Oneman is often referred to as a DJ's DJ, which is something pretty hard to pull off since every kid these days wants a Serato package for their Christmas stocking.
According to Cargo club in London: "Oneman has almost single-handedly re-invented old school garage - taking the art of djing to a new level - recontextualising 2 step garage into dubstep, grime, funky, 'wonky' and beyond".
Oneman plays a lot of old tunes, an exception in a scene obsessed with the perpetual "moving forward never backwards" motion of dubplate culture. He's been known to mix in everything from The Police to Prince and Township Funk to Garage. Infact, Oneman says that he has never subscribed the the Dubplate chase. Oneman can mix two tunes very quickly by riding the pitch in the mix. Oneman, doesnt push the record plate, he corrects the mix via pitch once they’re already public – he knows he can correct the mix as it happens.
When Loefah put him forward for Mary Anne Hobbs' pinnacle Generation Bass showcase in 2008, his talent as a DJ was undeniable, yet mixing early DMZ releases into old UK garage records will only take you so far. Instead he spent the next two years walking a new path, eventually ushering in a new generation of producers and sounds distinct from the grime, funky, dubstep, and garage scenes that inspired them.
By summer 2010, armed with peerless mixing skills and new Serato tricks, Oneman broke one of the records of the year, Girl Unit's Wut and Sbtrkt's collab with Jessie Ware, as well as launching his 502 label with two fresh new artists, Fis-T and Jay Weed.
As we near the end of the hyper arc of Dubstep, Oneman reminds us how right from the start he placed the true musical lineage of Dubstep - UK Garage and Grime - at the centre of the mix.
Oneman stayed true to this over time whilst embracing the newer Garage sounds and so had long ago arrived at the place that uninformed media are now calling 'post-Dubstep'. Today, Oneman is at the nexus of producers that are mixing the sounds of Garage, Grime, House, UK Funky, Purple and Dubstep, into one big genre-less love-in.
