Scratcha DVA has always situated himself at the stranger end of UK funky, which explains precisely why he’s been snapped up by Hyperdub, persistently the hub for the dance-floor eccentrics. When not hosting Rinse FM’s formidable grimey breakfast show, he piles sickeningly shifty drums and sugar-coated synths into an occasionally confusing cacophony. He also steers clear of the brooding, bass-heavy productions of his contemporaries and even employs Vikter Duplaix’s extremely silky vocal cords.
DVA’s sound is captured perfectly in the video for “Madness,” where a mildly depressed man walks around the backstreets of London with an utterly bemused look on his face, as his senses are invaded by the night’s neon palette (and obligatory octopus). It may be a little saccharine for some, but for me it sits perfectly on the line between kitsch and paranoid, if there ever were such a thing. Look for his debut album, Pretty Ugly, next year on Hyperdub.
• Scratcha DVA: http://soundcloud.com/scratchadva
• Hyperdub: http://www.hyperdub.net