Will Saul’s 5 To Watch

People are going to freak out when his album drops early next year on Aus. Escape is a young guy from Glasgow who's never released any music before and sent me in some demo tracks earlier this year. I've been working pretty closely with him to help him develop his sound and structure an album. I used his track 'Flinch' right at the end of my Kicks mix. This will give you a feel for his sound – glacial, euphoric yet somehow haunting & melancholic. Rooted in house music but he heads off into other ambient and more experimental territories. Look out for an EP this autumn on Aus which should wet everyone's appetite.

I was introduced to Will's wonderful voice by Tom Demac who collaborated with him on the 'It Grows Again' EP which we released on Aus at the end of last year. I recently saw him perform at Colston Hall in Bristol and his voice is very special. He sings falsetto and also plays guitar and likes to run his guitar through lots of weird and wonderful amps and pedals…which creates this blissed out angelic feeling to his performance. 

Another artist we've signed an album from for Aus. Ewan is Leeds's answer to Moodymann. It's difficult to sound genuinely soulful at the moment without getting dragged into the glut of pop meets deep house nasties but Ewan stands above all this as he captures a really dusty, rough warmth within his productions. It also helps that he's a very talented keys player.

Its fair to say that Leon Vynehall has already broken through beyond being a new and exciting talent as he's had some land-mark releases on Matyn's 3024 label and also Aus. Leon Vynehall is a very good drummer and you can hear this is the way he programs his drums – there's a really natural swing and as a result don't sound too 'machine like'. Much like all my favourite producers he gets the balance between organic and synthetic sounds spot on and there's a real art to that. He's able to write different styles and tempos effortlessly yet still maintain his own 'sound' which is incredibly hard to do.

One of my west-country crew (I grew up just outside Glastonbury and recently moved back) and someone I work with a lot. Keiren is still finding his sound within the world of house and techno as he comes from drum and bass and dub step. Coming at a genre fresh with no preconceived ideas of how something 'should' sound usually yields some excellent results and Kire is proving this time and time again. A mainstay on Aus and someone I'll be working with for many years.

 

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Will Saul's 'DJ-Kicks' is relased on June 16th on digital, CD and vinyl, pre-order the album here.