Kode9’s grasp on the throat of bass music in 2010 is almost unparalleled. His trend setting record label, Hyperdub, is in its sixth year of viral contagion; he’s become a published author on the theory of sound abuse and sonic frequencies being used as weaponry in his book ‘Sonic Warfare’ and his production work has mutated from an almost simplistic marriage of beats and sine waves into a fusion of dancefloor Ebonics and discordant synths. Becoming a figurehead of UK dance music hasn’t been a quick process, and Kode9’s single-mindedness has contributed in some way to his notoriety, but it’s simply his tireless work as a record label boss and A&R that has marked him out as one of the most powerful ears within the scene. Probably best known to the wider global audience as the label that gave birth to two genre defining albums from Burial, Hyperdub has become one of the most reliably testing labels out there. Just as likely to release a glut of two and a half minute beat sketches from American beat maker Samiyam or Zomby as sprawling house opuses from Brixton bass bin temptress Cooly G, the label is at the forefront of innovation and it’s something that he has infused into his volume of the DJ-KiCKS series. “Very simply, [the mix is] just a snapshot of my DJ sets at the first half of 2010,” he says calmly. “It’s definitely not an exploration of my musical heritage, but it’s not all new stuff. It probably signifies something about my relationship to dubstep that the mix only has a few dubstep tunes in it, and is instead a mix of UK funky, broken beat, dubstep, grime and some R&B. Unfortunately, I fear some listeners, because of my background, will think that all the tracks are just mutations of dubstep.” Starting off in serene fashion with Nottingham producer Lone’s upbeat exploration of steel drum snatches on ‘Once In A While’, Kode9 dives into the percussive textures of Dutch producer Aardvarck before steering the mix into a duo of his own productions.