Batu

Omar McCutcheon, operating under his Batu alias, has been on the frontline of Bristol’s innovative electronic music scene since 2013. In 2015 he founded his record label Timedance, a platform for showcasing his tastes utilising a close knit group of young producers and DJs.

Batu’s glistening broken techno productions are pushed through a deeply UK-sounding prism, one informed by Batu being brought up on a diet of dubstep and UK dance music from a young age. Trying to tie his sound to those genres however, would be a mistake. Having been earmarked already by The Guardian as an artist to watch for 2018, Batu’s sound is very much his own.

Batu’s Rebuilt EP marks his third release in just over a year. Not one for complacency, his debut release via XL Recordings shows Batu pushing his sound forward in every way possible, creating his most uniquely slippery sounding tracks to date. “I wanted to try and challenge myself a bit for this EP. Every track represents a different phase of experimentation – and also different tempos, I wanted to push my processes further than I ever have done.”

With festival appearances lined up at Field Day, Freerotation and Dimensions, as well as continuing his own Timedance parties, The Guardian were right, 2018 is going to be a big year for Batu.