High Contrast is the stage name of Welsh drum and bass DJ and producer Lincoln Barrett. He was born in Cardiff, Wales in 1979.
s and film soundtracks rather than music, and still cites Wendy Carlos's A Clockwork Orange soundtrack album and the Vangelis soundtrack for Blade Runner as defining musical influences. Whilst studying film making in Newport, he heard J Majik's Arabian Nights which turned the then 17-year-old Barrett onto drum and bass music.
A short time after he began to make music, he was given a DJ residency at Cardiff's drum and bass night, named Silent Running. During his residency at Silent Running, Barrett played alongside artists such as Grooverider and London Elektricity.
Barrett's sound can be simply classified as drum and bass, but many other music critics are beginning to call his specific sound "liquid funk," the sound first defined by Fabio. It is sometimes described as uplifting jungle.
His music contains many motifs and elements found in House music, such as androgynous time stretched vocals, electric pianos, violins and low-pass filtered samples.
In June 2002, Barrett's debut LP True Colours was released on Hospital Records to critical acclaim, with 'Return of Forever' and 'Global Love' finding their way into the UK singles chart. His second album High Society was one of the most successful drum and bass albums of 2004.
On 6 April 2003, High Contrast was featured on the prestigious BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix show. His mix included most of the then current liquid funk anthems, mostly from the Hospital Records label. On 9 January 2005, this Essential Mix was replayed on Radio 1 when another drum and bass artist, Andy C, was unable to deliver his mix.
