Bad Tuner to Release 'look at me but through me' EP

bad tuner — the Brooklyn-based dance/electronic producer who “like Daft Punk before him, takes a simple phrase and builds a world around its incantatory properties” (NPR) — is announcing the new EP look at me but through me, out on April 5th via Ninja Tune / Foreign Family Collective. In tandem with the announcement, bad tuner is also sharing “maybe so,” the second track from the EP. Listen to “maybe so” here.

Across the entirely eclectic soundscapes in look at me but through me, each of bad tuner's six tracks are transportive to their own wondrous worlds. Elements of early house, gritty and booming 90s Big Beat sounds (take “24 hours,” the first taste of the EP, as an example), glimpses of glitchy hyper-pop flares, and samples from all over the world are only a few of all the sublime sonic environments heard throughout the EP. 

But on “maybe so,” bad tuner's mastery in making dance music is crystal clear. The track bounces between a sampled Soukous Congolese vocal, patterned breakbeat drums, a rhythmic piano riff, and a repeating bell lead. As time elapses during “maybe so,” the intensity progresses; when played live, an enamored, pulsing audience is inevitable.

Of ”maybe so,” bad tuner said: “I wrote it to compliment my live set — I wanted a song that would evolve into absolute chaos towards the end. I tried a few different arrangements of the song, landing on this one that erupts into the percussion breakdown in the last quarter of the song.”

Catching an early eye from BBCRadio1's Pete Tong with “Coming Down,” his tracks continue to be spun regularly by tastemaker stations and DJs globally, including KCRW, SiriusXMChill, Ben Malone (KissFM UK), Danny Howard and Jack Saunders (BBCR1), TripleJ, and RMC.

Having sold out Brooklyn's Elsewhere rooftop in May of last year, bad tuner has also played shows across the US while on tour with the likes of Polo & Pan, TOKiMONSTA, Bon Entendeur, Amtrac, Joy Anonymous, and more. Keeping in good company, his most recent EP, Back to My <3, arrived via the electronic imprint LG105, home to artists like Ross from Friends, Fakear, and Mall Grab.

Photo by Anna Koblish