Trying to put a parameter on Dorian Concept’s kaleidoscopic debut album ‘When Planets Explode’ is next-to-near impossible.

Just when you think you might have it cracked, a shrill blast synth or impossibly odd beat or conservative chord sends your ears spinning into orbit again. It is perhaps easier to think about how micro-Korg adventurer got here. His classical background and love of jazz are important, but more relevant, perhaps, is the internet. By using it to showcase his almost turntablist-as-exhibitionist approach to playing the synth, Oliver James not only displays a love of left-of-centre hip-hop, but perhaps inadvertently reveals a debt to online’s genre-crunching culture.

Some of your YouTube videos have almost 250,000 hits. How big a part did they play in getting you to where you are today?

It wasn’t really a big factor because I never put them up under my Dorian Concept name – it was under another name (yorktowncreation ) so it was a thing I did without being associated with Dorian Concept. But when I got more attention as an artist, people that checked me out made the connection. So they helped each other out. And for me today, it’s nice to look back at and see where I came from…

Oliver is – as defiantly as the erudite Viennese gets anyway – definitely a bedroom producer. The aforementioned videos have the requisite ‘wobbly shot’ feel and he has spoken about the constant want to return to his room to get back to making beats.

It’s quite a way from where you are now to your bedroom - how did you make the move?

It was smooth. I was making this music since I was 18 or 19. The first thing that got me exposure was Benji B on BBC Radio 1. Actually, I was with him yesterday for an interview, which is cool. He got one of my tracks at the Red Bull Music Academy in Toronto, and he got the ball rolling. After that, I released a track for Domu, and then it started to grow, Giles Peterson started to play some of my music. After that, some other people got involved and introduced me to Kindred Sprits in Holland…

Getting support from Giles must have been quite cool…

It was a crazy thing. Last January, 2008, was the first time he played a track of mine and then one year later, I was playing at the Worldwide Awards for him. It was a crazy thing to happen! I hope it is still going to last…

There’s something slightly mysterious about the way you position yourself as Dorian Concept: is this intentional or accidental?

It’s a bit of both I think. It’s a personal choice for me – I do not like overexposing myself too much. It’s like I only found out about Twitter this week – and I don’t really understand that, always revealing everything about yourself. I don’t put up pictures on my Myspace. I don’t like to put up too much of my personality – I like separating things. Perhaps it’s also a subconscious thing – many of the artists I like don’t reveal too much about themselves either…

Whatever way you approached it, it has worked – there is a buzz around the record.

Yes, I think buzz is the right word to say. It’s a nice thing! Last August, when I sent the tracks to Kindred Sprits, I wanted to make a record that was as eclectic as possible, like a cluster, an all over the place record. So it’s nice to see it get recognition, to see people are into what I do.

Do you see yourself as part of the loose scene with the likes of Hudson Mohawke, Flying Lotus and co? The new instrumental hip-hop scene, or what is sometimes called wonky?

I was influenced by it before it was too hyped up, back when it was a more of a thing for the people who were into it, and not so many others. There was no Sonar stage filled with the sound then! So I was aware of it, but it also goes further back… stuff on Ghostly, Oval, soundscape stuff. And Prefuse 73.

I was going to ask about him…

What I like about Prefuse’s stuff is the harmonies, I like to listen to the sample. I don’t use samples too much, but I found it interesting to hear what he took, where he took it from: spiritual jazz, nodal jazz… I was interested in the harmonies, that was the inspiration.

So do you feel part of the ‘scene’?

Yes, when I hear people like Hudson Mo and Martyn… They are on top of what they are doing. I think it’s good to have a scene, something that can bring people together, to work together. And that way you can help market it to more people. That’s the good thing about calling it wonky – it can be marketed. But the most important thing is that the people who are in it keep doing what they are doing.

Looking at your videos online, you can make sense of the music, which can be a lot to take in if you hear it first. And the synth is central to what you do. Are you classically trained?

When I was little I was, from six to 13 I played classical pieces. But I prefer to say I was self-taught, because I had forgotten most of it by the time I started playing again when I was 16. I got into my own stuff, some jazz, filtering through the stuff finding what I can use. A different approach to using the keys. It was very inspiring. And I had a very inspiring teacher when I was younger…

Has she heard any of your music?

I invited her to a concert I did with a drummer in Vienna, but she could not make it. But she will hopefully make it again.

So you play live with a drummer

No, at the moment it’s just me, with Ableton and controller and trigger pads, and a micro Korg to improvise. I’m working with a drummer to develop the live show – but while I am still coming through, it is easier for bookings if it is just me…

Maybe next year you will have a full entourage?

Maybe!

You spent time at the Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona… Was it an influence on you, or just something you did?

A mix. It was not a big influence, but it felt like I was doing something. Meeting people, other musicians was the most inspiring thing – not being in the studio, hearing other people’s stories, and learning about the business. The lectures from the likes of Chuck D were crazy. I am still trying to digest them.

What were your main influences musically?

Jazz and electronic music – and the Cinematic Orchestra were big for me, particularly the remix LP they did. Going back to sampling and getting musicians to jam over it. And Dabrye did my head in for a while. And other things – some dance, some weird New Orleans funk and even some John Cage…

Finally, what is the significance of the name?

It’s based on a musical scale, the Dorian scale. It was a scale that Coltrane played, and I worked it out when I started playing, one of the first I learned to play. From there it stuck. And when I was making my first tracks, it was a name I used, and I always kept it. It reminds me of where I came from.

http://www.myspace.com/dorianconcept