For the past few years, the punishing rhythms of hard drum have been on an unstoppable rise, mixing in with and drawing inspiration from UK funky, amapiano, gqom, tribal house and more.

At the heart of that intersection are NKC and DJ Polo who are about to put out a new two-track release, “YeYeYeYe” / “Hammerhead”, arriving tomorrow via NKC’s Even The Strong label.

The pair have been close collaborators for a while now—their monthly SWU show is an essential listen—but this is their first on-wax team-up.

Ahead of the official release, you can listen to “Hammerhead” below. Tapping into Bristol’s sound system culture and its history with UK funky, “Hammerhead” pushes hard drum in all its percussive glory right to the fore, while absorbing some of the heat and spice of funky and gqom.