BRIXTON, LONDON:

DJ Nails

Hard House supremo Neil Burden, a.k.a D.J Nails, has come from relative obscurity to establish an entirely new genre of hard house-super hard, and more importantly, hyper fast.

"Hard house has gone from hard to harder," said Nails, a London born d.j who has witnessed the meteoric rise in popularity of the burgeoning hard house scene firsthand. "My aim is to push the envelope even further."

"What we've seen with the whole movement is continued demand for more, harder, and faster," he said. "I mean take a look at guys like Fergie- he's been taking crowds through up beyond what used to be considered the limit-160 B.P.M."

Only until recently it was widely considered by most in the industry that playing repetitive, sampled hard-edged sounds that form typical hard-house records faster than 160 beats per minute, or "B.P.M" as they are known in the trade, was too aggressive and beyond the wider acceptance of most main-stream dance floors. Nails claims his playing has now taken popular well-known hard house tunes into previously uncharted territory- the majic 300 B.P.M mark.

Mach 3 Album Cover

"It's a totally crowd-driven vibe," claims Nails, "and the dance floors are just going off to it all- take a look at the way people used to dance before 200 was broken…totally shuffling around, mucking about with their hands in the air, I mean come on, that's not really dancing."

A quick look out on to the floor at one of his nights confirms Nail's claims. Punters jerk and beat like gut fish, the energy is simply breathtaking. Tune after tune the beats keep coming hard and fast, they way they like 'em down here. Soon we push easily and steadily through the 200 mark. 230…240…260 ... it's a wild sonic assault, a beserk, frenetic, mad house as the dials hit 300, and you soon realise that not a single hand is in the air- there's no time for that sort of carry on as the crowd thrash in one gargantuan, co-ordinated, mass epileptic seisure.

Unsurprisingly, Nail's unique style has not gone without its critiscm "Yeah sure, I've gotten a little flak from certain circles," says Nails "but those guys have got to wake up and realise that this is what the hard house community is demanding. I mean come on- 160, 170? What's that all about?…even 200 b.p.m - for Gods sake, that's for pussies."

Not content just to play other people's tunes at his own blistering pace, hyper-house affecionado Nails has recorded his own singles on the up and coming album "Mach3". Early critic's claims that one track in particular resembled a stuck c.d were defended by Nail "That's because it is," he said, " we sampled a jammed c.d playing over and over, and laid it right over the beats that matched out, and look at the result-hyper hard"

Blender - The single

And it seems that the samples Nails uses for his tracks are also the inspiration that define the genre that is the new hyper hard house sound. And they come from a surprising source - whitewear kitchen appliances. On his seminal tune "Blender" Nails says "Everyone's familiar with the ubiquitous hard-house 'hoover' sound, but our challenge was to sample and use household appliances that represented our own unique styling, and the question was-how fast can we go?

What kind of appliance gives you more that 300 b.p.m/ r.p.m? Can we go quicker than a blender? And the answer was no- no we can't, and so that's what we did. Hence the title, and hence the sound- pretty obvious really, 'cos that's exactly what is is. A Blender."

Nails conlcuded " It's time for a new sound, and that's whats going on down here..we've had house, we've had garage, and now with the likes of Blender, it's time for a new era…'Kitchen'." "Blender" features on the album "Mach3: Power of Sound" released on the Kitchen label. Available September 20.