Music has always played an important in James’ life, starting out with Roland drum machines and Yamaha synths before electronica then took a bit of a back seat for a fair few years while he completed his PhD in 2004.
Over the last 5 years or so, James has realised that electronic music (in a plethora of forms), is where his passions really lie and he cites many of the featured artists on sites such as Hybridized as musical influences. James originally gained his reputation within the progressive community with his meticulously programmed sets, seeing his audiences and support grow significantly over recent years and downloads of his sets in the thousands.
Over the last 2-3 years, James has also moved into production, both as solo artist and collaboratively with funk demon, Mike Bandoni as ‘Coalesced’, and also with rising dj/producer KiRA. Coalesced have already released both remix and original material on a number of labels and plenty more releases are scheduled. 2008 saw a remix by Way Out West legend Jody Wisternoff on the Coalesced track Cortina and 2009 saws the duo release an e.p. on the Triptik label. James’s work with KiRA has also seen them release tracks on Polytechnic Recordings and Trafik remix for Global Underground’s Afterhours 5 compilation. 2010 will see the release of a beautiful melodic house tune featuring a vocal by Rachel Lamb and released on new imprint Portable Magic. Many more solo remixes and production material is planned for release.
It is live performances that really see James energised and which have seen him perform under the Coalesced banner on the same bills as Force Mass Motion and Ashley Casselle. Under new management and in James’s various guises, these dynamic live shows look set to increase with the use of computers, decks, fx units and keyboard improv.
