London born and based techno producer Jand DJ James Ruskin is one of the lights in UK techno. James Ruskin comes from a background that first put him in touch with hip hop and electro and later with the emerging Detroit techno scenes.and brings a long background and deep knowledge of underground electronic music to his productions and DJing. Subsequently, Ruskin and long-time friend Richard Polson set up a studio together and, by 1996, had also launched a label, Blueprint (a
sub-label, Coda, followed in 2000).Originally working together as Outline, Polson and Ruskin’s first searing interpretations of minimalism formed part of a new wave of UK
techno producers alongside Birmingham’s Surgeon and Regis and London’s
Oliver Ho.
James’s delivered 2 albums in the past, most recent album, last year’s ‘The Dash’ was melancholic and melodic, often understated but never lightweight, Ruskin explored with a variety of tempos and beat structures on ‘The Dash’ and It’s his best long player to date. Against this backdrop, Ruskin has re-launched Blueprint with the first release proper from his new collaborative project, O/V/R, together with Regis aka Karl O’Connor. While the duo had remixed Ruskin’s ‘Lahaine’ last year, the panning, hypnotic techno of their debut EP for the label, ‘Interior’, solidifies their working
relationship. Ruskin has also been releasing under his own name on
the label and plans to release material by artists outside of the original
Blueprint line up as well as further album projects. With more O/V/R
material being recorded and plans in place to perform the project live, James Ruskin
is once again providing a unique blueprint for techno music.