In a world where everyone is always shouting about their achievements, Andy Williams - AKA Yam Who? - was a brilliantly understated presence, his music like a gentle thread of quality running through house, disco, funk and more.

It is perhaps appropriate, then, that I can’t quite remember where I first heard Williams’ work. It was probably in 1999, when his superlative deep disco house duo Fuzz Against Junk released their spectral cover of Talking Heads’ ‘Born Under Punches’, the DJ Harvey remix proving a wonky house anthem. As for Yam Who?, my introduction may have been Williams’ 2004 remix of Amp Fiddler’s ‘Dreamin’’, where he gently nudged the already pretty relaxed original song into even more nebulous territory, creating a laidback disco / house classic.

The point is, when you start to look into Williams’ recorded history he was everywhere. As Yam Who? he released a number of brilliant solo singles - I particularly recommend the New Sector Movement remix of Yam Who? and Noel McCoy’s ‘Summertime’ - and remixed everyone from Herbie Hancock to Rodney P. As Qwestlife, with Tom Laroye, Williams released a series of gilded disco house records for Defected’s Glitterbox label; as Yambee! Williams hooked up with fellow soul adventurer Ashley Beedle; and so on. 

Williams also found time, somehow, to launch highly influential labels like ISM Records, Black Riot and Midnight Riot Recordings, which Mixmag in 2017 voted one of its most influential disco labels of the last decade. 

You can get an idea of Williams’ musical tastes from these artists: funk, soul, disco and house being found throughout his catalogue. But he was never limited to these genres and you will find broken beat, jazz, electro and more when you start to explore his incredible recorded history.

If you’re only joining the dots between these disparate points today, it’s no surprise. Williams wasn’t one to shout his head off about his achievements and you will find only a handful of interviews with him online, in one of which he seems more concerned with talking about the return of New York disco band Odyssey, who he had signed to ISM.

I only ever knew Williams through his music. But it is no surprise to see such warm tributes from the likes of HiFi Sean, who called him “one of the most gentle soft lovely and kind men I have had the pleasure to know”; and Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy who said he was “a joy to work with in the studio and an all around great and hilarious person”. The same words keep on coming up on Instagram, where Faith Fanzine broke the news of his death: “lovely”, “kind”, “warm”.

We all adore a musical superstar: those brash, arrogant characters who seem born to a life of fame and adventure. But I also love the opposite: the dedicated producers and music fans who are always there, always working, still in love with the sound after all these years. These people are the cogs that make the musical world go round and they are vital.

Andy Williams was one of these. If you’ve listened to dance music over the last three decades I can pretty much guarantee you have some of his work in your collection. You may not even know it. Dig it out, though, and have a listen, be it solo work, remixes, production, and you will be enchanted. Because Yam Who? never failed.