Leap into Space

The title of the new eight track online release of London-based Aaron Jerome (a.k.a. SBTRKT) is called Save Yourself. The title, SBTRKT writes on his newly-designed website, reflects his mood about the state of things in the world, and ‘saving yourself’ here, he explains, means to imagine that one day ‘humans will actually reach and settle on another planet’. ‘One giant leap for mankind’, to quote Neil Armstrong, that makes the Reichenbach leap look like a hop from the kerbside. But what does that mean in terms of music? It means SBTRKT, after his thrilling 2011 self-titled debut and OK but less captivating second album (Wonder Where We Land, 2014), has with Save Yourself produced a kind of achingly beautiful abstract R&B mood music, elegantly employing everything from synthie Moog sounds to the beeps and booms you associate with a giant starship landing or shifting into hyperspeed, while Atlanta-based R&B producer and singer The Dream lends his cool on three tracks.

SBTRKT joins a club of those who have released an entire new album to stream out of the blue, spearheaded lately and notably by R&B and hip hop stars such as Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna and Kanye West. The strategy is to generate and reach online fans but it also shows that no one believes anymore in the classic promotion machinery and its tired workings. SBTRKT is certainly not the first to supplement this surprise release – which on his website he describes not as an album but a ‘project’ – with a special visual feature, in this case a cartoon animation (by Michael Zauner and Laurie Hill) that captures the record’s spirit of melancholic futurism. Bunnies are astronauts that fall into the void, and on Mars there are drive-in cinemas. SBTRKT's music lets you see these visions.