DJ/producer SBRTKT (Subtract) is featured in our Summer playlist, but I found his work to be so haunting, that I pursued him through the fields of YouTube.  First earning attention for his work with Radiohead, Mark Ronson and M.I.A, his own debut last year established him as an artist in his own right.

Maybe he borrows a move from Buckethead and Banksy, with the mysterious persona thing, but it’s just Dada enough that it works; SBTRKT manages to look strangely alien in his pseudo-African mask.  His sound - akin to the dubstep genre which has flooded the clubs - with its echo-chamber bass and electronified beats, could feel remote but for his choice of collaborators - some of the best voices on the European scene.  Sampha’s vocals penetrate SBTRKT’s industrial cool with so much soul it hurts.

SBTRKT and Sampha in a live session of the same tune.  So post-modern...