Get to know Hugo Massien, the UK artist splicing house and techno with hardcore

There might not appear to be much common ground between the UK folk scene and its hardcore continuum, but both have played a role in making Hugo Massien the artist he is today.

“My first introduction to music was going to folk festivals with my parents, he says. “Getting into d’n’b when I got older was rebelling against that a bit.”

Growing up in suburban Reading, Massien felt the ripples of movements coming out of nearby London as a teen. He first fell for d’n’b, but when dubstep came along he felt he’d finally found a scene he could fully immerse himself in.

“Dubstep happened at the right time for me,” he says. “A load of us from Reading started travelling to London for FWD>> on a weekly basis.”

Dubstep had such an impact that he decided to go to uni in Bristol, hoping to get involved in the city’s fertile bass scene. But once there he found it a case of right place, wrong time.

“Tectonic and Punch Drunk were massive for me, so Bristol had this magnetism,” he explains. “I turned up in 2009 and dubstep had kind of reached its natural conclusion. Everyone in the city seemed to be into house!”

Not to be deterred, Massien started working on tracks that incorporated darker and dubbier elements into house music, which found a home on Mark Radford’s Rinse FM show and his Audio Rehab label. “Mark’s Rinse show was how I discovered that music,” he says of the sound that came to be dubbed ‘deep tech’. “Me and a few other producers like Oris Jay and Carnao Beats were making records just to get them played by Mark every week, and that eventually led to interest from XL.”

In 2015 Hugo released the ‘Kontrol’ EP on XL, a four-tracker that coupled the weightiness of his formative bass influences with the slinkiness of house and techno and was released as part of an effort by the label to reconnect with its rave roots. “The XL release was monumental,” he says. “It was a real vindication for always following my heart with my music.”

Having relocated to Berlin to work in audio software development – a job he landed thanks to a chance meeting at Berghain – Massien is trying to work in the space between the UK’s hardcore continuum and Berlin’s “very different approach to clubbing”. His last release – ‘The Ghost Note’ EP on Dusky’s 17 Steps label – combined classic breaks and bass influences, and sounded tailor-made for the biggest rooms. And there’s more to come on DJ Haus’ E-Beamz label and a Bristol label that had “a very big influence”
on the young Massien.

“In the UK, you might be in a club for three or four hours so it’s all about energy and impact,” he explains. “But in Berlin you might be there for 20 hours, so the music progresses more slowly. I’m acclimatising to that but still bringing all those UK influences that are so ingrained in me.”

Hugo Massien’s ‘Almost Becoming Lucid’ EP is out on E-Beamz now

Sean Griffiths is Mixmag's Deputy Editor, follow him on Twitter