SBTRKT and Their Hurricane

Positivus 2012

Salacgrīva, Latvia

July 21st

SBTRKT or ‘subtract’ is known as a DJ under his colorful Indian mask. A person who wants to deliver his music and remain anonymous thus leaving only music that would speak about him. And it does! He has remixed such artists as Radiohead, Mark Ronson, Underworld, Basement Jaxx and others, and this year is one of the headliners who perform on Positivus main stage. 

Salacgrīva (Latvia) is just one of his stops on his busy tour schedule from UK to Tokyo, from Norway to San Francisko. While some of his upcoming gigs in London are already sold out, Positivus should be thankful to have this unique opportunity see him play live together with Sampha, one of his co-musicians. 

The show starts with Never Never from the debut album Young Turks. After that Sampha spares some introduction words praising the festival by saying ‘it’s so much positive energy out here’. Meanwhile, SBTRKT are ready for the next song, and it’s the well known Hold On. ‘Hold On, Positivus’, they say as if getting the audience ready for an amazing show.

They are doing well with the rest of the songs such as Something Goes On and Pharaohs when we hear the voice of Roses Gabor who has been featured on the song. Then with a rather long instrumental part starts the last song Right Thing To Do when Sampha asks everyone sing along Such a hurricane, such a hurtin pain making the song last longer and maintaining the connection with the audience. People who have been dancing on the ‘muddy dance-floor’ follow this invitation and leave the band satisfied with their performance. 

Their show is not long and perhaps not interesting for everyone, but some of those post-dubstep dance rhythms are definitely worth to catch somewhere between The Vaccines and Fanfarlo who confine them on Positivus line-up.