Surgeon, real name Anthony Child, has been at the forefront of UK techno since the release of his seminal Dynamic Tension EP in 1995.

Over the course of his career – with key releases appearing on Downwards, Tresor and his own Counterbalance imprint – the Birmingham resident has perfected a unique and uncommonly effective production style. His is a tough, fast techno sound with an industrial murk about it but also plenty of funk, plenty of swing, and a sophisticated sense of dub-space learned in part from his Chain Reaction contemporaries in Berlin. Proving that hard can also be smart, sensuous and danceable, the influence of Surgeon on the 2009-ruling Ostgut/Berghain sound – DJs/producers like Marcel Dettmann, Shed and Norman Nodge – is substantial. Check out his recent remixes of Scuba, Shed and Moderat, and the run of fearsome 12″s he recorded with Regis as British Murder Boys earlier in the decade.

However, what concerns us today is Surgeon the DJ. A cursory glance at the tracklist for his FACT Mix (over the page) will probably tell you we’re dealing with a very special selector, one capable of mixing up styles into a coherent and righteously banging whole. One of the most inventive, intuitive users of Ableton alive, in this mix – recorded live at Cafe Capital in Antwerp, Belgium, last month – Surgeon reaches terrifying levels of on-the-fly ingenuinity and intensity, making the heavy-gaited dubstep of RSD work in perfect accord with the Chicago acid of Fast Eddie, leaping seamlessly from Zomby and Rustie to Ancient Methods and Patrick Cowley. If you want to know what techno is really about – download this mix now.

One of FACT’s most enjoyable and revelatory nights out in living memory was at a Bleep43 party in London last year, when Surgeon played back-to-back all night with DJ Pete (Hardwax, Substance, Scion Version) – and duly turned our minds inside out. The duo will be reprising their deadly partnership at Bleep43 next Friday, 11 December, topping a line-up which also features the mighty Patrice Scott and Newworldaquarium. You really ought to be there; more informations and tickets can be found here.

For more on Surgeon, check out our Five Records interview, in which the Midlander talks to us about some of his favourite records, including albums by Coil and Scott Walker.

Download: FACT Mix 106: Surgeon
(Available for three weeks)

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 8:59 am and is filed under Mixes and tagged with Surgeon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.