Cited by many as their favourite DJ, Rinse FM’s Oneman has made his name one of the finest selectors around. He’s playing back to back with Bok Bok at Chew The Fat! Meets Dirty Canvas tonight. In light of his appearance at the club and forthcoming Rinse CD we caught up with the DJ’s DJ…

Your mixes bring all kinds of music together; often with an amazing amount of atmosphere and an apparent consideration for the gaps between the sounds, along with a great deal of ‘soul’, if that makes an ounce of sense; you mill about in the ambient/dark bits of Dubstep or experimental Future Garage/*Insert New Sub-Genre Name Here* tracks by people like Deadboy, for example, which might not necessarily grasp a jump up crowd…

What do you see happening in the ever shrinking space between House and Dubstep?

I see lots more percussion, more space in the atmosphere, and a load of new ways of manipulating synths. The beats will lock between 133-136bpm hopefully, that feels comfortable to me right now.

How do you feel about the kind of crossovers and musical half-way-houses that rear their heads when sub genres go quasi-commercial?

If it’s good music then it’s welcome! Someone will find a home for it! People just need to see past whats in front of them as well.

Are these sub-genres bringing us way back round to some kind of refreshed 21st Century urban combined sound?

Possibly I mean there are so many off-shoot sounds right now and things keep developing. Everyone is out there doing their thing and it’s great. Right now people dont seem to be afraid to go against the norm and make something totally out there sonically, or play a record that wouldnt usually fit in a set, but find a way of fitting it in. It’s great! I love music right now, so much good stuff being made that I’m playing less and less old records everytime I spin.

Is this musical broth the British sound of the underground for 2010 (and beyond)?

It definitely is for me, it’s the collection of sounds that I want to represent. Like I said people are experimenting with sound which is cool. I think for a while there has been a need for a change of direction and this is the way forward for me, I can’t wait to see where it goes.

Do you think that the increasing ambient undercurrent; the more experimental angle, with garage swing on beats, which is emerging can uphold dancefloors and break its way through to the mainstream in the way that Electro and some of the more jump up Dubstep has?

I’m interested to see where you think things are headed, since you seem to place all these genres, and indeed eras, next to each other and make it work, in the darker more experimental worlds of… whatever genre/s we are now talking about…

I think it’s about the way you choose to present the music to people. I like to show people the connections between new and old and that not all of the stuff that is say 10 years old sounds dated. A lot of tracks still stand up today to the newer tunes. Tracks like ‘KMA – Cape Fear’ or ‘Musical Mob – Pulse X’ still hold weight on the dancefloor a.) because they are classics within their rightful scene and b.) because they are great records that work. Producers like Joy Orbison, Martyn, Deadboy, Doc Daneeka, Martin Kemp, Addison Groove are all making music that is dancefloor and deep and at the same time it all sounds completely new and fresh, and they are all starting to make a mark in the Underground so its only a matter of time before it catches on to the mainstream.

Do you think Burial opened some doors for more alternative beats to go mainstream when he got nominated for the Mercury Prize?

Yeah Burial definately helped and so did The Streets with ‘Original Pirate Material’ which was so groundbreaking. The production was so ‘alternative’ for garage. The kinds of piano and strings, and even the beats he uses in tracks like ‘Has It Come To This?’ and ‘Turn The Page’ remind me of Burial stuff when i listen back to it, just a lot less atmospheric and weird. Burial has made music that transcends most genre barriers and its great that a label like Hyperdub is putting out his music, it’s really important that we have labels like that pushing the boundaries of UK music.

Is wobble a thing of the past? Making way for delicate little synth tones and Vengeance percussion?

I suppose a look at your top current tunes would give us a reasonable idea of what’s going on in the world of Oneman; and since you’re friends with some of the most breakthrough artists of the contemporary ‘underground’, I guess we can take this list as a somewhat concise pointer in the direction of big things to come in 2010…

I think the who wobble bass thing can still work, it just needs to be used in new contexts, take Bok Bok’s ‘Citizens Dub’ for example or Mumdance’s ‘So Squalid’ these tracks are using wobble bass in different ways rather than the current midrange distortion sounds common in a lot of dubstep at the moment. Apart from the wobblez, generally the music seems to becoming a bit more grown up I think. The whole darker house stuff, producers like Cooly G, DVA, Fis T, and the ones i mentioned before all have this vibe to their music that is a bit more mature and has more depth than most UK Funky I hear, like they’re proper tunes. The UK is coming into its own with a whole new house sound right now and its broken, dubby and left just like most of our underground music fom the past

What are your top 10 tracks of the moment?

Fis-T – Deep Mover VIP
Jay Weed – On The Nile
Joy Orbison – So Derobe
Mala – Level Nine
James Blake – Give A Man A Rod
Cassie – Official Girl (Deadboy’s Unofficial Girl Remix)
Joker & TC – It Ain’t Got A Name
Lone – Once In A While
MJ Cole – Sincere (Mumdance & High Rankin Remix)
Martyn – Freidrichstrasse

- Dickon Stone