Bastard Sugar (NL)

Dutch producer and beat maker Bastard Sugar’s real given first name, Wander, perfectly embodies the type of music he makes. So, what’s in the name? We hear music that feels like an exploration. Organic, natural sounds are contrasted, and more often even combined with digital sounds. Bastard Sugar has his ear to the ground in terms of what’s happening now in 21st-century beat construction. But, he doesn’t necessarily operate within a specific framework or scene. He wanders freely across genres such as UK bass, post-dubstep, ambient, juke or future garage with a keen ear for melody and subtle feel for rhythm. You get the feeling that you’re listening to his music while it’s being made. But there is a broader sense of aesthetic readily apparent. There is a mystical sense of earthiness at work that is fixated on what might happen tomorrow. We imagine a post-apocalyptic scenery with streets crumbling and skeletal office buildings where birds return to sing the morning chorus. And, we see a man walking around with a portable recorder sampling everything. Bastard Sugar’s music is where he mixes all of his musical ingredients together. Like a scientist working from within the hushed confines of his lab he gives the sound a new life in dream like collages where nature, future and chaos collide.