One man who seems to have dedicated a huge chunk of his adult life to the exploration of dub is Moritz Von Oswald, from Basic Channel to Rhythm & Sound, Version, Round 1-5 and beyond he has pretty much nailed every aspect and sense of dub influence in electronic music. He’s been a constant force in my understanding and knowledge of electronic music since I first heard Phylyps track on a club system as an over enthusiastic teen in the early nineties through to picking up great 12 & 7″s in his Hard Wax store in Berlin.

It should also be pointed out that he’s done a lot to champion the roots of Jamaican reggae culture in a positive non exploitative way. Proof it’s ok to take influence over ripping off.

As per, five favs below…

I’m not normally a big fan of compilations, usually you are lucky if you can find three gems on them and the rest is just a bit meh. However with ‘Artificial Dancers – Waves of Synth’ Interstellar Funk has delivered an absolute blinder.

The kind of music I am yearning to hear loud on a good sound system. All killer no filler stuff.

One UK imprint I always make sure to check in on is Matt Edward’s (aka Radio Slave) ace Rekids. It’s been consistent for almost two decades and like all the best labels has a varied approach to the range of styles and artists it releases from alongside a big artist presence from the label owner himself. Peak time techno & breakbeats to deep electronics and occasionally slow brooding downtempo vibes, all covered exceptionally well.

Easily one of the best back cats in the UK for me and with no signs of slowing down antime soon. As usual five favs below..

Safe to say we are all missing the dancefloor by this point. I really miss that weird late night energy you only get when a bunch of people who hardly know each other get unordinarily close in a dimly lit room. Most times the best music for these moments is from the darker trippier electronic world. A true master of this sound is Raudive aka Oliver Ho, who when he mixes elements of techno, house, electro and at times even touches of glam rock, creates that perfect late night sleazed out vibe.

Five favs from Ho below…

Dutch producer Frits Wentik has stood out from modern house producers to me over the last 7-8 years.  Someone doing his own thing and doing it well. He makes the kind of rough trippy electronics that I used to love to play in those dark rooms late at night/early in the morning situations. His music sounds equally as good at home too.

Five favs from Frits below…

AR Kane were a group with a lot of ideas – perhaps too many. However, they had a punk can do attitude, really good taste and an energy that many of the bands at that time lacked. When they got it right – they hit that sweet spot of melding the disparate sounds a good record collection has into lovely pop perfection. Easy to talk about down the pub but difficult to do in practice. Definitely sonically an inspiration for me and many others.

Very sad to hear of the recent passing of Peter “Woosh” Birch from Nottingham’s DIY collective. Gutted I never got to hear him and his partner Digs play out, although I got to see one other from the collective Simon DK play the Crescent in the mid nineties and it was proper hypnotic deepness all night long. I’m very aware of how important all these guys are in terms of breaking new ground, shaping of things in the North of England and upholding a certain set of values with everything they did, most importantly in their attitudes towards what makes a good party, DJ, label, vibe and person, a far cry from the antics of most DJs today. It does feel a lot like the old gaurd are slipping away atm and the attitudes of alot of the new stink to be perfectly honest!

Five DIY essentials below…

Growing up I thought the KLF were a bunch of arty chancers. It wasn’t until I bought a copy of Chill Out that it dawned on me that they were quite the opposite. I still think it’s one of the best albums ever made. Anyway, some of their music is undeniably awful, there to antagonise and take the piss but amongst that are some timeless pieces of electronic music with an incredible ear for sounds and samples. Hard to believe the same group fired machine gun blanks into a Brit Awards audience then dumped a dead sheep at the afterparty, deleted their back cat and burned a million quid – were also the biggest selling singles act of ’91. Certainly don’t make them like that anymore!

Annie posted an image of herself and Tore Andreas “Erot” Kroknes on her instagram account over the weekend along with a heartfelt message about her personal relationship with him. Tore tragically passed away in 2001 due to heart complications aged a mere 23 years old. Annie’s post got me thinking about the records I own by him that I adore and still sound fresh nearly twenty years later. Loose rolling drums, loads of dubby delay treatments and always with a rough disco/funk edge. Erot really did have his own style and the mark that he left behind although sadly cut short was incredibly special.

Five with his unique touch below…