For almost a decade now, Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt have been creating tracks that hypnotically mesh her soulful voice with his songwriting/production talent. As Everything But the Girl, it seems only natural that they mark the occasion with the release of the newest in Ultra’s successful Back to Mine series, joining names such as Groove Armada and Faithless in the late-night ranks. With the release of Back to Mine, EBTG maintains flawless transitions from track to track (Carl Craig, Beth Orton, The Roots, etc.) and specific attention to the keys of the pieces, creating arguably the best in the series to date.

From their beginning in 1981 as separate acts on the U.K. indie label CherryRed, the two collaborated and later signed as Everything But the Girl to the fledgling Blanco Y Negro in 1984. Over the next seven years, they released six studio albums that drew from genres such as jazz, bossa nova, and ’60s pop. After a brief hiatus due to Watt’s hospitalization from a near-fatal illness, the two returned with the massive Amplified Heart (Atlantic), which launched them into the dance scene on the strength of Todd Terry’s chart-topping remix of “Missing.”

Combination producer, songwriter, published author, father of three, and co-founder with Jay Hannan of the acclaimed Lazy Dog, a deep house club night at London’s Notting Hill Arts Club, Watt has settled into the world of dance music.

“Finding DJing in my thirties was very liberating,” Watt says. “In the last 10 years, the thing that has changed the most is my interest in DJing and the idea that you can move people and kind of get kind of inside them by using montage and sort of collage techniques, you know? I like using slabs of other people’s music, taking people on a journey in time, not just writing an original four-minute song for them. And at the end of the night, you still have bonded with people in some way.”

Throughout his production process, Watt remains rooted in the pieces that have served him well over the years to create the music for EBTG. “I do more and more stuff at home,” he says. “The Sade remix [‘By Your Side’] I did recently, I finished on a Mackie board at home. I use sequencing software on a Macintosh. I have a very, very old version of Logic, because I don’t use any of the audio side of Logic. I have Logic 2.6 and I still use it as my main sequencing software. I have people coming into my studio looking at it like it’s some antiquated vintage piece. I do have an expensive hard-disk recorder, but it’s the Radar system – Radar 2. So, if I have to record any live stuff – Tracey’s voice, acoustic guitars, live percussion – I’ll record into the Radar and then sync it up with the sequencer that’s driving all the sequenced music.”

Working with Thorn’s voice, a deep instrument in itself, and live samples of Watt’s guitar and percussion, EBTG brings together a subtle conglomeration that gently stretches the boundaries of deep house. Over the years, they have continued in their own fashion, not trying to follow any particular trend in the cycle of electronic music. In doing so, they have established and meticulously fine-tuned their signature sound.

“The feeling that I try to get over is sort of uplift mixed with pathos where you feel refreshed by it, but in a kind of soulful way,” Watt says. “I love that combination of giving people a good-time beat, but then offering something with a kind of spiritual downside that kind of pulls people down into themselves. I think that’s exactly the mood that ‘Missing’ captured, and one of the reasons why it was such a massive track. It seems to be both joyous and downbeat at the same time, and I think that’s an irresistible blend really, and that people are really moved by that combination.”