperactive!

Guy Hatfield first experienced dance music during the early nineties, at free parties organised by the DIY collective in his hometown of Nottingham.

However, Hatfield soon tired of the deep house music that prevailed at these nights, which by his own admission was enjoyable when he was under the influence but then I d go home and listen to the same music and discover it didn t have the same appeal! If it s not working for you in a sober state, then it s not working for you properly at all. I looked for something that was more interesting.
It was around this time that the first Mo Wax records were appearing, which, coupled with a regained love of electro, became the soundtrack that Hatfield immersed himself in while playing on a pirate radio station in Nottingham and studying to complete a music management course. As soon as he had qualified, Hatfield moved to London, which led to a job with a house music-based promotion company.
Realising that their new employee had a huge knowledge of the emerging breaks scene, the company sensibly gave him the money to set up Waxworks to represent this sound. Currently, the company works for esteemed breaks labels and acts like Push, Hybrid, TCR, Reprazent, Red Snapper, Kosheen, Way Out West, 10 Kilo, Freskanova and Whole 9 Yards, while Hatfield aka Hyper s own career has accelerated in the last twelve months, largely due to his back room residency at Jon Digweed s Bedrock night and the Y3K compilations he s compiled for Distinctive Breaks. While the first installment was hailed by many as the definitive representation of the nu-breaks sound, the second in the series is as essential. Threading together artists as seemingly
disparate as Anthony Rother and Sasha, it s a blatantly across the board selection.
I m a complete electro freak so I had to include Anthony Rother, replies Hyper. At the same time, I wanted to represent everything I m into. I start the night with electro but I play breaks too.
It doesn t matter what you call it, I concentrate on the thing that excites me, which is breakbeat music, be it progressive, electro or the harder, TCR stuff. My ideal is to play all kinds of breaks and that s what I try and represent on the Y3K albums, that s why Rother and Sasha are on there
Weaving everything from nu electro to prog trance elements into his sets, Hyper is adamant that the breaks sound is more versatile and inclusive than the kick drum that techno and house are constrained by. There s so much more you can do with breaks, he offers. There s so much more scope, whereas using a 4/4 is very limiting. If you re a producer and you ve been at it for a few years and all you ever use is a kick drum you re going to get very bored with it. Obviously, the next level is breaks, which is more intricate. So many more people have got involved now and take notice; even house DJs have incorporated it into their sets to stand out. That s why you get people like Dave Clarke playing the B.L.I.M. remix of Rother. This is where the boundaries cross again because electro is directly related to techno and all the techno DJs are going mad for it. It fits nicely and shows that breakbeat has so many different facets.
Hyper adds weight to his argument with the benefit of the first hand experience he s gained from his DJ stints around the UK. While the back room music of choice was drum n bass, it has been superceded by the slower, funkier and ultimately more accessible alternative, nu-breaks.
I recently had the same conversation with Jon Digweed regarding Bedrock, Hyper agrees. He was saying that he d tried drum n bass in the back room but people can t go for it. They walk out of one room and it s 135 bpm and then they walk into the next room and it s 175bpm and they don t know what to do! Breakbeat was a natural thing for them. That s the whole concept of the Y3K compilations, to broaden the appeal of this music, to get it out to a wide audience, the people who wouldn t often hear it.
While things have moved fast in the last few years for Hatfield over the last few years, he s retained a maturity not normally associated with twenty three year olds. With his first productions appearing on Whole 9 Yards and two heavyweight, highly respected compilations behind him, he nonetheless remains unfazed about his growing profile.
I was in a position where I could get to these people easily and it was also what I was DJing, so it just made sense to me to do it, he explains. I just thought it would be a great way of putting together an album of break beat that summed up what was going on in that scene. It s underrated music and it seemed to me the perfect way to get it out and get people interested.
It s a really exciting time for this music, he continues; However, my big problem is that the music press don t take any notice of us. I m not sure if that s a conscious decision or not. Our record sales are increasing, things are happening, but they don t seem to want to know about us or give us any credit. People like Hybrid and Rennie Pilgrem have been around for years, making incredible music and they still don t get the props. That s the frustrating aspect. But, otherwise, I couldn t be happier!

Y3K Volume 2 is out now on Distinctive Breaks.