Introducing...: SPF666

SPF666

Who:

Zak DesFleurs.

Sounds like: Bobby Digital—the Jamaican dancehall producer, not RZA's alter ego—forging reggaeton riddims amid an occultist's dimly lit reptile collection.

For fans of: Night Slugs, Fade to Mind, Wiley, MikeQ.

Why you care: "The album came out of nowhere," says Zak DesFleurs, aka SPF666, about his debut EP, Scorpion Cache. Along with Commune and Massacooramaan, the producer runs the monthly electronic dance night Club Chemtrail, which also doubles as a record label. He'd been shopping the songs to other companies, until it dawned on him: "I realized I should just put these three tracks out through Chemtrail, because it’s representative of what we do with the night.” 

While other monthlies adhere to strict genre tags, Club Chemtrail employs an encyclopedia of dance styles. So it's no surprise that Scorpion Cache runs the gamut as well. The title track flawlessly meshes shades of jungle with a dembow beat stripped from reggaeton, while elsewhere, the EP nods to grime and ballroom house, with banging remixes from Neana, Massacooramaan, Commune and Austin's Mike G. As a whole, SPF666's debut is dark and pliant without sacrificing an almost cheesy frolic. 

"We've always worked in this sort of weirdo conspiracy theory, paranoid, co-opted New Age bullshit aesthetic," DesFleurs says of Chemtrail. But while the range of genres on Scorpion Cache shows SPF666 to be an excellent co-opter, there isn't a whiff of bullshit anywhere.

SEE IT: SPF666 plays Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., with Jubilee, IBQT, Massacooramaan and Commune, on Thursday, May 15. 9 pm. $6. 21+.

WWeek 2015

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