After a brief period of silence, French dubstep alchemist Illektré is back with a vengeance. His latest EP, Back On Board, is a tightly wound four-track offering that doesn’t just whisper a return—it growls it from the depths. With razor-sharp sound design, shadow-drenched atmospheres, and basslines that rumble like tectonic shifts, Illektré proves he hasn’t missed a step. In fact, he’s two steps ahead.
The opener, “VHS”, featuring the grizzled vocal menace of UK MC Precinct Phantom, is a haunted ride through corrupted tape hiss and a decaying beat. The track plays like a transmission from a lost pirate station—broadcast straight into the abyss. Illektré keeps the sub low and ominous, giving Phantom’s bars plenty of room to breathe and sting. It’s a statement of intent: this is dubstep rooted in tension, not theatrics.
“Asphalt” follows with a colder, more mechanized tone. Built on heavy, staggered half-time rhythms and distorted textures, it's the soundtrack to a night drive through post-industrial sprawl. Illektré’s engineering is meticulous—each element placed with surgical precision, each pause a vacuum of pressure. There’s a sense of momentum dragging you forward, even as the weight of the low-end tries to hold you under.
The third track, “Mongo Push,” is arguably the most easy to listening for non specialists cut on the release—but don’t expect any hands-in-the-air moments here. It’s militant, darkly percussive, and dripping with dubwise and jazzy tension. Illektré plays with space and syncopation like a veteran, drawing the listener in with off-kilter rhythm shifts and deep spatial echoes that call back to foundational dub but framed through a dystopian lens.
Finally, “Rock” closes the EP with a dense, grinding energy. A wall of subs and filtered growls crash against scattered hi-hats and ghost snares. It’s not explosive in the typical sense—instead, it simmers with controlled aggression. Illektré lets the mood speak louder than the mix, wrapping the listener in layers of murk and pressure until the final note drops into silence like a guillotine.
With Back On Board, Illektré plants his flag firmly in the soil of the deep and dark. This is no genre-chasing experiment or nostalgia trip—it’s a pure expression of sound system music built for late hours, low lights, and serious rigs. And if this is Illektré just getting back on board, we can only imagine what’s coming next when he takes full control of the wheel.
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released May 16, 2025
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