Here’s what we do know, or at least think we know: Anstam is a duo (one member of whichmight be German artist Lars Stoewe). They’re responsible for a now legendary trilogy of 12? releases in 2007-9 – ‘Brom’, ‘Aeto’ and ‘Cree’ – that assimilated the hardest, most dystopian flavours of dubstep, grime and junglism into a disciplined, techno-savvy framework that betrays their Berlin provenance. And then….two long years passed without incident.

We really thought we’d heard the last of these elusive producers, and then, out of nowhere, they re-emerged last month with a devastating new track, Albert’ – featured on a split 10? with Phon.o for Modeselektor’s Fifty Weapons imprint. This release heralds a period of renewed activity for Anstam: they’re remaining tight-lipped about their next recorded offering, but we understand there’s something in the works, and they’ll be making a rare in-the-flesh apperance at the MUTEK festival in Montreal next month, playing as part of Modeselektor’s Modeselektion showcase on June 2 alongside FaltyDL, Jacques Greene and Siriusmo. Dates are set to follow in the States, Germany and Greece – more information here. Oh, and we’ve prised a brilliant FACT mix out of ‘em.

Speaking over e-mail, Anstam said: “This mix mostly contains artists from the last 15 years who worked – in terms of aesthetics, singularity and density – with a similar kind of blueprint which is also still one fundamental part in the basic Anstamidea.”

Indeed, FACT mix 246 maps out the Anstam genome patiently and comprehensively: from the dub-wise ambience of Rhythm & Sound and Arvo Pärt’s “holy minimalism”, to the seething, snaking drum ‘n bass of Adam F, Source Direct, Paradox and Limewax, and the grave, dread-infused dubstep of Mala, Distance, Shackleton et al, via the isolationist braindance of AFX, Squarepusher and Experimental Audio Research. What’s the common thread linking this music? Well, in the main it’s moody-as-fuck music for soundsystem heads; cerebral and investigative but invariably packing a ruff punch.

The mix concludes with two Anstam productions – the recent ‘Albert’ and 2007?s ‘Brom’ – which neatly surmise and embody that heavy (in every sense of the word) aesthetic. The latter is a certified classic in our twisted universe, its scuffed, jabbing breakbeats and disorienting structure suggesting Autechre if they’d come of age in Bow, circa 2001. This year’s 50 Weapons cut ‘Albert’, meanwhile, interprets twitchy UKF-inflected dubstep style in an Anstam style; imagine the Hessle Audio crew gone wholly darkside, their customary woody, swinging, precision-engineered percussion weighed down by industrial, downshifting drones.

It goes without saying that we’re tremendously excited to be able to share this exclusive mix from Anstam with you, and we can’t urge you enough to download it post haste – electronic music doesn’t get much more vital or visceral. And hell, it’s worth it just to hear the breakdown on ‘Metropolis’ again.

Alongside Pearson Sound and Ben UFO, Pangaea represents one third of the team behind the superlative Hessle Audio label, and as a producer has been behind some of the label’s most memorable singles, ‘Coiled’, ‘Router’, his six-track Pangaea EP, and now this month’s ‘Inna Daze’/’Won’t Hurt’, a pair of heavyweight rollers that are among his – and the label’s – very best work to date.

Pangaea’s also an excellent DJ, as anyone who’s seen him play out will attest. His FACT mix pairs Pearson Sound with Lawrence English, 2562 with Jeff Mills, Objekt with The Criminal Minds and much more, with new cuts from Blawan Peverelist, Boddika and the rest. It’s one of the most measured, lasting sessions we’ve run so far this year – but we hardly need to sell it. It’s Pangaea.

In fairness, it’s been a busy half-decade for the New York producer and DJ. Hercules & Love Affair’s debut album, released via DFA in 2008, saw he and his band rocketed into cult/pop stardom, and by God did they tour that album hard – in 2008-9 you couldn’t even go down the newsies for a packet of crisps without catching a H&LA live show en route.

Hercules & Love Affair’s new album, Blue Songs, is out this week on Moshi Moshi, and things have changed. Recorded with Patrick Pulsinger in Vienna, and to some extent eschewing the brassy disco tropes that defined the band’s debut, it finds Butler delving deeper than ever into his ’86-’94 house obsession  – lead single ‘My House’ is a loving homage to Chicago and New York’s overlapping 4/4 golden eras, while ‘It’s Alright’ is a beatless cover of the Sterling Void jam – but also developing the range of his songwriting, even singing himself on the agreeably frail title track. This an album that expertly juggles ecstasy and heartbreak, the melancholic and the celebratory. With Nomi Ruiz and Antony Hegarty absent this time around, Butler and his trusty sidekick Kim Ann Foxman have recruited young pup vocalists Aerea Negrot and Shaun Wright, both of whom maintain the tears’n’mascara diva-ishness of their predecessors while bringing a palpable and infectious enthusiasm to proceedings.

So why is Butler so preoccupied with classic house? Even his recently minted record label, MR INTL., is dedicated to new productions hat evoke and allude to that bygone era.

“There was an elegance, subtlety, a sophistication to that music,” he explains over the phone. “It was fine art. The depth and substance is unparalleled. I don’t think anything goes as deep as those early Murk records, for example. Nor do you get the opposite. You don’t get to hear people go off in the way Tyree did, you know, going off but classily.”

FACT mix 218, it’s fair to say, goes off classily. Butler – a killer DJ who knows his shit and then some – builds it around classic cuts from the likes of MK and Praxis, but also includes a couple of recent cuts from Hercules and Kim Ann that show how his crew are trying to take that sound forward today. There’s nothing blue about this selection, we can assure you.

Oh, and Hercules are about to embark on a monster world European tour. Catch ‘em on the following dates:

Feb 17 Heineken Madrid
Feb 18 Lux Lisbon
Feb 19 Bikini Barcelona
Feb 22 Abart Club Zurich
Feb 24 Tenax Florence
Feb 25 Stadtmuseum Munich
Feb 26 Love City @ The Docks Hamburg
Feb 28 Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld Cologne

Mar 2 Debaser Stockholm
Mar 3 Berghain Berlin
Mar 4 Conne Island Leipzig
Mar 5 5 days off @ Melkweg Amsterdam
Mar 6 Botanique Brussels
Mar 8 Offenbach Frankfurt
Mar 9 La Machine Paris
Mar 10 Digital Brighton
Mar 11 Underground Village London
Mar 12 Faversham Leeds
Mar 13 Mojo Liverpool
Mar 14 Uni Sheffield/Student Union Sheffield
Mar 16 Club Cosmique Bristol
Mar 17 Button Factory Dublin
Mar 18 Fac 251 Manchester
Mar 19 The Arches (death Disco) Glasgow
Mar 20 The Tunnels Aberdeen

More info here.

We kick off the new year with a new mix by German deep house superheroes Âme. It finds the duo of Kristian Beyer and Frank Wiedemann digging deep – and wide – to create a history and genre-hopping excursion that nonetheless keeps its feet firmly on the dancefloor. Fans will recognise that it’s similar in spirit to The Grandfather Paradox, their memorable 2009 exploration of minimalist music (from Steve Reich to Plastikman), created in collaboration with Dixon and Henrik Schwarz.

Âme have been in our lives since 2003, and have proven to be among the most quietly influential dance music producers of their generation, their early work heralding, and even inspiring, a whole new wave of artists refashioning and recombining Detroit techno and deep house tropes according to cutting edge production techniques.

They first made their name with dazzling singles like ‘Mifune’/’Shiro’ and a self-titled album for Sonar Kollektiv in 2004, but it was with a succession of superb remixes for the likes of Roy Ayers, Akabu, Truby Trio and Ferrer & Sydenham (their version outshining the source material in virtually ever case) and with the establishment of their own imprint, Innervisions, co-piloted by Dixon and Schwarz, that they really developed their own voice – leading to 2005?s Rej EP, a bona fide classic. Since then, every Ame 12? has been an event – last year’s ‘Rose Sselavy’ and its terrific B-side ‘Junggesellenmaschine’ exemplify Beyer and Wiedemann’s mature, elegantly engineered but always impassioned and energetic approach to house music.

Their FACT mix, entitled Primary Structures, will be officially released on CD by Innervisions later this month. Keep an eye on their website for more information.

The London artist will shortly bring to an end the busiest year to date of her musical career, a year that saw her release her debut album Contact, Love, Want, Have on Hyperdub, deliver a string of remixes for labels like Planet Mu, Night Slugs, Thisisnotanexit and LuckyMe, constantly tour and, last but not least, start up Hum & Buzz, the record label she runs with Optimum.

Next year Ikonika plans to focus on the label, and her FACT mix features a slew of forthcoming Hum & Buzz material from Optimum, Dro Carey and herself, as well as new dubplates from Deep Teknologi, Bok Bok and more. Download it below, and turn the page for an interview with Ikonika about the year she’s had and what lies ahead.

Interview

Hey, how’s it going?

“All good I think. I’ve just been nominated for Best DJ’for DJ Mag’s Best of British awards. It’s very unexpected but nevertheless a real honour because I love mixing. The first thing I do these days is have a mix and I really take the time to make sure my skills are tight and that my selection is always there. I’m up against Carl Cox who I really look up to. I’m obviously not going to win but just to be recognised for my hard work this year is simply amazing.”

You and Optimum launched your long-mooted Hum+Buzz label this year, how’s that working out?

“We had our first release in September. We wanted it to be a bit low key, like we haven’t been doing much press for it and I don’t think anyone really reviewed ‘Aqueous Cream’ but we’ve managed to sell the amount we estimated, so we are happy about that. In 2011 we are really looking to get the name out there and maybe start our own Hum+Buzz club nights.”

What do you guys have forthcoming on it?

“Optimum has just readied the follow up to his debut ‘Max Power’ (Planet Mu), so expect that early next year. We’ve also just signed Sydney based producer Dro Carey. I found his music browsing Girl Unit YouTube videos and got in touch with him through Twitter. His music grabbed me instantly and I feel very proud that we are able to release a 12” from him. You can find the A side on the mix I did for you. His 12” will come out right after Optimum’s and we are excited about having a full sleeve for his Hum+Buzz debut. Later in the year we have EPs from Brenmar, glamFranklin and J.O.H. I will also release a double pack around springtime, we are contemplating about putting that out on CD as well, a mini album if you like.”

Obviously you released your debut album this year, how has that changed the way you’re approaching music?

“My workload changed more than anything. My discography now practically overshadows everything I’d ever done prior to CLWH and that’s mainly to do with the amount of remixes I took on this year. In 2011 I’m not going to release as much. I need to chill for a second and digest everything. I mainly just want to concentrate Hum+Buzz and DJing.”

You said in an interview not so long ago that your next album would be in quite a different style, and that you were ditching the bleeps that are so associated with Ikonika’s sound. Can you tell us any more about this?

“The thing about me is that I like change, I need to progress. I’ve been experimenting with new sounds and palettes and they just don’t involve bleeps. My double pack will have tracks like ‘KaKa’ and ‘Sea Synths’ on it, which uses traditional Ikonika bleep sounds, but the rest of the EP is a bit more structured, more spaced out and contemplated. I think it’s a good mix and I reckon as we progress through 2011 the tracks are going to get darker, it’s just how I’m feeling right now. I don’t think I want to play anymore.”

Tell us about the mix you’ve done for FACT.

“The mix showcases the new style in my productions with tunes like ‘Rope’, ‘Off Mode’, ‘Dance There & Back’ and ‘Fleas’. It also has the last ever bleep tune [laughs] there’s no release plans for that track. I wanted to give it out for free but it gets such a good reaction when I play it out so I’m a little confused.

“I think this mix really builds; it’s going to be my last mix for a while so I really wanted the selection to speak. The style of tracks I’ve chosen are the kind that I play live. I thought about doing a best of 2010 mix but 80% of tracks I loved from this year were released on Night Slugs and it would honestly just look like a Bok Bok or L-Vis 1990 Night Slugs showcase mix.

“I ended the mix with Africa Hitech’s ’93 Million Miles’ and Dro Carey’s ‘Candy Red’ just to digest the hype of the previous six tracks. And also these two tracks really work with my surroundings, I live near Heathrow and my close music friends all live in South London. I feel very dislocated from London at times because I’m stuck in this cocoon in West West West London. In my back garden I look at the planes queuing up to land and I get a bit reflective when I listen to these two tunes knowing that Mark Pritchard and Dro Carey are both based in Australia.”

Anything pencilled in for next year already?

“Apart from the Hum+Buzz release, I should have something out on Illum Sphere’s Hoya:Hoya label. I’ve also done a track for Musicity inspired by Battersea Power House called ‘Battery Powered’. I am told it will come out on 7” but if you visit the power house itself you can download the track for free using this app.

“There’s also remixes for Sunday Girl, Interpol and BD1982.”

As a DJ the vinyl-favouring, Berlin-based Berghain resident is revered for his sets of jacking yet tunnelistic techno, and as a producer too he’s built a formidable reputation: two 12?s on Marcel Dettmann’s MDR imprint announced his arrival back in 2007-8, and were followed by a split release with Samuli Kemppi on Ostgut Ton (a sampler taken from Dettmann’s Berghain 02 mix) as well as an ever-increasing number of remixes for the likes of Peter Van Hoesen, Resoe and Function (Sandwell District). His latest original production is ‘Start Up’, the final track on Ostgut’s recently released Fünf compilation, a sense-battering 7×12? set that also includes new tracks by Shed, Prosumer, Fiedel (MMM), Steffi and Ben Klock, all employing field recordings made at Berghain by Emika.

Nodge’s FACT mix is a high-octane affair, showcasing his uncommon ability to balance industrial textures with percussive funk. The tracklist is forthcoming, so for now just go ahead and download safe in the assurance that techno really doesn’t get much better. Come on, look at the guy. He means business.

Pittman has collaborated with virtually everyone worth their salt in contemporary Detroit, first coming to prominence with a bunch of Theo Parrish co-productions released across two 12?s on Parrish’s Sound Signature label in 1999 and 2002. He arrived at his own distinct sonic identity with the M. Pittman EP for Omar-S‘s FXHE label – unapologetically soulful and observant of the Chicago house tradition but unusually stripped, raw and minimal – and not long after founded his own bespoke imprint, Unirhythm. The Midwestern Advocates EP Part One is a modern classic, the austerely jacking B-side ‘Chicago Nights’ simply devastating, while this year’s Loneliness ‘Leave Me Alone’ / ‘Razz ’09? has a more obviously Detroit beatdown flavour.

While his solo release schedule is relatively relaxed (and the quality control high), Pittman has plenty of other ventures on the go; he’s a member of the Three Chairs production team that also numbers Rick Wilhite, Kenny Dixon, Jr. and Parrish, has collaborated with Parrish and Omar-S as the T.O.M. Project and is part of the sprawling Rotating Assembly collective.

But what brings Marcellus to FACT today is his reputation for rugged, intense DJ sets. Londoners can catch him spin in the flesh when he headlines the next party of Joy Orbison’s Doldrums label at Plan B in Brixton on November 20, with support from Joy, Braiden, Krystal Klear, original jungle master Nookie and more. Get your tickets here.

FACT mix 201 has a real lo-fi crunch to it, a quality with which fans of Omar-S and Kyle Hall will be intimately acquainted. It’s anchored with classics, including tracks by Louie Vega, Larry Heard, Marshall Jefferson, Ron Trent and ESG, but look out too Theo Parrish’s recent ‘Space Station’ and two heavy-duty productions from Pittman himself.

Darkstar started as the duo of James Young and Aiden Whalley, with a series of singles on their own 2010 label, as well as MG77 and Clandestine Cultivations. Within a year, they’d become a key part of Kode9’s Hyperdub roster, debuting for the label with the minor classic ‘Need You’/’Squeeze my Lime’. UK garage and synth-pop filtered through a chiptune lens with vocals sung by the world’s saddest robot, it expanded on the promise shown by early Darkstar cut ‘Out of Touch’, and showed glimpses of the mournful computer pop to come.

A year later, Darkstar released ‘Aidy’s Girl is a Computer’, fulfilling that promise and winning them fans beyond the FWD>> circuit they were primarily known in. A whole album of these frozen Mac laments looked set to follow (and would have, if album outtakes ‘Automating’ and the original version of ‘Gold’, found on this FACT mix, are anything to go by), but at some point between them and now, Darkstar scrapped that idea and became a three-piece, with comparatively clean vocals sung by new recruit James Buttery.

Last month, they released their debut album, North. You can read FACT’s review here; needless to say, we think it’s great. Darkstar’s FACT mix features the original version of North highlight ‘Gold’, as well as cuts from Games, Radiohead, Moodymann, New Order, Shed and more. In the words of the group’s James Young, ‘it’s a mixed selection, and I’ve tried to keep it in an arrangement that I myself would listen in personally. It’s typical of tunes I’d skip between before I record, and what we were listening to recording the album.”

Margaret’s FACT mix finds her at her seductive DJing best, sailing broken, dubbed-out productions from Pinch, Cyrus and Deadbeat through into the oscillating techno waters bossed by Ben Klock and Luc Ringeisen, making time also for a clutch of underground house killers that are completely new to us. FACT mix 197 might not have much of a Halloween flavour, but mark our words, it’s scarily good.

LV were the first act to release on Hyperdub outside the trio of Kode9, Burial and The Bug, making their label debut with 2007’s ‘Globetrotting’, a collaboration with veteran reggae singer Errol Bellot. The years since have seen a steady stream of LV releases on Hyperdub, Hemlock, 2nd Drop and Keysound, with the London-based group content to stay casually in the shadows; the majority not knowing the members’ identity or background.

Last Christmas, the group’s Gervase took an extended trip to his birthplace South Africa, immersing himself in the house music scene there and collaborating with people like Spoek Mathambo and Okmalumkoolkat, who features on LV’s new single and their most well received to date, ‘Boomslang’. For more about Gerv’s trip, we’d point you to this interview with Blackdown, where he talks in detail about the local music and culture.

“I’m just vibing, man,” he told us over e-mail. “I’m just going off of a lot of my experiences that I’ve accumulated from DJing, clubbing, the Music Institute in Detroit, the Shelter in NYC, touring, and selling records. So this mix is another set of classics from the vaults of Mike Huckaby…”

Yes, Huckaby has real pedigree. He worked for many years behind the counter at the Record Time store in Roseville, releasing his first 12″ on colleague Rick Wade’s Harmonie Park imprint in 1995, the aptly named Deep Transportation Vol.1. Its four tracks were rooted in the Chicago house tradition, but their shading and sense of space owed a great deal to Motor City techno and its P-funk ancestry, its percussive swing a great deal to jazz – it’s no surprise that Huckaby today counts not just Larry Heard, George Clinton, Stevie Wonder among his heroes, but also Sun Ra. “Larry Heard is the sole creator of deep house, and Sun Ra possesses the entire realm of all possibilities within jazz,” he asserts. ”Jazz is the umbrella under which deep house resides.”

Huckaby released a second volume of Deep Transportation on Harmonie Park in 1996. Both records have since become part of the deep house canon, something which has come as no surprise to Huckaby, who was determined from the outset to make music that was future-proof.

“We made sure that our first releases behind our names would last, and stand the test of time.”

“We tested out our early productions in the record store religiously,” he recalls. ”We would test our tracks out on the system, while people were shopping, just to see if we could get someone to look up and ask us what was playing. That’s one of the reasons why those EPs are considered classics, and are very rare to this day. We made sure that our first releases behind our names would last, and stand the test of time.”

Another reason that Huckaby’s productions sound eternally fresh is that he’s not in the business of pastiche. Though he’s quick to express his debt to Heard, Ra et al, he doesn’t live in the past. Indeed, when it comes to music-making technology, Huckaby is almost aggressively forward-looking, always on the look-out for interesting new equipment and keen to master it. He’s generous with his knowledge too: he’s taught students at the Youthville centre in Detroit for the best part of 14 years, coaching them in Ableton Live, Reaktor and other music production technologies.

Since those early Harmonie Park 12″s, Huckaby hasn’t exactly flooded the market with releases, working instead on honing his skills, and remixing the likes of Pole, Vladislav Delay and Norm Talley. His process-driven way of working reached a conceptual apogee on 2007′s My Life With The Wave: an EP recorded using solely the legendary Waldorf Wave keyboard. “I challenged myself to see if i could do it. Now I feel like a boxer who has trained with ankle weights and removed them on fight night.” Huckaby being Huckaby, he also released a limited edition Waldorf sample CD for other producers to work from.

“I feel like a boxer who has trained with ankle weights and removed them on fight night.”

Having recently contributed a track (‘Mathematics From The Jazz Republic’) to a split EP release with Jose Rico on Downbeat, Huckaby is about to embark on a European tour. At Berlin’s Farbfernseher on October 14 he’ll be playing a Sun Ra classics set as well as special reel-to-reel edits set; at the Unsound festival in Krakow on October 22 he tops an incredible bill at Klub Fabryka that also numbers Shackleton, Kyle Hall, Actress and Raime. There are further shows planned for Holland, Croatia and Russia. and the final stop of the tour is Plex’s 4th Birthday Party at London’s Corsica Studios.

Huckaby’s FACT mix is, of course, masterful – rooted in classic house but wild, even a little unhinged at times, with a rare energy and sense of funk that works in tandem with, rather than counter to, its immersive depth. He’s asked us to delay posting a tracklist for one week, to test your knowledge and get you track-spotting. Once a record store guy, always a record store guy, eh?

Interview

Can you tell us a little about the mix you’ve recorded for FACT?

“Im just vibing man. I’m just going off of a lot of my experiences that I’ve accumulated from DJing, clubbing, the Music Institute in Detroit, the Shelter in NYC, touring, and selling records. So this mix is another set of classics from the vaults of Mike Huckaby.”

“To begin with, Rick Wade actually worked in another department within the shop – the lame department.”

What have been your most important formative musical experiences? What artists or releases or moments really made you sit up and think, “this is something I want to do, or at least try to match”?

“Well, that’s an easy one. A lot of primary influences came from Detroit. Weather it was George Clinton, Parliament, Stevie Wonder, or Detroit Electronic Music, the primarily influences were always from home. Immediate influences outside of Detroit came from Larry Heard, and later on Sun Ra. Larry Heard is the sole creator of deep house, and Sun Ra possesses the entire realm of all possibilities within jazz. Jazz is the umbrella under which deep house resides.”

“Taking music theory and piano lessons for 10 years, studying chord progressions, listening to Sun Ra, and studying synthesis heavily has equipped me with many possibilities to explore. Larry Heard’s ‘Slam Dance’ on Alleviated Records is the best example of something I tried to match or achieve. That EP demonstrated early on for me the range of production skills a single producer had to be equipped with. It brilliantly incorporates house and techno, on a single EP.”

Your first couple of solo releases were on Harmonie Park. How did you get to know Rick Wade, how did you come to release music on the label?

“We both worked at a record store in Detroit. He actually worked in another department within the shop – the lame department. We were into many similar things, musically. So I rescued him and hired him in the department I ran. We immediately formed a friendship. But what most people don’t know is that Harmonie Park was originally formed between Rick Wade and Dan Bell. I was immediately selected as a person that the label would release music from.

“We tested out our early productions in the record store religiously. We would test our tracks out on the system, while people were shoping, just to see if we could get someone to look up and ask us what was playing. That’s one of the reasons why those EPs are considered classics, and are very rare to this day. We made sure that our first releases behind our names would last, and stand the test of time.”

“Deep house is just a water drop in the ocean compared to its primarily influence, which is jazz.”

How would you describe the development of your sound over the years? Speaking in the abstract, do you feel you’re trying to push towards something that’s ahead of you, or rather trying to refine and perfect something that’s already in your grasp?

“A combination of both. You’re always trying to look ahead while trying to maintain the level of production standards of the times. Things are different these days with the advent of computer production, and digital software. In terms of hardware, you only had to worry about the warmth and clarity of the audio signal. In terms of software and digital production, you have an additional concern, and that’s the workflow which can be achieved through the software. I mention this in my workshops I do around the world quite heavily.”

For the benefit of those who are unfamiliar, can you tell us about the My Life With The Wave project?

“My Life With The Wave was a EP that I recorded on my label, S Y N T H, which solely uses the Waldorf Wave Keyboard for all musical parts. Every track on the entire EP solely uses the Wave for musical parts. I challenged myself to see if I could do it. Now I feel like a boxer who has trained with ankle weights and removed them on fight night. Furthermore, a sample CD was included with 200 limited copies of its release.”

“I was obsessed with Jean Philippe Rameau, a French composer who wrote the Treatise on Harmony. I hired a mathematician, and even went to Czechoslovakia where I consulted someone to create a device in Reaktor which could further develop his ideas…”

You mentioned jazz when we first spoke. Can you tell me a bit about your relationship to jazz? Do you still follow contemporary stuff or is your interest rooted in the classic era? Who are your heroes in the field?

“My heroes in jazz are Sun Ra, Lonnie Liston Smith, Doug Carn, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, and Stevie Wonder. Again, as I’ve already said, jazz is the umbrella that most, if not all deep house is derived from. It’s really strange too, seeing that deep house is just a water drop in the ocean compared to its primarily influence, which is jazz.

“I’ve been trying to combine Sun Ra, jazz, and Reaktor for quite some time. I was actually obsessed with Jean Philippe Rameau, a French composer who wrote the Treatise on Harmony. He translated music theory into algebraic terms. I hired a mathematician, and even went to Czechoslovakia where I consulted someone to create a device in Reaktor which could further develop his ideas. I’m still convinced by those ideas.”

“I got tired of all the bullshit presets most synthesizers shipped with. So I had to do something about that. Your next goal in life can always be identified by your dissatisfaction with something.”

What have you found the consistent pleasures and pains of making music over the years to be?

“Searching for new sounds, and creating them. That’s actually been a pain and pleasure. This is the reason I went so heavily into synthesis. I got tired of all the bullshit presets most synthesizers shipped with. So I had to do something about that. Your next goal in life can always be identified by your dissatisfaction with something.”

Plus I had to break up a lot of groupie shit in the D. A lot of guys like MAW, Blaze, Kerri Chandler, and Louie Vega. But at the end of the day, can you play like Blaze? Can you create chord progressions like Kerri, or Louie Vega? If not then you’re just a groupie, or a Masters at Work cheerleader. People need to learn the production skills that make their favorite producers who they are. The definition of a groupie is praising or being entertained by another artist while he is making money doing what you want to do, while you’re talking shit, and not working as hard as he is.

“The definition of a groupie is praising or being entertained by another artist while he is making money doing what you want to do, while you’re talking shit, and not working as hard as he is.”

You actively teach music production, right? How and when did you first begin doing so, and how would you say this experience feeds back into your own work (if at all)?

“I started teaching at Youthville in 1996. Nearly in the beginning. It just feels good to be able to contribute to a kid with talent, and enabling him to find a way out, while being able to see the world from the point of view of his blossoming talent. Native Instruments and Ableton really have made a contribution to Detroit by lending their support in many ways. They enabled me to teach classes there, and the effects from this will continue for quite some time. It makes me accountable for a workflow that I have to be able to describe. Both it terms of my own work and for other people.”

“The more you know, the less gear or software you need.”

Are you always hungry for new technology and additions to your studio set-up? Or are you content with your present lot?

“Absolutely. But I will admit that the more you know, the less gear or software you need. I’m always saying that I’ll never buy another piece of gear or keyboard again, but I’m just a sucker for technology when it comes to that.”

Can you tell us about any projects or releases that you’re working on at the moment?

Another sample CD, Deep Transportation releases, My Life With the Wave Vol. 2, and a few other remixes, and releases on both labels. I’ve been getting a lot of requests from some professional companies to do sound design, and thats what I wanted to get into (Loop Masters, Twisted Tools, etc). There are over 20 EPs that have used my sample CD on records, so that lets me know that people are listening across the spectrum.”

The German DJ/producer, real name Gunnar Wendel, has been behind some of the most curious and invigorating house and techno records of the past four years, first coming to our attention with his rugged, syrup-slow contribution to part three of Workshop’s 12″ series. His Aqueous Haze (The World Disappeared Into An) EP followed soon after, and its B-side ’578′ was given a new lease of life this year when Omar-S remixed it and released two versions on his FXHE label.

It’s testament to the Wendel’s versatility and worth as a producer that he’s in not just with the serious heads from Berlin and Detroit, but those from London as well. A Kassem Mosse remix is forthcoming on Joy Orbison’s Doldrums label, and he recently released two tracks, including the grotty beatdown stomper ‘We Speak To Those, on Nonplus Records, the imprint operated by d’n’b emigres Instra:mental and home also to releases by ASC, Skream, dBridge and Actress. Oh, and Mosse has just contributed to the star-studded Commix remix album alongside the likes of Pangaea, Burial and Holland’s 2562.

The Kassem Mosse FACT mix reflects the breadth of Wendel’s production output, but firmly anchors itself in crunchy Detroit fare from Urban Tribe, Andres, Moodymann Theo Parrish and Leron Carson. Put together with a real mastery of groove across different rhythms and tempos, it’s simply one of the most absorbing and addictive FACT mixes we’ve issued all year.

The album has been a long time coming – it’s four years since the first Shit Robot single release, the mighty ‘Wrong Galaxy’/’Triumph’ – but the wait has been worth it. The star-studded, vocal-driven Cradle features contributions from James Murphy, Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, The Juan Maclean, Nancy Whang (LCD Soundsystem), House Of House’s Saheer Umar, Ian Svenonius (The Make Up) and Planningtorock as well as Lambkin himself.

A killer DJ, Lambkin’s mix showcases his love of heavy-duty house, techno and electro-disco, with anthems from Neal Howard and DJ Sprinkles rubbing up against lesser-known but equally righteous dancefloor fare from the likes of Hrdvision, Arto Mwambe and Basic Soul Unit. You can catch him doing his thing in the flesh at CAMP in London tomorrow, Friday 24 September, and again in November when he supports LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip on their UK arena tour. Full dates below.

Tour Dates

Sep 24 – Phonica in-store, London
Sep 24 – Clash Mag Party, C.A.M.P, London
Nov 10 – Alexandra Palace, London w/ LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip
Nov 11 – Alexandra Palace, London w/ LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip
Nov 12 – Cardiff Arena, Cardiff w/ LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip
Nov 13 – Magna Arena, Sheffield w/ LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip
Nov 15 – Apollo, Manchester w/ LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip

The work of Brackles and Shortstuff, the label debuted last year with Martin Kemp’s (Brackles’ obscenely talented brother) ‘No Charisma’, a crossover anthem that seemed to infiltrate the sets of everybody going, backed with Mickey Pearce’s ragga stomper ‘Innami’. Two more Martin Kemp 12”s have followed, broken up by Bok Bok’s seasick ‘Citizens Dub’ and another minor classic from Brackles and Shortstuff, ‘Pipey D’.

The fifth Blunted Robots 12”, a collaboration between Brackles, Shortstuff and Nottingham vocalist Terrible Shock will be out towards the end of November, backed with a remix by Doc Daneeka. To celebrate this, as well as the label’s first birthday, they’ll be hosting Room 3 at Fabric, as part of the club’s own birthday celebrations on October 15. Brackles, Shortstuff, Martin Kemp, Scratcha DVA and Doc Daneeka are scheduled to play.

They’ve also teamed up to deliver their FACT mix, packed with unreleased cuts from the Blunted Robots camp and future label material from Terrible Shock and DJ Dom. If that’s not enough, we’d also point you to the Robots’ newly-inaugurated YouTube page, where they’ve uploaded their past singles as well as some unreleased curios.

Scuba’s version is one of his most warm and textured offerings to date, a swung, dubstep-inflected house track with a mellifluous, energetic groove and clipped, ecstatic vocal samples that recall the work of his star signing, Joy Orbison. All in all, a top-class offering.

Born Kieran Hebden, Four Tet was already making waves as a member of the group Fridge when he dropped ‘Thirtysixtwentyfive’, his 1998 debut single for Trevor Jackson’s Output label (you can probably guess how long the track lasted). A debut album, Dialogue followed, but what really propelled Hebden to stardom – and set the tone for Four Tet as one of music’s most celebrated and in-demand remixers, later lending his magic to Bloc Party, Radiohead, Anti-Pop Consortium and many more – was his remix of Aphex Twin’s ‘[Cliffs]’, commissioned for Warp Records’ Warp 10 + 3: Remixes collection.

A series of acclaimed albums for Domino followed, along with more improvisational collaborations with late jazz drummer Steve Reid, the end credits of a Bond film, and a blink-and-you-missed it 12” release with Burial, accumulating in this year’s There Is Love In You – arguably Hebden’s most realised, composed, and beautiful album to date.

A large part of Four Tet’s musicianship in recent years has revolved around his residency at Plastic People, the much-loved East London club that earlier this year faced closure. Well, seeing as it’s now re-opened, Hebden will be restarting his residency this Saturday, September 11, and this mix is done to celebrate it. Ramadanman, Villalobos, Oni Ahyun and more feature, along with Four Tet’s own mixes of Rocketnumbernine and Bob Holroyd, and an original new Four Tet track for Soul Jazz’s Future Bass compilation.

Skudge haven’t released a lot – prior to this year’s four singles on their own self-titled label, there was just the one 12” on alphahouse – but the quality of their output has seen them win fans across the globe, particularly ‘Convolution’, a nimble house stepper which sounds like classic Echospace thrown in a cocktail shaker, and has been played by everyone. It’s one of those tracks where even if you don’t think you know it, trust us, you’ve heard it.

But ‘Convolution’ was clearly only the beginning for this talented pair. The Skudge productions that have followed – ‘Melodrama’, ‘Ontic’, ‘Overture’ – are equally assured, operating in the space somewhere between Ben Klock, Remote Area and Basic Channel, but never sounding anything less than the incredibly individual, focused work of a remarkably talented unit. Skudge have also just contributed a remix of Iori’s ‘Grit’ for Phonica’s white label series – that came out last week, and as you’d expect, is excellent.

The pair’s FACT mix features a healthy dose of Skudge material, including an Aardvarck remix of ‘Convolution’, alongside cuts by Martyn, Mark Broom, Jeff Mills and more.

Very much a quality over quantity kind of guy, Heartthrob – real name Jesse Siminski – has been fairly quiet on the release front since dropping his elegant Dear Painter, Paint Me LP in 2008. But don’t let that fool you: while commercially available 12″s and remixes have been thin on the ground, our man has been creating a wealth of new music, as those of you who’ve caught him live recently will know.

Heartthrob brings said staggeringly well-honed live set to London’s Fabric this Saturday, 31 July, joining in a bill in Room 1 that also features Marco Carola and Rhadoo; the other certain highlight of the night will be Abe Duque and Blake Baxter’s jack-athon in Room 2. Full line-up below; more info and tickets here.

To herald Heartthrob’s Fabric appearance, we’ve got an exclusive new track by him for you to download. Entitled ‘Leavin”, it’s a potent distillation of what makes this producer tick: taut yet swinging percussion, fat synthetic bass, a healthy dose of industrial sturm und drang and no shortage of drama.

Hood left Detroit in 1992. Having previously set up the Hardwax label as a platform for raw, expansive productions from himself and Claude Young, by ’94 he was moved to inaugurate a new imprint, M-Plant, to showcase his increasingly streamlined sound. So began arguably the most illustrious phase of Hood’s career, with a steady flow of landmark releases under his own name and aliases including The Vision, Mathematic Assassins and Floorplan (the latter’s pistoning disco bomb ‘Funky Souls’ was recently reissued by Rush Hour). This surge of creativity culminated in Minimal Nation.

The record that birthed an entire techno aesthetic, Minimal Nation is Hood’s most famous excursion into heads-down motor-funk. The etching on the original Axis pressing of the record reads ‘Music for the progressive’; sixteen years on and that assertion seems no less valid. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine Minimal Nation will ever date.

Why exactly is Hood’s music so future-proof? Perhaps it has something to do with its purity: from an early point in his career, this preternaturally thoughtful man was determined to home in on the essence of techno, to strip away everything extraneous. For Hood, minimalism wasn’t just a gesture, it had a personal and a political resonance as well: “It’s a direct reflection of the way the world is going. We’re stripping down and realizing that we need to focus on what’s essential in our lives.”

There’s much more to Hood’s career than Minimal Nation, though – from early classics like ‘Internal Empire’ to more recent LPs like Point Blank and Wire To Wire. For a more detailed insight into his discography, check out The Essential..Robert Hood by Ruaridh Law.

This year saw the release of Omega, a brand new artist album from Hood inspired by apocalyptic sci-fi movie The Omega Man (1976) – he told us all about the album and its motivations in this interview. The album launch party took place at NITSA in Barcelona during Sonar week, and Hood has granted us permission to use a recording of his set that night as his FACT mix. It’s the perfect way to experience Hood’s hypnotic, remorselessly industrial sound – live, direct, feeding off the dancefloor’s energy. Oh, and a you get a great hoary-voiced intro from Detroit Grand Pubahs’ Paris.

Addison Groove is, in fact, an alias of Headhunter, a dubstep mainstay who’s released a multitude of singles for Tempa as well as an album for the label, Nomad. He’s been playing Chicago juke in his DJ sets for a while now, and his work as Addison Groove is where that influence is allowed to come to the forefront, with stripped down drum machine beats, acid basslines and hip-hop / booty-leaning vocals.

His FACT mix starts off in the 120-130bpm range and finishes at about 160, taking in Detroit Grand Pubahs, Mosca, Ramadanman, Rashad, DJ Spinn and Leatherface along the way. There’s also plenty of unreleased Addison Groove tracks, including ‘Footcrab VIP’.

You can catch Addison Groove, along with Insfra:mental, Luke Vibert and and more at So Not Barcelona next week. More information and tickets here.

Debuting on Tempa in 2002 with ‘Fat Larry’s Skank’, Kode9 has spent the last decade exploring an aesthetic that’s taken him from suffocating dread-filled dubstep to toxic house music. Along the way, he’s released a superb album (Memories of the Future, with frequent collaborator Spaceape) and become just as famous for his record label as his own productions: since Hyperdub’s inception in 2004, it’s released albums by Burial, Ikonika and King Midas Sound, and singles by Zomby, Terror Danjah, Cooly G, Mala and more.

This month, 9 will release the latest in K7’s DJ-Kicks series of mix CDs, a journey from elasticated house and dancehall, through soul, funk and hip-hop, to overbearing dubstep and grime. Kode is one of the world’s best DJs – his extended sets at Plastic People last year are spoken of with pure reverence, and this year he’s let out specialist mixes in 2step and “sino-grime”. Here he contributes a mix of “mostly ’94-’96 jungle”, bound by an icy, misty quality. Lemon D, DJ SS, Undercover Agent and more feature.

Next week, Hyperdub, Plat du Jour and FACT will be presenting an off-Sonar party at Club Mondo, Thursday 17 June. Already on the bill are Darkstar, Cooly G, Ikonika, Guido, Mweslee and Kode9 himself, plus Plat du Jour residents. There’s also a ton of special guests – to find out who, you’ll have to attend. For more tickets, click here.

The arrival of Jonson on the world stage nine years ago was a massive kick up the arse for techno. His first couple of 12″s were plenty impressive, but it was the singles and EPs he released over the period 2003-2005 – including ‘Alpine Rocket’, Typerope, Behind The Mirror, Followed By Angels, ‘Love Letter To The Enemy’, Decompression, and ‘Return Of The Zombie Bikers’ – which established the Vancouver-hailing producer’s solid gold sound. Detailed but dynamic, nuanced but bolshy, with a sense of space and darkness-harnessing that to FACT’s ears has as much to do with jungle as techno, Jonson’s productions are instantly recognisable but always different from one another – from the vamping M-nus anthem ‘Decompression’ to the glacial techno noir of ‘Marionette’ via the ruffneck breakbeat of ‘Return Of The Zombie Bikers’, the now Berlin and Goa-based Jonson shifts rhythms and moods with consummate ease. Oh, and if you haven’t heard ‘Dirt Road And A Boat From Soundwave’ – his 2005 collaboration with The Mole on Kompakt – you haven’t heard shit.

Over the past five years Jonson has dedicated a lot of his time to Cobblestone Jazz, the live techno project anchored around himself and homies Tyger Dhula and Danuel Tate. Cobblestone released their second album earlier this year, The Modern Deep Left Quartet, following their debut 23 Seconds and the classic singles ‘Dump Truck’ and ‘India In Me’. He continues to tour the world with his always evolving and never less than explosive live set, and has continued to release extraordinary solo 12″s like Symphony For The Apocalypse and Ghosts In The AI. This week finally sees the release of MJ’s debut solo album, Agents of Time, an introspective, narratively complex ten-track suite that proves him to be a true electronic auteur as well a certified club-smasher. Available via his own Wagon Repair imprint, it’s essential listening.

Jonson’s FACT mix is a recently recorded live set that goes straight for the jugular, and how. It includes five previously unreleased tracks, including a special edit of the evergreen ‘Decompression’. Tough-as-nails but exquisitely layered and brain-scramblingly intricate, this is quite simply techno at its best.

Interview

Hi Mathew, how’s it going?

“Good, I just got back from a tour with Cobblestone Jazz in Moscow. I’ve been there three times in the last four months so it seems to becoming a regular spot for me. Such a crazy place. I’m now in Berlin getting ready for the Woodfox festival that the Cityfox guys do in Zurich.”

You’ve been a name in the house and techno community for some time, but Agents of Time is your first solo album. How come it took so long?

“Yeah, funny right? I was meaning to release a solo album at the same time as the Cobblestone Jazz 23 Seconds one but I decided it was better not to crowd the release schedule. All the tracks that were to be on that album were released as singles instead. For me it’s better to have things out there being played I guess and when techno and house is really about the DJs it’s best to give them music while its current rather than holding on to it waiting to put it all together on an album.”

Your recent work seems to be slower and more reflective than the sound associated with you in the past – what prompted this change, and was it a conscious decision?

“Actually the reason why there are so many slow tracks on Agents Of Time is because most of it is music that I wrote for the Faust soundtrack I did with the guys from Cobblestone and also Hrdvsion. So some of the album is actually movie music. Also, as it’s an album I had the chance to release stuff that I would not usually put on a single these days – what with the record industry being how it is, I think 12″s should be focused on dancefloor music for DJs to play. I’ve always written slower music but most of it never had the chance to be released so I’m more known for the dancefloor side of what I do.”

How do you find working solo compared to with a group like Cobblestone Jazz? Do you prefer one or the other?

“For me it is really two different things that I enjoy but they serve different purposes for me. My solo work is usually a means of meditation that lets me deal with my life. It could be more compared to writing a personal journal or defragmenting your hard drive. Of course there is tracks like ‘Sunday Disco Romance’ which are more fun and not like this at all, but the deeper music I make is very personal. When I work with Cobblestone Jazz it’s about having fun and also being involved in a conversation with the other artists. We still get deep sometimes but it’s different when you’re time travelling with other people. When I’m alone I can go much further into the heavens than when I am in a group.”

Tell us about the mix you’ve recorded for FACT.

“The mix is a recording from the Timewarp Festival in Germany. It was a really amazing party and the sound there is always really good. I played in between Sven Vath and Richie Hawtin so the room was really on fire with all the fans that come out to see them. I felt really lucky to be able to play for this many people. Its such a rush!”

What else do you have in the pipeline this year?

“A lot of touring! More touring than I have ever done really because of having the Cobblestone Jazz album and my solo album coming out in June. Europe this month then Japan in July and back to Europe then Japan again in September, Mexico in October, South America in November then Europe, Australia, and then to India to relax at my house in Goa for two months. It’s nice to know I have India at the end of it all. It keeps me going knowing that at the end I will get some sleep.”

The timing is good, with Dettmann having just released his eponymous debut solo album, cementing his position at the very heart of the contemporary techno landscape. It’s a stark and uncompromising record, some would even say purist, and it also happens to be a roaring artistic success. Whereas most DJs and dance music producers feel obliged to diversify – and thus invariably dilute – their sound when making an album, Dettmann has gone the opposite way, producing a record as focussed and mercilessly linear as a laser-beam. As FACT’s Andrew Ryce rhapsodised in his review of the album, “in [Dettmann's] world there’s no more microhouse, no more ‘mnml’, no more ‘boring tech-house for elevators’, there’s only techno.”

Though understandably best known for his culture-shaping role as resident DJ at the iconic Berghain club in Berlin, Dettmann is an increasingly illustrious producer. Dettmann might be his debut solo LP, but the Pössneck-born 31-year-old has been making superlative dance music since 2006, beginning with the Klock collaboration ‘Dawning’/’Dead Man Watches The Clock’ that then gave rise to an exceptional mini-album, Scenario. Solo Dettmann 12″s have come not only via the Ostgut-Ton label but also Beatstreet and most notably MDR, Dettmann’s own bespoke white-label imprint. That sequence of no-frills releases, together with the mix CD Berghain 02, are arguably Dettmann’s most significant releases to date; Berghain 02 in particular has proved to be highly influential, helping introduce the wider world to the demure-yet-brutalist Berghain sound and the work of a new generation of underground luminaries like Norman Nodge and Shed. As a remixer too Dettmann has shown himself to be a deadly and versatile operator, taking on the likes of Sandwell District, Scuba and Martyn, and creating a wobbly modern dancefloor classic in his version of Deetron’s ‘Let Get Over It’.

For his FACT mix, freed from the need to formally represent Berghain and anyhow very well attuned to the diverse, discerning tastes of our readers, Dettmann digs deep into his collection and exhibits a number of little-known but time-honoured tracks alongside up-to-the-minute dancefloor detonators. Using two turntables, two CDJs and a sampler, he moulds this formidable selection into a spellbinding narrative – in FACT’s humble opinion one far more subtle and gripping than we’ve heard on any of his previous recorded mixes – beginning with the brittle, low-frequency electronica of Arpanet’s ‘Heisenberg Compensation’, a divine 2005 production by Drexciya/Dopplereffekt’s Gerald Donald.

Throughout the mix we’re taken back to the future, so to speak, bombarded with edu-taining classic cuts like Cristian Vogel’s ‘Artists In Charge of Expert Systems’ (1995), Hecate & Kareem’s ‘The Payback’ (1996) and CTI’s ‘Conquest’ – a head-spinningly advanced 1984 transmission from TG’s Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti. Other vintage productions from Herwig Maurer, Stefan Robbers and others abound, but there’s plenty of space for the new as well, with recent and some as-yet-unreleased productions from Norman Nodge, Tangula and Redshape. We finish up with Richard D. James’ classic Polygon Window cut ‘UT1 Dot’, a fitting conclusion to a mix that isn’t just about Dettmann’s fine ear and DJing nous. FACT mix 150 is, more than anything, about affirming and celebrating the techno continuum – that desire, be it in 1984, 1995 or 2010, to plough on forward, and to make the future happen now.

Interview

What were you aiming to achieve with the Dettmann LP? Are you happy with how it turned out?

“It’s a closed artwork, out of a year of Marcel Dettmann…and and I’m really happy about the positive feedback I get.”

It’s been said by a lot of people that the Dettmann LP prevents a very “pure” vision of techno – is that something you agree with?

“I do agree on this and I’m very pleased that the album is getting recognised as such.”

How would you say your approach to production has changed since ‘Blank Scenario’?

“It’s been three years by now…You’re permanently caught in a crossfire of influences, so I think that it’s always a constant development personally in terms of my production.”

Tell us about the mix you’ve recorded for FACT….

“I recorded it it in my studio with two turntables, two CD players and a sampler. The tracks I choosed are a mix of new stuff and some of the good old records which have accompanied me for years…”

Any new producers whose stuff you’ve been enjoying recently?

“At the moment I really like the productions of the Berlin label Do Not Resist The Beat and Sweden’s Skudge.”

Any other plans for 2010 that you can tell us about?

“I’ll be going on an album tour to the USA, Australia, South America, Asia and Europe. 
Besides that I’ll release some new tracks from different artists on my
 label MDR and I’m working on remixes for Commix, Sigha and others…”

We first profiled them in the wake of their entrancing Cremations release, and proceeded to fall gushingly in love with their exuberant, pop-embracing (but still wonderfully maudlin) 2009 album Love Comes Close, originally released on the band’s own Heartworm Press imprint before being picked up by Matador. Having given us the first vinyl pressing of Love Comes Close, and the excellent companion EP Death Comes Close, Matador are now releasing the album’s most devilishly catchy track, ‘Life Magazine’, as a 12″ and digital EP.

Featuring vocals from Caralee McElroy, the stomping, soaring original version of ‘Life Magazine’ is remixed for the EP by three very different but equally formidable artists: New York club legend Arthur Baker (enabler of Afrika Bambaataa’s ‘Planet Rock’ and New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’, among others); Pantha Du Prince, the young techno fabulist who has just released his fine sophomore album, Black Noise, through Rough Trade; industrial noise-monger Prurient, AKA Dominick Fernow, who as well as being a solo artist is a member of Cold Cave and proprietor of the Hospital Productions label; and JD Twitch of Optimo, whose blinding Fabric mix is out later this month. These three special edits of ‘Life Magazine’ appear on both limited vinyl and digital format, due out June 8.

Today’s Daily Download is an exclusive Optimo remix that doesn’t appear on either the 12″ or digital editions. Right now this is the first and only place you can listen to and download Optimo’s Flexi Pop mix of ‘Life Magazine’. . So get on and do it.

Best known for his drum’n’bass productions as DJ Clipz, as whom he released singles on labels like Full Cycle and Audio Zoo, Redlight is the latest alter-ego of Hugh Pescod, which he uses to refine an individual vision of bass music where grime, dubstep and squealing electro bleed into a sometimes overwhelmingly vibrant fusion, often soundtracked by ragga and grime vocalists.

His Lobster Boy EP from earlier this year saw him work with Boy Better Know’s Jammer and more, and Redlight’s recently been in the studio with Ben Westbeech, as well as Toddla T, Ms Dynamite, Serocee, Mz Bratt and Rusko. His new single, ‘Stupid’ is out now on Digital Soundboy, and he’ll be following it with ‘MDMA’, for Chase & Status’s label.

His FACT mix features tons of upfront material from himself, including some of those aforementioned collaborations and Redlight specials of ‘Wile Out’, ‘Hard’ and more.

“I’m not confined to one style or BPM and I had more freedom in terms of how to express my creative output.”

You produced for ages as Clipz – what prompted the change to Redlight?

“I got to a point where I just wasn’t feeling inspired anymore with what I was doing as Clipz. I wanted a change, new challenge and a fresh start.”

Was it dubstep’s popularity that made you decide to go down the 140bpm route? Not that what you make is dubstep exactly, but you know…

“Haha, yeah that’s it – I thought let’s jump out of one scene, in to someone else’s…! Nah, I’m joking…I’d been making slower beats for a couple of years with vocalists for various different projects and I just found it more interesting musically. I’m not confined to one style or BPM and I had more freedom in terms of how to express my creative output. As Redlight, I want to start something fresh and be part of something that I helped to create. I also really enjoy working with different vocalists on their projects and my own output.”

Are you still making D’n’B, or are you a bit disatisfied with it?

“No, I’m not making DnB at the moment.”

Does the name Redlight have anything to do with Amsterdam?

“Haha! Nah, Clipz referred to when audio’s distorting on a mixing desk, it’s called clipping and a red light comes on, so the Redlight name is the continuation of that idea.”

“Yeah that’s what I’m really into right now – working with vocals and trying to get the best out of the artists I’m blessed to be working with.”

You seem to be working with loads of people – vocalists, Toddla T, Ben Westbeech. Tell us about some of the stuff you have going on.

“Yeah that’s what I’m really into right now – working with vocals and trying to get the best out of the artists I’m blessed to be working with. I’ve done a project with Ben Westbeech which has been a big mission and has pushed us both to do new things, that’s not quite finished yet. I’ve been working with Roses Gabor on her EP which I’m mixing down at the moment, I’ve got a track on Jammer’s new album, have been doing production work for Mz Bratt, just done a Kelly Rowland remix and have also been in the studio with Ms Dynamite recently as well. Toddla T and me are remixing the next Wiley single and I’ve got a tune on Rusko’s album too. It’s busy!”

Tell us about the mix you’ve done for FACT.

“OK, the mix includes a lot of my own material and is basically the sound I’m in to and pushing at the moment. That’s it really!”

How’s the one 1Xtra show going so far?

“It was a great experience and came at a really good time to help get my new Redlight name out there, but sadly I’ve had to finish doing the show now to concentrate more on producing music as that’s the priority for me at the moment.”

What else should we know about Redlight ?

“I’m a hot pepper sauce addict!”

The set was recorded last month at Berghain, just one of the clubs that Dehnert razes to the ground on a regular basis. With a sleek but muscular sound, bass-rooted and with unbelievable flex and skip to its rhythms, there’s something wonderfully urgent and essential about Dehnert’s tracks – not a single note or drum-hit is wasted. Though the lurching syncopations might at times make you think of dubstep and garage, fundamentally we never deviate from the main business of industrial-burnished and tunnelistic techno. It’s serious stuff, for sure, but it’s totally ecstatic to boot.

Berlin-based Dehnert has been releasing music under his own name since 2007, chiefly via his own Fachwerk imprint. Fachwerk has become one of the most trusted techno labels there is, always delivering the club-coshing goods, and acting primarily as a showcase for Dehnert’s productions but also thosae of Sascha Rydell and Roman Lindau. Dehnert has also recently been enjoying an association with Rotterdam’s Clone Records, releasing the ‘Umlaut 2′ 12″ last year on Clone Basement Series (b/w Levon Vincent’s remix, one of 2009’s biggest club tracks), and with another coming imminently. Oh, and then there’s MD2, his ultra-limited white label (or, more accurately, red label) series, the first instalment of which dropped earlier this year, and the second of which is due out this month. As if that there’s not enough, further 12″s in the next couple of months are promised on Echochord and Fachwerk, and a 2×12″ Fachwerk album is planned for a little later in the year. 2010 is going to a be a big one for this industrious and humble hero of the underground.

Taken from a genuine live set (as opposed to the kind of chancer’s “live” set that’s so common these days), performed with on-the-fly modulation and arrangement and with noticeable breaks between tracks, this 30-minute cut is a perfect introduction to Dehnert’s power and prowess, and a pleasing affirmation for those who already know it well. Listen loud and listen well.

His selection of crunching, techno-infused hip-hop and dubstep-not-dubstep was a revelation, presaging the sound of Rustie, Hud Mo et al that we now all take for granted. Later, when we told him how much we enjoyed the set, he said, “Yeah, I was DJing with one deck because I lost one of my Serato records in my house the weekend before and I forgot - it was a fucking nightmare. Glad you enjoyed it though.”

That kind of sums up why we like the guy, and why we asked to him record a FACT mix for us. Fast-forward to 2010 and Numbers – the Glasgow-based label and party collective co-founded by Spencer – has become something of a phenomenon, the toast of everyone from The Guardian to (probably) Oprah. Combining the forces of Wireblock, Stuff and Dress 2 Sweat, what makes Numbers and its personnel special is the breadth and depth of their tastes. Though always on the look-out for the new thing, their sensibility is anchored in ageless techno, electro and hip-hop; the championing of upfront b-more, grime, dubstep, juke and funky doesn’t come at the cost of repping heroes like Juan Atkins, Kraftwerk and Drexciya. Numbers, and particularly Spencer, know where they’re coming from.

Spencer’s FACT mix is therefore a kaleidoscopic and history-hopping affair, packing thirty deadly tracks into a taut hour-long duration. Midwest sci-fi classics like Cybotron’s ‘Cosmic Cars’ and Mr Fingers’ ‘Distant Planet’ can be found alongside fresh dubstep and UK house from Sully, Altered Natives, Addison Groove and Mosca, and a glut of new and forthcoming Numbers cuts from Deadboy, Kavsrave, SRC and Taz Buckfaster. What more do you need to know? We can guarantee you’ll find no better soundtrack than this for the scorching weekend ahead.

MMM – the Berlin-based duo of Erik Wiegand and Fiedel – make unashamedly banging music, rooted in the finest traditions of techno, disco and electro. But there’s more to their tracks than mere club-quaking gusto: a kind of wildness and instability that no conventional producer would dare countenance, coupled with a surgical attention to detail that no conventional producer would even be capable of. This is music that sounds live, alive, intuitive, but also utterly disciplined and deliberate: elements are looped, tweaked and exaggerated to the point of near-abstraction; ‘Nous Sommes MMM’ doesn’t so much run along from A to B as jut out at you – we’re talking about electronic dance music that’s truly three-dimensional.

It’s no surprise, then, that MMM are one of the best-loved and most respected production duos on the planet. They’re not exactly prolific though: since 1996 they’ve released only five records, all via their own Hardwax-distributed MMM imprint. In 1997 they delivered ‘Donna’ – a bona fide club classic that in thirteen years has lost none of its pulverising, grin-inducing power.

Why so erratic though? After the first MMM release (MMM 1), the duo began to spend more time on separate endeavours: Erik developed the loop-frenzy aesthetic with his solo project Errorsmith, and with friend Frank Timm (Soundstream/Soundhack) as Smith ‘N Hack. Fiedel, a long-time fixture in the Berlin techno scene, continued to DJ, taking up a residency at Berghain that has continued to this day.

Fiedel’s DJing obliterates any notion you might have that Berlin or indeed Berghain is all about austere minimalism. His FACT mix is techno in character but positively loaded with 2-step variations and UK funky; while most selectors who attempt to bring together Detroit/Euro-centric 4/4 and British bass gear end up with a toothless, tokenistic hybrid that’s unsure of its own groove, Fiedel gets it spot on: in his hands the leap from Rejected’s expansive warehouse techno into the knotted grime of Outlaw Breaks sounds natural and effortless. Anthony ‘Shake’ Shakir, Shortstuff & Hyetal, Radio Slave, Skream, Shed and Roska all feature in FACT mix 140, without doubt one of the most lip-bitingly full-on, anthemic and fun FACT mixes of 2010 so far.

Having long harboured an interest in minimalism and modern classical composition, Menzies got the opportunity to remix Steve Reich in 2006, acquitting himself beautifully, and more recently has been working with the renowned Scottish Ensemble on a piece called Kinesis. This month sees the release of Lux, his third studio album, and his boldest offering yet. Though techno is still very much in its blood, Lux is a more structurally odd and exploratory record than its predecessors, disorientingly sensuous and totally unpredictable.

You can get some idea of what to expect of Lux from ‘Ikos’, which Menzies opens his FACT mix with. After a reflective start, it doesn’t take long for our man to reach a gallop, dropping fresh meat from Claro Intelecto, Levon Vincent, MMM (the ubiquitous ‘Nous Sommes MMM’) and Lory D, and trusty steppers from the likes of Floating Points and Zomby. Shackleton, Brinkmann, Steve Pointdexter, Actress and Autechre also feature in what is, quite frankly, a heavy, heavy selection.

How’s it going, Alex? What’s been interesting or bothering you of late?

“It’s going good thanks…..We’ve just moved to London and bought a house so all that shit to do with moving has been my main preoccupation, and not having a studio. As for bothering me, without being too worthy, Irag and Afghanistan continue to be a never ending travesty…These poor people must hate us. As if bombing the shit out of one of the most ravaged countries on earth could do anything but encourage terrorism. But as long as the economy’s back on track then fuck it, eh?!”

You’ve said that your production approach has changed a lot since makingParadolia. How so?

“Really my overriding aim since the first album has been to combine styles and the things I love into a cohesive whole, and in the last few years that’s expanded to focus more on combing the technical with the musical. So I’ve spent a lot of the last few years learning Max and Kyma and working on my production, as well as writing more for classical instruments….I love to be learning something new so it’s all just one long learning process really. Incommunicado was written when I was going clubbing all the time and was full of all the ideas I had running through my head.Paradolia was written quite soon after so shared a lot of common ground with the first one, but was definitely more influenced by the minimal producers I was listening to most. This one has had time to mature a bit so i expect it to be less immediate but have better longevity…fingers crossed.”

“I’m a shite self-publicist.”

Lux is less obviously rooted in techno dynamics and structures than your past work; was it a conscious decision to move away from that idiom…?

“I just wanted to return to the time when I made whatever came into my head and I didn’t think to myself, ‘Oh I wish that snare sounded more like Luciano’ – although that’s maybe a wee bit of an exaggeration! I just wrote whatever came out and the best stuff went on the album, although I can still admit to a pressure to include techno/dancefloor tracks.”

What were you listening to around the time you were making the album?

“I guess there’s a combination of things which definitely influenced it…..stuff like Burning Star Core, William Basinski, Autechre and all the classical music that I grew up with like Bach, Tallis, Mozart.”

Why did you decide to start Hum+Haw? Has running the label been a steep learning curve?

“I just wanted to release my music, working with a friend and be in control of everything from the design to the execution. Honestly, I was a little naive…it’s tough, very tough – and I’m a shite self-publicist so we’ve learned on the job. But we’ve finally got the album out so that’s a start!

”

“I just wanted to release my music, working with a friend and be in control of everything from the design to the execution.”

Tell us about ‘Akesis’ and your work with the Scottish Ensemble…

Definitely the most exciting thing for me in the last four years. I was really terrified at the first performance. Really terrified. The ensemble are world class and when I told my mum she just said ‘They’re really good…are you sure you’re up to it?’ Nice one mum. But they’ve performed it a few times now and I’ve made a few alterations to it in places where I thought it was a bit weak. I’ll be working with the ensemble again for the next thing I’m doing which is a semi classical/semi weirdo score for the silent film Faust.

We gather you’ve been developing your live sets with new hardware. Can you tell us a bit about what to expect?

“I’m now using a drum machine MPC-style to play more of the beats, and another synth which handles various other duties, as well as singing a bit. I’m working my way up to a proper live set-up with the Nord modular and maybe even Kyma, but probably only when I can travel by train.”

Tell us about the mix you’ve recorded for FACT…

It’s literally just a selection of the music that’s been exciting me recently, and there’s been plenty of it. People are starting to push against genre-expectations a bit more and that’s very healthy. I was meant to include more of my own stuff, but like I said I’m a shite self-publicist and other people’s stuff is more appealing.
”

A founding member of 808 State, Manchester’s Gerald Simpson helped create some of acid house’s most future-rushing and globally successful moments. He worked on the ‘State’s Newbuild LP and Quadrastate EP (home to ‘Pacific State’) before going solo, and hitt #12 in the UK charts with the completely nuts ‘Voodoo Ray’.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Simpson began to embrace influences from the nascent hardcore scene, issuing a number of groundbreaking 12″s on his Juicebox label that culminated in the release of the 1992 album 28 Gun Bad Boy (check the title track for an all-time British soundsystem classic).  He followed in 1995 with the gloriously knotted, soulful and uniquely psychedelic Black Secret Technology, arguably the finest jungle LP ever made.

While many producers of the same vintage have settled for a life of creative water-treading, stuck-in-a-timewarp DJ sets and dodgy film cameos, Gerald has really kept his end up, and then some. Relocating to Berlin some years ago, he has focussed his sound into an instantly recognisable brand of sleek, organic techno, releasing records on labels like Sender and Perlon. Next month he’s set to releaseTronic Jazz, his second LP for the Laboratory Instinct imprint, and this Saturday, April 10, he’ll be headlining Feeding Werk, a very special night at Plan B in Brixton, celebrating the sounds of Werk Discs (home to Actress, Lone and Lukid, who’ll all be making appearances, along with Pariah, Dave ID and more). More info on that unmissable night here.

So why did you go with the title Tronic Jazz for your new album?

“Why not?”

Can you explain your ‘Responsive DJing’ technique a little bit?

“It’s a perfect blend of DJing and live production.  It’s straightforward. I’m basically mixing in your face – doing what needs to be done there and then.”

There’s a real analogue feel to your productions; do you have any time for the digital realm at all?

“I was always digital.  I was using software in 1990. My ear is analog and I get smooth fat round sounds from anything. That’s what A Guy Called Gerald is all about.”

Are you still based in Berlin? How – if at all – do you feel living there has impacted on your sound, and your life in general?

“Yes, I’m still here.  It’s the best place for me right now.  It gives me space and time to sharpen skills and experiment in a perfect environment – that’s studiowise…Outside of my studio there are more and more layers of pretentious cunts.  Example: if I go out and I don’t go up to the DJ to introduce myself I get people making racist comments or just taking the piss in general.  They’re quite predictable really. I just think back to the old days when racists had their own music…oh, the good old days…[laughs]”

Your sound in recent years has tended towards streamlined 4/4 house and techno; do you envisage ever revisiting the more breakbeat-oriented sounds you explored on ‘28 Gun Bad Boy’ and Black Secret Technology?

“Yes, I still produce jungle but just for myself.  I hate that new rock shit they do now that they’re calling D&B.  As I am English and jungle represents my generation I stay true to form.  My jungle is for family now.”

Are there any new artists whose work you’re feeling? Any music, old or new, that’s been interesting you lately?

“Not really.  I think I have so many of my own ideas to execute and there are so many ‘artists’ out there who are just blagging it. I can’t be arsed anymore with the name vampires that want to cling to something real.”

Any other new projects on the horizon that you can tell us about?

“I just finished a Loopmasters DVD and am preparing for the live tour.”

Are you familiar with the Werk Discs artists? How did you end up playing the Feeding Werk party?

“I haven’t the foggiest who anyone is to tell you the truth.  But if they need something real and freaky they’re barking up the right tree.”

A member of various groups, including Izmabad (with Karizma), Les Barons and Marathon Men, Simbad has been releasing singles and albums since 2001, with a trademark sound that thrives on untreated, right-first-time instrumentation and warm analog synths on the sort of broken tip that brings to mind recent peer Altered Natives.

We’ve been trying to get him to do a FACT mix for ages now, but with the help of the Sunsplash Festival, where Simbad, Jamie Lidell and more will be playing this summer, we finally pinned him down between tours.

The results are immaculate, with Pepe Bradock, Ramadanman, Shed, Rhythm & Sound, Burial (Simbad’s own beautiful remix of ‘Fostercare’) and more featuring.

Simbad – what’s your background? You’re originally French, where did you grow up?

“Yeah I’m French and Polish but born in Peru and due to my parents work I travelled all over the world, growing up in different cultures and many countries (a year here, a year there, etc. etc.) with my family…Funnily enough I only arrived in Europe to live when I was 15. And moved to London when I was 19.”

What were your first forays into music making?

“Well I’d say doing sessions for house, garage & 2step guys here in London (I was playing sax or keyboards for them) really got me into the studio world, one day one of the sound engineer didn’t turn up so I jumped behind the computer and started the session as i used to observe how he’d do it you know…but yeah we eventually started a label and built a recording studio (Key Recordings, Je Ne Sais Quoi Rec.) with my french buddy Freddy McQuinn around 2001 in East London. Jammer, Ray Keith, Zinc & few more cats used to have their studio in the same building…”

Which artists – house producers and otherwise – have inspired you over the years?

“Waaaaaaaaow. Tuff question as there’s so many! All the UK cats for sure like like MJ Cole, Zed Bias, Mark Pritchard, El-B, IG Culture, Bugz in the Attic crew, Atjazz, Charles Webster, Phil Asher, Jimpster but also the whole Detroit techno/house family, from Kenny Larkin to Kenny Dixon Jr, Juan Atkins, Kai Alce or Carl Craig you know, not to mention other fellow french dons like Pépé Bradock and I-Cube or the Jazzanova crew from Berlin, other US guys like MAW, Kerri Chandler, Madlib and Dilla or Dj Premier…I mean honestly this is only the tip of the iceberg. I collect vinyl and love my jazz, funk, disco & African shizzle, so obviously that’s a big musical influence too, my true heroes come from everywhere [laughs]”

How did moving to London affect your music?

“Met a lot of Jungle/DNB djs when I was 18-19 (we were throwing down Jungle nites in Paris with a crew at the time) and they were always tellin’ me to come check out the scene in London so thats what I did, finally packed my horn & left for a summer, ended up living in a squat in Stockwell and basically stayed. I really discovered the whole spectrum of British dance Music and the Jamaican influence going to clubs, raves, parties and festivals, slowly by slowly moving from the live scene to the more electronic/studio/DJ kinda one…I love it, there’s always something bubbling here, from the pirate radio culture to the internetm I mean the whole evolution is ridiculous!”

How would you describe your music to those that don’t know you?

“Well I’d say first its mainly electronic soul, mainly dancefloor shhhh but not always… House or bruk or with singers or not, I just do what I feel at the time…Hopefully trying to make tunes that can stand the test of time basically – doesn’t happen often though! [laughs]. I like my shhh deep in general. And raw, of course.”

Yeah, there’s a lot of analogue, untreated sounds to your music – it’s both an observation and something I’ve seen you mention in an interview. Do you still play traditional instruments?

“As mentioned earlier I totally come from a musician’s background, I started sax and keys (plus other various tings) before I got into the whole production world and got to know about reverbs, compression and analog board, so yeah, started mainly with an analog set up and cracked programs but nowadays its just a computer and synths on the side mainly, plus DJing has taken over more and more so having a laptop in airports becomes a standard [laughs] but yeah I still play keys or drums a bit when going into production mode, still learning everyday new techniques…It’s quite amazing how all the knowledge that we used to craft with the analog gear is now so easy to find on internet and get applied on the digital, really fascinating. I love it personally.”

You work in different groups and under different aliases – there’s Loose Ensemble, Mowgly, your work with Karizma as Izmabad, and more. Is there a reason you do so much music in so many differentg guises?

“Well most of the time its collaborations like Marathon Men (with Freddy McQuinn, we had an LP on Chillifunk Rec. in 2004 and various singles), TettoryBad (with the Jazzy Sport crew in Japan) or Izmabad (still new stuff to be dropped soon!), we just vibing in the studio innit? You dont always get that chemistry with everyone but when it happens its like two universes collide into a new one, and yea you learn as well and exchange ideas/ways of producing, it’s good vibes really. Sometimes using aliases was to have a certain freedom with labels etc… but now i just stick mainly to Simbad, whether it confuses people or not if i make different styles…”

Tell us about the mix you’ve done for FACT.

“[laughs] Well remember you asked me for that one aaaaages ago so before I hit the US this time (I’m doin a lil’ tour for 2 months) I had to record that mixtape, simple really, just what I had in my box that nite (yeah, its vinyl nd CDs, a crappy mixer and thats it), these days I really love to mix my house, techno & dubstep/garage/bruk all together, makes sense to me and to the dancefloor naaamean?”

What projects do you have going on at the moment, and planned for the near future?

“Got a bunch of new remixes coming out that I did for Maddslinky, Piranahead, Nickodemus, Sonar Pilot (Simbad Remixes LP Vol. 2 out in for the Stones Throw guys, beats for french MC Grems (he’s gonna be so massive), June on Key Rec), few projects like a boogie/funk thing feat. various singers, two singles with a dope singer called Brian Temba (from South Africa), entittled ‘Dominoes’ & ‘Come Join In’ (soon on Raw Fusion) other singles with various labels on the electronic side you know, whether its dubstep, bruk or house. Also the album that I produced for Donn T (Questlove’s sister) is about to drop on MoreAboutMusic with the firs single being remixed by Zed Bias & Deetron…Few other tingz but can’t remember right now, I’m mashed from Miami…[laughs]

Oh yeah we got sme dope beats that we did quickly with lady Cooly G, I’m sure thats gonna be ready to come out for the summer. Plus the Blu James album is finished and mixed (produced by Mark Force, Dego, Daz-I-Kue, myself etc…) but we’re still looking for a label on that one. Ahh yeah, and some African edits ready to drop with the Sofrito Crew, proper roots beauties.”

Which current artists are you currently feeling?

“All that new generation of current UK beat makers, Floating Points, Pangaea, Ramadanman, Cooly G, D-Malice, Breakage, Roska, Digital Mystikz Crew, the new Benga is sick, J Kenzo, Mosca, maaaaan so many [laughs], Kyle Hall, DZ, swiss cats Michel Cleis & Deetron, Pezzner, Pablo Fierro, Ezel, much more but I gotta stop there, I’m hungry, need to eat!”

You can catch Simbad at both Sunsplash, and every other Friday 8-10pm on Deja Vu FM.

For those who need reminding: Rob Brown and Sean Booth are among electronic music’s most important yet elusive characters, two b-boys from the north-west of England who have been stretching their formative loves – hip-hop, electro and early house music – into ever more abstract and otherworldly climes, beginning with the 1991 single ‘Cavity Job’.

The duo joined the Warp Records family in ‘92, contributing two show-stealing tracks to the label’s seminal “electronic listening music” compilation, Artificial Intelligence, before delivering their own shockingly original debut full-length, Incunabula. That album took familiar dance music tropes – breaks derived from electro, gloopy synth textures from Chicago acid – and modelled them into totally fresh configurations, adding a very British industrial burnish and post-rave melancholy to the mix. If the three albums that came next – the masterful Amber (1994), Tri Repetae (1995) and Chiastic Slide (1997) – found the group evolving at a steady pace, ’98’s LP5 and 2001’s Confield represented a quantum leap. Autechre’s music by this point had become more akin to sound-art, a (paradoxically) busy electronic minimalism that took the deconstruction of the breakbeat to vociferously scientific extremes.

It’s true that much of Autechre’s noughties work alienated those drawn to the broader techno-romanticism of their early records, with Draft 7.30 (2003) and Untitled (2005) scaring many off for good, but their most recent full-length – 2008’s Quaristice – was almost unanimously acclaimed, and deservedly so. Sure, it was still an intimidating work, but one of often great beauty and three-dimensional complexity, the kind of album you could listen to for years and never fully fathom. It was as if the future had almost – but not quite – caught up with Autechre. Next month, March 22 to be precise, Quaristice’s eagerly awaited follow-up, Oversteps, is due to be released through Warp, and early whispers are already proclaiming it to be among the very best of Autechre’s career.

Of course, there’s more to Autechre than their albums – a vast array of singles, EPs, remixes and collaborative projects that fill in the gaps in the narrative. In 2003 they curated the fourth edition of ATP, selecting the best line-up in the festival’s history: Anthony ‘Shake’ Shakir, Public Enemy, Jim O’Rourke, Coil, Bernard Parmegiani, LFO, The Fall, Sunn O))) were among the artists who performed. As a live entity themselves, Autechre are one of the most intense and transporting you will ever encounter; it’s face-to-face, in the flesh, that their sound really comes alive.

To coincide with the release of Oversteps, Autechre are embarking on a tour that culminates with a headline performance at the 2010 Bloc Weekend, taking place at Butlin’s in Minehead, UK on March 12-14. You ought to be there.

And so here it is. Autechre’s FACT mix. Rob and Sean – who we interviewed in-depth in 2008 – have declined to talk about the mix itself, telling us that “it’s just some tunes [they] like”. No tracklist either, so spotters, please do you worst. What we can tell you is that the mix is an unpredictable, kaleidoscopic affair, rooted in sinuous leftfield hip-hop but with bursts of tremulous ambient electronics, techno, hectic breakbeats and, at one particularly memorable point, metal. We needn’t tell you how rare recorded DJ-mixes from Autechre are, so please, don’t sleep on this.

He’s existed on the periphery of our vision since the mid-noughties, thanks to classic Delsin, Styrax and particularly Soloaction releases like the Looking Back EP and ‘These Kinky Dudes From Germany’, but it was in 2008 that Shed really grabbed us by the nads. First came the remarkable single ‘Warped Mind’, and then his quietly monumental debut album, also released on Ostgut-Ton (home to Marcel Dettmann, Ben Klock et al). Shedding The Past found this producer coming to terms with techno’s charged history while also doing everything in his power to nourish and dictate its future, matching melancholy, serotonin-depleted synth melodies to impeccably swung rhythms derived not just from straight techno but dubstep, garage and hardcore.  Not for nothing was it ranked as one of FACT’s albums of the decade.

Since then, Pawlowitz has become an ever more vital presence in, and agent of, forward-thinking dance music: his remixes for the likes of Peverelist, Substance, Radio Slave and particularly  Taho (‘Energy Fields’) have been genuinely adventurous while also sating the demands of the dancefloor, and his two ongoing, “anonymous” 12″ series, Equalized and Wax – both distributed by the Hardwax store where he works – are remarkable for their elegant subversion of modern techno’s rhythmic givens. And for just being, well, lip-bitingly brilliant.

In summary, and in case it’s not obvious by this point, we love Shed; in fact, when he first floated the idea of recording a FACT Mix we had to have a gin-and-tonic and a lie-down before responding. The mix reflects its makers ongoing interest in dubstep and post-garage forms, with tracks from the likes of Peverelist, Martyn, Joy Orbison, Zomby and Skream (the oft-overlooked ‘One For The Heads’) enjoying prominence, but that’s just one strand of a diverse and hugely rewarding selection: look out for hard and raw techno from Surgeon and Underground Resistance, deadly warehouse minimalism from Pan Sonic and Marcel Dettmann, and out-and-out rave anthems from Aphex Twin, Drexciya and Link.

We don’t know much about Sully. Most people don’t. Discogs claims he’s one half of drum’n’bass duo Spectrasoul, but this might not be true [edit - it's definitely not true].

What we do know about Sully is that he’s something special. Nicknamed the King of Swing amongst dubstep heads that know, his ‘Phonebox’ single from 2008 is one of FACT’s very favourite dancefloor jams of the past few years, and it’s one of several underground, overlooked bangers to Sully’s name.

The next step in the Sully story takes the form of a 12″ for Martin ‘Blackdown’ Clark’s Keysound label, who also have released / will be releasing singles by Skream, LHF, Kowton and Zomby. “Sully is a really key artist for me”, Clark told FACT in a recent interview.

“With all the talk about garage and the new hybrids of it … his ‘The Loot Remix’ is speed garage but ‘In Some Pattern’ is a perfect example of how you can have a swung 2step framework but go in completely different directions with it, in this case part 80s electro part detuned synth/purple wow.” Both tracks are featured on the aforementioned 12″.

Anyone with half an interest in swinging, percussive garage and gorgeous, enveloping melodies should have a full interest in Sully’s FACT mix – it features new, untitled productions from your man, plus fresh material from Kowton, Sbtrkt and more.

A recent recruit to Glasgow’s Numbers, the umbrella label formed from Dress 2 Sweat, Wireblock and Stuff, Deadboy’s FACT mix has been in constant rotation at our office since its submission last year, and we couldn’t think of a better way to start off the year.

Featuring Theo Parrish, Scott Garcia, Julio Bashmore, Martyn and plenty of Deadboy’s own material, it’s a mix that perfectly reflects the blurred crossroads between house, garage, R’n'B and dubstep that the likes of Mosca, Bok Bok, Joy Orbison and more are currently inhibiting, with a sense of longing that runs through the mix – whether that’s for lovers past or the halcyon days of 2step. Bassline house star Burgaboy has rarely sounded as sad as he does on this mix.

For the tracklist and an interview with Deadboy hit up page two. Photography and help with the sleeve design comes courtesy of the talented Steve Braiden.

What’s your deal? Where do you come from?

“I come from South East London.”

What’s your background in music? When did you start producing – and who/what particularly inspired you?

“I started making tunes about 5 or 6 years ago I think. At the time I was getting really into 2 step, and early grime stuff like Jon E Cash, the Wiley eski tunes, El-B and Horsepower and stuff like that, then early dubstep stuff from Digital Mystikz, Slaughter Mob and the like. At the same time I was listening to a lot of other stuff like detroit techno, dancehall, dub, R’n'B, house and trying to incorporate those elements as well. Later on I got into bassline and then the UK Funky stuff and chucked that in there as well, but my main love and influence is garage.”

Your mix for FACT seems to have a lot of melancholy in it – from ‘K-I-S-S-I-N-G’ to the Theo Parrish cuts, to your own stuff like ‘U Cheated’ and ‘If U Want Me’. Is that a vibe you particularly go for in your music?

“Yeah I dont think I ever sit down and think “how can I make this tune sound sad”, I’m generally trying to make something hype, but I’m always naturally attracted to sad girly vocal samples in hype music. I love all those sad old garage tunes. Bassline is good for it as well. Everyone can relate to a little heartache on the dancefloor.”

Tell us about the rest of the music you make – you’re one half of Hyper Black Bass…

“Yeah Hyper Black Bass is one of my mates who makes dancehall stuff solely on a pair of gameboys with nanoloop. I come along and stick dancehall acapellas on them, and when we play live I do it with a CDJ over the gameboys, and we have sirens and airhorns and stuff. It started as a bit of a laugh but people seem to like it, got a tune on the next Rough Trade comp. I’ve also done a cassette of hip hop beats I’ve made over the years.”

Tell us about your EP for Numbers, and the rest of the stuff you’ve got in store.

“If U Want Me is coming out on a 1 sided 12″ on Numbers with something special on the other side, hopefully in January. Its going to be the first release on the newly formed label so thats cool. Then after that got a 7″ coming out on Well Rounded of a couple of R’n'B refixes I’ve done, Cassie on one side and Ashanti on the other.”

Redshape’s identity was unknown when his first 12″, ’2084′/’ULTRA’, dropped on Music Man Records in 2006, but he’s since “come out” – revealing himself to be a German producer by the name of Sebastian Kramer. A series of killer EPs and singles followed for discerning labels like Delsin, Styrax Leaves, Millions of Moments and Kramer’s own Present, yielding classic tracks like ‘Dog Days’ and ‘Blood Into Dust’.

The Redshape sound is a subtle extrapolation of Detroit techno, and as a producer and live performer Kramer conjures great intensity out of moody, nuanced grooves, stirring dancefloors to rapture without recourse to dumb riffs and unearned kickdrum-pounding. His music sounds as hypnotic and powerful at home as it does in clubs, and his recently released debut album, The Dance Paradox, seals his reputation – being an elegantly crafted suite that pays tribute to classic techno while subtly redefining it for the 21 century.

Redshape’s FACT Mix is a live set recently recorded in Berlin, and is virtually a “greatest hits” selection, albeit one rendered with a sense of mischief and improvisation. Enjoy, and while you’re listening perhaps ponder the similarities between Redshape and Santa Claus. They both favour red, they both like a glass of sherry (probably), and Redshape’s label is called Present - present. Coincidence? No chance.

Nicknamed “The God”, Edwards is best known for ‘Face to Face’, his collaboration with Daft Punk that featured on the French duo’s seminal Discovery album. But in underground dance music circles the New Jersey resident’s influence spreads far beyond that: his unique vocal reconstruction technique – where he cuts and pastes individual syllables to create a poetic collage that often only unravels after various listens (think a dancefloor-focused version of what Burial does) – is one of the most recognizable trademarks in his history of house and garage music, usually backed with some of the most sunblind four-by-four beats in history.

Todd’s gone all out for his FACT mix: an hour in length, it features both new unreleased cuts and “unheard tracks from the archives”, and is essential listening for both those interested in his legacy on house and garage music and fans of his overground admirers – both Klaxons and Justice have asked Todd to remix them in the past. For the tracklist and an interview with Todd, turn to page two. FACT’s Guide to the Essential Todd Edwards is also worth a peek.

You’ve always been primarily a producer rather than DJ, but between this and the recent Treehouse mix you did, are you starting to get back into the DJ game more?

“I most definitely am looking to DJ as much as possible. Over the last few years, I found my place in DJing. I enjoy connecting to my audience, whether it’s a large or small venue. I’m looking to integrate, some visuals, and keyboard playing within the set…but one step at a time.”

There’s a noticeable reworking of ‘Face to Face’ in here–is that a remix or a newly recorded track? And what prompted you to revisit it?

“To be honest I should have done a remix to ‘Face To Face’ when it first came out.  I actually did that remix in 2003, but I only played it in the UK. However, with  internet mixes, you will be hearing a lot of new music, that may not even be new, just unreleased. People are always looking for something they don’t have, and  I have  a lot  that I can provide them with.”

‘Burning Down the House’ gets a visit as well. A friend who heard that version said that he’d never noticed how melodically similar it is to your style even before you remixed it. What drew you to it?

“Growing up I loved ‘Burning Down The House‘. When I hear it, it reminds me of my childhood. Over the last  year or so, I’ve been envisioning songs that I could “Todd-i-fy. ” I could hear ‘Burning Down The House’ as a club track. I feel good about the results.”

You’ve been remixing a lot for Scion Audio Visual. How did that come about?

“I received an e-mail to possibly DJ a small party that Scion was sponsoring. The funny thing is that two weeks prior I bought a Scion Xb. The two events were unrelated. I was excited to do it, because I love the vehicle. I’m proud to be doing work for Scion A/V.

“There is a great appreciation there for music of all types, and a desire to experiment and combine different styles of music. The Boris remixes are great example of that.”

Finally, what besides this mix is in the works for you? Any albums or singles or further remixes coming up?

“Scion A/V will be releasing a song I wrote sang and produced called ‘I Might Be…’ It will have remixes by Joy Orbison, M.J. Cole, Feadz, and My Dear Disco. I’m looking forward to that. Before the end of December (hopefully) I will have my download site up and running. I will be selling my new releases, and giving music away as well.  I just completed a remix of VV Brown’s ” Shark In the Water”and will also be doing a remixes for My Dear Disco. January 8th I will be spinning at Fabric [with Rustie, Deadboy and more for Numbers]. That covers January…I have a lot of plans for 2010.”

The Bristol-based producer first registered on that city’s scene with his Unleashed mixtape, and since then he established himself as one of the UK’s most undeniable dubstep talents. Thus far he’s tended to be lumped in with his mates Joker and Gemmy, with whom he undoubtedly shares a love of fat, saccharine synth lines inspired by g-funk and the ecstatic grime of Ruff Sqwad – that much feted “purple wow” sound – but Guido’s most recent single release, ‘Beautiful Complication’, finds him striking out on his own and arguably eclipsing his more famous friends. Voiced by Aarya, ‘Beautiful Complication’ sounds like nothing less than a new kind of streat-ready, soundsystem-frienly and unmistakeably British R&B, and it’s B-side ‘Chakra’ affirms Guido’s ability to pack a heavy emotional payload into full-frontal party music.

Inspired by the video game soundtracks of his youth, Guido embraces “cheap” synthesized instrumentation – saxophones, strings, piano – and uses it to build bold melodies and fanciful, beautifully interlocking arrangements.

“It’s got to have a good hook,” he recently told Resident Advisor. “A lot of dubstep is just based on the bassline and the LFO and doesn’t get too melodic.”

Need more evidence? Check out his debut Punch Drunk single, the immense MIDI-symphony ‘Orchestral Lab’ and especially it’s B-side ‘Way U Make Me Feel’, which just sounds like nothing else out there. Our man is currently at work on an album-length release – one reason we can’t wait for 2010 to hurry up and happen.

Guido’s FACT Mix is audio crack for established fans, and the perfect introduction to his sound for newcomers. There are three immense Guido productions on there, the aforementioned ‘Beautiful Complication’ and ‘Chakra’ plus a remix of Wedge & Shadz’s ‘Runnin Away’. Note too the Bristol bias: a classic Smith & Mighty roller in ‘Love & Unity’ and Rob Smith in RSD guise with ‘Good Energy’, plus tracks from Peverelist, Pinch and Joker. There’s room too for Floating Points, Rustie, L-Wiz and more, amounting to one of the most joyous and satisfying FACT Mixes of 2009. Essential downloading.

Recorded live in Ireland a couple of weeks back, it’s a big, brash unwaveringly banging selection of lysergic acid house, mind-melting techno and neo-electro that intensity-wise makes the Chemical Brothers sound like Robson & Jerome.

SMD is of course the duo of Jas Shaw and James Ford, the latter also producer for the likes of Arctic Monkeys and Klaxons. They recently released the album Temporary Pleasure, with guests including Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals), Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip), Jamie Lidell, Telepahte and Beth Ditto.

FACT Mix 107 is a potent taster of what to expect when SMD headline Get Loaded In The Dark on New Year’s Eve at the Brixton O2 Academy. They’ll be joined by Chase & Status, Herve and loads more – click here for more information and tickets.

Over the course of his career – with key releases appearing on Downwards, Tresor and his own Counterbalance imprint – the Birmingham resident has perfected a unique and uncommonly effective production style. His is a tough, fast techno sound with an industrial murk about it but also plenty of funk, plenty of swing, and a sophisticated sense of dub-space learned in part from his Chain Reaction contemporaries in Berlin. Proving that hard can also be smart, sensuous and danceable, the influence of Surgeon on the 2009-ruling Ostgut/Berghain sound – DJs/producers like Marcel Dettmann, Shed and Norman Nodge – is substantial. Check out his recent remixes of Scuba, Shed and Moderat, and the run of fearsome 12″s he recorded with Regis as British Murder Boys earlier in the decade.

However, what concerns us today is Surgeon the DJ. A cursory glance at the tracklist for his FACT Mix (over the page) will probably tell you we’re dealing with a very special selector, one capable of mixing up styles into a coherent and righteously banging whole. One of the most inventive, intuitive users of Ableton alive, in this mix – recorded live at Cafe Capital in Antwerp, Belgium, last month – Surgeon reaches terrifying levels of on-the-fly ingenuinity and intensity, making the heavy-gaited dubstep of RSD work in perfect accord with the Chicago acid of Fast Eddie, leaping seamlessly from Zomby and Rustie to Ancient Methods and Patrick Cowley. If you want to know what techno is really about – download this mix now.

One of FACT’s most enjoyable and revelatory nights out in living memory was at a Bleep43 party in London last year, when Surgeon played back-to-back all night with DJ Pete (Hardwax, Substance, Scion Version) – and duly turned our minds inside out. The duo will be reprising their deadly partnership at Bleep43 next Friday, 11 December, topping a line-up which also features the mighty Patrice Scott and Newworldaquarium. You really ought to be there; more informations and tickets can be found here.

For more on Surgeon, check out our Five Records interview, in which the Midlander talks to us about some of his favourite records, including albums by Coil and Scott Walker.

After a string acclaimed 12″s on Traum she released her debut album, Black Cabaret, in 2002, but it was with 2005′s Cocoon single ‘Acid In My Fridge’ that the world really began to take notice. Since then, she’s become a dynamic and unpredictable force in electronic dance music, putting out heady material on Vakant, Crosstown Rebels and her own Horizontal imprint, most notable 2007′s terrific Ringing EP.

This month sees the release of her third studio album, Anemik, hot on the heels of last year’s May Be Later. It’s her debut on Vancouver’s Wagon Repair label, and her most potent offering yet – all swinging rhythms, dizzying psychedelic textures and an undertow of melancholy that stays with you long after you’ve finished listening.

FACT Mix 105 displays all the flair, emotional range and dancefloor nous that has made Dinky a force to be reckoned with. It’s a very celebratory-sounding session, with a bias towards skippy US house and stripped-back continental techno but with some terrific curveballs from Arthur Russell, Martyn and more. It’s undoubtedly one of the best house-leaning mixes we’ve ever had the pleasure of hosting, so please dig in and enjoy.

Having quickly risen to notoriety in the drum ‘n bass scene, Breakage is one of a number of d’n’b producers – along with the likes of Instra:mental, Kryptic Minds and ASC – who have taken influence from worlds outside of d’n’b to fashion a unique, rolling aesthetic all of his own.

In Breakage’s case, dubstep is the key: following 2008′s awe-inspiring single ‘The Shroud’/'Clarendon’, he’s gone on to explore that sound deeper, while also collaborating with Skream, and MCs like Roots Manuva and, on new single ‘Hard’ – out December 7 – Newham Generals and David Rodigan.

His FACT mix should give you a taste of what to expect from Foundations, the London producer’s new album due early next year on Shy FX’s Digital Soundboy label, and the follow-up to 2006’s diverse double-disc set This Too Shall Pass.

Taken from the forthcoming Echologist EP, Snowblower, ‘Ritual’ is dusty and sun-scorched but doesn’t resort to dub-techno standards, instead reaching and squelching in different directions, with flickering lights criss-crossing in the distance. Breaking down and building up at all the right places, it’s one of the EP’s most assured tracks. .

Snowblower is released next month on Moeller’s own Steadward label.

All live edited, with special effects and additional vocals and commentary from the London trio, KMS’s FACT mix reads like a list of influences on their twilight Lovers Rock sound, featuring sweet reggae in Tanya Stephens and Gregory Isaacs, dusty shoegaze in My Bloody Valentine and A.R. Kane, modern favourites Burial and Little Dragon, and tracks from Sade, Larry Heard and Scritti Politti, plus material from their forthcoming debut album, Waiting For You on Hyperdub.

We’re blown away from it, and pretty much play it every other morning in our office. Not only is a great listen, it provides a genuine insight into the conception of Waiting For You, one of the year’s most intriguing albums which should drop towards the end of this month

Ruaridh Law by birth, T.V.O is one of the country’s most meticulous DJs, and as a former member of cult electronica group Marcia Blaine School for Girls, he’s also a superb producer in his own right: most recently showcased by his ability to release both driving techno singles for labels like Stuff Records, and to indulge his experimental side on ambient/found sound albums for Highpoint Lowlife – this year’s I Can Hear the Sirens Again a particular highlight.

Fans of T.V.O.’s past mixes might have an idea of what to expect here: his FACT mix starts off slowly with avant garde compositions from the likes of Coil and Alva-Noto, before touching on bass music’s futurist fringes with 8Bitch and Spatial and building seamlessly in energy via tracks by Scuba, Hot City, Neil Landstrumm, Kenny Larkin, Farley Jackmaster Funk and more. Full tracklist over the page.

‘L’Amour et La Violence’ is released on December 14 via Lucky Number, and marks the final single from Tellier’s, er, let’s say unique album Sexuality. A simple, almost exposed song in its original form, Floating Points’ remix stirs Tellier’s vocals into a deep orange cocktail of fluttering melodies, rising synths and off-kilter production that should appeal to fans of his past singles ‘Love Me Like This’ and ‘Vacuum Boogie’, as well as Gold Panda and M83.

Emika describes herself as “making pop, but with a hard edge, playing different sounds and intensities against each other. I try to stay on the fence, leaving from for the listener to create a sense of what its about. It’s all about tension for me.”

‘Drop the Other’ is her first single for the label, a breathy piece of minimal pop that recalls the spacious epics of the xx and the goth electro of The Knife in equal measures. Here she’s remixed by Paul ‘Scuba’ Rose, a dubstep original who runs the Hot Flush label out of Berlin, and recently released his most realized work to date in the Aesuanic EP.

VonStroke is the head of San Francisco’s foremost tech-funk label, Dirtybird, and the man behind some of house and techno’s biggest tunes of the past decade: ‘The Whistler’, ‘Deep Throat’ and ‘Who’s Afraid of Detroit?’. His Dirtybird parties have built up a reputation as some of the West Coast’s wildest, and VonStroke also recently released his second album, Bird Brain.

Couple that with legions of fans and imitators in America and abroad, a Fabric CD, another successful label in Mothership and a serious eye for talent (VonStroke recently snapped up Bristol upstart Julio Bashmore for a Dirtybird EP), and you’re dealing with one of the best.

VonStroke’s FACT mix features Julio Bashmore, Mike Monday, Justin Martin and plenty of new Dirtybird material from the label’s new signings and the big man himself .

Hey Claude – how’s it going?

“It’s going great. I’m about to head off to Hawaii to celebrate the album release with my family!”

Tell us about the mix you’ve done for FACT…

“It’s a nice smattering of album tracks with other new label material and some stuff I’m digging at the moment.”

Is it a reflection of the stuff you’ve been playing out lately?

“Yes, for sure. Right now we are in a flurry of label signings and I am playing like 80% label material. It’s a renaissance!  Usually I’m scouring the universe for new hot shit but I have so much right at the front door right now I can play whole sets of new Dirtybird and Mothership tracks. It’s great.”

Tell us about your new album, Bird Brain. What can we expect from it?

“It is a slimy, booty, peaceful, jackin’, greasy & calming experience. All ten tracks are completely different from each other but they all have a common vibe to them. There is no tracky track filler bullshit. I thought about and worked on each track until I was happy with all of them.”

You’ve just signed Julio Bashmore, a UK producer we’re a big fan of. How did you come across his stuff?

“The guys at Fabric got him on a new compilation they were putting together of that new UK housey dubstep style sound. They told me about him and then the very next week I went to play in Bristol and the promoter brought him to the show! I got even more tracks from him in Bristol and we were able to snag a couple sweet tunes. In fact this mix opens with a chillin’ Julio Bashmore track called ‘World Peace’.”

Your labelmate Christian Martin recently played London rave Night Slugs with Cooly G, and dubstep’s Joker and UK house’s Crazy Cousinz have been playing ‘Who’s Afraid of Detroit’ in their sets. Are you into the London/UK house stuff that’s about?

“Yeah well I’m a fan of about 1% of it but that’s just like everything.  I’m a fan of 0.3% of all music I suppose. Christian is like our dubstep crossover guy. I think he would actually make a better dubstep/house guy than a straight Dirtybird guy.”

What else is happening in the world of Claude VonStroke?

“I am now preparing Dirtybird’s five year birthday project [for the start of 2010] and figuring out when to release all these cool records. I’m doing a Planet E remix and some other interesting music projects next year including my new alias, the Grizzl. At the end of this month I start the Bird Brain album world tour and visit all my favorite clubs. Thanks for letting me do a mix!”