Ben UFO
Music Style
dubstephouseelectronictechnoelectro
About Ben UFO
Ben UFO, real name Ben Thomson, is a London-based DJ and co-founder of the record label Hessle Audio. He met Pangaea in 2004 during his first year at Leeds University, and met Pearson Sound in the queue for FWD>> at Plastic People in London; the three began playing together on internet station Sub FM and founded Hessle Audio in 2007. The label became one of the defining focal points of UK dance music, with a spacious, percussive aesthetic that cut against the direction dubstep was heading, releasing music by Blawan, Objekt, James Blake, Peverelist, Martyn and Olof Dreijer.
He remains one of the few DJs in the UK to have built a career purely as a selector, without a production catalogue behind him. His reputation was made on radio — first Sub FM, then a long-running Hessle Audio show on Rinse FM alongside Pearson Sound and Pangaea, where he was among the first to play records by Blawan and Joy Orbison. He released two official mix CDs, Rinse:16 in 2011 and FabricLive.67 in 2013, and his BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix was shortlisted for mix of the year in 2021.
Originally known for dubstep, garage and grime, his sets have since ranged widely across house, techno, electro and further out, and he is known for taking crowds somewhere unexpected without losing them. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
He remains one of the few DJs in the UK to have built a career purely as a selector, without a production catalogue behind him. His reputation was made on radio — first Sub FM, then a long-running Hessle Audio show on Rinse FM alongside Pearson Sound and Pangaea, where he was among the first to play records by Blawan and Joy Orbison. He released two official mix CDs, Rinse:16 in 2011 and FabricLive.67 in 2013, and his BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix was shortlisted for mix of the year in 2021.
Originally known for dubstep, garage and grime, his sets have since ranged widely across house, techno, electro and further out, and he is known for taking crowds somewhere unexpected without losing them. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.