SBTRKT, Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London

Tonight, Shepherd’s Bush Empire plays host to two of the most in-demand electronic acts at the moment: sibling duo Disclosure and masked man SBTRKT. After recently selling out a show at London’s Plan B, Disclosure have a fair degree of expectation on their shoulders. One thing that you might not expect is the difference from the usual MacBook and a few MPCs set up; there’s a drum kit and bass that one of the duo multitasks between, playing both in turns. The biggest crowd reactions come for the singles, especially ‘Control’ and ‘What’s In Your Head’ but the crowd don’t seem completely on board considering Disclosure are probably the fastest rising duo in electronic music right now.

A YouTube-favourite remix of the Julio Bashmore-produced Jessie Ware song ‘Running’ gets an outing with one of the brothers mumbling something about Ware but with a mic that is too muffled to be audible. Newest single ‘Latch’ is their final song as they bring on collaborator Sam Smith for pitch-perfect vocals. Their tight production and heavy bass translates well in a live setting but the duo haven’t quite figured out yet how to play live in a physical sense, barely moving throughout their set.

Shortly after Disclosure’s set is over, a see-through curtain falls down from the ceiling with the now iconic SBTRKT mask illustration on it; almost as if this were an interval in a theatre production. When SBTRKT finally takes the stage, the curtain falls to the floor and the full live set up is revealed as well as a badger-masked string quartet that play behind him and collaborator Sampha. With only the one album to play and an hour set, songs from his self-titled album are often extended and remixed.

It’s almost impossible to now think of SBTRKT and Sampha as separate artists as they fit together as one entity so well. Complementing each other, SBTRKT stays focused on the music as Sampha gets interactive with the crowd. The more upbeat and vocal heavy songs work better in a live atmosphere as the crowd erupts into united sing-alongs. Half way through the set, “SBTRKT” is projected onto the back wall and the strobe light show really kicks off. Although the set starts off slow as it features the more instrumentally heavy songs from Aaron Jerome’s self-titled debut, it all builds up to the big hits such as ‘Hold On’ which gets a massive reaction and ‘Trials Of The Past’ for which the string quartet return to the stage once again.

Perhaps predictably, the final song is ‘Wildfire’, the genesis of SBTRKT as an artist and still his most popular song to date – needless to say it brings the house down. At the first of two sold out shows at Shepherd’s Bush Empire you can feel it tonight that SBTRKT’s album has been loved and lived with for the past year, deserving the rapturous praise that the producer and his collaborator Sampha receive tonight.