High Contrast
"The name High Contrast is a philosophy," explains Lincoln Barrett, the man behind the moniker, "When I started making drum & bass in the late ‘90s it was very dark, masculine and techy-sounding. I really wanted to flip that, to sample disco and be more feminine. People laughed at me but it was ahead of the curve, and more people started doing that. Now it’s time to find another way of changing it..."
High Contrast has been at the leading edge of the scene for 15 years. He curated music for the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony; he's worked with everyone from Underworld to DJ Fresh; he's headlined festivals; he did a timeless Fabriclive mix; and he's one of dance music's elite remixers, achieving acclaim for reworks of Adele, Duke Dumont, White Stripes, Kanye West and, of course, London Grammar's 'Strong'
Just before he graduated Lincoln signed his first record deal with Hospital, went straight into music and "shelved the film thing". The next years were a whirl of global travel, establishing his DJ name and firing out genre-defining tunes along the way. 2002’s ‘Return of Forever’ from his debut album ‘True Colours’ was the first High Contrast cut to break scene-wide, played by everyone from Fabio to Hype to Andy C. It was a groundbreaker in that it was melodic, uplifting and epic, but was also light and not aggressive.
"I used to think you could be more prescriptive making an album," he says, "then I realised you can’t control it in advance, you’re better off just following your heart and not overthinking it. Music is an escape from the linearity of narrative and language and from a whole lot else."
And when High Contrast wants to escape, it is a very tempting proposition to go with him.