SBTRKT

Like most of the most exciting music around today, the story starts from the sound system of Plastic People, an East London club both underground in location and in the music it specialises in. It was here that SBTRKT met Tic (A&R for Young Turks Records) and was schooled by the sounds that came pulsing from the clubs now infamous speakers. It was through Tic that he met Sampha one of the key collaborators on the album and one half of the SBTRKT live show. Alongside Sampha, Roses Gabor and Jessie Ware, the album track ‘Wildfire’ features Little Dragon and the imitable voice of Yukimi Nagano. “I’m a big fan of their musical ethos so to collaborate with them has been an ambition for a while. It has been really interesting seeing how our two worlds could co-exist.

Through the years, and his development as an artist and producer in his own right,  SBTRKT has worked with collaborators both sonic and visual to emphasise his ideas and vision. The performance and visual style has also become an essential part of this setup. Performing in his trademark tribal mask, watching SBTRKT translate his sound live is opposed to what one would expect from the traditional producer / DJ. “The live show is an expansion of what has been created in the studio and the tools I’ve used to make them. Just because a song has been created with a laptop, it doesn’t mean that is the best way to perform it live, but for me, neither is bringing in a 5 piece band to re-interpret your songs. I see live shows in a very different light to producing in a studio as it’s about translating into a medium for performance. The basic setup is myself on an acoustic drum kit with extra electronic triggers, and Sampha on two keyboards and vocals… although it’s constantly developing whilst we learn new ways to perform songs and experiment with new ways to route our live audio.”

SBTRKT’s debut album pulls off a series of impressive feats: it’s bursting with fresh ideas, and yet it sounds immediately familiar. It’s sound-patterns and rhythms can easily soundtrack the ecstatic hands in the air dance floor moments as well as reliving the monotony of the morning commute. It’s influences are incorporated with subtlety and sophistication: dense enough to interpret, light enough to dance to.