LOADING BREAKS...
Far Too Loud is the long-running project associated primarily with Brighton producer and DJ Oli Cash, a name closely tied to the harder-edged end of breakbeat and bass-driven club music in the late 2000s and 2010s.
The project emerged in the UK at a moment when breakbeat was mutating beyond its late-90s and early-2000s forms, absorbing electro-house pressure, distorted mid-range design and a more festival-facing sense of impact. Far Too Loud became one of the acts that helped define that crossover zone.
Far Too Loud began as a duo formed by Oli Cash and Dom Smart in 2005. That early configuration is part of the project's history, even though the name later became identified above all with Cash.
By 2009, Dom Smart had left, and Far Too Loud continued as Cash's solo vehicle. From that point on, the project developed a clearer authorial identity while retaining the aggressive, high-definition production style that had already made it stand out in breakbeat and electro circles.
Brighton is an important part of the context. The city has long supported a fluid exchange between breaks, electro, house and bass music, and Far Too Loud fits that ecology: club-functional, technically polished and aimed at systems large enough to reward detail as much as brute force.
In stylistic terms, Far Too Loud was never confined to one narrow lane. The project is most often associated with breakbeat and electro-house, but its catalogue and DJ profile also point to a broader interest in bass music, techno tension and hybrid festival electronics.
That flexibility mattered in an era when many producers from the breaks world were adapting to changing club infrastructures and audiences. Far Too Loud managed that shift without fully abandoning the rhythmic snap and low-end weight that connected the project to breakbeat culture.
Among the tracks most commonly associated with the name are "Play It Loud" and "Fundamental," both of which reflect the project's emphasis on precision-engineered impact, riff-led energy and a sound designed for peak-time deployment.
As the project gained visibility, Far Too Loud became a regular presence in international DJ circuits rather than remaining only a UK specialist name. That broader reach was helped by a sound that translated easily between breaks lineups, electro bills and bass-oriented festival programming.
Far Too Loud built a reputation for high-tech, high-impact dancefloor music. That description points to something central in the project: meticulous sound design and a consistent focus on physical club response.
Far Too Loud also belongs to a generation of producers for whom genre boundaries became increasingly porous. Instead of treating breakbeat as a closed historical style, the project used it as a base from which to engage newer forms of electro and bass pressure.
Within the wider history of UK breaks, Far Too Loud occupies a meaningful position as a bridge figure between the established breakbeat circuit and the more hybrid, post-bloghouse, bass-heavy club landscape that followed. The project may not fit neatly into one canon, but it remains a useful reference point for how UK breaks adapted in the 21st century.
