Om Unit

Om Unit is the alias of UK producer and DJ Jim Coles.
Whilst Om Unit is a relatively new name to the electronic ether, Jim Coles the actual man has been an overly principled producer for many a year. Originally breaking his Discogs.com duck under the name 2Tall he was engrossed at the bleeding edge of UK hip-hop, scratch culture and turntablism through the mid-2000s. His DJ CV proudly sports the phrase ‘DMC Finalist’.

Despite his dedication to such extreme manual craft, Coles found much more immediate fame under Om Unit four years ago initially releasing on Terrorhythm, Stretched and All City Records. However, shortly after launching this fresh alias, Jim Coles casually launched another nom-de-guerre — Phillip D Kick — a badly disguised anonymous façade from which he released an instinctive home brew of jungle and footwork — a stramash of 160 BPM rhythms that toyed with the hype-y nature of Chicago footwork yet stamped his own UK junglist approach upon it.

The buzz took hold and before long Coles was being celebrated as an innovator and also a grave robber who was desecrating classic tracks from Adam F, Remarc and LTJ Bukem. Things quickly got out of hand. After eight months and as much acclaim as purist disgust, he collapsed the alias and left his downloads available for as long as the internet gods would tolerate such data being free.his vigour is reflected in his boisterous discography. Nine EPs in two years was brisk business anyway, but a release schedule bottleneck caused him to fast track the nine-track ‘Cosmology’ sampler as well, a release that firmly lights up his heavens even more vividly. Cosmic Bridge output is obsessed with grimy, fractured dub expressions that ricochet around a broad tempo range.

It’s as informed by dubstep as it is by hip-hop, jungle and footwork. It features existing friends of Coles such as Kromestar and Boxcutter alongside new names such as Moresounds and Ean. “'Cosmology’ represents a kind of re-solidification of the family,” explains Coles. “Also there are a few bits that have been getting dusty on the shelf so to speak, so I wanted to collect this all together and paint this bigger picture of the sound of everyone from both ‘then and now’.

“With this release and as curator I can bring more light to what we've been doing,” the savvy producer continues, “as some people might only know me for the drum & bass work I've done recently, or some might only know me from hearing about my album ‘Threads’ from last year and might not necessarily know I run this label too, you know?”

The process of populating the label has been organic and unplanned. When quizzed about his blueprints he quickly quashes the notion that he is following anyone's template. “I have to say there’s not really been a plan,” he laughs. ‘It's just been one step at a time. No goals. Just the journey.”

Cosmic Bridge has therefore been populated via an emotional response to his immediate network. He quickly runs through a dense account of his core protagonists. “Moresounds is a dub technician with a great ear, and his live show is incredible. Danny Scrilla has a gentle energy but is rooted in bass and dub also, he has the head in the clouds/feet on the ground approach. Ean is an old mate and a stalwart mixing engineer; he’s a trusted advisor of mine! He's always trying new things with his music, for example he has a folk band called Stick in the Wheel who are currently enjoying some success in the London folk scene. Next up we have Boxcutter who is a humble legend, and somebody I have a lot of time for, his new material is really going out into deep composition territory. He never stops growing! Finally there’s Kromestar; my brother in bass music, he's one of the greatest producers to come out of London in a long time in my book.”

Interestingly all inhabit a similar signature sound, or at least a similar vibe. So when we demand to know what he looks for in a producer, Jim is quick to answer. “They all convey something not unfamiliar but also unique. They seem to be quite autonomous in their approach to making music, i.e. not following trends. They also are able to communicate their musical ideas clearly and have a good technical understanding of sound.”