This remix of Matthew Dear has been online for 30 minutes at the time of posting, and it's a sign that Tornado Wallace has progressed as a producer but hasn't left his unique style behind. Similar to his remix for Cut Copy at the end of last year, he relies heavily on some incredible arpeggios and those superb claps that will space out any dance floor into a rhythmic convulsion.

Congratulations to Lewie for getting the chance to remix a legend such as Matthew Dear, and much love to Ghostly International for noticing his talents.

BONUS :
Going back into older territory with this slow burning remix for Matthias Reiling of Session Victim fame. Amazing stuff

Still firmly rooted in emotionally moving house, Dusty Sundays is homage to their unique flavour that is rapidly becoming synonymous with the Chaos In The CBD name. Each track is closely related sonically, which gives an enjoyable listen from start to finish and will certainly pick up some play in the earlier hours of the morning. Not sure what the house scene in New Zealand is like but this is some serious after party shit.

Jack Dixon is given the pleasure of remixing the title tune to perfection, turning the melodic elements inside out from emotional to driving techno inspired class.

Pick of the bunch is Girl Like You, with very similar sounds to the previously mentioned remix minus the corny vocal... Perfect.

Dusty Sundays it out on Amadeus, May 21st 2012.

Pets Recordings sometimes leave me questioning whether running a label and being the prime remixers for it's releases is a smart idea or not. Sure enough Catz N Dogz have released some cracking remixes in house and undeniably lifted some of the lower quality records to the Pets standard. However the most recent offering from the Poles comes across as slightly self indulgent, opting to remix I'll Leave Soon twice, their Spaced Out mix perhaps the better of the two.

Thanks to the originals of freshly faced Uffe however, Colors Outside is still a cracker. The title track has an aura of childlike happiness, combining immensely innocent vocals with melancholic chords and all the other standard ingredients for a crossover dance tune.

I'll Leave Soon is a dark depressing cry, somewhat reminiscent of the Ketamine House that Soul Clap made ever so popular in their DJ Kicks mix. The build up from such a sad moment is immense and when that groove kicks is a true moment of beauty.

When The Sun Rose was an necessary addition to the package in my opinion, I struggled to find a connection between this B Side and the aforementioned tracks. Some may find pleasure in the contrasting choice of sounds but sometimes things are better left unsaid/put on a record.

Eight Ball had come to my attention after I listening to a mix by Paradis earlier in the week and I heard this track that blew me away. Through looking at the track list I found that it was called “Make A living” by African Dream and it was released on Eight Ball Records. I kept this in mind for next time I went record shopping, and if I saw any Eight Ball records I would give them a listen. And what do you know... that’s what happened.

I discovered a record that stood out thanks to it's larger than life cover (something you don't get with digital purchases), and upon turning it over I found that along with having a shout out to Kerri Chandler [instant cred], it was also on, Eight Ball Records. I quickly listened to the the first twelve of the double pack, and for two bucks I couldn’t really go wrong.

When I got home I chucked on the second record and heard the track I had been searching for. Magic……

And that’s what makes digging for records such a great way to waste some time, you never know what you might find. Don’t let the art die, get out of the house and discover your local.

Words by Aaron Byrne

Although the vocal is my least favourite part of the remix, it's certain to gain the young producer some commercial scale hype, especially in our country, which he's currently touring. (No Adelaide stop unfortunately :[)

This is by far the best pop remix I've heard in a long while, and it looks as though our beloved genre may well be making a respectful return into the mainstream consumers hands.

Check out another new remix from GF, Daft Punk sounding chords and his trademark clap are just the beginning.

So what are you expecting from Australia?

I try not to turn up anywhere with too many expectations. Quite a lot of producers in Australia have been getting in touch recently though, and I know that there are people making good music, so I’m not turning up completely blind.

What do you try and bring to your DJ set; I know you play a broad range of stuff in your mixes, is that what you're like in a club set too?

Yeah, absolutely. By their nature during club sets I’ll be more focused on the material we push as a label and I’ll be trying to present the music I’m excited about at the moment. I don’t turn up to shows with a concrete idea of what I’m going to play. I like to arrive at a venue early and see what the atmosphere and crowd is like - after a little while it will become clear what direction I’ll take. It’s a natural result of the way I think about DJing – the music I play is totally dependant on the context.

Hessle is becoming one of the biggest imprints going around at the moment. How did the label come about?

We started off just wanting to make a small contribution to the dubstep scene; we didn’t really have any ambitions beyond that. We didn’t look to have our music interpreted as its own thing or as part of a separate scene. Having said that I can understand how it happened, the only reason we started was because we thought we could make a unique contribution. We wouldn’t have started up otherwise, and that’s still the ethos with which we run the label now. If we’re covering the same territory as other people then there’s no point. I think that shapes the way we work and the way people see the label.

You’re playing Sugar in Adelaide which is pretty house-y – do you frequently get booked to play places like that?

Yeah I’m starting to get booked more in those kinds of places. I think it’s less to do with the music I play changing and more to do with those audiences becoming more receptive to the type of music I play, which is a really positive thing. My ideal scenario is to continue to play at loads of different kinds of events, representing the music I want to push to a wide variety of crowds.

In Australia the bass music scene is limited to a small number of venues in each city. Is it same in the UK or can you go to venue for 600 people and hear bass music?

It’s getting a lot bigger in the UK and there are a lot more events, people making music and definitely more people going to parties. It’s dependent on which city you’re in. The cities that have traditionally been good for dance music like Bristol, London, Leeds, and Glasgow have very established scenes. The UK is kind of funny… scenes like this have always been localised, sometimes to the extent certain types of music might only be listened to or made by people within a 10 mile radius of each other. It’s not like what goes for one city goes for the rest of the UK at all. I think things are growing pretty much everywhere, things are still expanding.

You are from London but you met a lot of the Hessle people in Leeds. Are there noticeable difference in sounds between London and Leeds?

London is unusual because there are so many different communities here. South London is really different to North London, East and West London have their own identities... Leeds is has a much more focused centre to it which has an impact on the way people listen to music. There’s a really strong tradition in Leeds of building sound systems for reggae and dub in particular, and that feeds comfortably into dubstep and UK dance music. The stuff that we do is still based on that foundation, and sound systems are probably the link between those two cites.

It seems almost like a trend with UK stuff, that as a genre becomes popular the underground moves away from it, I was wondering what you thought about this?

By and large there’s a tendency for scenes to assume that mainstream exposure has just come to them, rather than the other way around. I think generally it has much more with those scenes making compromises themselves, and that’s why their underground fan base moves to the next thing. That’s essentially a good thing I think… it keeps everyone on their toes. It’s the same with loads of things, like clothes or whatever, it’s all about finding the next thing, the exciting thing that no one has found yet. That’s a simplified way of thinking about it; it’s more complicated than that, and there are negative sides to it - I feel bad for people that get a lot of hype over short periods of time and then get abandoned just as quickly. There are people that get a glimpse of something but don’t get a chance to fully realise what it is they’re going for. Generally it’s a good thing though, it just means everyone’s trying to outdo themselves.

Congratulations on everything so far, especially this year. Tsuba is doing very well for itself.

Yeah I guess so actually , it's year number 6 now.  It's really flown by.

It seems the hard part is already over?

Well you really need to stay on top of your game, I would never get complacent. I think as soon as you start to do that you'll be in trouble. You have to work quite hard I think to maintain a level of quality, which is good to keep you on your toes.

Do you have a particular formula for maintaining quality, or is it just a taste that's grown into you over the years.

I think you need to be obsessive probably, and I'm definitely obsessive about music. Always have been, still buy a lot of music and love going record shopping and still love DJing, I've been doing it quite a while. I just think you need to remain passion, as soon as that stops you'll be in trouble I think.

As much as you do enjoy DJing, I've read it's not such a  priority for you anymore. Do you think that's an important part in maintaining the level of quality?

Well, I think yes and no. To a degree it's always good to test things out and hear tracks on a system. It depends on the records and artists really, it does help but there are certain things I don't really need to play in the club to know they'll work in terms of a release.

I'm sure you've been asked this question a million times, but if you could give our readers/listeners a brief run down on your journey thus far, and I just wanted to find out how a guy from Kent who was into Happy Mondays ended up running such an incredible deep house label.

Yeah, it might take a while… [laughs]

If there is such a thing as a brief run down on that.

I'll keep it brief, I 've always been an avid music fan and a collector of vinyl, first and foremost. But I guess i started more on the industry side of things and my first job was working for a club promotion company. Then I started working with quite a few record labels and from there progressed to working for a music website called iCrunch. Again I was managing labels and sort've finding out more about how record labels were run, and that's really when I started to get a bit more experience. And the next job was probably the most defining job I had, which was at Amato distrubution. Where i headed up the label management department there. And at that point they were the biggest vinyl distributor in the UK so I just learned the ins and outs of how to run a record label firstly, and the vinyl market. From there I ran a label called Fine, which was a german based label even though the office was over here. But I'd go back to Berlin once a month, from there it was a natural step to wanna do my own thing. Which I'd wanted to do for a while, so when I was made redundant it was an instant decision, I knew immediately what I was gonna do.

I even had some releases that I'd signed for Fine, which they'd said "well the record gonna be stopping, so you can have those" which got me started really and that was six years ago.

So time's flown?

Yeah basically, it really has. When I look at the catalog, I'm up to release #59 on Tsuba and that doesn't include the digital or vinyl only.

So just "big" Tsuba label itself?

Yeah that's just the on the kind've "Big" Tsuba as I call it. Yeah it's quite a lot of music actually, a lot of remixes too. But it's flown by, and I never get bored of releasing records, it's still just as exciting when each one comes out.

So, even though you had a background in the business of running a record label. Where did house come into play?

I guess I was into more indie stuff when I was growing up. But it was the sort've time where dance music producers started working with bands, and it was Paul Oakenfold who since that I'm not sure what path he's gone down. But at that time, he was playing great house music and was bringing those elements to indie bands. And that really got me started, and then I was getting more into techno that I'd not come across before. I remember buying Aphex Twin - Didgeridoo which was an insane record. And really started slowly collecting things, Orbital is another one. I really got into them. And then a record shop opened in my local town and I'd just spend hours in there and started spending a lot of money. I mean vinyl is definitely kind of addictive, it's definitely up there with other addictions.

Especially these days. It's especially bad for the wallet. So really I started building a collection and bought some decks. I started going to club nights and seeing less bands and more DJ's and then gradually before you know it you're not an indie kid anymore you're a wanna be DJ. And that's sort've what I was.

Was that Aphex Twin record your first?

Ummmm yeah, probably the first kinda dance record actually, and it's like 160bpm or something mad.

I'm not sure if that even classifies as dance music.

Nah maybe not actually.

It might seem like a bit of a strange question, but I've always wanted to know, as a label owner, what do you use to listen to the demos you get sent?

Soundcloud has really helped the process, otherwise it's my harddrive.

But in terms of, ya know, do you listen to them in the club or on headphones, monitor speakers?

In the office on my KRK's.

If it sounds good on them, it must be good right?

To be honest, most demos are not good.

[laughs]

An intern is working with me now, and he's going through every single demo that I get sent. Cos I wouldn't have time. He's kind've been filtering through and sending me the better ones. I'd love to discover someone amazing from a demo, but so far I haven't done that. Usually I get referred from someone and I'll listen to the track and it's a bit better. I mean the whole process is a lot more democratic, which is fantastic, it's allowed a lot more people to do it but at the same time people get Ableton and knock something out with loops and then send it of to a label and think that a label is actually gonna release it . Without actually taking some time to develop the craft of making music. So consequently so there is a sea of mediocrity to wade through.

I think that sea of mediocrity is still there to wade through with signed records too…

Yeah, true.

There seems to be a lot of shit floating around and it's good to see you're still purveying quality.

Well hopefully. That's another thing with the digital age. It's very easy to start a record label, if you don't do vinyl. You can get a couple tracks from your mate, get a logo knocked up. And bobs you're uncle you've got yourself you've got yourself a record label. But it's not a record label, really. And there's a huge amount of average music, which a lot of the stuff is digital based around. And I'm not dissing digital only, cos I do a quite a lot of it. But I think these days if you're serious about it then doing vinyl is a good barometer of your seriousness and the quality tends to be better because you need to invest money, and it won't sell if it's not good.

And you'll be broke after your first record.

Yeah it's quite an expensive thing to, so yeah that's right.

There's quite an analog flavour present in all of the Tsuba records, I don't know whether that's from great mastering or what, but is there some kind of prejudice for want of a better word that it has to have some kind of analog element for it get a kind of buzz from you?

That's a good question, it's not a conscious thing actually. To find analog things, but I think it tends to sound a bit warmer. A lot of stuff sounds kinda digital these days, so i tend to lean towards the warmer sound of things. But it's certainly not a conscious decision. That is basically what I look for, warmth and something that makes the track stand out a bit.

Otherwise I guess if it's a digital only track, it really has to be something quite special to sound good, or gone through a hell of a lot of processing.

Yeah, I mean the market is so split really. What works on just digital doesn't really work on vinyl and the vinyl only things I do probably wouldn't do very well on Beatport, whatever anyway. If you get something that works on both, I think that's a bit of a rarity these days.

Definitely, I guess with your love for the warm analog sounds. Does that come from growing up in yesteryear when that's all that there was, and the classic house is that the big influence for Tsuba or are you more about quality sound?

It's definitely the former actually, it's how long I've been doing it and collecting records. I think it definitely stems from that actually. I've been going through my records to start to catalog stuff that I've got here and playing old things. And I've realised it was a lot more musical. I don't mean to sound like it was so much better back then.

I think the musicality of things was definitely better, and a lot of current producers try and recreate that.

Good ones at least.

Well hopefully. There's people that do this for different reasons, I think those with an investment in quality will be around a lot longer than the people that want a Beatport top ten.

So you're not a fan of Beatport?

I do quite well on Beatport, and i've got nothing but good things to say about them.

The charts are very diluted.

The main top ten isn't my area anyway, there is a lot of throwaway stuff perhaps. The great thing about Beatport it's opened the music up to a much broader audience. So a lot more people can download stuff and access music that if they weren't there that wouldn't happen. So from that point of view they're doing good things.

I think they're almost responsible for the huge burst of electronic music into the pop world.

I think you're right actually, they've created a monster.

Just talking about the old house records, do you have any prime examples of what you were into? Or are you too busy cataloging at the moment?

It's a bit of a mess to be honest, cos we moved house recently in December. So I've had to move it all. And there's just boxes and boxes, I'm not how many I've got. It's gotta about 5-6000.

That's gotta be a blessing though, cos you'll come across a lot of stuff you haven't played in ages.

Yeah I love it, I like looking at these cubes I'm surrounded by. I like it in the office, it adds a bit of character.  These are actually spy cubes which are nice bits of furniture as well.

So no prime records off the top of your head?

There's lots and lots of things really, I've got a lot of the early Ibidan and NuPhonic stuff, they were a real favourite sort of label. I've got all of their catalogue, just fantastic records from people like tiny trendies, block 16. A lot more eclectic stuff, and Subway was an act that released a fantastic record, on NuPhonic. It was quite an electro type house record. But they invested heavily in artwork and design, and how the label was presented. And those kinda labels were the ones I aspired to when I first started. Building a catalogue is something I'm really into doing, something you can look back on and say that's a fantastic record to have put out. That will sound good in 20 years… hopefully.

You're too modest.

I guess, I just love what I do. I'm a collector aswell, I like to collect things. It's nice, every Tsuba release is in a box. 2 Copies, pristine. I guess I've got some degree of OCD.

You're gonna have a great story to tell, OCD or not.

It's quite interesting how you mentioned the artwork of NuPhonic, obviously Tsuba has undergone a bit of a makerover recently, with the kind've geometric patterns on both the sleeve and website. Was there any inspiration behind that, or were you just in need of a facelift.

Yeah it definitely needed a facelift, the identity wasn't strong enough. And I didn't really have a web presence before which I was conscious of for a while. And I love vibrant colour and that's something I wanted to incorporate into the new look. I started working with a new designer, I still work with my longstanding one for the LTD and Colour releases. This new guy Sam Renwick, he does lots of design for people like MTV and Phonica. He really got what I was about and was really into the music and I gave him brief I suppose, and he came back with this house bag, the sleeve. Which would be central to everything, and immediately I was blown away by it. And I just knew it would be a strong identity and a path for the new two or three years and how you're gonna look and what direction you're gonna follow.

He designed the website as well, the idea behind that is so that it's quite stripped back so that the sleeves add the colour.

The web store works really well too.

That's been a revelation actually, the amount of people that buy directly. Loads of people wanna support the label and buy direct, which is brilliant in this day and age.

I guess with Juno and other distributers taking a cut, it seems like the way to go. Sort of the modern day selling out of the back of your boot.

That's right, Innervisions self distribute now, they don't even go through one.

Can you see Tsuba going that direction?

Yeah there aren't too many record stores about anymore actually, I've got a great relationship with Intergroove, which for the last 5 years have distributed Tsuba,. But there's less shops continually, so you've kinda got bigger players like Juno and Phonica, Decks for Germany. So you could probably count on both hands the key stores, so maybe one day. I don't know. I guess it's the sortve logistical side of thing like chasing payments etc. Intergroove do that very well. Which takes the ball ache out of it.

Just talking about vinyl, there seems to have been a resurgence, it might have been going for a long time in the UK. But in Australia it's definitely a noticeable surge of slightly older DJ's turning to vinyl. A lot of it is from UK labels, I just wanted to know you're thoughts on vinyl making a comeback into the club world.

When I played in Australia last year I really noticed that, it was in Adelaide actually at Sugar. The mixer is a Bozak one which is geared towards vinyl playing. Is there that element now that if you're not playing vinyl you're not quite doing it?

Since I've played there it's been a massive learning curve and inspiration to go looking for music that's on vinyl and your music taste broadens so heavily. So you're not relying on digital trends.

Yeah definitely, you have a better relationship with the tracks you're playing when they're on vinyl. I definitely believe that. It's finding the record, they're quite expensive as well, making sure that you're gonna play it and use it to justify spending the money. Then it comes in the post, or whatever. You're expectant and then it comes and you open the shrink wrapping.

I've seen you're a big fan of shrink wrap.

HAHA yeah I love it [Laughs] it's just nice to open it when a record comes like that it makes it a bit more special. Of course you don't get any of that with Digital, I'm not sure if that's a resurgence of that over here actually. Where do you buy you're vinyl from? Do you use Juno?

Nah we've actually been blessed with an excellent record store here called Transition recently. Over the last 6 months I've mainly bought from there and around the place. Beforehand it was definitely all over the shop online, just chasing what was left in stock if I'd missed it.

You've gotta be quick that's the other thing, I can imagine if it's being shipped to Australia it's not cheap.

Yeah half the time if you go with the cheap shipping that shrink wrap doesn't count for nothing because you're bloody record is either bent or warped. That's the main reason we shop locally here at the moment, because there's no Australian online store kinda thing .
Transition is doing really well for itself though, and it's really helped the Adelaide culture for sure.

Adelaide seems to have a great scene, with lots going on. It's good. The vinyl thing over here, you know if you go to Fabric and places like that you'll see people playing records. But at the other clubs I'm not too sure. A lot of the time the decks aren't of a decent condition, or more important the stylus. I just tend to rip it here and burn it onto CD.

That seems to be commonplace with a lot of touring DJ's that I've noticed. Which is great, the main reason I buy records is to get stuff that didn't come out digitally. And who cares what format it is really?

I'm not sure whether I'm alone or not in think that Australia, and Adelaide actually. It seems to be a pretty underrated spot for clubbing and I was just wondering what the opinion is like overseas.

I think there's a really good opinion, in terms of the music coming from Australia. There's so many producers that are kinda breaking out. It's highly respected on that front, and I think the parties actually as well.

I guess the perception from some people is that there isn't the audience, but it's a smaller place so of course the scenes are gonna be small. But overall though, ALL DJ's love coming to Australia. The weather, the friendly crowds, and the enthusiasm is just so much greater than it is here. I play a lot out in London and it's just not like that.

I've heard there is a bit of snobbery in London, it seems as though a lot of punters think they know what's going on. whereas here people are a bit more open minded, there's a lot of people that come out just for the sake of going out I think and maybe the people in London are more knowledgable and that kind've goes to their head.

Yeah well they think they are, but that's quite often not the case. I've stayed in touch with Subtrakt guys from Brisbane who I'm playing for again, and we chat all the time. And they're so enthusiastic, and really nice guys. That's what you get really, for being really into your scene. And that enthusiasm is quite infectious I think.

Definitely. Talking about the music that's coming out  of Australia right now. I'm quite proud of a lot of friends that are doing well, especially The Carter Bros, Mic Newman, Tornado Wallace that are finally stepping out internationally. Do you think they're responsible for a better impression of Australia overseas.

I think partly, cos there's that whole kind've Melbourne scene. That interview on RA last week, if you've got any scene like that on a site on RA especially. You sort've just have to sit up and take notice. The music is fantastic though it's of such a high quality.  I don't think it's necessarily because it's Australia, it just happens to be Australia and the music's great. And it's great to see actually, that will change perceptions probably.

The only artist I mentioned before that you've come into close contact with would be Mic Newman. Definitely enjoying his record you just put out .

Yeah Knickerbocker! Fantastic record, really excited by that. When he sent it through I was immediately "Yes, I wanna sign this one"

Is there any reason that was signed to Colours and not big Tsuba?

It sounded like a Colours record, I just have this funny thing where I think that sounds like a colours. And with that vocal there is so many possibilities for remixes. Mark E, the remix he did was quite a deep sort've mix, and that really suits colours. I'm coming up to Colours number ten now, and I'm gonna do a compilation of that in January. I was just looking over the catalog and there's definitely some really nice things in there, and there's definitely a theme running through everything. I'm running out of colours though.

You'll have to do a black one [laughs]
I might have to do a clear one. But that's not really a colour either.

How did you manage to hear of Mic? I know he was travelling through Europe last year, did you manage to bump heads then or was it an entirely internet affair?

I've put out a couple of his things now, the first thing was in 2010, which was Geddes and Mic. I've known Geddes for years and years, and he just sent through a couple of things. And Mics such a great producer, when someones got that kind of ability it stands out a mile for me with the sea of things I get sent. And mics one of those ones, with his quality in terms of production, melody, musicality and personality. I really look for that in music and he's definitely got that in abundance.

We did a solo EP of his in 2010. That Geddes release was actually in 2009. Then I met him when I played in Melbourne last year when we played on the same night, and I'm playing with him again this Friday. It's nice to work with nice people.

He seems to have really found himself in the last year, were you hoping to do more records with Mic Newman considering Tsuba is the perfect match for where he's heading.

I definitely wanna do more stuff with Mic, no question. I said to him a while ago he should do an album, he's probably thinking about that. I mean absolutely, Knickerbocker was a bit of a sleeper though. It's been well received but I thought it might have been a digital hit when I first heard it, it's so hooky.

Is he the only Australian producer you're working with at the moment?

I've been chatting to the carter bros actually, I was a bit late on that one.  I played at Cuckoo and Phil was raving about them saying he released an album. I just kinda missed it really, but I picked up a record of theirs on Black Catalogue recently. I've got it here actually, Wild Cat EP.

That wax sleeve is so nice.

Yeah that's quality, that's a very nice little sleeve actually, I might have to do something like that.

But they're really busy doing two or three other EP's but they said they'd love to do something, and there's also Nil By Mouth that I'm gonna be working with. I've taken one track from them, and they're working on quite a few other bits and pieces.

That's Alex James right? I think he just moved to Adelaide.

Yeah they're great, they're doing quite analog, jacking stuff as opposed to deep house. And we've been going back and forth quite a lot, so there will be something from them coming up in a few months I think.

You mentioned that you're piecing together the compilation for the ten colours release, but what's next for all of the Tsuba labels?

On colours, number ten is another Sascha Dive, which is really deep and percussive. Again he's such a talented producer, so I nibbled his arm off when he said he's got something for me. There is a really exciting remix from Merwin Saunders who's in Virgo Four, such a nice guy and he's actually done four different mixes which are all really really strong. I've chosen one that I think will lead.

He's a really talented guy and old school, just a real gentleman actually. The main mix is like a massive chicago piano house number, I think it really adds nicely to the catalog. Similar vibes to the Larry Heard mix I had for Moodymanc.

On Tsuba, which is out this week is Okain's latest, which is more classic house vibes. Gerd has done this ridiculous remix, it's really something special. Everyone's going nuts for that, had great reactions. I've also got an EP from a guy called Kwele who's doing an album with jerome sydenham, and is doing an EP for Ibidan as well. That's a really strong one.

On LTD, Milton Jackson has done a really underground jacking house EP. It's a bit different to his usual stuff, it's proper underground, I've been playing the tracks loads and they are real DJ's tracks. Another thing on LTD is from Creative Swing Alliance, who have done stuff for FACES which is Motor City Drum Ensemble's label which is really amazing and deep EP. Medlar is doing a mix on that one too which I really like.

From Wolf Music? Those guys seem to be killing it at the moment now too.

Yeah definitely, the original music they do is great too.

I've got the three labels essentially so I can spread it around a bit.

Obviously you just put out Tsubas first LP with Tazz, is that gonna be a continuing thing or was that a one off?

Nah I'll definitely be doing another album, I've not done it before and it was something I wanted to do and open the label up and his music really lends itself to an album. It all came together at the right time. He's a really nice guy. I've got a couple of possible things ahead. I'd like to do one a year I think, and looking at maybe the start of next year. There are a couple of possible things in mind, it's making sure it's the right act so it works though, rather than just srot've doing an album of dance tracks that don't make any sense. That's the good thing about the Tazz album, as a body of work it works really well and sounds like it should be an album.

Yeah on first listen it was a bit of a shock, after listening to Tsuba for so many years you kind've expect dancefloor tracks. But after a few more listens it comes out as an album and a really well pieced together body of work.

Some of the tracks have surprised the die hard Tsuba fans, there are quite a few techno numbers in there. It's good to do something different every now and then I think. It's been greatly received though, it's been very rewarding.

The 10" remixes were a really cool idea too, how often do you push out ten inches?

This is the first one actually, it's more expensive to do than a twelve inch ironically. Given that they're smaller.

Less wax.

Less wax, but more wedge. [laughs]

The sampler for his album was like splattered vinyl, and it was just making it a bit more collectable and having some fun with it and doing something I've not done before. It sold out now actually, that was a great review that you wrote actually too. Cheers, I loved it.

I've also read that you're gonna be do another release from Huxley in the future, which I found interesting of late he's seemed to have started heading towards more friendly sounding track. I didn't really like the Hypercolour release, and I was just assuming that if he's heading back to Tsuba can we expect the sound that made Huxley who he is?

I think so, we've talked about the balance of the EP. And yeah, they'll be one, more traditional A-Side track and I've asked him to do a garage track actually. I think that will make it really interesting and we've talked about a couple of quite interesting people to get a remix that is probably a bit outside of the usual Tsuba area. He's such a talented guy, and I've worked with him for ages, and being one of the first labels to release his stuff and see him do so well. He's worked really hard, and it's like absolutely hats off to him. Literally, he wears a hat all the time. It's great to be doing another one with him, he's pretty busy now as well.

Lots of labels are asking for him to do releases.

Yeah I think the Hypercolour although it wasn't for me, but it seems to have excelled him to kind've the next level. And it's great, so long as he keeps that balance I will remain a loyal fan.

I think you're right though, everyone needs that record. And that's the record for him. It's the most commercial thing he's done actually. There's no denying that. He's really busy now with gigs too.

A fan wrote in on facebook to ask. Just talking about records before, he said 'If you had to take one record to a desert island, and you weren't allowed a record player what would it be?

That's a good one, that's tricky. Like one record from all the records, it's hard to pick out. I think it would have to be Tsuba #1 by Williams. I spent too much on the sleeves, I still remember that.

Hopefully you'll be back in Australia soon, and we'll catch you in Adelaide next time.

Yeah it's a shame, my wives most annoyed. We usually all go to Adelaide when we're over. We normally all come for an extended stay and stay in Adelaide with my wives parents and I'd go off and do gigs but our daughters five and she's started school now so we've had to stop doing that.

I love Adelaide though, it's got such a nice vibe about it. It's almost like a second home I've spent so much time there.

Prone in particular will strike a chord with those fond of melodic techno, and some serious detroit influences. The melancholy vibe quite synonymous with London's wave of club producers stands out like a sore thumb with each and every turn. Excellent and raw analog sounds flowing between each other in angelic fashion, with a few hints of musical talent poking out once every now and then. I'm thinking Model 500 meets Floating Points.

Still along a melodic techno tip, Dun Dun is destined to be another great record for the DJ. The huge kick drum puts the front foot forward and results in an industrial strength, deep burner. I love the warehouse/industrial influence but the clean grooves and drum track that make it suitable for a much broader audience.

Can't wait to cop this one from two of the UK's finest right now.

Released May 4 on SunkLo.

The Bristol based producer can seemingly do no wrong, exploring some more interesting textures throughout the record, perhaps most notably on Wind Tunnel which stands out as a dark horse tune that will push it's way into many a record bag. The sheer pace and intensity that's remains so tasteful and well crafted across the whole twelve inches, are signs of just how talented A Sagittariun really is, whether it be the bass influenced West of Ophiuchus or the throwback house sounds of Somewhere in Montpelier.

Timeless production and a knack for melding creative and new approaches with well formed techniques to create a brilliant techno record I'll hold fond for years to come.

This is only the second release for the young vinyl only Never Learnt imprint, who's debut with Nyra was a well received twelve inch even that even a label worth it's weight in gold would be proud of. Not ones to be complacent, I'm glad to see Never Learnt were patient with their second pressing and Level Abstain is certain to cement the labels place in a few more selectors hearts. Early support already coming from Anthony 'Shake' Shakir, Paul Woolford & Deetron, to name but a few.

The title track is a clear nod in the floor filler direction for Julian (October) & Boris (Borai). As expected an expertly programmed 909 sets the standard of things to come, opening the gates for a popping bass line and relentless chords darting around the speakers. If anybody has had the joy of peeking into the October studio, his penchant for analog gear would be even more obvious. The imperfections in both the main riffs, and more subtly in the delay and verb channels, are a gorgeous oddity that should encourage any producer to stop obsessing about sounding inhuman.

The slow burning deepness of Vital Ital Rub, is much more what I was expecting from the pair - a perfect compliment to the peak time anthem on the A side. Again expertly crafted soundscapes fill the ears and the dubbed delays make this the perfect theme tune for the last moments of darkness.