Music producer extraordinaire Ant Miles is not only widely known and respected for his achievements in the music industry, but for his willingness to pass his superb understanding of music production onto others. Over the last decade he has helped bring through and educate the likes of Andy C, Shimon, Red One, and Moving Fusion, to name but a few. To date Ant has been involved in some of drum'n'bass most prominent collectives, including
Origin Unknown - creators of the ground breaking "Valley Of The Shadows", a.k.a Long Dark Tunnel, a track that some describe as the first ever drum'n'bass anthem and Ram Trilogy - creators of various classic tracks, including "No Reality", "Chase Scene", and the almighty "Screamer".
In the world of drum'n'bass, Ant Miles is nothing short of a living legend.
After leaving school, Ant spent a few years working at a recording / rehearsal studio complex in Dagenham. Ant used his position to learn everything there was to know about working with bands, not just the logistics of testing microphones and setting up drum kits, but people skills too, an essential skill for music industry progression. It wasn't long before a few high profile bands began using this studio, and Ant began to make many contacts. At the age of eighteen Ant was the in-house engineer and programmer. After a few years there he left to build his own studio, and started working on some of his own creations such as "Its U" as Rainbow Country. However, it wasn't long before destiny had its way and Ant met Andy C. Ant was really refreshed to see what Andy was creating with breakbeats and liked what he heard, so he suggested that it would be cool for the pair to link up at his studio. Andy quickly accepted Ants offer, and the next day Andy moved what equipment he had into Ants studio.
It wasnt long before the pair had their first tune, a track titled "Turn On", released under the name Desired State, which came out on Karma Records in 1991. The track was successful, which encouraged the pair to keep doing what they were doing, at which point the tracks started flowing. Its important to note at this point the music was still very much hardcore, it wasn't until they heard a few of jungle's earliest creations that their mindset totally changed. On hearing jungle, the pair knew immediately that was the kind of stuff they really wanted to be making, as it wasnt restricted to 4/4. The pair went onto make one more massive hardcore tune, "Dance the Dream", which got spun by all the biggest DJs of the time including the mighty Grooverider, and to their surprise it made it onto Kiss FM too.
What happened next changed everything, not only the conception of Andys Ram Records (which put them in full control of their own product) but the music that they created for it too. After Andy had released his first solo project, titled The Sour Mash EP, the pair went in the studio and came with a 12" which would change the face of dance music forever. On the A-side was "The Touch", but as it happened all the fuss was about the B-side, "Valley of the Shadows". Ant describes the making of the track as the pair of them just going off on an experimental tangent, but when the tune was finished they knew they had something special. As the track couldn't be classified as hardcore, they decided to change their name to Origin Unknown, a name which would come to be globally respected and never be forgotten in dance music history.
Throughout the 1990s Origin Unknown became an extremely powerful force. What's more, as the tracks were completed Andy would showcase their music perfectly in his brilliant DJ sets around the country. Their next collaborative hit of epic proportions was "Truly One" featuring a sample from President Nixon. The tune was truly symbolic of what Ant Miles is all about, dance music and its multi-cultured foundations goes deep with Ant, and although it was President Nixon saying "All the People on This Earth Are Truly One", it might as well have been Ant saying it.
The next such people to benefit from Ants wisdom were Shimon and Red One: both good friends of Andy C with good characters. Ant pressed all the buttons explaining everything, and on both occasions they walked out of Ants studio with underground hits, Shimon with "The Predator" and Red One with "Alive and Kicking" and "The Futurist".
One thing that must be mentioned is that as a direct result of Ant going on the more musical tip with Red One in the studio, it was decided to start another label called Liftin' Spirit Records. From that point on the gang had two labels to feed.
Although over the following years Ant did work in the studio with a number of different artists, his main focus was still working with Andy. Ant recalls during this period there being a lot of interesting new music technology for them to get to grips with, pushing each new product to the max was something they both enjoyed doing.
By 1996 they had a whole load of quality material to put out and consequently agreed to release Ram Records first album: Speed of Sound. The album featured a lot of strong material from Origin Unknown including "Lunar Base", which Ant considers as one of his personal favourites. The Speed of Sound was a huge success, it picked up a variety of industry awards for both Best Album and Best Producers, and if it hadn't been done already, it cemented Ram Records as one of the most powerful forces in drum'n'bass.
Not sure what to do next, they let destiny lead the way again once more. As it happens Shimon severely broke his leg in a number of places, which left him cemented to his studio for a number of months. Rather than leaving him there on his own Ant made a noble effort to join him a lot of time. Consequently the pair began working on many ideas, but it wasnt until Andy stepped in and added a brilliant bass line to their first nearly completed masterpiece, that the incredible "No Reality" was finished and the exceptional Ram Trilogy collective was formed. Ant describes the three producers together in the studio as a real potent situation, and the resulting Ram Trilogy Chapter Series confirms this. At this point in time the collective were on top of their game and were producing a hit record a week, which included the likes of "Chase Scene", "Mind Overload" and "Beast Man" as a result. It wasn't long before they decided to release Molten Beats: Ram Trilogy's debut album, which smashed up dance floors and received critical acclaim from the specialist press.
The second multi-artist project that Ant was involved in and turned heads was the release of Ram Records second label compilation album Sound in Motion in 1998.
Ants other achievements that need to be mentioned include a variety of high profile remixes. These include Origin Unknown's award winning remix of Busta Rhymes hit record "Woo-Haa!" which Ant describes as being both an honour and a privilege (Muzik Magazine 1996 Best Remix). This provoked an extremely high profile remix invitation from Jay Z for "Can't Knock the Hustle", which featured vocals from Mary J Blige. The result was a dance floor smash, which consequently opened up a lot of doors, including a whole host of superb remixes for the underground, such as:
"Tough at the Top" for the EZ Rollers,
"Warhead" for Krust,
"Where's Jack the Ripper?" for Grooverider and Optical,
"A Drum, A Bass & A Piano" for Nookie,
to be totally frank theres too many to mention! * See the discography!
Since the turn of the millennium, Ant and the rest of the Ram family have been busy embracing the latest digital music technology, he admits it was quite a task transforming from a hardware based studio to almost entirely software based, but something that he enjoyed doing nonetheless. Ram Trilogy's Screamer EP confirmed that Ant and the Ram Raiders were still on the pulse. The EP sold and sold, with its title track becoming one of the biggest tracks of 2003, and nominated, although narrowly beaten, in Knowledge Magazines Best Tune category.
In 2004, Ant enjoyed working with a few more vocalists than usual like Kimani with "Night Vision" and Sare X with "Soak It Up", both released on the immensely successful Ram Raiders series. Ant also worked with Andy on an Origin Unknown remix of Adam Fs summer anthem "Sun Goes Down". Later in the year Ant was featured in a special December issue of Knowledge Magazine with an in depth look at how recording equipment has changed in the last decade.
2005 saw Ant taking most of the year out, transferring the colossal Ram and Liftin' Spirit sound library to the Apple G5, and generally refitting the studio anew. Ant admits that it has been a long new learning curve to get the sound right using software rather than hardware, as well as getting to grips with all the innovative soft-synths and samplers coming in to the scene.
In 2006 Ant linked up with an old friend mixing two of his tunes namely 'Ruthless' and 'Our World' under the guise of BoneShaker on Sudden Def Records.
Finally, all that remains to be said is that Ant Miles and the Ram Raiders are back on top of their game so be ready to for the next chapter.
Words By: JHO (www.ramrecords.com)
Liftin' Spirit Discography
Knowledge Magazine Interview December 2004
