MUSIC

Thekla, Bristol (Thur 6 Oct)

It ain’t easy making electronic music with non-electronic things. Witness Sbtrkt, aka Aaron Jerome, a man who wears a big tribal mask and makes really great beats. His eponymous debut – much of which we hear tonight – fuses together dubstep, warm organic techno and fresh-pressed house with fragile, lovelorn guest vocals. It’s ace, not least because it’s so precise. There’s plenty enough heart-on-sleeve Horace Andy type stuff to give it emotional resonance, but the production’s smoother than silk. The hiss-suck of hi-hats, the twig-snap handclaps, it’s all scalpel sharp and intricately woven. The polish of the studio is what really makes it shine. Thing is, Mr Jerome’s touring it from behind a live drum-kit, attempting to reproduce most of those diamond-tooled beats by hand, whilst soul boy Sampha multitasks the vocal duties. A few highlights aside, it’s a mess. The over-styled crowd, initially self-conscious, are well lubricated - singing along, sufficiently in love with the songs for no one to give a shit that they’re swallowing a woolly, opaque approximation of a great album. The great tunes – ‘Pharaohs’, and wodgy-bass singalong ‘Wildfire’ – are strong enough to withstand it, but even they sound like they’re coming from a car stereo across the street.

Thus it is that the headliners are outdone by their self-effacing support, Becoming Real (real name Toby Ridler), a skinny chap mincing about in a zebra skin cap. His is a ghostly sci-fi bounce, skittish with swannee swoops and chiptune power-ups. It’s lithe, playfully sinister and immaculately delivered. The build-up is skilled; edging through handclap four:four to full downcurved dubstep melodrama. He’s got his technical gubbins before him on a table; he prods and slides and tweaks and out comes the sound, sharper than Simon Cowell’s tongue and considerably nicer to have in your ear. Tonight’s lesson? Keep it simple.

(Mike White)