DJ Adsorb Interview

Breaks aficionado DJ Adsorb's star is in the ascendancy. Resident at Brighton's Supercharged and part of the Against the Grain crew alongside the likes of Krafty Kuts, his genre-mashing DJ style is turning heads all over the shop. We dialled him up to get the lowdown...

You seem to blowing up at the moment with your mix for Annie Nightingale and forthcoming tour with some of the breaks big dogs. How does it feel to get the props you deserve?

"It's fantastic, it's been quite a while in the making, I started DJing in the early 90s, early rave stuff and now it's finally bearing fruit, I've played with some amazing DJs, and I'm really enjoying it, it's brilliant."

Has the residency at Supercharged been instrumental in your increased exposure?

"It has, the support from the likes of Krafty Kuts and Lloyd Skool of Thought has been fantastic, and having to raise my game a little bit, raise the bar a little bit higher in my own DJ sets."

Do you consider Brighton to be quite a dance-centric city?

"It is, it's amazing, I moved down from Sheffield, I was originally running a recording studio called Kenwood Studios, and I moved down here specifically for the music and to get back to my roots of DJing, there's just so much more going on down here, and some of the hot clubs, like Audio, Digital on the seafront, every week, week in week out, there's world class DJs here all the time so it's brilliant."

With breaks splintering a lot at the moment has it encouraged you to diversify or stay very much focused on the breaks sound?

"My roots are that throughout the 90s I was playing mainly house but then I turned to the breaks scene and drum 'n' bass as well. I do I try to incorporate everything really. I think if you go to a night which is only playing one style all night long it can get boring, and people want to hear new exciting sounds, it's time to forget about the genre and get back to it being about quality music for people to enjoy rather than pigeonhole."

Your style seems very much to absorb the house sound into the world of breaks – is this the meaning of the name?

"My DJ name before was DJ Ad, and just my studio time up at Kenwood, having all these amazing artists around, and then with Krafty Kuts, Rennie Pilgrem in all the time I was just soaking it up really. I thought I need to reinvent myself a bit really, which is where the name Adsorb comes from, soaking up all this music all the time. It's a bit of a mouthful but once you get it, it's alright!"

Are you feeling all the hybrid beats out there right now, that the likes of Boy 8-Bit, Herve and those lot are making?

"Some of it really works and it's taking an old thing and reinventing it, smashing it all together, and Switch's stuff is amazing, the whole reinvention of house music really but some of it can get a bit much, throwing old samples in there for the sake of it, that's not what music is about. It's about reforming it into something fresh, rather than churning out old samples which don't really mean much. But there is the Crookers stuff, and all the really heavy bassline which is definitely pushing the boundaries."

What have you got coming up production wise?

"Yeah I've got a couple of new remixes, that's all in house with against the grain and stuff, and I'm working on a lot of cheeky edits which I'm playing out. Just trying to keep my music alive, fresh and keep on top of it really."

And what have you got coming up DJ gigs wise?

"We're putting together an Against the Grain showcase featuring artists that are on the label, Krafty Kuts, Freestylers, Deekline and Wizard, Splitloop, and we're putting together a bit of a show, because there's lots of those albums coming out. So we're celebrating where the label's got to really, taking it out across the UK, so watch this space for some gigs coming up."

What's next for DJ Adsorb?

"At the minute the DJing thing is going brilliantly and I need to ride that wave a bit, and obviously production is the next obvious stage, and I'm doing some collaborations with Krafty Kuts and other guys on the label. I'm just keeping going really, and enjoying it, having fun along the way."