UK producer borne out of the energetic UK club scene of the late 90’s making contemporary electronic music for both dancefloor and mind. Now inspired by a love of characterful, classic synthesizers and the fusion of these machines with the seemingly limitless possibilities of modern production software to create memorable music that engenders a strong emotional response in a modern landscape of throwaway product and short-attention spans.
In 2021 and 2022 he has a growing fanbase with successful and heavily supported releases on Sincopat, Renaissance, Parquet, Selador, Sum Over Histories and Traum Schallplatten and increasing, regular support from big name DJs across the landscape including Tale Of Us, Sasha, Hernán Cattáneo, Bebetta, and more.
James Harcourt – Quartz EP OUT NOW on Renaissance
Balance Selections 215: James Harcourt
Tracklisting:
01. Tal Fussman – Noisy World
02. Kiz Pattison ft. ASYN – Come Closer (MattR Remix)
03. Tal Fussman – Survival Tactics
04. James Harcourt – Quarz
05. t-Zhuk – Never Alone
06. Unreleased ID
07. Aaryan – Zero4Zero
08. Rinzen – The Dark Arts
09. Depeche Mode – Behind The Wheel (James Harcourt Bootleg)
10. Tal Fussman – Here To There
11. Enamour – ID
12. Unreleased ID
13. Dominik Marz – Closer Than Most
14. John Monkman – Impulse
15. Robert Babicz – Red (James Harcourt Remix)
16. & ME, Rampa, Adam Port ft Jennifer Touch – Lover (Gerd Janson Remix)
17. Unreleased ID
18. Torn Sail – Scared Of My Heart feat. E.R.Thorpe (Andre Lodemann Remix)
Balance Selections Q+A
Name: James Harcourt
Location: Sussex, UK
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Labels affiliated with: Renaissance, Sincopat, Selador, Parquet, Traum Schallplatten, Sum Over Histories
My last 3 releases:
Robert Babicz – Red (James Harcourt remix)
James Harcourt – Maelstrom
James Harcourt – Resistance
What music did you listen to as a child?
My earliest memories of music are being captivated by stuff on the radio or TV. My parents were not musicians but loved music and so was my older brother. I naturally listened to the stuff they brought into the house, namely Adam & The Ants and Duran Duran in the case of my older brother – and Queen in the case of my Dad. I remember being captivated by the covers of the Red & Blue Beatles albums and playing all of those and falling in love with almost every song at different times. This is all stuff under the age of 9 or 10 I’m thinking of.
When was the first time that you realised that you liked electronic music?
I didn’t really think hard about whether something was electronic or not until the guitar music resurgence in the period of the early to mid 90’s and I wouldn’t say I really fell in love with 4/4 electronic music until 1996. Prior to that was a really good period for guitar music. However in the 80’s, as a child, I was into music from Art Of Noise, Yello, Kraftwerk, the Streetsounds Electro Albums and was obsessed with tracks like Hashim’s ‘Al Naafiysh‘ and later the somewhat electronic/rave infused ‘baggy’ music. So perhaps, I realised I liked it from pretty young after all?
When was the first time you saw a DJ in a club?
Fast forward a long way. I was a very late starter, I was 19 or 20 when I first went to a proper club and it was someone like Gayle San or Andrew Weatherall playing hard techno in London. I was aware the music was always at a point of high tension without much release and the energy level was very high, but I was an awkward teenager still so it took a while to be able to be in that environment and get lost in the music.
Which producers/artists/acts inspire you?
I’m inspired by feelings and aesthetics rather than by specific people, or even sounds. To me, the love of music is a language, identity and culture independent thing.
What was the last album that you downloaded/bought?
Non-electronic – It was the 3rd album ‘Ultra Mono‘ by Idles. I love all their work, but that album in particular.
Electronic – It was Dominik Eulberg’s last album ‘Avichrom‘.
What is your current production and DJ set up like?
My studio is quite stripped back, I just have what I need and not much more. I work a lot in headphones where I invested heavily. I use Cubase as the heart of the studio, with a set of hardware synths. I use FabFilter plugins, SoundToys, a few Valhallas and a lot of Cubase native stuff.
About DJ’ing … I am gingerly returning to a bit of DJ’ing late summer. About live vs DJ … after much deliberation I decided I value the mixing and mastering process too much to do a live set. I feel happier than ever with the music I am making – but going all out live removes the possibilities of playing other great music and the choice is huge these days. I’ll probably use CDJs with USB to keep the changeovers as stress-free for everybody as possible 😊
What releases do you have on the horizon?
I’ve got a 5 track E.P coming up on Renaissance this month on the 19th August. I have some remixes of Rafael Cerato on Dear Deer, another for ICONYC and later in the year another for D-Nox & Beckers hopefully seeing the light of day on Mango Alley. Meanwhile I’m always working on new ideas and sounds just to move things forward and building up coherent EPs along the way. I have limited time and no team so I need to choose these things carefully.
Where can we hear you perform?
No residency or podcast, I have to choose where I put my limited time and I focus it into production. At the moment my next gig is either a 3 city India mini tour or a festival in Germany called Evolution, whichever comes first. I probably should do a podcast, but it’s a question of time.
Tell us more about the podcast you made for Balance?
I jammed out a few mixes using software and this gives me some good combinations and those moments of flow that really feel like you’re elevating individual tracks into something more. Then I bring all into Cubase and treat it like arranging a giant track. It’s really fun, but it has to happen quite quickly – like arranging a track – to maintain the flow like feeling of arranging a track fast or doing a real-time mix. I’ve used a few of my own unreleased bits of music here. At the last moment I also swapped out a track too.
My Recommendations
The top track in my DJ wallet currently is:
In terms of music within the genre I make, one of my favourite current tunes is by a guy called Dominik Marz ‘Closer Than Most‘, it’s just a uniquely cool, simple banger with character and just a very specific vibe that I absolutely love:
A very different track, but one I’ve used on this mix is by the very good producer Andre Lodemann, who always does great work.
If I could recommend only one of my tracks for you to listen to it would be:
From the stuff of the last 18 months I’m pretty much equally happy with all of it so I’d just put them all in a bag and ask them to pick one out 😊
If I could recommend only one track for you to listen to it would be:
Flowered Up – Weekender
My favourite track changes a lot, but it comes back to this one more than any others.
The last movie I watched that I really liked:
I can’t remember – sorry. I don’t watch so much TV. I need a good recommendation for tonight though. Which will probably be last week/month/year by the time anybody reads this.
My favourite TV show:
Honestly, I think I could watch the remarkable range of facial expressions of ‘Homelander’ from ‘The Boys’ for hours.
