Loadstar

Loadstar is the drum and bass partnership of Gavin Harris, previously known as Xample, and Nick Hill, known as Lomax. Their backgrounds brought different skills to the project: Harris grew up in Bristol, while Hill combined a classical musical upbringing with an interest in studio engineering. They first met through a university booking in Liverpool and later reconnected in Bristol, where their separate recording careers developed into a shared one.

The project emerged on RAM Records, with Link to the Past marking its early identity and the album Future Perfect following in 2013. Loadstar gave the pair a name under which they could develop music together, combining the weight of their club records with a broader interest in melody and arrangement. It was a collaboration between established producers, rather than the discovery of two newcomers working under a new alias.

Their second album, I Need the Night, took a more concentrated route. In a 2017 UKF interview, they described three months of focused work, with Harris travelling from Bristol to Hill’s London studio. The record made room for several approaches: they identified All Junglists as jump-up, while Walking on Water stepped outside drum and bass. That range matters when exploring Loadstar’s catalogue. Its heavier tracks and melodic material belong to the same partnership, without every release needing to fit a single style.