Phil Asher (1970-2021) was a groundbreaking house DJ and electronic music producer from London, United Kingdom.

Phil grew up in West London, and followed his dad into working in record shops. He worked at both Quaff Records and Vinyl Solution in the early 1990s, while he schooled himself in house music production and DJing at assorted nights across the capital.

Gravitating naturally to the soulful side, he released under the name Phlash and became a key part of house label Slip N Slide’s various compilation series, including Jazz In The House and Soul In The House. At the end of the decade he co-founded the Co-op night in West London alongside Dego from 4hero, beatsmith I.G. Culture (aka New Sector Movements) and Young Disciples producer Demus.

Co-op was crucial in joining the dots between jazz acts like Bugz In The Attic and Nuyorican Soul and the broken beat sounds emanating out of Reinforced producers who didn’t want to follow the drum & bass template.

In the early noughties Phil co-founded the successful Restless Soul collective, who produced many records for other people. He worked with the likes of Nathan Haines, Mark De Clive Lowe, Karizma and Benji B; recorded an album for acclaimed French label Versatile; and produced over 200 tracks and remixes for a variety of labels.

At the time of his passing in January 2021, Asher had only recently moved to the seaside city of Brighton with his partner after spending his life immersed in the West London house music scene. He reportedly died from a heart attack in his sleep. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.