Audio: Ben Sims fabric Mini Mix Up March 2013

Ben Sims is one of those God like characters when it comes to the world of techno. He’s a guy who’s stayed at the forefront of what it means to be making four four in the UK today while carrying on his frenetic and eclectic spin on the genre. He’s spent much of the year so far on studio lockdown, at times a bit distracted by old tapes he’s unearthed but on the whole successfully recording a follow up to last year’s Smoke and Mirrors long player for Drumcode. We can look forward to the album’s release later this year but in this exclusive ‘Mini Mix Up’ he’s recorded for us, you can hear some of the latest offerings from his studio ahead of his return to Room Two next Saturday where he’ll be joining Berghain resident Norman Nodge and Skudge. DOWNLOAD: Ben Sims fabric Mini Mix Hey Ben so you’ve been busy at late on studio lockdown – how’s that been going? It's going well now thanks, I spent far too long pissing about with broken equipment and installing new bits on the computer at the start so my initial hopes of having something finished at the end of February didn't happen but the past few weeks have been much better and I can feel an album finally taking shape at last. How’s it sounding? Where do you think it stands characteristically compared to your previous output? So far there's a lot of jacking tracks alongside various deeper grooves and machine funk, much more direct than my debut album really as I have a clearer idea of what I'm aiming for this time plus there's some cuts featuring vocalists that I'm really happy with. It still sounds like me but it's more adventurous than my EP's and remixes. What’s your studio looking like at the moment? Chaos! Cables everywhere, keyboards all over the floor, hundreds of empty cans of diet coke, food wrappers, bits of cardboard and record mailers with notes scribbled on. I couldn’t help but notice you’ve been going through finding old DATs and tapes recently – what’s spurned this retrospection? I bought a couple of monstrous ghetto blasters off ebay recently so I dug out a crate of cassettes that's been following me around for years to test them out.I found loads of old mix ups and raw demos dating back to the late 80's, so as I've been spending so much time at the studio, I decided to multitask, rip the tapes while I'm there and put them up on soundcloud. What’s the rest of your year looking like? Good actually, I made a few changes to my booking arrangements so I'm traveling around a bit more and playing a lot of places I rarely go in addition to my established circuit plus the album will be out around summer and I've got a solid release schedule planned for my own labels too, so it's gonna be a busy year for sure (again). Tracklisting: 1.BEN SIMS-BULLET/CARI LEKEBUSCH REMIX (FORTHCOMING ON DRUMCODE) 2.BEN SIMS-RAISE YOUR HANDS/MR G REMIX (FORTHCOMING ON HARDGROOVE) 3.BEN SIMS-UNTITLED (UNRELEASED) 4.BEN SIMS-SMOKE & MIRRORS/JEROME SYDENHAM REMIX (FORTHCOMING ON DRUMCODE) 5.BEN SIMS-SOMETHING/TRUNCATE REMIX (FORTHCOMING ON THEORY) 6.BEN SIMS-SOMETHING/BEN SIMS REMIX (FORTHCOMING ON THEORY) 7.BEN SIMS-FREAKS/KiNK REMIX (FORTHCOMING ON HARDGROOVE) 8.BEN SIMS-CAN YOU FEEL IT?/JOSEPH CAPRIATI REMIX (FORTHCOMING ON DRUMCODE) 9.MARK AMBROSE-SHOOTING STARS/BEN SIMS DUB MIX (FORTHCOMING ON THEORY) 10.TRUNCATE-DIAL/BEN SIMS REMIX (UNRELEASED) 11.BEN SIMS-THE AFTERPARTY/BEN KLOCK REMIX (FORTHCOMING ON DRUMCODE) 12.BEN SIMS-THE LITTLE JAM (FORTHCOMING ON THEORY) 13.AUBREY-DOUBLE IMAGE/BEN SIMS REMIX (FORTHCOMING ON THEORY) 14.BEN SIMS-SPECTRUM (FORTHCOMING ON THEORY) 15.BEN SIMS-UNTITLED (UNRELEASED) 16.BEN SIMS-THE AFTERPARTY/ADAM BEYER REMIX (FORTHCOMING ON DRUMCODE) 17.BEN SIMS-NEUROSIS (FORTHCOMING ON THEORY) More info and tickets here