ASC
About
James Clements, better known as ASC, is a British born electronic music producer whose genre spanning sound has made a profound impact on the evolution of drum and bass, ambient, and experimental electronic music. Now residing in Del Mar, California, ASC's career has stretched over two decades and continues to evolve in bold and boundary pushing directions.
His musical journey began in the UK, shaped by a diverse range of influences from Motown and early techno to the UK hardcore and jungle scenes. Starting out as a DJ on pirate radio while still in school, ASC soon developed a deep curiosity about music production. Between 1997 and 1999, he wrote his first batch of tracks, which led to early signings with Nu Directions and the iconic Good Looking Records.
In the early 2000s, ASC launched his own imprint, Covert Operations, which became a cult label in its own right releasing 30 vinyl records and 8 CDs over nearly a decade. His music during this period was marked by a cinematic, detail rich approach that attracted attention from leading imprints like 720 Degrees, Offshore, and Paradox’s Outsider label.
By the late 2000s, ASC emerged as a central figure in the autonomic movement, a forward thinking, minimalist offshoot of drum and bass developed alongside dBridge and Instra:Mental. In 2010, he released Nothing Is Certain on the celebrated NonPlus+ label, a genre blending album hailed by critics as one of the year’s best electronic LPs. That same year, he launched Auxiliary, an imprint that continues to serve as a home for his more experimental and ambient projects.
In addition to club oriented work, ASC has explored cinematic territory, notably with Music For Pictures, a project commissioned by Liquid Cinema’s Jeff Rona. Inspired by Brian Eno’s Music For Films, the album highlighted ASC’s skill in crafting emotive, atmospheric soundscapes suitable for TV and film.
Today, ASC continues to innovate through his own labels Spatial and Auxiliary, releasing ambient jungle and conceptual works that blur the lines between genres. Whether producing deep atmospheric rollers or lush, meditative textures, ASC remains a vital force in electronic music always evolving, always forward-looking.
