Brixton Electric was home to some of the scene’s biggest and most influential individuals on Wednesday as we hosted the eighth annual Drum&BassArena Awards. With the entire venue crammed with music lovers, Charlie Tee and Jenna G played host to a packed house.
With two new awards to present, and a few old ones switched out along the way, everything about the night felt refreshed and re-energised as we all united to celebrate the music we love and the talented minds involved in it.
Noisia scored the biggest sweep of the night with three awards for Best Album, Best Producer and Best Video. They were closely followed by double-trophy scoring DRS who not only picked up gold for Best MC but also had his dulcet deliveries recognised. Break won the first ever Critic’s Choice award (voted by a panel of 50 music writers and bloggers) and FABRICLIVE winning Best Club Night resulted in a standing ovation.
Another huge applause came when the legendary Randall was anointed into the Hall Of Fame, and again when he stepped up to play a seriously mind-blowing influences sets after the trophies were handed out.
As always though, the real winner was drum & bass…. It’s been an exceptional year for the genre with more new labels entering the fray, established labels consistently delivering outstanding releases and countless future classic albums.
As Jenna G said last night – 2016 has been a vintage for D&B. This is reflected in the size of this year’s event: registered voters were over treble the amount of previous years and came from more countries than ever before, ensuring a wider of proportion of the scene was represented throughout.
A huge thanks to everyone who voted and joined us last night. And a huge congratulations to these guys….
Best Video – Noisia – Mantra
Best Vocalist – DRS
Best Newcomer – Signal
Best Newcomer Label – MethLab
Best Club Night – FABRICLIVE
Best Festival – Let It Roll
Critics’ Choice – Break
Best Label – Hospital Records
Best Remix – Children of Zeus feat. DRS – Still Standing (Lenzman Remix)
Best Track – Mefjus – Suicide Bassline VIP
Best Album – Noisia – Outer Edges
Hall Of Fame – Randall
Best MC – DRS
Best Producer – Noisia
Best DJ – Andy C