Ali ‘Dubfire’ Shirazinia is one of the techno scene’s most controversial figures, as well as one of its most consistently successful producers and performers – and next year, he’ll be here as part of the Future Music Festival tour. Last week Dubfire was on the phone to ITM, discussing his new mix compilation for the Cocoon stable, and he confirmed that he’ll be returning to Australia in the opening months of 2010.

“I’m actually going to be coming early next year,” Dubfire told ITM. “Sometime in February for the Future Music guys, so I’m really looking forward to that.”

Dubfire has his new single Rabid coming out on his SCI+TEC Digital Audio label shortly, a particularly dark and nasty slab of big-room techno that’s already getting a flogging from the likes of Carl Cox. But he says he’s otherwise taken a step back from his prolific production output of the previous two years in order to focus on touring, which included a widely discussed ‘click to-click’ set with Richie Hawtin at Serbia’s Exit Festival.

“I didn’t want to get into a situation where I was repeating myself musically, so I turned down a lot of somewhat interesting projects that came my way in terms of remixes,” he said. “I think maybe at times there was a little bit too much of my music out there, and this year I decided to hold things back a little bit and decide on what the next musical strategy is going to be.”

Ten Years Cocoon Ibiza: Dubfire + Loco Dice In The Mix is out now in Australia through Stomp, and ITM’s interview with Dubfire will be online shortly. Stay tuned for more news on Future Music Festival!