- A four-hour odyssey of golden-era tech house and UK garage (and more), recorded live in Philadelphia.
- For some dance music fans, Hamish & Toby may be their new favourite DJs thanks to a recent US tour and excellent sets at festivals like Glastonbury, Dimensions, Houghton and Freerotation. 2022 was, after all, a breakthrough year for the UK duo. But in their own, close-knit world of Discogs fanatics and vinyl purists, Hamish Cole and Toby Wareham are admired and established names. They met while studying in Leeds, bonding over a shared love of wiggly bombs at countless clubs and hazy afterparties. They ran events (Butter Side Up, Dog Eat Dog), DJ'd tirelessly and continued to dig for obscure gems. Within a few years, they were both working full-time music jobs in London, booking Dimensions Festival (Hamish) and The Pickle Factory (Toby). (Hamish is now a director at Dimensions.) All in all, they've dedicated the past 15 years of their lives to dance music.
For all their behind-the-scenes work, Hamish & Toby's true love is DJing together. They're known for their long, expressive sets that go, in their own words, "all over the map." Their RA Podcast, which was recorded live at Philadelphia party Subsurface in May, is a four-hour odyssey through golden-era house, tech house and UK garage. Proper party music, in other words. According to the duo, they were "fully locked in, as comfortable as we've ever felt DJing." It really shows.
What are you grateful for these days?
Toby: In no particular order: my family and friends, our new home, the garlic razor clams from Singburi and Arsenal being half decent again.
Hamish: My fiancé, family and pals, doing what I love the most and being able to travel again. The last few months have been life changing for me and I'm extremely grateful.
How and where was the mix recorded, and can you tell us the idea behind the mix?
It's a live recording from a gig in Philadelphia last May. The party was in a pleasingly raw warehouse in South Philly—the toilet arrangements were pissing against a stack of burned out cars in the yard—and our homies John and Keen from Subsurface really know how to set up a room, so the decks and sound system were totally spot on.
We've put out a few recordings over the years, but this one's our favourite. It's about as locked in as we've ever been, and the tunes go all over the map, which is very much our bag.
You guys DJ together more often than not. Who brings what to the equation, and how did your tastes both mingle and differ?
We pretty much always DJ together nowadays. Both of us love all kinds of music—not just dance music, everything—and we have different but complimentary tastes.
It's hard to put our collective finger on who brings what exactly. We just work well together, on and off the decks. Always have done.
After all the upheaval of the last few years, has how either of you guys dig for records change? And how do you decide which records you each bring when you play together?
Lately we've spent more time physically digging. Record shops, warehouses, private digs.. it's a more satisfying experience than scratching around Discogs, and the tunes you find are more personal for having that story behind finding them.
We never discuss what to bring to a gig. There's no need, as we always have wide-ranging records in our bags, enough to adapt to any warm-up set and cover all eventualities. Plus it's way more fun vibin' off your mate and improvising.
What's one social or political cause you want the world to pay more attention to?
There's so many worthy causes. Plenty that we ought to pay more attention to, let alone wanting the rest of the world to. One that's close to our hearts is continuing to support Ukraine. We spent so long glued to our laptops reading about it, but eventually life begins to get in the way. Now it's starting to slip from the UK headlines, which is scary, because the war is still raging on. Love to our Kyiv mates.
What are you looking forward to in the near future?
Hamish: Some downtime after a very fun and hectic summer. Lots of digging. Winter pub sessions, watching snooker and eating roast dinners.
Toby: Cosy boy Autumn, rewatching Succession, and the odd weekend away playing sexy tunes.