For club music enthusiasts of a certain vintage, the news that there is a fresh Praveen Sharma release is likely to send chills down their spines. Sharma captured the dance music zeitgeist in the early 2010s as part of Sepalcure, his group with Travis Stewart (Machinedrum). The two made emotional bass music that, like all the great artists of the era, mined liberally from dubstep and garage while also paying homage to other dance genres and R&B. Under his Braille alias, Sharma's music has been equally impressive. Made using a crisp, high-fidelity production aesthetic—the term “sound design” comes to mind—his tunes are also playful, fun, and filled with a bouncy energy that can work just as well in the car stereo as on a Funktion 1 system.
The first drops from his forthcoming LP, Triple Transit, deliver on all fronts. "You Got This" hits the emotional heights of a Bicep or Jamie xx tune, but it does so without slithering off into generic big room fare. On the track, an inspirational vocal sample is chopped in the classic post-dubstep fashion; it sounds visceral but also a bit cerebral. "Ups" is more subtle but no less effective. Over a chunky breakbeat, he lays down a hi-fi chord progression and little goofy high-end flourishes: a vinyl spinback, some cheeky vocals. The fact that Scuba's famed Hotflush is putting this record out makes complete sense. These are tunes that could have set off one of his famed Sub:stance parties back in the day, but they’re not overly invested in nostalgia—they still sound very 2024.