A Separate Agenda: Percy X pesents The Separatists

The release of 'Akilak' marks the first album in four years for Tony Scott, better known as longstanding Soma artist Percy X. It sees him join forces with fellow Glasgow producers Marco Bernardi and John Hospital, to become The Separatists.

Bernardi has notched up several electro-tinged productions for the Clone, Frustrated Funk and Emoticon labels, with more forthcoming on Klakson, not to mention a Soma debut under his Octogen guise, his 'Lipgirl EP' already receiving much praise and support.

One-half of Dirty Hospital, Glasgow's sinister electro surgeons and a member of Data Panik, who rose from the ashes of his former band Bis, John also runs the Rottenrow label.

Following on from previous Separatists' singles Bug Rider, Shake You Down and 'The Audiomer' EP, which found particular favour with James Holden, Laurent Garnier and Craig Richards, 'Akilak' sees the trio serve up a collection of soulful techno and electro, injected with a generous dose of funk, many tracks owing a generous debt to the sounds of Detroit.

Reaching this, his fourth Soma-released album, clearly illustrates Tony's long and successful association with the label, one that spans over ten years. His first Percy X single was a collaborative effort with Chris Cowie - the pair having worked previously together alongside Richard Miller as Havana. Flashback to the early nineties and the trio were signed to 23rd Precinct Records' Limbo label, their tunes topping Pete Tong's Essential Selection Chart three times, including the massive Schtoom.

"We went on to work on a new Havana album, but Richard decided to leave. Chris and I stayed on, producing another twelve tracks which we gave to Soma," says Tony, explaining how he started out on the label. One of these, the distinctive metallic groove of X-Track, became their debut single. However, Tony went solo soon after, adopting the Percy X name as his own, going on to release his debut album 'Spyx' in 1996. Since then he's notched up numerous singles on the label and a further two albums, 2000's 'Gain,' and 'Where's The Music' in 2002. More recently, he's branched out from Soma, working on tracks for Andrew Weatherall's Firewire label. He continues to DJ, mainly across Europe.

There are plans to take the Separatists on the road, with live dates confirmed for The Sub Club on August 11 and London's Fabric a day later. Looking to the future, Tony's not ready to commit to another outing, keen to wait and see "...if the album works," however he and John are working on a release for the Dirty Hospital label and further Percy X productions are planned.

"Akilak is a project that couldn't bandwagon-jump," he says, describing how it sits in today's seemingly minimal-led scene. "Marco, John and I all believed that techno-soul should be our main inspiration. As to how it compares with other productions... hopefully different; refreshing. At the end of day, everything that sounds the same goes out of date eventually." Though he does concede that minimal productions "... use the best parts of techno, house and electro all combined, which is definitely a good thing."