June Miller
Mark McCann & Bart van Dijk Trace the very tendrils of drum & bass and you’ll hit hardcore. Acid house’s ugly little brother, its extremities resonated with a whole generation, boosting them with an energy and focus the dancefloor had never experienced before. Trace the very tendrils of June Miller and you’ll hit a wholly different type of hardcore… But a very similar story. A transcontinental duo, Mark McCann and Bart van Dijk met under bizarre circumstances. Mark ran a small independent record label in the UK, Bart played guitar in a Dutch hardcore punk band Deluge. Neither of them knew of each other’s existence. One morning Mark received Deluge’s album ‘Spot In The Shadow’. Unsolicited, to this very day he still doesn’t know who sent the CD to him. Pressing play, the band’s uncompromising energy and attitude instantly inspired him. He picked up the phone and organised a UK tour. Extensive jaunts around Europe, during which Mark and Bart had formed an incurable alliance. Bonded by the fine balance of hardcore’s beauty and brutality, they started exploring other genres of music, eager to find the same unabated spirit they loved so much. It didn’t take long before they struck gold: drum & bass. The ruthless sound design, the unashamed drive and fiery tempered tempos; the switch came naturally. Applying their musical knowledge and intuition to drum & bass they got to work, picking up production skills and learning the scene’s roots with the fever that initially united them. Within a year they felt confident enough to get their material out there. June Miller was born. They wanted something ambiguous, something you can’t quite define, something you have to dig a little deeper to understand. With a brazen, diverse sound that matched the name, June Miller soon took the world by storm. Within a year the duo had already scorched the scene with their distinctive, no-holds-barred technique. Renegade Hardware legend Loxy was the first to pick up on their talent and potential, signing them to his well respected label Cylon. A ‘Best Up & Coming Act’ accolade at the Dutch Drum & Bass Awards soon followed. As did releases on Horizons, Deep Soul, Renegade Hardware and Critical… Each release revealing a new depth: Icy tech-laced rhythms, savage bass sneers, forthright melodic hooks and complex sonic textures. Each release securing them more bookings around the world from Croydon to Croatia. It wasn’t long before they attracted the attention of Ram Records. Andy C had been following them since their very first release and made the bold move to sign one of their most distinctive releases to date: ’64 Thousand’, featuring Mark and Bart’s old friends, a hardcore band named Secret Handshake Club. A rocket-fuelled boundary-breaking fusion of June Miller’s biggest passions past and future, ’64 Thousand’ was unlike anything else on the scene. Released on the label’s new-talent- hyping ‘Dimensions’ series it caused tremors across the globe’s dancefloors. Maxing the rave richter scale to breaking point, it forged an exciting new relationship with Ram Records. A relationship that’s cemented a new level in June Miller’s career. 2012 saw the duo go into disciplined studio hibernation. Crafting a whole new legion of tracks for Ram, refining their sonic skills to a whole new level. Devout evangelists of the of both hardcore and drum & bass’s extremities, June Miller resonate with an exciting energy and focus that the dancefloor has only just started to experience…