“Yes, my name really is Nathan Fake,” confirms the UK-based wunderkind and “country bumpkin” whose beguiling, mildly pastoral take on techno has seduced the likes of Superpitcher, Adam Beyer and Rob Da Bank (into the inclusion of his tracks on mix albums), as well as Kompakt’s Michael Mayer, Steve Barnes and Dominik Eulberg (into remixing him). Far from aiming to deceive, a series of charming 12″s for James Holden’s Border Community, Satoshi Tomiie’s Saw Recordings and the Cologne-based Traum have been strangely heartfelt, revealing the history of the youthful music maker.

The “Watlington Street” EP (Saw Recordings) was named after the Reading, UK street that Fake lived on at the time of the five tracks’ creation, while its gnarly opening track, “Adam Edge,” finds Fake referencing a childhood mate. “Adam Edge is a dear friend of mine from Norfolk,” clarifies Fake. “It was one of the first proper tunes I ever made. I thought it’d be nice to name a track after him as he’s a good lad. He’s a policeman now.” Meanwhile, a track named “Overdraft” seems self-explanatory for this music production student.

Perhaps Fake’s most seductive number of all is “The Sky Was Pink” (Border Community); its four versions are cut through with trace elements of My Bloody Valentine, M83 and Boards of Canada, but it is equally a club record. The track’s origins, however, are far removed from any dancefloors. “It comes from when we used to camp out in fields when I was younger,” recalls Fake of the inspiration for the blissed-out bit. Meanwhile, a clicky, drone-infused Icelandic mix of “The Sky Was Pink” could easily be taken for an homage to Múm and Sigur Rós. Not so. “‘Icelandic’ is just the name of the brand of tent we slept in,” claims Fake. “That version of the song was just meant to be something else to put on the vinyl, like a more DJ-friendly version of the original.”

On the subject of DJing, Fake’s website resolutely states the he is “not a DJ, never has been and probably never will be.” “It’s nothing against DJs,” shrugs Fake. “It’s just that when my first record came out’ suddenly got of lot of DJ gig offers, which I found a bit weird. I wrote that on my website so that people would stop emailing me [about] DJ gigs. I keep meaning to take it down.”