Gilles Peterson

Gilles Peterson has filled plenty of roles in his time - producer, label head and record collector among them- but it is for his work as a DJ that he will always be best-known. A long-time radio host, he has also lent his talents as selector to countless parties and club gigs and a long sting of compilations, but never a collection of house tunes. Until now, that is, with the release of 'Gilles Peterson In The House' on respected house music label Defected.

"Funnily enough, I got asked to do a few different house records for different labels over the last few years - I think that probably the house labels had run out of people to do and they thought 'who's next?'," the affable Peterson jokes of the project's inception. "And people know that I play house anyway, within what I play, so I got the call from Defected, and that, to be honest, was the most interesting record label, because they've got quite a good understanding in my opinion of the underground, but also in terms of how to cross it over really, and I quite like that approach."

The aesthetic of the label appealed to Peterson because he perceives it to be akin to his own approach to running a label, though the similarities might not be apparent to a casual observer. "Even though labels like Acid Jazz and Talking House were perceived to be quite specialist, we aimed for success on a bigger scale, you know, because keeping it underground is a bit sad really, so I like to get my music over to as many people as possible."

With a show on BBC1 streamed around the globe (the appropriately-named 'Worldwide'), plenty of DJ gigs to keep him busy and these internationally-released compilations, Peterson certainly has plenty of listeners willing to hear the sounds that he peddles. Even with an increasingly savvy audience, however, the famously prolific record collector insists that he doesn't fall into the trap of willfully playing obscure records for their own sake.

"The thing is, I just like good music. It's kind of like, people say 'oh, you've got so much music', but then you meet someone like Keb Darge or you meet these Northern Soul boys, and that's just ridiculous the level that those boys are at in terms of digging. But to be honest with you, I don't like a lot of those records. I mean, it's not that I don't like them, it's just that I think that there's a point where it's kind of like 'why am I playing this? Am I just playing this because it's got a good catalogue number and because it's really rare, or am I playing it because this song touches me?' And that's really where I'm at, you know, I'll go as far as wanting to pick music out which is going to potentially have a good effect on people."

That's not to say that Peterson overthinks his selections, though. In conversation, he sounds animated, moving out on tangents as they occur to him, and his approach to selecting this compilations seems somewhat similar. "When I did this record, it wasn't something that I spent hours worrying about or breaking down in my head. I literally just went to my records and I kind of pulled out what I was playing at the time, including old records. So, I didn't sort of start digging for old records, I just pulled out a bunch of things that are exciting me at the moment, some of which are well known. Obviously, things like Taste Of Honey, or Geraldine Hunt or Slick's Space Bass, but on the other hand, probably a few little tracks in there that even the heads might not be so sure about, things like Heatwave and Jon Lucien... so hopefully there's something for everyone. But again, to make sure there's some exclusive stuff on there that people haven't heard before, we came up with the idea to do an exclusive CD, so all that stuff on there is gonna be brand new for a lot of people."

That exclusive CD is the third part of the compilation - the first is a pretty straight commercial house mix while the second is a party set comprised of soul, jazz and disco selections. And though there were a few producers that Peterson really wanted to include who submitted their tracks late - among them Theo Parrish - the end result is one that he waxes lyrical about and is clearly thrilled to lend his name to.

Alexis Buxton-Collins

'Gilles Peterson In The House' is out now on Defected through Stomp.