Short Span is the Sheffield label founded by Matthew Kent, whose years spent running the influential Blowing Up The Workshop mix series and co-running Mana have given the imprint a deep-rooted sense of curation, connection and musical curiosity. Since launching in 2025, the label has built a distinctive catalogue around dubbed-out techno, ambient, house and experimental electronics, with releases from Sa Pa, Mammo, Conna Haraway, emer, Yu Su, Picture, K Wata, Mr. YT, Bot1500 and Miles, alongside the sprawling Short Tracks compilation that mapped out a wider network of friends and likeminded artists.
For this Phonica mix, Kent turns the focus away from the label’s existing release schedule and towards the constant flow of music surrounding it, bringing together a near-continuous stream of unreleased tracks, demos and new dubs being passed between Short Span’s artists, friends and extended orbit. As Kent explains, the mix is an extension of the way he listens to this material — giving things time, returning to them in different contexts and allowing connections to reveal themselves — with a deliberately loose, broadcast-like approach that feels less concerned with technical display than simply giving these sounds room to breathe. We had a chat with Kent about the mix, music he loves and what is coming up for the label:
Hey Matthew, thanks so much for joining us! Can you tell us about your mix and what the idea behind it was?
It’s a collection of nearly all dubs. Quite a lot of unreleased music, demos and new stuff people are regularly sending over at the minute. New music has been the vast majority of my listening time lately. Certain artists the label works with can be prolific and happy to share stuff for feedback, and there’s often a bunch of work sent over to me at once to sift thru. I like to listen to and digest in different contexts and moments to see what’s revealed in them. I’ll find myself listening to it again and again just because they’re really cool. It helps drive Short Span’s direction. Listening to stuff continually in different ways, giving it time. So this mix is an extension of that process. And this is intentionally mostly tracks that are not on the Short Span release slate right now. Maybe one thing has slid into contention since I recorded? But I wanted to showcase that there’s a larger flux of exciting unreleased music from friends, the label roster, connected or likeminded artists, and people who’ve felt the urge to kindly share the newest stuff they’re making. There’s one case where a demo was posted in the production channel of a Discord full of Glaswegians. Quite a different tempo from their usual stuff. And I thought it was excellent and saved it. But yeah there’s just a lot of dubs that are really good coming through. Honestly a ton of really exciting music being sent over, more than is possible or smart to be able to publish, even at the rapid clip the label is moving. So it’s a nice way to mark that and start finding other ways to place things in a Short Span orbit. I should probably look into a radio slot or something because there’s a lot of stuff I’d like to give air time, this is definitely mixed more with that format in mind rather than anything super technically tight. I often personally prefer a mix that feels like it’s being broadcast over. I just finished Lauren Martin’s oral history of dubstep as a holiday read, and the chapters meditating on the role of pirate radio were a really interesting reminder of how much progression and drive in that scene came through fresh tunes and just-completed stuff being given over to DJs or hosts to play out. It created a possibility space for ideas to start stretching their legs. For people to listen and respond. For movements to start happening through that energy, even if some of the material is in a new or raw state. It’s not to say there’s wild and cutting edge ambitions here, there’s a lot of house and techno with dub flavour. Don’t be shocked. But maybe something novel is expressed in the linkage and the throughput. I dunno, I mostly just hope it sounds nice. There’s two exceptions to the otherwise all “unreleased” flow. The first tune to warm up is a wicked dub-coded house track from Sheffield legend Parrot. Off an album that I’ve been listening to a lot called Earth Angel. It’s a slice of sound that has helped me mentally draw some links, however tenuous, between Short Span and the longer sounds of the city. Connections to the longer running experiments in dubbed out dance music that have been around forever here. And then one toward the end from Joey 2lanes that’s just really good. His I Remember dubbin’ mix.
What are your preferred methods for finding new music, do you still enjoy digging around in dusty crates, or do you prefer to buy online?
I’m still working full time as a buyer for a record shop for the moment, so I usually pick up a little stack of new stuff once a month. It goes into my pigeon hole and then gets sent up to Sheffield on pay day. I still quite enjoy that ritual five years in, even though I try not to let it pile up too high each time any more. The shop basically gets everything and there’s a small staff discount. So you can either quickly become a little obsessed about listening and collecting stuff coming through on first dibs. Or, more healthily perhaps, you can start to tune the signal to noise ratio and just focus on picking up the odd bits that really speak to you. I think this month I just grabbed the Picture 12” that Natal released on npm, and then the Kino Disk LP compilation that also features several Short Span-related artists. Records by pals that are nice to spin at home. Other than through that, I’m more often collecting things second hand. I feel like “digging” is definitely not how I would describe it though. More of like.. a quick glance and flick through the stack of certain genres to see if something catches my attention and relates to years and years of habitually browsing discogs. Sheffield’s record shops are patchy in terms of my genre interests, and I’m a bit tired of digging through wads of rock and indie to find the one Warp record in the pile. I think I made a friend laugh in Flashback the other day when we both walked over to the shop together and he started getting stuck in, while I ran a hand over the dance section, recognised a (really good!) old early Dbridge/Future Forces record right away, paid up and said my goodbyes to run for the train in all of about five minutes total? Yeah, I have a bit of a get in, get out approach these days. Exfiltrating.
Commonly known for projects like the pivotal mix series Blowing Up The Workshop and the experimental label Mana, how did Short Span start up and come to be?
Something would always have come together after those past projects started to wind down. The concept for Short Span mutated a few times early on, things never happen perfectly neatly at the start, but after Mana – which was a deeply collaborative project with Andrea Zarza Canova that ran for about five years – I was interested in working on something solo, something a bit more rooted in my interests in dance and electronic music that had driven most of the core BUTW programming. Overcoming some hurdles with production timelines that had slowed things down around 2020 as plants became overwhelmed. Finding publishing routes that could get new music out in a more fluid way. I was also having some interesting conversations with Laurie Tompkins (who ran the experimental label Slip with his partner while he was living in Sheffield for a year or two. He put on a couple of small and cool events in people’s artist studios out in Attercliffe. Those were probably the first time I’d really interacted with music on my wavelength again since moving up a year before. They were intimate little shows, very chilled and in the paradigm of much of Laurie’s own performance work. Rooted in London experimental music and the programming of spaces like Cafe OTO. and I remember being a little jealous of him finding his new way to curate something within the city that felt relaxed and had his mark on it. Looking back on it, that set some cogs whirring about what I still had in the tank to work on creatively myself. I remember getting a drink with him some time after that and starting to talk about the idea for a “dub techno” label for the first time. The sometimes conservative and closed nature of the genre, and the ways you could potentially turn that on its head and make it funny or personal feeling again. So yeah, thanks for some of the sparks Laurie 🙂 There were lots of other things that helped towards getting it off the ground. Unreleased music from Sa Pa that I knew should be published but hadn’t been etc. I reached out to Rubadub’s distribution branch with that initial idea, chatted with Richard Chater, and we quickly found a groove to set the label up. They backed it and helped get production started. It wouldn’t have happened without their support. I think I had all of about £100 in my bank account when I first reached out to them for one thing.
What are five records you couldn’t live without?
Pinch & Shackleton – S/T
The best dubstep album I think. Which is funny considering how late it came out in that era and how outside the framework of the genre some of its tracks feel. A total masterclass in composition, progression and sequencing. It’s an incredible listening journey, very dynamic. Will Bankhead’s art for it is also beautiful and strange and abstract in a way I often find myself influenced by. It’s a great example of a record that feels unique, timeless in a fashion. Incredible at volume or to put on at home. It feels a little bigger than each of their own solo work in its own particular way, like something alchemical occurred during their collaboration. If you’ve not listened to it before, or haven’t for a long time, I’d say go back to it again. It’s so good.
Burial – Burial
Not sure if this is in exactly the right spirit but Burial’s Pirates off the first album is my go to “sound check” for everything. If the Bluetooth seems to have dropped out. If the audio source isn’t selected correctly on my computer. If I’ve got a new stylus and want to make sure it sounds good. I get the LP out again or boot up the youtube player. It’s a really weird tune to use as a reference track, but I know it inside and out at this point. Even if it’s often just the first section usually. I can tell how good a set up is for bass right away based on the little stab of sub at 40 seconds.
Ability II’s Pressure / Pressure Dub.
A perfect 12”. How can something so dreamy and hypnotic also crush you flat? Would love to get in touch with DJ Martin at some point, who is one of the hidden hands in this, having helped produce it in his studio. Everything he touched through that era is magic, and has the wickedest bassline. Also a pivotal part of why LFO’s Leeds warehouse mix sounds the way it does.
Lee Perry’s Revolution Dub.
Purchased the day I walked into Honest Jon’s to find Abu behind the counter cackling and playing it to himself loud enough to make all the wooden upholstery of the shop vibrate.
Felix K – Recognition / Ice.
Doc Scott’s 31 Records is one of those labels that has been quietly releasing stuff that feels forward thinking, risk taking, supportive of new and emerging talent in its field for years. Very true to itself and its perspective. Felix’s early two track twelve for the series is one of my favourites, and a record I go back to regularly. Incredible deadly minimalism connecting some dots between the darker UK strains of dnb (darkside, Photek) and Berlin. It makes me think of when Torsten Pröfrock would buy in a lot of great stripped back dnb at Hardwax, and how exciting it was that a record shop’s curation could make a sound feel like it was coming alive. How just picking and choosing particular records to stock could be some kind of a creative act driving my own taste as a listener. Fadi Mohem made a really good mix tribute (https://soundcloud.com/noodsradio/hard-wax-w-fadi-mohem-6th-august-25) to that period for Noods last year. And Carrier’s work over the last few years has reminded me again of that exciting time and style too.
What do you have up your sleeve for the rest of 2026 and 2027?
New records! One a month, or thereabouts, for a bit, as long as it doesn’t start to feel tiring or overwhelming to operate at that pace. There’s album projects on the way from a couple of artists that first featured on the Short Tracks compilation from last year. That 2xCD is still something of a blueprint and roadmap for what to expect in terms of the label’s diversity and sound kit over 2026. It’s been really nice seeing artists starting to get good bookings as the label has caught shine, partly because of the strength of their records, and I’m hoping that we can also figure out some Short Span showcases into 2027. It’s been funny at times this year. Seeing incredible and humbling responses to releases, and how those help facilitate some great shows for artists. And after an email is sent off about that… I turn away from my laptop and go “ok, well, back to my videogames” haha. It can sometimes feel like something is happening in the middle distance. I’m definitely looking for some more opportunities to bring things into a more social and grounded space in a way that feels comfortable and appropriate for Short Span. Find opportunities to meet people I’m working with, get out a bit more, grow it further.
Thanks Matthew 🙂
