SBTRKT - New Dorp, New York (ft. Ezra Koenig)

SBTRKT’s debut album was all about introductions. Out stepped Jessie Ware and Sampha, exciting new talents whose ascent was written in the stars. Some labelled the masked producer something of a behind-the-scenes tastemaker, but his intention wasn’t to make names out of these people - they just had the perfect voices for his future-gazing, splintering productions.

The way in which Ezra Koenig is employed in ‘New Dorp, New York’ should have the opposite effect of an introduction. He’s singing about his beloved city, the one he rattles off about on any given opportunity. Gargoyles are “gargling oil”, he observes, compressing the finest shades of Vampire Weekend’s ‘Modern Vampires of the City’ into something more deranged. But this is a different Ezra. He’s “never seen the colour yellow, never seen the sun.” He’s a stranger to the city he loves, a night creature circuiting the dark depths of Manhattan, purging his senses in the form of glitchy, ever-fidgeting electronic music. Just like on his debut, SBTRKT’s finding a neat middle ground between the extremes of his productions and the extreme personalities of those fronting the tracks.