Melé is a UK clubbing institution.
Coming of age as a hip-hop kid, his immersion in club culture provided him with a different slant on the UK underground.
Much-loved for both his productions and DJ sets, Melé is set to keep the slopes occupied at Snowbombing next year.
Ahead of this, the beat maker looked back on his inspirations for this special edition of Influences.
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Dr Dre – 'XXplosive'
2001 was definitely the album that made me fall in love with music. I remember begging my mum to buy me it from Virgin Megastores in Liverpool, and just going home and being obsessed with it for about six months. It's still an album I listen to a lot now, sonically nothing has touched this album.
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The Prodigy – 'What Evil Lurks'
This is the first ever Prodigy single on XL. I could have chose a lot of records Liam Howlett has done but I went for this one as I've been playing it in my sets a little bit recently.
Before I heard The Prodigy I was strictly a hip-hop kid, I didn't like dance music at all. My uncle put me on to their stuff and I became obsessed. I went to see them in concert in 2005 and it changed my life, I think literally the next day I got a copy of Reason 3 on my computer and started making beats.
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Switch – A Bit Patchy
I first heard this record at that Prodigy concert actually. Audio Bully's were supporting them and they played this, it was such a "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS" moment. I didn't find out what it was for about six months.
Switch is such a massive influence on my sound and a producer I respect massively, I love how completely mental all of his tracks are.
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CJ Bolland – Sugar Is Sweeter (Armand Van Helden Remix)
There's a lot of AVH tunes I could have picked but this one in particular influenced my new record on Edible called Atlantic. I was listening to alot of 90s Basement Jaxx and Armand Van Helden, and wanted to make something with a big UK bass line and some driving tribal drums.
There's a few remixes that Armand did around this time that are massive, his remix of Goldie & KRS One is one that you still hear its influence on tracks made today.
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Kenny Dope – 'At The Bank'
Again, there are a thousand records from Kenny Dope I could have picked, but this is just one I've been playing a lot recently.
Kenny is such a massive influence on my sound because of his roots in hip-hop, even though he's mostly making house his tracks have that raw 90's East Coast hip-hop sound. If you get chance, get stuck into his and Masters At Work's back catalogue, some unbelievable tunes.
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Catch Melé at Snowbombing 2018.
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