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60 Seconds With...Lee Coombs

Dance music maverick Lee Coombs has always done his own thing.

Spurning stylistic strictures, his fearless DJ sets take in techno, punk guitar laced breaks, acid, electro, house and everything in between. Famed for introducing 'tech funk'- a groove somewhere in between techno and breaks, since half inched by many others – he's always stayed ahead of the pack.

From the UK but resident in Florida, his new mix album 'Lot49 Presents Lee Coombs', out now, contains cuts from Guy Gerber to Alloy Mental, Oliver Huntemann to Dopamine, via Coombs' cool collaboration with DJ Icey 'Drive the Ride'. We got the lowdown from the horse's mouth…

You're now based in Florida – what made you move out there?

"I got married to an American woman. Being in the States has been going well for me. I've been gigging in various bits of it for a few years so I thought I'd make the jump."

Florida can be seen as a spiritual home of breaks, with artists like DJ Icey hailing from there. Were you drawn by the music scene?

"I've done a track with Icey actually which is on my comp. There is a lot of history of dance music in Orlando, throughout Florida, and in Miami, obviously. But it wasn't that that got me here. I'm actually more well-known on the West Coast."

Your new mix for Lot 49 is very diverse, taking in techno, breaks, house and guitary fare. Is it a snapshot of where Lee Coombs is at right now?

"That's how I wanted to do it for the mix comp. I wanted it to be a bit of a journey, to a few different places, and to make it something that people want to listen to. I do play like that, it's how I've always played to be honest. As long as a track flows it can go anywhere."

You've also a new artist album coming on Lot 49 – what can we expect from that? Who have you collaborated with?

"I've got a new track with Kathryn Ellis singing called 'Control', I've done two tracks with an MC from San Francisco called Seasons, he's amazing, he's gonna blow up and it's good to get him before he does. I've done a track with Uberzone who's in LA, and of course a few on my own. It's shaping up, and it's quite diverse, it goes to lots of different places. There's plenty of dancefloor tunes on there, and there's some slower stuff which is still danceable. It's very heady, you can get right into it, you know. I think it's going to be a good listen. I've done about 80% of it and I'm finishing off the rest. To get 12 tracks, you might end up writing 25. Some are good tracks but they might not fit on the album, it's a long process but you've got to keep going till you get it right."