It takes a lot for an artist from the United Kingdom’s thriving electronic music scene to make an impact stateside.
But SBTRKT (pronounced sub-TRACT) is just that good. The producer keeps his identity anonymous by wearing neo-African masks in DayGlo colors, allegedly to keep the audience’s attention focused on the beats. So far, it looks like it's working.
His debut album, released, takes elements from head-crunching electronic sub-genres like dubstep and experimental bass, and flips them into accessible, deeply danceable and highly satisfying club-bangers.
Take for example this track, “Wildfire.” It has all the bubbly groove of dubstep’s wobble-bass, without any of the genre’s percussive schizophrenia. The song also features the wispy and always-delicious vocals of Yukimi Nagano, the lead singer of Sweden’s acclaimed Little Dragon.