Lawrence Hart launches new label ‘SSEM Records’ with eponymous EP

Previous support from BBC’s Pete Tong ‘Essential New Tune’, Annie Mac, Lauren Laverne, Jack Saunders, Jaguar; Independent ‘Now Hear This’; XLR8R, DJ Mag; Apple’s New Music Daily, New In Dance, A-List Electronic, Best of the Week; Spotify’s Metropolis, Friday Cratediggers, Fresh Finds: Basement; Sasha, Rüfüs Du Sol, Icarus

Lawrence Hart launches his new label SSEM Records with his second solo EP, celebrating his incredible connection to the birth of modern computing and electronic music, through his Grandfather, Geoff Tootill.

The EP, like the new imprint, is named ‘Small-Scale Experimental Machine’ after the world’s first computer to use software, built in 1948 by Geoff Tootill, F.C. Williams and Tom Kilburn. Cementing their shared love of music and electronics, Geoff gave Hart his first ever musical instrument, setting him on a path of symbiosis between emotive instrumentation and electronic production.

‘Within These Walls’, the first single from the EP, perfectly encapsulates the blend of organic and electronic, emotive and technically progressive, which Hart has made his own. Driven by a wild, deep drum loop, underpinned by expressive breaks and jittering vocal one-shots, Hart grounds his sparse, bouncing rhythms with synth chords to pull ravers to their feet. The track opens with a sample taken from the first recording of computer generated music, the program for which was written together by Geoff Tootill and Alan Turing.

Lawrence Hart has worked/collaborated with some of the most exciting names in electronic music. The South London producer’s debut EP ‘Surrender Yourself’ amassed sweeping support across BBC Radio 1 (Annie Mac, Pete Tong – including ‘Essential New Tune’, Jack Saunders, Jaguar), 6Music, Radio 1 Dance, Kiss FM and Rinse FM. Accolades came from peers as wide-reaching as Dixon, George Fitzgerald, Martin Garrix, Sub Focus, Sister Bliss, Anja Schneider, Prospa, and Sasha.