London producer Om Unit caught our attention with his banging Pop Lock remix of Joker’s ‘Digidesign’ early last year, and since then has released some stand-out solo records: ‘Lightgrids/Lavendar’ (All City), ‘Searching’, and his ‘Corridor’ EP on Plastician’s Terrorrhythm label. This month saw the release of his genre-defying ‘The Timps’ EP on Civil, which nods heavily to the sounds of Detroit and comes with an accompanying trippy video. We asked him about his DMC past, esoterics, Aux 88 and his plans for 2011.

You used to be a DMC champ, and work under the name 2tall. Clearly you’ve moved on from that now but how do you feel it’s affected your progression as a producer and/or a dj?

It’s fundamentally what formed me creatively, and will always be a part of my approach to music. I think working with the turntables so much gives you a good link to what you hear and what you feel physically.

Now you’ve changed to the sanskrit moniker Om Unit (which is tough to translate but is about the essence of the universe) – did you go out and find yourself or was it just a straight up reinvention?

Quite honestly, i’ve been into esoterics and spiritual traditons/paranormal stuff since i was a little kid so I think it feels more “me”. I think i got sick of people saying “oh yeah you are quite tall” all the time. Also people continuously spelled it 2Tall with a capital T like they didn’t give a shit or like they felt the need to correct it, but that’s just a personal gripe.

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