Liam Blackburn aka Indigo is an electronic music producer from Manchester whos steady rise to notoriety has been steadfast over the past 3 years. Indigo along with friend and often collaborator Synkro have been pushing the boundaries of drum&bass, dubstep and garage with low end heavy tracks and intelligent rhythms with a some times techy and some times smokily emotional aesthetic.

Coming from a rich and diverse musical background it is easy to see how the young producer doesn’t feel comfortable being boxed into a specific genre.

“I listen to a lot of basic channel/rhythm & sound and a majority of my late teens I was hooked on ambient electronica and trip hop. I love dub techno and the mystery it holds. Melancholy music resonates with me the most, I feel most at home when i immerse myself in these sounds.“

Since his debut in 2008 his career has been gathering momentum with critics jumping enthusiastically on every release. Many “boundary blurring” cliches followed as people attempt to make sense of the young producers ever evolving take on the dubstep revolution that was going on around him.

“The freshness of the dubstep sound in 2005-2008 had me hooked, there was nothing else like it…the sub bass and sparse atmospheres made me excited and i fell in love with it instantly. I came from a techno/dnb/breakbeat background and the transition over was seamless. It had the best parts of every genre and i wanted to make my own take on it.”

Following some essential releases in 2010 (the Levitate EP and a flurry of fantastic releases on the On The Edge label along side some time production partner Synkro), Indigo represented for the seminal Autonomic crew and contributed a promo fabric mix. He also added arguably the best track to the much talked about Mosaic Vol. 1 release on dBridge’s Exit records, Time, a trailblazing track into the murky world of dark drum and bass which has been gaining momentum of late in no small part due to the work of Synkro & Indigo.

“It’s slowly coming through. myself and joe (Synkro) are the only ones who I’ve heard play it in the clubs bar dBridge…all the other DJ’s play more rolling and upfront stuff but we like to mix it up and surprise people instead of playing it safe.”

2011 also saw the release of one of his most accomplished works to date, the Zero Point EP, a dub techno influenced half stepped affair full of ambience and forward thinking ambient sounds.

Liam also graciously gave us an insight into his production process and hinted at a live Synkro & Indigo collaboration the prospect of which is mouth watering.

“We use Ableton Live for making beats and up until very recently it was all software based. I have just moved into a studio space with a few bits of analogue gear, an Amek Einstein desk, neve pre amps and a few outboard synths which will be getting used in future productions integrating what we already use. Looking to use more live elements and vocalists and we are just putting together a live performance which should hopefully see the light of day in the coming year.”

Indigo & Synkro make their Irish debut at DubCulture in the Pavilion this Easter Sunday. It may be futile to predict what kind of set one may hear at this gig, but I’m sure it will involve plenty of dark low end action with plenty of surprises…Liam says he’s “been listening to Instra:mentals album ‘resolution 653′ on nonplus+ a lot, They Live -- ‘Cancel Standard’ album on Exit, the XX’s latest album, Boards of Canada, Helios, Burial, Radiohead, Fink and Jose Gonzalez”…quite a diverse list!

Admission is €10, doors are at 10pm and support comes from Rob DC, Jonesy and Spetz.