Delayed Audio are a Brighton-based label, born from a friendship of similar musical minds, putting out a steady flow of vinyl-centred releases mixing house, garage and disco. Their latest release is a third consecutive various artist EP and, as usual, comes with some great artwork. No Matter What label boss, and DA EP3 contributor James Johnston has put together a very tidy mix for us to listen to as you get to know Delayed Audio in the Q&A below with co-founder Paul. Free download below, and tracklist up next week. Follow us on Soundcloud for of-the-minute updates.
Delayed EP 3 12″ is out now an available from Juno.
Download Delayed Audio’s Brighton Spotlight mix
How/why did Delayed Audio come about? Was there something specific that triggered its creation?
It was a natural process. Rich and I are good friends and we were both poised well to get the signings in through our respective positions with Black Key and The Unity Agency. I’ve been pushing tracks in an A&R type role for Black Key and the sound he wanted to release was a deep garage and house A side with a psyche disco flip. We needed to create Delayed Audio for these releases.
How would you summarise the DA mission statement?
Ha! it was supposed to be digital only label with attention to detail, quality and artwork. It ended up a vinyl label so the mission changed. We see it as vehicle to showcase new talent alongside some more established artists and focused on original production rather than edits or sample heavy tracks.
Where does Delayed Audio fit into what’s going on in Brighton?
It fits perfectly in the sets I play at Audio and Disco Deviant and some of my contemporaries are also beginning to pick up on the tracks and support them to which is encouraging.
Are there any local producers you’re feeling at the moment?
A guy called Dom Ashton is really good, I like Fingerman’s disco edits too and Maxxi Soundsystem is always knocking out stuff I want to play.
The releases on DA are more like mini compilations than releases by one particular artist. What’s the thinking behind constructing them this way?
We set out to showcase the sound we were into at the time kicking off with some nice bits we wanted to release from Chamboche and Ejeca, Anthony Mansfield and Last Mood. Going down the Various Artists route allowed us to quickly show diversity whilst sticking to artists and styles we felt were missing from the market in general. We are now starting to focus on single artists more for future releases but we like the VA approach.
Can you explain the animalistic images you use for each release? They certainly make for powerful artwork.
That’s pretty much it – they look good! We got our designer, Ali McCarley, to work something up for EP1, he came back with the Zebra, we loved it and it stuck from there.
DA EP3 is out now. Can you fill us in about who’s involved and what people can expect who haven’t heard it before.
We’re really happy with EP3 – it represents a good balance of tracks, all of which are quite different from one another, which is really the beauty of having a VA release. People can expect deep house, with touches of acid and tech thrown in for good measure. All we can say is take a listen! James Johnston is a producer who is consistently on point, and continues to make excellent house music. Rich had a track from him on Black Key last year, so it was an obvious choice for us to get him on board at some point. Latona are a UK based collective who sent us a demo a little while back – we were impressed and have got a couple of tracks in the bag from them, one of which features on EP3. Espada, on the flip, is a Bosnian producer who we’re really impressed with. He’s had a couple of tracks out recently, which are all top notch, so he’s building a solid reputation already. Finally, DJ Rocca concludes the package – Rocca is a name which a lot of house heads will be familiar with, but for those who don’t know him, he’s a talented Italian producer (Crimea X, Ajello). You should get familiar with his stuff – loads of it, he’s prolific!
Looking beyond your current release, what plans are afoot for DA?
We’ve got an excellent EP from James Fox up next, with a remix from James Welsh. We’re very happy with this one, so it’s onwards and upwards really. EP5 is also nearing completion, so the aim for 2014 is to keep the releases flowing. 2013 was a busy year for both of us, but we’ve got more time to focus now. We’ve also got a couple of remixes in the pipeline which we put together under the Delayed Audio moniker. You can expect to see them over the next few months.
