by Gavin Weale

The notion of breakbeat is ever expanding; from the mellowest hip hop to the most corrosive drum 'n' bass, there's one thing that you'll always hear coming from the mouths of producers worldwide: it's all about the breaks. So when you get a classically trained musician fiddling with not only beats and bobs, but also beautiful soundscapes sculpted out of live instruments, the result is bound to be something that takes the genre into new territory. Just like artists such as Tom Middleton and Jimpster, Shur-i-kan skirts around the periphery of 'breaks' as we know it, often taking a mellower, less DJ-orientated path but still retaining that all-important funk.

Clearly people are catching on. Middleton has been job-sharing Adam Freeland's breakbeat show on Kiss FM, pushing the jazzier sound more and more, with Shur-I-kan and Jimpster making a recent appearance. Some may write it off as not being hard enough for the dancefloor - not part of the 'nu-skool' vein - but the fact remains that there's an element to breaks that isn't always found in the peaktime pogoing of the Plump DJs. So with Shur-i-kan's debut album imminent on Freerange Recordings, it's time for open-minded breaks heads to wake up and smell the coffee table.

Q: You can hear hip-hop, jazz, soul and all kinds reflected in your music. What influences did you grow up with?

A: When I was younger I really liked Jean-Michel Jarre… but I don't really like to admit to that! Today he's kind of very uncool, but I think it's coming back again. People are starting to realise the effect he did have on electronic music. But obviously my main influences were from the jazz world: Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, but I also used to listen to a lot of classical composers too. Then I guess as I met people, I got introduced to hip-hop. Then when drum 'n' bass came about I got into that, and then when I met Tom Middleton he introduced me to the whole house thing, and breakbeat of course.

Q: How did you hook up with Tom Middleton?

A: I met Tom when he was DJing at a gig where I was supporting my mate's band, and I saw him nodding away in the corner. Then afterwards he came up to me and said, "I was really into that…I was almost crying by the end!" So I sent him a CD. Thing is, I didn't actually know who Tom was at that stage, but things just kind of developed from there, and he was really interested in bringing my stuff out on his label.

Q: What had you done up until then, production-wise?

A: Nothing, really. I'd been working on lots of different things and different projects, but nothing that had had a commercial release.

Q: Did you have an album ready when you met Tom?

A: Oh yeah. The album was about 60% ready. How it worked was, I'd be writing a track and he'd be like a mentor. I'd go up to his house and play him some stuff and he'd go: "Yeah that's good". Then he'd play me a record and go, "Listen to the drum programming on this!" Then I'd think - "oh, I better go back and change my track then!"

Q: Did Tom get involved in the actual production?

A: Well, he came in the studio once or twice, but we never actually wrote together. The closest we got was on a track called 'Cookie', which he did some of the drum programming for, that's on the second EP I've got coming out. We didn't really collaborate together as such, but he did help a lot with post-production, the mixing and the pressing. So his role - and very valued as it was - was giving me advice and direction, rather than directly hands-on.

Q: What about Jamie Odell [aka Jimpster from Freerange Recordings], how did you two meet?

A: I met Jamie through Tom. He was saying, "Listen to this - I'm really into Jimpster's stuff". Eventually I got to meet him, he was into what I was doing and he decided that Freerange would like to put the album out. And it felt totally right for me to do that, because I could see that my music would go very well with what he was doing. We've got the same vision about music, but we approach it from different angles. Interestingly enough we did a track together called 'Freezone'. It was the first time we'd worked together, and it was really, really good! It was so natural working together - we did the whole track in less than nine hours.

Q: You did the breakbeat show on Kiss FM recently… how was that?

A: It was quite funny really! It was the first time I'd done radio. We were basically hosting the show - Jimpster and me. It was really good fun. There's a lot of good music about to play, but I think our talk needs a bit of work! I'm sure we'll get the hang of it.

Q: It must have been a bit of a departure for the show because it has tended to be concentrated on the 'nu skool' side of breaks?

A: Well, I think it still is. Basically we stood in for Tom Middleton because he's been touring Australia and Japan for the last month. I think he's been introducing a lot more jazzier, musical elements into the mix, and we just went in there and took it a step further. But I'm sure there were a lot of breakbeat heads sitting at home going 'What the fuck is going on?' I met Adam [Freeland] and he's into my stuff, but obviously it's not what he'd usually play out. It was a bit of a diversion I suppose.

Q: Which DJs are taking a particular interest and playing your tracks?

A: Well, Patrick Forge is really into it, Pete Lawrence, Gilles Peterson, Mixmaster Morris…

Q: Is that important to you, whether DJs are playing your tracks?

A: I do like to make dance music, but I'm not sure whether my music really translates well for DJs. It's certainly not what you'd play in the middle of your set but it makes for good warm-up tunes. When I have played tracks off the album like 'Advance' or 'Cookie' off the album - the more upbeat tracks - and, yeah, they worked. But maybe for most DJs the tracks change too much or just aren't the right vibe. Perhaps they're more pre-club or post-club that 'in' the club. But that's also why we brought the remixers in…

Continue to part two of this feature