Aim - Flowers in the Atic

It has been six long years since the groundbreaking 'Cold Water Music' and another four since the superb follow up 'Hinterland.' Fans of Aim could be forgiven for thinking he's fallen off the radar. But fear not, Andy Turner, the man behind the name, has been hard at work on new album 'Flight 602', as well as many other ambitious ventures.

"The first year or two of the last four years I was still with Grand Central. That came to an end in about January 2005, then I had a daughter a couple of years ago, but really I've just been chipping away at the album. I only finished it a few months ago, so it's good to get it out the way and be able to breathe again."

The break with Grand Central and the label's eventual collapse was a situation that nobody expected, but as many of the roster found, Mark Rae's musical creation had lost its original spirit: "I'd been there for more or less ten years and it had changed a lot in that time, the feeling at the start where everyone's kind of in it together came and went and a few people left: Scruff went to Ninja Tune and Andy Vortel left to form Twisted Nerve. To be honest I wasn't into a lot of the music they were putting out, and I think that's one of the reasons that my album took so long, I wasn't up for handing over the next record because I didn't know how they were going to deal with it. It came to a head when they didn't have any money to invest in my album, so I just thought I might as well do it on my own, it was a bit of a risk, but we're totally in control of everything now."

The new label, Atic Records, was set up initially to release the new album, but has given him the freedom to provide an output for some of his friends and favourite local artists. "Aside from myself there's Nico, who features on 'Flight 602,' and is doing an album which I'm going to produce; a guy called Paperboy - he's from Barrow where I'm from, I've known him for years and I knew he had an album in him. He's just mixing that now, so that's going to be one of the next releases, and there's another artist called The Mentally Unwell, who's very different, kind of cinematic stuff; soundtrack type stuff."

The new record also dispenses with guest rappers - such a popular part of previous work. While this was not intended to offend the hip-hop community that has been so good to him, it was a conscious decision: "The music on 'Flight 602' just developed over time, but I was very aware that I didn't want to just remake the first two albums, I wanted to try and just see if the music could stand up on its own. Also one of the problems was having rappers on tour, because they were all from America and the practicality of getting them over to play was a nightmare. I think with 'Cold Water Music' I was still getting my feet, trying to learn how to make proper hip-hop stuff. 'Hinterland' was my first go at producing the whole thing myself and mixing everything."

'Flight 602' has a mature, accomplished feel, full of soul, funk and a passion for good production, there is also a definite development in the range of influences and styles: "I discovered a guy called James Yorkston who's a really different kind of acoustic singer songwriter, as well as the Strokes first album, all these things kind of got me out the feeling of 'I only listen to hip-hop' or 'I only listen to house music.' I'm seeing things as a whole, really, and consequently with this record I think a lot of that has come through. If I had an idea I went with it - I've kind of let myself go a bit more." He can afford to, now he is flying solo – Atic Records could well be an intriguing chapter to add to the story of Aim.