That title was a weird thing to write... William's music has been around us and me for so long that you sort of feel like those people will always be around.

I was really sad to see the passing of William today. He was a true original and very central to how I see things. William’s music was very very individual and he had a very specific sound that was all of his own. That sound carried from his solo Strange Cargo and Bass-O-Matic work through his work with the group Torch Song and then the likes of Beth Orton to remixes (Les Négresses Vertes etc) to producing Blur, Madonna and then looping back around to his other productions and more.

William was a true musician. He could really (really) play whatever he chose to pick up but it was mainly keys and guitar. Plus, he really knew how to engineer music properly and create an atmosphere in his music and tbh that might have been the strongest part. Something happened when he put his music down to tape, disk, whatever it may be. That combination of his melodies, his sounds and his ears resulted in so much great music.

Following his first album, the self-titled 'Orbit' (it has its good moments), William really found his feet with the Strange Cargo series... Coming through the IRS label and a potential career scoring films this is music for picture not yet made. It would explain why they have the cinematic feel and titling. It's music to let your mind wander into stories not yet told and William had the key to how to do that... As many of you reading this know the Strange Cargo albums are full of gems. He did have a career in film but it wsa short-lived before moving to the hits of Bass-O-Matic and its 'Fascinating Rhythm'.

If you think of William he is something of a join between that early West London bass heavy sound of Renegade Soundwave and Mute Records and the acid house scene that came after. He was something of a join there.

To speak firsthand of my work with William. My first job was at his record label Guerilla Records which is where we first met. William wasn’t really involved in the label too much as he just left us to get on with it but he was always around or calling up. When the label went bankrupt sometime in the mid 90s William got me to come and work with him. I started off being paid to go and buy him records to turn him on to new music he wasn’t hearing. I remember being paid cash to go record shopping which at that time felt like winning the lottery. I'd get given a chunk of cash and then go and spend it and come back and we'd sit and listen to the records and discuss why they were good. It was the time of Fat Cat Records so quality electronica through to early Kruder and Dorfmeister and stuff like that.

It should be noted that William's studio in Crouch End, and on his equipment, is where Goldie wrote the first Metalheadz releases and pretty much re-wrote the rulebook when it came to drum and bass. William would often complain as Goldie didn't clean up after his dog but you know... He made some genius records in there.

Anyway, from there it was a short step to working in the studio with William as he liked what I was buying. We worked on ‘Million Town’ and some of the later Strange Cargo stuff (SC 4 I think).

Watching William in the studio felt like seeing someone exactly where they should be. He still had a tape machine and then would have everything running through the desk so he would have the tracks down and just be throwing delays and reverbs and just bringing the whole thing to life in a joyful way. It was a real follow on from the way say a reggae producer worked. He was a king of that desk. You felt like you were watching something special at that point in the day.

He always told me off if I looked at the screen with the DAW on it. “Music comes from speakers not computers Paul - come and sit here”.

That sort of says it all about William when the music was right he was alright. As anyone that knew him would say he was a very complicated character but when he was in the studio making it was something very special.

There’s so much brilliant music to check but if you want the obvious start with Strange Cargo 1 and 2 and they’ll steer you right. You can read an interview I did with William a few years back HERE.

He was a special one and will be missed. Safe journeys. x.