Claptone: Through a mask darkly

While he might not have seduced everyone he wanted to onto the album, Claptone's steadily expanding remix catalogue certainly includes some heavyweights. The Pet Shop Boys, Faithless, Hurt and Metronomy are all on there, and his recent remake of Gregory Porter's 'Liquid Spirit' has become a Beatport bestseller and one of the biggest tunes of the year. Porter himself remarked that he "could not argue with the success of the Claptone remix. Working with him is like a jazz collaboration. He took the inspiration from my song and reconfigured and elaborated on it, which is exactly what you do in jazz."

"I tend to select the remixes on the basis of how the artist might connect with my own musical world view and whether they have something to say, lyrically or musically," explains Claptone. "If I can feel some soul and funk in a track then I feel I can touch the original. Remixing only club music would be boring, which is why I like to branch out. Gregory actually came to me some years ago about a remix but I had so much respect for him that I said no. This year I felt I would try. Remixing this kind of music can easily go wrong, but then again the principles of both genres – organic soul and organic house – are connected to me."

A knock on the door of our basement retreat – which has grown quite cosy, if not romantic, over the last hour – indicates that our time is up. The blindfold is back until we exit the building, then we're driven to the outskirts of the city for a Stil Vor Talent open-air party where, an hour later, Claptone hits the decks dressed in trademark top hat, mask and gloves. The Berlin crowd, up for it as ever, groove in the late afternoon sunshine to tracks like Superlover's 'Love Machine' and Rene Amesz's 'Big', woven into a succession of Claptone tunes and unreleased remixes like Disclosure's 'Omen' and Rudimental's 'I Will For Love'.

It's just one of around 200 sets and live shows Claptone has performed in the last year, and there are more coming up. Not only is Claptone somehow able to meet this punishing schedule head-on, he also has the magical ability to be DJing in two entirely different countries on the same night. We call him after the show to find out more. "DJing just feels really good for me," he says. Oddly, his voice sounds different and his English slightly less fluent, which we put down to the transformative effect of the sun – or perhaps the vodka. "I love to build a relationship with the crowd and I love to play my own music, especially before it's released as you get to see the reactions first hand."