A Captivating Musical Journey

The Rat Road is the latest studio album released by English producer Aaron Jerome, professionally known as Sbtrkt. This is his first album in seven years, but that is not to say that he hasn’t been working on writing new music in that time period. According to an interview with GQ magazine, Sbtrkt has written about 1,500 tracks since 2016, focusing on experimenting and teaching himself new musical techniques. His hard work and dedication certainly paid off, as The Rat Road is filled with plenty of experimental, distinctive and unpredictable sounds that will leave listeners wanting more. 

The Rat Road is immediately breathtaking with ethereal string section harmonies blended with the harp and rich bass notes played by the low brass section on the first track, “Remnant.” This leads into the next track, “Waiting,” featuring Teezo Touchdown. Consisting of soft and delayed chords, brassy synth lines and Teezo’s distinctive and enticing vocals, this track is bursting with emotion. Being the first track on The Rat Road with vocals, “Waiting” perfectly sets the mood and gives listeners a taste of what’s to come for the rest of this exceptional album. 

This LP contains not only compelling instrumentals, but also features plenty of great vocalists like Toro y Moi, who sings on the track “Days Go By.” This track begins with an arpeggiated synth line followed by sharp snare hits. Swelling chords, Toro’s light vocals and metallic, chiptune-like synth sounds are heard throughout this noteworthy track. 

“L.F.O.” featuring Sampha and George Riley is without a doubt one of the most interesting and beautifully quirky tracks on the album. L.F.O. stands for Low Frequency Oscillator, which is used to manipulate parameters of synthesizers. They are commonly used to create a rhythmic pulse or vibrato. The track begins with held out airy chords, which then unexpectedly transition into a more mechanical groove, with short and choppy chords heard throughout. Sampha and George Riley’s clear and resonant vocals blend surprisingly well with the almost robotic feel. Just when the listener thinks they know where the rhythmic feel of this track is headed, Sbtrkt manages to surprise them again, with an unexpected yet tremendously catchy Latin jazz groove at the end of the tune. This track alone proves that Sbtrkt’s experimentation and perseverance paid off extremely well. 

Yet another memorable track is “You Broke My Heart But Imma Fix It.” Right off the bat, he grabs the listener’s attention with rhythmic swells and sporadic blips. The vibe changes from spontaneous to ambient and light with loud, chopped up vocal samples. This then suddenly transitions back into the main machine-like melody. Sbtrkt manages to keep the listener on their toes throughout this track with immensely effective development and transitions.

Sbtrkt certainly outdid himself with The Rat Road, and this album is a perfect example of experimentation done well. While Sbtrkt pushed himself to create new and interesting sounds, he also managed to make each track catchy. Not one track is too far out; this album is innovative and groovy. What makes this album so great is that it is not easy for the listener to predict where the sounds and rhythmic feels are headed. There are plenty of stylistic changes that are attention-grabbing and pleasantly unexpected