The music of Mark E is overwhelmingly deliberate, and in that sense it’s quintessential house—unswerving, mechanistic, intoxicatingly simple. And life imitates art: the Wolverhampton-reared, Birmingham-based DJ/producer has had a slow, steady ascension to his status as one of the genre’s most natural talents.

Mark E’s love affair with electronic dance music began began early, as an adolescent, when Manchester was Madchester and the irreverent attitude of rave culture swept through England. His first record? Bizarre Inc’s exuberant, piano-loaded “Playing With Knives,” a fortuitous introduction to the hypnotizing powers of house. As Mark got older, he dove headfirst into the surprisingly fertile Wolverhampton scene, tasting house at the hands of legends like John Kelly and Frankie Knuckles before a move to Birmingham for University also installed him in a larger club scene.

Mark’s first forays into production were, naturally, edits—warm, understated, and interestingly mellow, with tempos hovering