Ash Walker

London-based musician, DJ, and engineer Ash Walker makes exploratory, vibe-heavy music rooted in dub, soul, jazz, and trip-hop, among many other genres. He writes his songs on bass guitar and takes inspiration from dub master King Tubby in the way he embraces unclean sounds like tape hiss and vinyl crackle. He applied these retro-leaning production techniques to his 2015 debut, Augmented 7th, and later established an “underwater jazz” sound with 2019′s Aquamarine. Gradually adopting a more song-oriented approach, he worked with artists such as Lou Rhodes (Lamb), Amp Fiddler, and Yazz Ahmed on his fourth album, 2023′s Astronaut. Ash Walker first became known as a DJ; he regularly opened for the Specials and played gigs with Lee "Scratch" Perry and David Rodigan, among others. His first release, the dub-heavy Agnostic EP, was released by Zeb Samuels’ Deep Heads label in 2015. All four of its songs appeared on the full-length Augmented 7th, which featured appearances by Samuels, Specials member Nikolaj Torp Larsen, and vocalist Segilola. Echo Chamber followed in 2016, pushing Walker’s sound further into a mixture of jazz, trip-hop, and neo-soul. Several limited singles preceded 2019′s Aquamarine, Walker’s third full-length and first for Night Time Stories. Recorded at Walker’s home, unlike his previous studio-recorded efforts, the album embraced aquatic, echo-heavy production, and featured guests such as vocalist Lord Laville, trumpeter Yazz Ahmed, and bassist Marc Cyril. Dub legend Scientist remixed the album track “Time.” For his fourth album, Walker worked with several additional guests including Lamb vocalist Lou Rhodes, Detroit musician Amp Fiddler, British jazz group Ebi Soda, and American producer Sly5thAve. Astronaut appeared on Night Time Stories in 2023. ~ Paul Simpson