Justin time

Justin Robertson is one of the UK’s most underrated DJs. From the early days of Most Excellent and Sleuth where he shared the DJ booth with future superstars The Chemical Brothers, through the early to mid nineties progressive house era and into the start of the new millennium, Robertson’s sound has been versatile, surprising but never short of impeccable.

It’s a trait that’s evident on his new mix CD, Imprint, only the fourth disc Robbo has segued in a twelve-year career. Clocking in at twenty four tracks and working its way from funky, dubby tribal house into sweat ridden tech-house before firing on all cylinders with a turbo charged mix of techno bombs, it shows that Justin’s taste and mixing skills are as sharp and indeed relevant as ever.

“Imprint, is the first in a series,“ Robertson says, explaining, “the idea is to get people who are DJs as well as producers to mix a CD. Distinctive said do what you want and give us the DAT when you’re finished, they gave me free reign to do what I wanted. There was absolutely no interfering about track listing, and from that viewpoint it was painless. After I did the mix I added some computer-generated effects because I felt there are so many mix CDs on the market and I wanted to do something that was quite different, had some energy but still had a live feel.”

A warts and all snapshot of Robertson’s DJing, it’s also a timely insight into the manner in which boundaries are continually blurring. After all, a few years ago it would have been unheard of to include producers as seemingly diverse as Francois K and Umek on one disc. So does Robertson reckon Imprint represents this convergence of styles?

“I don’t even think about genres,” comes the swift reply. “At the same time, there’s a certain type of record I’ve always liked; I don’t know how to describe it or what to call it, so because of that I find my tastes crossing from house to techno and back again. If I go into Eastern Bloc where I buy my records, I’ll listen to pretty much everything. I don’t dismiss things off hand because I don’t have a tunnel vision about music. By the same token, if a label I usually like puts out a weak record I’m not going to buy it just because it’s on that particular label. I’m not a purist.”

Talk of purism leads us neatly onto the subject of techno; while Robertson has been a regular fixture at the more ‘glam’ end of club land, his versatility as a DJ means that, more often than not he’s booked to play techno clubs. Indeed his residency at Bugged Out!, both in Liverpool and Dublin see him give vent to his more techno leanings, and Robertson is a firm believer than the former Manchester based club has been instrumental in ‘popularizing’ dance music’s most underground style.

“That kind of club is brilliant because while people go to hear a bigger DJ like Roger Sanchez they’ll also be able to hear all this other music as well,” he claims. “Bugged Out! have certainly been responsible for making techno a lot more popular again as well as blurring the distinctions between different styles of music. At the same time, there’s not an enormous difference between Umek and Derrick Carter; they’ve both got the funk and that energy about them. A few years ago, techno became really tedious and went up its own arse; people were concerned about out technoing each other instead of worrying about making good records. Nowadays, the new generation of producers are liberated from that attitude, people like Umek, Bryan Zentz, Ben Sims and Jamie Anderson. They’re blurring the boundaries again. They’re not trying to be more minimal than thou.”

It’s an ethos Robertson has also adopted on his debut release for Bugged Out!’s new record label. Claiming that he spent too much time “pissing about with Lionrock”, Robbo’s ‘Have Mercy’ is a sweaty, sleazy dance floor grinder. In fact, the Manchester DJ has completely abandoned the Lionrock moniker and is currently working on a new album for Nuphonic. Scheduled to come out at the end of 2001, Robertson has difficulty describing its sound but finally relents and says “can you imagine Chris & Cosie meets The Tom Tom Club meets Carl Craig? Organic electronic music, that’s the best way of putting it.”

As always, you can expect the unexpected with Justin Robertson.

Imprint is out now on Distinctive Breaks. ‘Have Mercy’ is available on Bugged Out! Recordings on May 29th