An unsung hero of the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony: High Contrast

July 28, 2012

Last night then, there was the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in glorious London.

Whilst Danny Boyle was picking people up from their tubs labelled variously Mild Cynic, Medium Cynic and Hyper Cynic before gently placing them all in the huge tub labelled Awestruck Convert there was another man doing a lot of work but not getting the props.

Boyle’s props are hugely deserved of course. Us Brits don’t like to big ourselves up that much. We’re much better at self-depreciation, and most of us thought the ceremony would be a semi-embarrassment, at least on some level.

As it happens, Mr Boyle absolutely SMASHED IT. His witty, ambitious and bombastic show has really done the trick, simultaneously showing the world that Great Britain can really put on a serious party, and changing the attitude of a huge swathe of the country from one of bristling irritation or indifference to one of pride and excitement about the Games.

Our straw poll today didn’t find anyone who hadn’t decided that, actually, having the Olympic Games here is the tits and Britain is actually proper legit.

Mr Boyle can count this writer among his converts, (I’m cynical about anything that everyone else likes, for a start, and I rely on the tube and train network to go about my day job so I wasn’t looking forward to the one million extra people travelling around). I was always proud that my city was hosting The Greatest Show on Earth, but, come on, what a hassle. Now I’ve got Olympic Fever and walking around London today I was beaming. Props, Danny, props! (There isn’t an apocalypse on the tubes either. I bet that’s his doing too).

Woah, we’re getting carried away.
This is a music blog, let’s get back on track.

 

The man we mentioned above, the man heavily involved in the music of the ceremony, is High Contrast. The Welsh drum n bass producer, a mainstay of the Hospital Records camp, was asked by Underworld (they’ve already had a lot of props for their part in the ceremony, but big up all the same for playing techno records to The Queen) to work on the Athletes Parade.

You’d jump at the chance wouldn’t you? High Contrast, known as Lincoln Barrett to his mother, and Link to us because we’re really cool, did so, as his blog post explains.

Now then, if we’d been working with Underworld for the last ten weeks to produce the music that would accompany the entrance of over 10,000 athletes from 205 countries to the Olympic Stadium, we’d be shooting our mouth off about it left right and centre. And yet; nothing from Link.

On Wednesday night we passed him in a tube station (every time we see him he looks more hair than man) and he didn’t grab us and shout “26.9 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE U.K. AND, ER, LIKE A BILLION ACROSS THE WORLD OR SOMETHING ARE GOING TO BE LISTENING TO MY TUNES ON FRIDAY NIGHT! GET ME!” That’s what we’d have done. He’s kept it quiet, what a humble hero.

Well, we’re not letting it go quietly. Well done High Contrast, you did us proud!

To celebrate, let’s listen to a few of his tunes, without the constraints of the specific brief. And without the U2 remix he was forced to do, possibly at gunpoint (“Had to go in on a U2 remix! Yo bono tah for the remix parts!“) This is The First Note Is Silent with Tiësto and Underworld, where this Olympic journey started:

Wish You Were Here feat Selah Corbin:

And finally, let’s come correct with some classic High Contrast bizniz. Here’s Return Of Forever:

Nice work everyone!

You can buy all the music from the Isles of Wonder on iTunes. Keep an eye on High Contrast at his website.

Tags: Drum n bass, High Contrast, Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, The Olympic Games