_castle

Growing up in East London, exposed to the genre defining music from the likes of Burial, Jamie xx, Four Tet, Amon Tobin and more, it’s no surprise that off kilter beats and strange and interesting textures find their home in _castle’s music.

Born Michael Basra in Stratford, his love for music & production began at school. Self-doubt, the great enemy of creativity saw a non-musical period for a number of years, before returning to production in 2019.

Through his debut EP “Long Gone”, released independently in 2021, _castle explores some of these feelings of self-doubt and frustration, as well as isolation and longing, locked inside like the rest of the world at the time. He draws these emotions out sonically through emotive textures, airy vocals and captivating drums.

Tracks like “Glow”, first on the aforementioned EP, with its use of hypnotic beats and pulsating layers of ambience and synths weave between feelings of melancholy and euphoria. “Render Ghosts” on the other hand takes the listener on an introspective sonic journey. The use of spoken word samples enhancing and guiding the narrative.

Pushing past this ethereal and more intimate listening focused music, _castle of recent is exploring the power of dance music and its ability to move bodies whilst evoking pure emotion. Textures, melodies and vocals, sometimes gut-wrenching and emotive, other times expressively raw, layered on top of beats that just keep you moving through it all.

Music to get lost in.