Your EDM Premiere: The New Installment of RAM Rave Is Here

2020 year end and 20201 year preview compilation album season is upon us. It’s a most wonderful time of the year where all the D&B labels and many bass music labels release epic compilation albums with a number of aims: recapping the past year, remixing some of the best tracks from said past year, or teasing projects coming up in the new year. RAM will, of course, be releasing their epic Annual later this month, but in the meantime RAM Rave, a series the imprint started late last year is still running and they’ve just released Part 4 tomorrow, December 4 on Beatport.

RAM Rave Part 4 continues the cool new direction RAM is taking with lots of diversity in style lots of up-and-coming stars and established nuttahs. From jungle/darkstep mashups from Saxxon and Carasel to heavy dancefloor tunes by Hillsdom to spacey throwback rave vibes from Focusfire, this compilation is coming raw and correct for its last installment of 2020.

Our premiere from this epic album comes from Smooth, a name which a lot of heads may not immediately associate with RAM but he’s definitely not just and Eatbrain darling. The Slovenian artist has released on Viper, Fricition’s Elevate Records, Liquicity and Technique just to name a few. It seems he got into the RAM bloodstream with his decidedly neuro dancefloor banger “Romp Thang,” and along with his collab track “Shogun of the Dark” with DC Breaks in Part 3, Part 4‘s installment “Intergalactic,” Smooth will be the only artist on three of the four RAM Rave comps. Guess they like him.

“Intergalactic” is, on an album full of choppy, ameny, brain-scrambling tracks, surprisingly the smoothest (he doesn’t get that name for nothing). Don’t get us wrong; it’s still a bass-heavy kick in the teeth with whip-smart snares. The composition and sound design, however, tie all those aggressive elements together with a host of cool distorted video game sounds in a way that makes the listener feel like they’re actually living inside an old Space Invaders machine (check the background beats; almost certainly inspired by of not directly sampled from the old game and then sped up).

There’s so much going on along the timeline of “Intergalactic” that it almost seems like it’s telling a story. A very loud, steppy story but a story nonetheless. It’s these kind of sonic tapestries that Smooth weaves in his tracks that make him so in demand, regardless of label or genre. “Intergalactic” fits perfectly into the larger, deep and dark story of RAM Rave Part 4 and without trying to jinx too much, here’s hoping he has his own multi-track on the legendary imprint soon.

RAM Rave Part 4 is out tomorrow, December 4. No pre-orders this time, but stop by the RAM Records website for platform links on the day (US fans go to Beatport or Spotify).