Brad Beatson isn’t feeling these snow storms.
Yesterday, Mary Anne Hobbs of the BBC 6 Music Show played a new, world exclusive, instrumental from the prolific masked man. “Hold the Line”‘s rooted in steady bass but features frenetic overlay instrumentation that tricks the mind into preparing for a DJ Rashad-like set. SBTRKT’s mastery of reverb allows for the dancing pulse and the deep bass to coexist. It’s beauty is that it wouldn’t sound out of place scoring a molly-addled club scene or a solo writing blitz at 3 a.m. It’s also the first piece of music he’s released to build anticipation for his next album.
Although there’s no set date for the album, these instrumental releases are due out in a couple of months and it sounds like he hasn’t switched up his formula. To top the lameness of that last sentence, the “mission statement” of SBTRKT has always been to subtract the individual players so each piece of music sounds whole, where every sound comes together as one. You can hear a glitchy FX and the down-pitched, chopped vocals, but “Hold the Line” succeeds in staying true to his core intentions. With the mood established, you’re taken to that other zone, travelling with SBTRKT’s signature style. And the point of his style is not to duplicate but to always improve, pushing forward to the next sound while keeping inclusion in mind. It’s this care for inclusion that should tip the listener off as to why SBTRKT doesn’t miss a beat.
