Ian O'Brien has been played on NTS over 10 times, featured on 15 episodes and was first played on 22 September 2015.

Originally a UK music scholar, O'Brien was deeply influenced by Detroit techno, especially by Underground Resistance's "Jupiter Jazz," a sound that inspired him to start recording his own music. This feverish Mad Mike disease had him producing tracks first in conjunction with Asad Rizvi under the Memory Tree moniker and then on a solo basis for a variety of UK techno imprints. 1997's "Desert Scores," the man's masterpiece, is still considered a landmark release by those who cherish the kind of tech-jazz pioneered on UR's "Galaxy 2 Galaxy" EP. Though less innovative, 1999's "Gigantic Days" was still the work of a man obsessed by music rather than pose. Another album, "A History of Things to Come," followed in 2001.