Previously lauded (by Clash, and many others – here’s a first album review) for giving bass an emotive twist of sophistication, SBTRKT’s second studio set goes precisely the same way.
Electronic soul projections and credible pop twinge slickly to the left, with the return of Jessie Ware on ‘Problem (Solved)’ and the ever-productive relationship with Sampha bearing ‘Temporary View’, a stylish postdubstep nuzzling on headphones alongside ‘If It Happens’, a straight, stripped-down ballad.
Bolts from the blue are again plentiful: ‘Lantern’ with its stunted synth fireworks and (the Ezra Koenig-starring) ‘New Dorp, New York’ drop two spells of hipsterism. Reticent yet resplendent, SBTRKT is a master craftsman, humanising the digital and effortlessly shifting the shape of sounds.
8/10
Words: Matt Oliver
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