10/09/2025
Kia ora fans it's Part 3 of the Hexadecimal story. This installment is focused on the first Hexadecimal production. A remix that kickstarted everything!
In my previous post, Ben and I had started to make a name for ourselves in the local club scene. Ben had joined me as my producer at Fly FM, and we were just starting to experiment with our music.
Ben came from a background of Big Beat and early Hardcore, and I was transitioning from my love of Trance into a love of breaks, a move that sped up when I heard the truly groundbreaking Plump DJs "Elastic Breaks" Mixmag cover CD.
At that point, I was our main DJ and Ben was our main producer, and it was a partnership that worked. Our first proper releases came a little later, maybe with 'Cold Rock' / 'Funky See Funky Do' on Vinyl Addiction (Fingerlickin's sister label). Both of those tunes started as loops I made in Reason, which we then jammed on together.
Every duo needs a hustler to drive them forward, someone with determination, belief, and the ability to make connections and create opportunities. It's a role I was born to play.
When I was 16, I got my first real job at a fruit packaging factory near Cambridge. I started working there on weekends, picking mouldy oranges off conveyor belts. When I moved out from home at the same age, I picked up shifts on days I wasn’t at college.
I quickly moved up the ladder, from grading, to tipping, then packing, then stacking, and eventually being allowed to drive a forklift, with no training or license. I have so many stories from that factory, like the time I caused a huge explosion that shook the whole place and wrote off a forklift. It was s**t, but it was a good experience for me. It motivated me to make sure I didn’t end up back there.
Anyway, what was the point of this side story? Oh, now I remember. It was at that s**thole that I made friends with another forklift driver who lived on the same council estate I had moved into when I left home. When I told him I was heading to Nottingham for uni, he gave me the number of a good mate of his, Leo, and told me to hit him up when I was there.
Around Easter in my first year, I did exactly that. I cycled halfway across the city to meet him. When I arrived, I realised I had finally met my people. I made sure to hang with those guys at every opportunity, and was soon accepted into the crew.
Leo’s housemate at the time, Lee, was also a DJ. He played progressive house and, with others, ran club nights at The Bomb, a legendary venue whose head promoter James Baillie seemed to have some magic power to discover future stars before they even knew it.
The club was underground, with minimal lighting, maybe just a laser, a phat soundsystem, and sweat dripping off the low ceiling. I saw Sasha there at a Tyrant night when I was a fresher, alongside Craig Richards and Lee Burridge. I could have reached out and touched him (I didn’t), but I loved how the DJ and the crowd were on the same level.
Soon, it would be Hexadecimal standing where Sasha was, playing sets at Tyrant, Renaissance, and other world-renowned club nights.
Back to the story... Lee was also part of a Tech House DJ/Production duo called Sound Alliance. I can’t recall exactly how it happened, but Sound Alliance had one of their tracks signed to be featured on James Zabiela’s first licensed mix compilation.
James had quickly shot to DJ fame after winning the Muzik Magazine "Bedroom Bedlam" DJ Competition in 2000, and signed with Excession, the same DJ agency as Sasha, who took James under his wing as his protégé.
I was getting to know the Sound Alliance boys pretty well, and I spoke to them about Ben’s abilities in the studio. Lee mentioned that Zabiela also loved his breakbeats and suggested we try remixing one of their tunes and send it to him.
We were given the parts to "The Hit" and set to work. A few weeks later, it was done, and Sound Alliance came to Ben’s studio (bedroom) to hear it, and they loved it.
We burnt it onto a CD to send to Zabiela, but before we did, we needed to come up with a name. "Scott the Lost the Plot" and "Mr Ben" needed to start taking our music seriously.
Chris (the other half of Sound Alliance) pointed to a Hexadecimal conversion chart on the wall of the studio, and that was that. Zabiela received the remix, which was a hit. We got the news he wanted to sign it for his compilation too.
We met James, when Zabiela, Sound Alliance and Hexadecimal took over The Bomb for the GTDJ001 CD launch party.
Hexadecimal was on the map, but soon would be on the radar of a duo we’d come to know as Andy & Lee, but at that point, we knew them better as The Plump DJs.
I have an amazing story to share with you, and how we nearly messed it all up! But it’ll have to wait until the next post. Thanks for listening, much love x
