Perc

From his earliest demos to his current position as a key figure in the global techno scene, Perc (aka Ali Wells) has taken the established forms of the music he loves and twisted them into something new and fresh.

They key to Perc’s recent success was the release of ‘Up’ on Kompakt. With its unmistakable relentless rising tone, ‘Up’ lodged itself in record boxes, including those of Richie Hawtin, Luciano, Chris Liebing, Misc, Slam, John Digweed, Green Velvet, Erol Alkan and Steve Lawler and refused to move; inspiring a wave of imitations that continues to this day. Perc’s 2nd Kompakt release ‘Headphone Heart’ showed his versatility, mixing industrial-strength percussion with a haunting flute melody, a combination that on paper should never work, but Perc pulled it off with style. 

To cement his techno credentials Perc’s ‘Sticklebrick’ EP on Adam Beyer’s Drumcode label made him the first non-Swedish artist to release on the label in 7 years and showed that he could produce to a standard equal to the world’s best.

Now producing for Josh Wink's legendary Ovum Recordings, Perc will be playing along the Ovum Family this Saturday at Matter.

Your playing London’s Matter in the next few weeks for the joint Ovum birthday celebrations and Sci-Tec party, are you looking forward to playing and what are your expectations for Matter?

Yes, it should be a good night. I played my first Ovum party with Josh Wink last weekend, so now I know a bit more what to expect. If Matter is anything like Fabric then I'll be expecting a perfectly tuned sound system and a great crowd.

Matter is a pretty impressive venue, what other events and venues have you really enjoyed over the last few months?

The gig with Josh that I mentioned a minute ago was cool, it was at The Loft in Barcelona and club managed to combine a great sound with a slightly mucky industrial warehouse feel. On New Year's Eve I played for Atomic Jam in Birmingham. No one told me before the gig that it was outside but I just about managed to avoid frostbite. The dj’s (James Ruskin, Chris Finke and I) were on a raised stage whilst the dance floor was in an emptied out swimming pool. Not what I expected but a great gig!!

How’s the last 12th Months been for you.. You’ve had some great profile productions and remixes - Tell us a little about your involvement with the Ovum family.

The last year has just got better and better. Basically everything has been snowballing since I signed tracks to Drumcode and Kompakt in 2007. There has been more travelling than ever before for me including various trips to Japan, Mexico, Canada, USA and across Europe.

I've also become more confident in my production, which has been reflected in the wider range of the music I've been writing and releasing. I've been talking to Ovum for some time so it was just a matter of me getting the right track to them at the right time. Around the start of last year I sent 'Throb' to them and they liked it, so from there 'Mathlete' was written and the EP was completed. Right now I am working on more tracks for them and I am playing at a number of Ovum events over the summer, so hopefully the relationship will continue into the future.

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