Breakspoll Blur

It's been quite a weekend. 

I was thrilled this year to find myself short-listed for no fewer than six awards at the annual Breakspoll bash, and unlike last year when I played the graveyard shift to an exhausted dancefloor, I was blessed with a peaktime slot at this year's party. I'd barely arrived at Cable (great club - go check it out) before being summonsed to the stage for the awards, & was fortunate enough to pick up the awards for BEST PRODUCER and BEST LABEL for U&A Recordings amongst some serious competition.

I wasn't sure how winning something would make me feel, given that awards ceremonies have never been too high up the chain in life's rich list of priorities for me, but now I know, and I can safely say "thrilled to bits" is the answer. If anything, moments like that give you a punctuation in life, a brief chance to reflect on a year gone by and your achievements, as well as being a small reward for a huge amount of hard work.

It's been a year when Breaks has bounced back. There have been far too many people bashing it as a genre and deriding it, but last year it was strong, and this year it will be stronger as more new talent is nurtured and they hone their skills, and as more of the old guard of refuseniks return to the fold. I'm by no means a 'purist' when it comes to Breaks, or to any music come to that - I'm just not a fan of people boxing off certain tribal sub-genres at the exclusion of open-mindedness and other quality sounds - but I'm thrilled to see many tempos and experiments happening in the world of bass-driven warehouse-music (as I'd prefer to describe my own output at the moment!).

Needless to say everyone who cared enough to vote for me deserves my heartfelt thanks, & I will of course endeavour to turn it up one louder in the coming months & hopefully find myself once again in the mix at the end of the year.