Firmly schooled in the history of dance music as a DJ, Matthew Styles productions usually carry a certain uniqueness. From unassuming beginnings after moving to London to pursue his musical passion, nowadays Styles continues to straddle the last two decades of house music in some of the planet’s foremost nightspots at weekends, while during the week you can usually find Matthew tinkering away on a drum machine or analog synth, quietly outlining his next carefully considered musical expression.
Here, he drops an hour of idiosyncratic, rhythm-heavy house music for In Their House.
Tell us about your relationship with Classic… when did you first become aware of the label?
I've known Luke and Derrick since the beginning of the label, around ‘95 or so. It's a long story but Luke is the best friend of my friend and mentor Leon, who used to run Classic back in the day. The first thing I remember clearly I was maybe just 18 or so, me and my friend Mark (who later recorded as Lil Mark for Classic) drove up from our home town because we heard Derrick was going to play with Luke and Rob Mello at some dodgy spot just off Regent’s Street. I was already quite a US house nerd by then, and had seen a lot of the greats play, but this was a next level experience to see Derrick play. From then on I was always connected with them. Many years later I ended up helping out at the label with some admin type stuff for a while too, and got a good insight into the workings of the business.
Why do you think it has stood the test of time so well?
I think the key to longevity for a label is not to get too caught up in a 'sound'. Classic for me just stands for good house music. It could be more vocal or techy, deep, electronic, or whatever, but each release can stand up on its own, not just as part of a hype sound.
Your musical output is pretty diverse… when you’re in the studio, do you tend to have a particular direction in mind? Or is it more a case of seeing which direction it naturally goes in?
It always depends on the luck of the day and what's swimming around in my head. I'd think that I have a fairly diverse record collection and my output is somehow the combination of those influences plus whatever magic and accidents happens with the machines in the studio.
Tell us about the mix… when and where was it recorded?
The mix was recorded at home; I hope it’s a balanced collection of new and old stuff that I'm playing right now.
Any particular tracks you’d like to pick out?
Lots! Of course some of the new bits from myself are there, the Boe & Zak, the new DJ Nori, Maurice Fulton Remix is doing the business too...
You recently played Fabric… how long did it take for you to develop your live set, and how does it differ musically from when you DJ?
The live set is a development from the last four or five years or more. I had it in my mind for a long time, but took a while to get it all together. Fabric was the fifth time I've played live now. The other times were at Panorama Bar twice, Robert Johnson and About:Blank, so I've been quite lucky with it. I'm still working my way through it as I have a lot of material to play with. It’s a combination of hardware and computer; I use many loops from my recording session over the years. I don't play whole song files however; everything is broken down into parts so I have 16 channels on a mixer and I can work it and remix it live like a dub style. How it’s put together is improvised on the night but I might have setup some sequences for a particular moment. In the future I would like to try and play a hardware only live set but think I need to find a good partner for that.
Boe & Zak 'Looking for Love' is out 11th November on Classic
Matthew Styles 'Out All Night' is available now from Juno
Tracklist:
1. K-Alexi - The Dancer (Glenn Underground Mix)
2. Matthew Styles - Signals
3. The It - Donnie
4. Kate Simko - Your Love – (Kerri Chandler Bob Beaman Vocal)
5. Karizma - I Think
6. Omar S - Nelson County
7. Sandee- Notice Me (Matthias Helibronn Beats N Bass)
8. Unit 46 - Good Inside (Matthew Styles Edit)
9. Wizards Of Ooze - Hi-Fi (Freaks Voodoo Beats)
10. Servo Unique - Ba' Dum Bah
11. LD Nero - Als Ik Kan
12. DJ Nori - Happy Sunday (Maurice Fulton mix)
13. .g - Hors Piste
14. Arto Mwambe - Ombala Mbembo -
15. Matthew Styles- Dominion
16. Boe & Zak - Looking for Love
