Sims' Motor City

The Brit Ben Sims was a key player in '90s techno, regularly visiting Australia. But then he stopped coming. Now the DJ/producer is again hitting Australia for the first time in seven years.

Sims ascribes his absence to tiring of long annual flights and being distracted by a booming European scene. Surprisingly, the Londoner hasn't joined the lucrative Australian festival circuit, as with his Swedish contemporary Adam Beyer, instead favouring clubs. “The feedback that I got from people over there just seemed to be that it was better to do the clubs,” Sims explains shrewdly. “It's a bit more of an underground vibe and the festivals were a bit kind of trancey or a bit commercial.”

Sims began as a hip hop turntablist but, on discovering Detroit techno, switched allegiances. He was especially enamoured of Jeff Mills' style of furiously funky minimalism. Following the Motor City's reigning quick-mixer, Sims impressed, too, with his technical prowess on three decks. He instituted successive labels, chiefly Theory Recordings, and circulated his 'DJ tools'.

Detroit's mostly African-American techno contingent are traditionally suss of outsiders co-opting their music. Yet Sims found a champion in 'godfather' Derrick May, among the earliest to play his records. It was “flattering”, he says. This year May's homie Kevin Saunderson booked him to DJ the 25th anniversary of his KMS label in Detroit. “I was the only guy not from Detroit to play the party.”

The Carl Cox fave is in the throes of a spontaneous self-reinvention. Late last year Sims, who humbly considers himself primarily a DJ, finally presented a well-received 'artist' album, Smoke & Mirrors, on Beyer's Drumcode. He'd had two false starts with Tresor and Peacefrog, respectively. “It's something that I probably should have done years ago and I just never got around to it. It felt like a good time to try and do more and push myself a little bit further in the studio, rather than just keep going in there one day a week, banging out a track, playing it at the weekend…”

For years Sims copiously produced Millsian loop- or sample-based peaktime club tracks. “It was just very easy for me to do that sound, so I got a bit complacent and just kept on doing the same thing, really.” He was DJing a range of genres and reasoned that his studio output might reflect that. For Smoke…, Sims was able to “experiment”, producing house, “dubbier techno” and “traditional Detroit kinda things” – and he introduced vocals into the mix with guests Blake Baxter and Tyree Cooper. His confidence bolstered, Sims plans to bunker down early in 2013 and commence another LP.

The Englishman is upbeat about today's amorphous electronic music. Old barriers have fallen with even progressive types into techno. However, Sims is particularly “intrigued by” dubstep – and, more so, “post-dubstep”. When dubstep emerged from Croydon, London, it was compared culturally to Detroit techno. Ironically, Sims initially heard the music while hanging out in a local club with ex-Underground Resistance DJ Alan Oldham. “We were just like, 'What the fuck is that?'”

Sims hasn't been idle. He has several releases lined-up for Theory after his 'versus' with Scottish producer Stephen Brown (Fuego/Polar). Sims actually hopes to do something with Melbourne's Craig McWhinney. “I really like his stuff.” The Haul Music co-founder, he feels, is making techno for the post-dubstep era.

Sims is adapting in other ways. These days the DJ uses vinyl, CDs, USB sticks and Serato. But, while “curious” about new technologies, Sims is attached to vinyl. He's just concluding that, post-laptop, audio engineers no longer know how to configure old-fashioned decks at events – his wax jumps. “I think I'm kind of on my last legs with it at the moment!”