“I wanted to make an album that was unapologetically about the genre I love—drum ’n’ bass,” Nicolaas Douwma tells Apple Music. “I’ve done multigenre records before but Contact is rooted in the sound I always come back to.” As Sub Focus, Douwma has spent the past two decades honing a percussively propulsive sound that straddles the frenetic world of drum ’n’ bass as much as the earworming melodics of pop. Across four albums and remixes for the likes of The Prodigy, deadmau5, and Dizzee Rascal, Douwma has built a loyal following who have witnessed his colossal sound headline stages from Reading and Leeds Festival to Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre. On his fifth album, Contact, Douwma pens a love letter to the genre that first made him, alongside a starry list of collaborators he has long admired. Old-school ragga breakbeats drive “Original Don,” featuring legendary dancehall MC IRAH, while “Entwined” delves into the darker side of drum ’n’ bass with the help of Grimes. “Push the Tempo” leans into the anthemic sound of UK dance vocal pioneer Katy B, and “Water & Fire” showcases the choppy sound of liquid D’n’B with vocals from singer-songwriter Connie Constance. “Drum ’n’ bass has been growing massively in popularity recently,” Douwma says. “We’re reaching bigger stages with this sound, and each of these songs have been road-tested to make sure the crowd goes wild.” Read on for his in-depth thoughts on the album, track by track. “Ecuador” (with Fireboy DML) “I’ve been a fan of Fireboy DML for a while, and one day, when I was doing a session in Manchester, I suddenly got a message from my A&R telling me to come back to London because Fireboy had a few hours in the studio. It all came together super last-minute, and once I started playing this instrumental for him, he got on a crazy vibe, making up lyrics about him being in a block party in South America. It was amazing to watch since he hadn’t heard any music like this before, and his lyrics embodied that excited feeling.” “So Many Colours” (with Poppy Baskcomb) “I’ve worked with Poppy a number of times and she’s an amazing writer. She sent me the idea for this, which featured her singing with just the bass in the background, and as soon as I heard the rough concept, I knew exactly what I wanted it to sound like. The vocal was so well done it all slotted into place very quickly. I was writing this before my Alexandra Palace headline show [in March 2025] and visualizing it in that space. When we premiered it there, it was incredible.” “Original Don” (with Fireboy DML, IRAH) “IRAH is one of the quintessential drum ’n’ bass voices of our time [and] has this amazing capacity to alternate between singing and MCing baritone dancehall lyrics. The idea for the track started with that concept of vocal switching, and I also wanted the production to reference the original dons of drum ’n’ bass by using breakbeats and old-school production techniques. It’s since become one of the biggest songs in my sets this year.” “Elevate” “I worked with the amazing songwriter Jo Hill on this and, since she’s from a more indie background, we were trying to channel an indie, electro, noughties vibe with the track. It all comes together on the gang vocals in the song, which I love doing because it always turns into a sing-along in the live set. It’s a fun technical challenge to get those vocals right because you have to make it sound like loads of different voices even if it’s just one person layering takes in the studio.” “Entwined” (with Grimes) “Ever since she released her first album, I’ve always wanted to work with Grimes. She reached out to me about a year ago out of the blue, which was really exciting, and we started working together in LA. She loves the cyberpunk aesthetic of the music I make, and I wanted to showcase her voice over a darker, heavier side of drum ’n’ bass, channeling acts like Bad Company and Noisia, who I grew up listening to.” “On & On” (with bbyclose) “bbyclose is another great writer I was very keen to work with after hearing her viral hit ‘Kisses’ last year. We wanted to make a track that was like a dance music manifesto encouraging the scene to keep going, and the instrumental I made used UK garage production techniques with choppy vocals, referencing people like Todd Edwards, who I listened to a lot in the early noughties.” “Roll Too Deep” (with Subsonic) “‘Roll Too Deep’ is a mashup of a few different things, and I think it’s more of a track for the hardcore drum ’n’ bassheads. On the vocal side I was inspired by Marlon Hoffstadt’s track ‘It’s That Time,’ which references early-’90s rap over house music, while the riff is very noughties trance inspired. This has been another big song in my sets this year.” “Go Back” (with John Summit, Julia Church) “I wanted to make a tempo-change track, since I’d heard it in old Chicago house tunes like Lil’ Louis’ ‘French Kiss’ but it’s not a technique you hear today that much. It worked really well once I started writing the song though, and it’s since become the biggest track in mine and Julia’s sets. This feels like the song that has opened my sound up to a whole new audience in the US.” “Water & Fire” (with Connie Constance) “I’m always really keen to show off the different subgenres of drum ’n’ bass and ‘Water & Fire’ gets into the more melodic realm of it. The track all came together when I decided I wanted a choppy lead vocal, and since Connie is an amazing vocalist with such a great tone, it all just fit together with the chords and melody perfectly. It has a really different feel from the other stuff I’ve done and I’m very proud of it.” “Lost in Heaven” (with Emily Makis) “I saw Emily post this idea as a reel on Instagram, where she was singing it at an airport over an instrumental track and I was mesmerized. I DMed her about it and she was up for collaborating. I wanted to keep the beatless feeling of the original idea for a long time in the song since it reminded me of ‘devil mixes,’ which are grime instrumentals where rappers would improvise over a beatless song. I love the atmosphere that creates, and it’s one of the few down moments on the record.” “Push the Tempo” (with Katy B) “I’ve known Katy for a long time because we actually go to see the same personal trainer! She is a legend, and when we started this idea together at the studio in London, it brought me right back to classics of hers like ‘Katy on a Mission,’ but in a drum ’n’ bass context. It was so exciting to finally work with her.” “Let Your Body Rock” “I made this song a while back for the first Circular Sound live show I did at [South London venue] Printworks. I love to channel techno in my productions, and this one is heavily influenced by that type of music. I really wanted a moment in my set like this where it’s a palate cleanser with a cinematic breakdown, instrumental evolution, and lots of changes. It’s a more hypnotic sound that really suits the narrative of a live show.” “Wildfire” “When I wrote this with Jo Hill I knew it would end up being the first single—it has such an infectious feel. When I’m thinking about the journey of an album, it’s nice to have new stuff at the start and things people might know at the end, which is why this is the penultimate track. I was listening to a lot of early-noughties trance with choppy synth melodies, and it inspired where I went with the instrumental.” “Fade” (with Inez) “I came up with ‘Fade’ right at the end of making the album at the 11th hour with the label calling me every day. Inez happened to be in London the exact week I needed to record the vocal—it was amazing timing. Everything came together really quickly, and as soon as I put down the chords, I realized it has such an epic closer feeling and has since been the closer to all my sets. When you play tracks live it’s a litmus test and you can tell right away from people’s reactions whether they’re ready to release or not. Thankfully, this one has always resonated.”