Sigha

Straddling the boundaries of post-dubstep and techno, British-born producer and DJ James Shaw, aka Sigha, had at first taken a decidedly different musical route. Shaw had originally been involved in shoegaze-inspired indie bands, and after studying guitar at music college, was introduced to the world of electronic music via a warehouse party in London. Buoyed by this experience, Shaw went about producing on his own. Surrounded by London’s burgeoning dubstep scene and working part-time in London record store BM Soho, Shaw combined the basic drum elements of dubstep with the atmospheric sound of techno, while partly being inspired by his love of early noise and shoegaze bands such as My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth.

Signing to Hotflush Recordings in 2009 — home to Joy Orbison, Mount Kimbie, and owner Scuba — Shaw release his debut 12”, Rawww, followed by On the Strip and Bruised that same year. A keen vinyl aficionado, Shaw set-up his own vinyl-only label, Our Circula Sound, in 2010. The first release, Early Morning Lights — featuring a remix by German techno legend Marcel Dettmann — signaled a move in a more techno-focused direction for Shaw. A move to Berlin in 2011 and a flurry of releases on Hotflush, Blueprint, and Our Circula Sound rounded out the year. Early 2012 saw the release of the EP Abstractions I-IV; a mix of drone-inspired techno and atmospheric ambience, it would become a precursor to his debut album, Living with Ghosts, released at the end of 2012.