Over the past two years, Jon Phonics has been steadily making a name for himself as a producer with releases on the likes Gilles Peterson's Brownswood Bubblers and a limited edition Cassette Tape through Bleep.com (that sold out in under an hour) earlier this year. His signature brand of deep textured, soulful productions is hard to pin point; drawing as much from early 00s grime as it does 90's hip-hop & 80s funk (check his Chaleur Sensuelle mix series for evidence of the latter.)

Over the past 10 months his recently minted label, Astral Black, has been building a reputation as a platform for forward thinking producers in the burgeoning experimental hip hop and new wave grime scene. The likes of Jaisu, Inkke and Opal Block have all contributed to the labels hand screen printed cassette series and there are some seriously heavy 12"s planned for 2014.

The future's looking bright for his own productions too - with releases scheduled on Push & Run, Alexander Nut's 'Hotep' label and a collaboration with Pedestrian for UK house imprint, Don't Be Afraid all scheduled for the next 6 months. Phonics looks set to take his campaign of bringing honest music back to the forefront to a wider audience. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.